- Redeems; not desolate
Psalm 34:22
The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants:
And none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.
Believers know, by faith, that they are redeemed, and they can also take comfort in the promise that they shall never be left alone, desolate, isolated, abandoned, forsaken. Hebrews 13:5 promises: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” This is spoken in the context of avoiding the love of money and being content, meaning that if you know He will not leave you the riches of His glory will always be present to you.
Pictures of desolation are disturbing, like movies of a city after heavy bombing, and it leaves us troubled, hoping such desolation never comes to us. The Lord promises to redeem us from fears, one of the greatest of which is being left desolate, with no one to care about me, no one to share life with. That fear is removed for the redeemed since God promises that that will never happen. Even if I should be left on a desolated earth God Himself will be with me, and such knowledge is comfort and assurance.
This “not be desolate” promise also touches eternity, for separation from God and everyone else is what eternal death means: desolation is what hell is all about. The eternal promise of God is that, on account of Jesus Christ, he who believes in Him will not perish (be left desolated, alone, abandoned, eternally separated, left in total darkness forever), but have eternal life. Jesus Himself already experienced and suffered the pains of hell when He was separated and forsaken by God the Father when He was on the cross bearing the sins of the world on Himself. He suffered desolation so that we never will.