Psalm 145:20 “Two-Edged”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

²⁰One keeping watch [is] the LORD over all of ones loving Him and the all of the wicked ones He will exterminate.

If I were to offer an amplified version of this verse, it would be:

²⁰The LORD keeps careful watch over all those who love Him, but He will utterly and suddenly annihilate all of the wicked, evil ones.

In the last post, I marveled at the realization that the Lord is personally, constantly, actively, very attentively watching over each and every one of us, guarding us, minding every aspect of our minute to minute life. He’s not just “aware of us.” He’s not even just present “with us.” He is actually, personally here caring for my every second. That is insane.

But it is important to note that this statement contains a condition. It says He gives this personal attention to “those who love Him.” We learned in verses 15 & 16 that He cares for every living thing, which also includes the people who don’t love Him. “He makes His rain to fall on the evil and the good.” However, His greatness, His personal attention, and everything we enjoy as believers is a two-edged sword. He is the God who can do “immeasurably more than we can ask or think” – and that is certainly true, but one must always realize that is a two-edged sword. He can bless His people utterly beyond our wildest imaginations (and does), but for those who would reject Him, spurn His grace, and spit in His face, He is still the God who can do “immeasurably more than we can ask or think!” Just as He has amazing power to bless and prosper, He has that same power to curse and destroy!

It’s interesting to me that the Hebrew word for “destroy” here is a very colorful word. As I tried to bring out in my amplified version above, the picture is not just “destroy,” but rather something far more terrible. It carries the ideas of totally annihilating something and that this massive destruction is likely something that happens very fast. The Lord has given life to this person, He has carefully, attentively watched over them all these years, He has fed them and protected them, and even died for them and offered them salvation by pure grace. He does that because He is a faithful Creator. He does that because of who He is – gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and of great love – but that intense personal attention and care has meant the Lord has personally witnessed this person’s every sin – every cruelty, every hatefulness, every arrogance, every shameless lust – and, in the end, if they still spurn grace, they will find that sword of immeasurable blessing has a back side! And it cuts deeply.

I think a couple of things are worth inserting here. In a sense, the end of this verse is the logical consequence of the beginning. “The Lord carefully watches over those who love Him.” One of the major reasons why the Lord must carefully watch over those who love Him is precisely because of the wicked. Since the serpent deceived Adam & Eve and Cain killed Abel, the picture in the Bible and in life is that much of the misery suffered by the righteous is at the hands of the wicked. Here is the logical consequence – the LORD will utterly, completely, and suddenly annihilate them! The destruction of the wicked is an expression of God’s love for His people. One of the things that will make Heaven glorious is the simple fact that the wicked won’t be there! It's part of the Lord's love for us that He destroys them!

The other thing we ought to note is what we learn in Romans 1 – that the Lord’s primary way to judge sin is to give people what they want. In other words, it’s not that He just suddenly, in a fit of rage, rains down lightning bolts on them. Rather, He patiently offers them grace until finally the most loving thing He can do is give them whatever it is they so passionately desire. Their whole life, they say of the Lord Jesus, “We will not have this man to rule over us,” and finally He gives them what they’ve always wanted – a place to live without Him. It’s called hell.

This is the world we live in. It’s a two-edged world. God is real. There are those who love Him and those who hate Him. Which side of the sword we get depends on our relationship with Him.

Choose wisely.

Psalm 145:20 “Personal”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

²⁰One keeping watch [is] the LORD over all of ones loving Him and the all of the wicked ones He will exterminate.

This is another amazing verse. To begin with, look at the first phrase, “One keeping watch [is] the LORD over all of ones loving Him…” In my fairly literal translation, the Lord is “One keeping watch.” That gets translated a lot of ways, such as “preserves,” “watches over,” “keeps.” The Hebrew is, as usual, a very colorful word. It paints a picture of one “exercising great care over,” or “giving careful attention to,” or even the idea of “keeping” as one would a garden – “tending to.”

Earlier in the Psalm, I was amazed to learn how the Lord actually gives complete personal attention to every single living thing He has created – that He really is my personal God. I think I’ve always seen Him as busy running the Universe, but always willing to hear me when I call to Him, never losing sight of me, even while He is busy watching over everything else.

However, as I recorded earlier, I realized that He is so great, He actually is giving to me 100% of His attention – that, being an infinite God, One who is everywhere present at the same time, filling all of the Universe with all of His being, He can actually be right here with me, giving me 100% of His attention, even while He is doing exactly the same thing for every single life He has created, whether people or birds or flowers or amoebas…or me.

This verse carries that thought perhaps one step more personal. It’s not just that He is present. It’s not just that He is aware. In this verse, we learn He is like a diligent gardener, stooped over the flower that is us, carefully, constantly tending us. He’s not just “watching” over us – the Hebrew word is very active. It’s the idea of “exercising great care over,” or “giving careful attention to.” He is constantly, actively, very attentively watching over us, guarding us, minding every aspect of our minute to minute life.

That thought has me completely overwhelmed. I have never sensed Him so present as I do now. He is my own (very) personal God! I get 100% of His attention, all day every day. And He is right here with me, totally involved in my life and whatever it is I’m doing, wherever I happen to be, whomever I happen to be with. Prayer is not a matter of “calling Him down” or “getting His attention.” It is simply talking to this One who is already here, who is already intimately involved in what is going on in my life, right at this instant.

The strange thing for me, however, is that this knowledge takes a sinister twist. Suddenly I am keenly aware of all my unanswered prayers, all the pains and troubles in my life (and others’), which He seems not to have answered. I’m finding it hard to know Him so close and then accept the painful things He’s allowing. Very strange. I’ve always had a sense of being happy to just let Him run the Universe (and my life) and to just trust Him with it all. But now that I see Him so close, I’m very aware He is allowing the pain and (at least for now) not choosing to answer my prayers. Suddenly I find this discontent in my soul.

I don’t like that at all. I keep hearing His words to Job, “Who is this that darkens counsel without knowledge?” In my mind, I know He is wise, that He is good, that His way is far better than mine, that all He is allowing in my life is only a part of His great love for me. As David said in verse 17, “The LORD is righteous in all His ways, and loving in all His works.” Yet, somehow, suddenly, my soul is having a hard time reconciling it all.

Having pondered all of this for a while, I think that is the answer – I just need to apply faith to the problem. It is still true that “the Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and of great love.” As my heart reveals this little corner of its dark side, I need to simply quiet its suspicious, resentful murmuring with truth. I guess to some extent I’ve not had to do this before. Like I said above, I think, for me, it’s been easy to just trust Him and love Him – probably going back all the way to a childhood where I could always love and trust my parents. However, what has happened is that He really has drawn my heart closer to Him and in so doing, the darkness in my own heart gets exposed. When He sheds a little more light on my life, one of the first things it reveals is my evil. However, unlike the Law, His revealing comes with grace, so that even in a little bit of dying what I find is a whole lot of living! In His presence, getting “exposed,” though momentarily painful, is very quickly wonderful, knowing His grace is actually conquering me! His truth is setting me free – free from who I am, who I was, free to rise just a little higher than my troubles, a little freer to love.

I should quit here and come back but I’d like to say this Psalm has really been a bombshell for me. I feel like it has very much helped me to know the Lord in a much deeper, much more personal way.

Wow.

Psalm 145:19 “More”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁹A desire of ones fearing Him He will make and the cry of them (pl.) He will hear and He will deliver them (pl.).

As I mentioned in my last post, my fairly literal translation is so wooden, it almost loses the meaning. The NIV does a nice job:

“He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him; He hears their cry and saves them.”

“He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him.” It is interesting that just back in verse 16, David noted our Lord “opens His hand and satisfies the desires of every living thing.” I like Alexander MacLaren’s comments on the two verses, noting that v.16 includes all the animals and fish and bacteria, but this verse specifically addresses us. He said, speaking of the animal life, “Give them their meat, and they curl themselves up and lie down to sleep, satisfied. Man longs for something more and needs something more.”

I guess I’ve never quite thought about that before. It is certainly important for people to have food to eat, but as MacLaren said, “Man longs for something more and needs something more.” I believe that is something we all feel quite deeply. Yes, I need to eat, but what my soul wants goes far, far deeper than that! Yes I need a companion, but not just another creature to mate with – I want a wife I can talk to and plan with and ponder the secrets of the universe with. I want a job but not just a cash machine to spit out checks – I want a place where I can feel like I really am contributing something, that my presence matters. Humans need more.

But then as we would ponder on this more, we realize it goes deeper than that. That more is God Himself. Augustine said, “O Lord, our hearts are restless until they find rest in Thee.” The more is what someone has called “the God-sized hole in our hearts.” When we would ponder this verse and this statement, “He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him,” we can rest assured that He fulfills all of our real desires because ultimately He is those desires. Maybe that’s why it is singular in the Hebrew (as discussed in my last post)? All of our desires ultimately find their fulfillment in knowing Him.

This is not to dismiss our seemingly lesser, everyday-ish desires. Obviously God cares about them too. He feeds us just like He does the animals. I very much dislike when I hear people suggesting we shouldn’t pray for our little minor needs and wants, that we shouldn’t be “bothering” God with such things. To say that is to completely understand who God is. One of His great delights is to hear the voice of His children. I want my little 2 ½ year old to crawl in my lap and ask me for some apple juice – I just love to hear her voice. I love to take care of her. And that “me” is just a very small corner of the great God we call our Father.

But how encouraging is it to know that, while God cares about my little “desires,” yet He fulfills even the deepest? He truly is, as it says in I Peter 4:19, a “faithful Creator.” He is a God who creates a living thing and then commits Himself to its care. An amoeba needs food and the Lord provides it. A human needs food and the Lord provides it. But humans need much, much more…and He provides it! He grants to us the love and joy and peace our hearts long for.

I think I can say for those of us who’ve been around a while this explains a lot. When my wife and I married, one of our favorite verses was Psalm 34:7, “Delight thyself in the Lord and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” He certainly gave me her and for that, I’ve been thanking Him for 37 years! But I remember back then maybe not completely understanding the verse. I saw it saying He gives the desires of our hearts, but then I would wonder what to do with the guy who maybe wanted a wife but perhaps never found one, or the couple who wanted children but couldn’t conceive. We’re all keenly aware that we don’t always get what we want – even if we really are trying to delight ourselves in the Lord.

Now that we’re older, we realize that’s because what we really wanted all along, what we really, really, really desire is Him – to know Him, to enjoy His presence, to walk with Him, to be always learning more and more of Him, to be freed more and more from who I was. Realizing that, the verse makes perfect sense – if I “delight” myself in the Lord, He gives me the desires of my heart, because He is my desires. He is my delight. Even in enjoying my wife, I now realize it’s Him. To me, she is the most beautiful creature that ever walked the face of the earth – and I’ve certainly enjoyed that – but now I can look at her, enjoy her beauty, then realize what I’m really seeing is Jesus’ beauty. She is beautiful because He is. Her beauty is just a little corner of His beauty which He allows to touch my life through her. He certainly has given me the desires of my heart – I just only recently realized those desires were really Him.

What an amazing God He is. The rest of the verse goes on to say He also hears our cry and saves us. He is our saving God. He hears our cries and provides what we need, but as MacLaren pointed out, He gives us so much more! He truly gives us everything we really need. He gives us Him!

Psalm 145:19 “Exegetical Matters”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁹A desire of ones fearing Him He will make and the cry of them (pl.) He will hear and He will deliver them (pl.).

As is often the case, my fairly literal translation is so wooden, it almost loses the meaning. The NIV does a nice job:

“He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him; He hears their cry and saves them.”

Once again, this verse is, at first glance, very familiar, even cliché. I’ve had to very deliberately just slow down and ponder on it to make sure my soul doesn’t receive the Lord’s cordial as a stone.  And as usual, what a cordial!

First I need to record a couple of exegetical observations: It is interesting to me to note that the words “desire” and “cry” are actually singular, even though the substantives are plural. He fulfills the desire (sing.) of them (plural) that fear Him; He hears their (plural) cry (sing.) and saves them.” The NIV translates it “desires” (plural), even though the Hebrew is most definitely singular. That admirably smooths out the English but, since I can look at the Hebrew, I know it is singular and wonder why. I also notice that the LXX accurately kept the sing/pl. in its translation of the Hebrew into Greek. Many translations do maintain the singular, but no one seems to wonder why. I guess I could just blow it off as perhaps a “collective singular,” but it bothers me that the sing/pl peculiarity occurs with the word “cry” also.

Interestingly too, back in verse 16, the same thing happened. There it was said of the Lord, “”He satisfies the desire (sing.) of every living thing. In the wonderful Psalm 37:4, it says, “Delight thyself in the Lord and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” In that case, the “desires” is, in fact, plural but then that isn’t the same Hebrew word for “desire” as in our verses 16 & 19. In 37:4 the English is correctly rendering the plurality of that particular noun.

I wonder why the difference? In all the commentaries I consulted, no one noted this or pondered on it. It might just be a peculiarity of the Hebrew language. I guess I’ll just have to let it lie. If the Lord wants me to understand something specific He meant here, He of course is more than able. For now I’ll just have to let it lie.

Then I want to comment (quickly) on this “fear” thing. The words “fear of the Lord” always seem to light up commentators and everyone stumbles around trying to assure us it doesn’t mean “to be afraid of God,” as if it might be suggesting we should all go hide in a closet or something and cringe in fear of what He might do next. People will quickly point out that in the very next line, He speaks of “them that love Him,” to emphasize that ours is a love relationship with Him. When they’re done, our relationship with Him is presented to be a mixture of “reverential awe” and love.

Actually I don’t disagree at all with that conclusion. I would suggest it is the only defensible position given the full range of Biblical understanding. What I’d like to insert is my explanation of why it’s such a problem for us to begin with. Why does “the fear of the Lord” cause us so much consternation? Why does it require so much explanation to assure everyone that somehow love gets included?

I would suggest the problem is that we, as Western culture, have totally forgotten what a king was to the ancient peoples – and still may be in some parts of the world. In the ancient world, the king’s authority was absolute. Simply at his word you could live or die. People had considerable reason to “fear” the king. Now, down through human history some of those kings were actually “good” kings and were dearly loved by their people. But can we all pause and just realize that in their world, even if they loved him, they could never forget that He held their very life, their family, their possessions in his hand. Even if he was a good king and even if they loved him deeply, he still bore absolute authority over their life.

In their culture, you could ask someone who is their king by asking, “Who is your fear?” God was even called “The Fear of Isaac” (Gen. 31:53). My point is that, in that culture, that isn’t a bad thing. It’s just a fact. The king holds my life in his hand. No matter how good he is, I am awed at him. And particularly if I love him, I don’t mind calling him “the one I fear.” To say, “He is my king,” automatically includes the fact that I fear his power. It in no way precludes the possibility that he is a very good king and I and all his subjects love him deeply.

The Magna Carta was signed by King John of England in 1215 and ever since then, we have lived in a world where it is understood the king does not have total authority. The very point of the Magna Carta was that a king rules at the consent of the governed. The Latin saying had always been, “Rex Lex,” which means “The King is Law.”  Magna Carta thinking led to Samuel Rutherford declaring in 1644, “Lex Rex” – “The Law is King!” All of this led to our American Revolution and underlies our entire form of democracy. The very fact that our government consists of three branches – the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial – was intended as a “balance of power.” Even back in England, Magna Carta thinking led to the weakening of the royal power until they got to today where their government is actually run by their Parliament and the royal family are more figureheads.

The bottom-line of all this history is that we have totally lost all sense of even what a king was. This, I would suggest, explains why we can’t seem to handle the Bible’s expressions of kingship which were simply the givens of life in the ancient world. In their world, of course you fear the king – then you might also love him if he is a good king – but you never would lose that sense of fear, because that is the nature of his rule. And so ……. when it comes to God, of course we fear Him. He literally holds our life in His hand. But we also know Him as the very best of kings. He is the King of kings. He opens His hand and satisfies the desires of every living thing. To know Him is to love Him.

So when I get done, “the fear of the Lord” still means both to hold Him in “reverential awe” and to love Him. I say all of the above simply to offer a reason why we should all stop stumbling around thinking we have to go bonkers with explanations every time we run across the phrase “the fear of the Lord.” We just need to read it with the understanding of the culture it was written in.

I think, in the interest of something approaching brevity, I’ll stop here and consider the verse itself in another post.

Psalm 145:18 “Calling”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁸Near [is] the LORD to all of ones calling Him, to all which call Him in truth.

Just like verse 17 before it, this verse is, at first glance, very familiar, even cliché. Once again, I believe it would be easy to read it and think, “Oh, yeah, I’ve got that. Check.” I have deliberately been dragging my feet and just pondering the verse, asking the Lord to help me understand it, to make sure I’m not just glibly reading it and running on. I want it to accomplish in my heart whatever the Lord put it there for. So off we go.

First of all, there is this idea of God’s “nearness.” On the one hand, we can say, “Of course.” As the Bible says, “In Him we live and move and have our being.” He fills all the universe with all of His being and is everywhere present all of the time. So it isn’t even possible for Him to actually be “far” away. Yet the Bible can tell us to “draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” The Bible can tell us He is “far from the wicked.”

As I learned back in verse 16, it is God who “satisfies the desires of every living thing.” He is at every moment carefully guarding over every single living thing in all His created universe and doing so with all of His being. My mind is still spinning at the thought that at this very minute He is totally, completely present with me, watching over me, caring for me, as if I was the only living creature anywhere. That is just how “present” He is, whether the creatures (including people) acknowledge Him or not.

So, obviously, the question of whether He is near of far from me has everything to do with me, not Him.  It’s like the title of the book, “Practicing the Presence of God.” It’s not Him that needs the practice! I think I can say for myself the single greatest achievement in my life has been simply to recognize His presence and to try to live every minute of my day aware of Him, doing what I do for Him, doing it begging His power, begging His strength to somehow succeed in serving Him – loving for Him everyone I deal with no matter who it is, where I am, or what I’m doing. I want His presence to be the fire that fuels everything I say and do.

But, of course, that is something I’m learning. It would seem this verse would have us know that part of realizing (and enjoying) His nearness comes as we call on Him. He is “near to those calling Him.” This of course is a call to prayer – not just “prayers,” but real prayer. It is us calling Him in actual times of prayer and also as we keep up a conversation with Him all day long. This verse would have us know, as we go through the twists and turns of our days, we can call to Him and He will be near.

The verse gives a condition – that we must call on Him in truth. That is probably the part that has moved me to ponder the most. Do I call on Him “in truth?” In what ways might I call on Him not in truth? First of all, obviously, we shouldn’t be simply saying “prayers,” treating prayer like some kind of talisman or good luck charm. We ought rather to be very deliberately actually talking to God. We have Jesus’ admonitions in Matthew 6 not to be hypocrites, not to be doing it to impress other people, not to just babble. We also need to simply be honest with Him. He already knows it all any way. Like the poor father said to Jesus, “I do believe – help my unbelief.” That’s the kind of honesty He’s looking for.

After pondering this for a couple of weeks, I don’t think God gave us this condition as something to obsess over. We could beat ourselves up over, “Am I calling in truth?” Rather, I think He is simply stating it as obvious fact – that the Lord will only hear us if we’re being honest with Him. If He is going to make the statement that He is near to all who call on Him, then obviously it needs to be understood those words are assuming we’re really praying, that we’re coming before Him with open hearts, that we aren’t thinking we can mindlessly repeat words.

I would guess nearly anyone who might have stumbled onto these scratchings of mine would already know that. We don’t need to obsess over it. Our bigger problem, I would suggest is needing the encouragement to call at all. What is He telling us? That He is near to all who call on Him. That, I would suggest is what we ought to focus on – the encouragement to pray at all. We are all painfully aware we don’t deserve to pray. We certainly don’t  deserve that He should listen to us at all. I’ve pretty much messed up my entire life. I fail Him continually. I shouldn’t expect Him to answer someone like me, right? Back to verse 8, “The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great love.” What are His words to us miserable miscreants? “Let us come boldly before the Throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace in times of need” (Heb 4:16).

You need Him? Call. He’s near to all who call. Do be honest in your calling, but most importantly, call.

He is near.