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.