Psalms 145:18

Holiness and righteousness are always the way God works (verse 17), and Messiah's kingdom, ruled by His presence and power, will prove this in glory. Verses 18-20 describe the moral order of that rule. The One who is higher than the highest will not then be what He is now: a patient onlooker, watching human folly and misrule from a distance (Ecc. 5:8). He will be a present Saviour, and a swift avenger for all who cry to Him under unjust suffering. The Christian is appointed for now to be like a sheep led to the slaughter. He lives on these words as promises, and waits for the righteous judge to be revealed.

He is also the Moral Governor of moral beings: righteous and full of loving-kindness. Righteous in all His ways, He can still yield to the needs and weakness of His creatures. For this He is near to all who call on Him — who call on Him in truth. We cannot avoid the reminder of how much hollowness and insincerity have gone with this. But where people fear Him, He fulfils their desire; though here too, their cry so often rises out of the evil that sin has plunged them into. Yet that evil is under the restraint of His hand, and out of it He saves.

So our prayers lack power and effect. So we get the formality, the routine, yes, even the positive hypocrisy. The Psalmist says, "If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened." How solemn this is! Our God will have reality; He desires truth in the inward parts. He, blessed be His name, is real with us, and He will have us real with Him. He will have us coming before Him as we really are, and with what we really want.

The calling spoken of here is not the vague cry of an uneasy conscience. It is the cry of faith… Faith takes firm hold of the person of Christ, consciously depending on Him alone. It knows there is no hope of help or safety anywhere, inside or outside, except in Him. Sadly, we are solemnly warned: the cry "Lord, Lord" may come from lips whose sound never came from a believing heart. But the mark of true faith is that its aim is God. Its misery is distance from Him.

What is required of men in order that they might be saved? Simply to "call" upon the name of the Lord. This was all Israel could do while they suffered in Egypt. To shake off Pharaoh was impossible; to get rid of the taskmasters was out of the question; but they could cry to God. In the same way today, he who calls upon the name of the Lord, acknowledging Him as his only hope, will be saved. To all such He is "rich."

The features of the godly remnant are clearly marked in these verses. They wait upon the Lord, they call upon Him in truth, they fear Him, and they love Him, and they have confidence in His care for them and in His salvation.

His ear too is open to the cry of those who seek Him — He fulfils the desire of those who fear Him. He preserves those that love Him. In this way He is interested in every need, and takes notice of all our ways. So the exercises of our hearts will have caused us to know Him.