The Lord Is Near to All Who Call | Psalm 145:1-21

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in

practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible Guys. We

are Chris and we are Jeff.

Yes, and I also am Jeff.

We're not Jeff.

I am Jeff, and you're Chris.

Yeah, we are Chris and Jeff.

We are Chris and Jeff. We're not Chris, Chris and Jeff. Right, hey,

we are Chris or Jeff.

Yeah. Sure, Well, anyway, we are the Bible guys, and

we want to welcome you here, especially if you're a

brand new listener. And we're in the middle of a

series talking about the promises of God and what it

means for us, and we're focusing this week on God

being with us.

Right, that's correct, that's right.

Emman you well. And then today, before we get started,

we have a segment, and the segment today has a jingle.

It is mail Bags, Mail Bags. This is from Donna

M and Donna M.

Hi.

Donna, there you go. M says, First off, I just

want to say that my husband, Lie love listening to

the Bibble guys.

Oh that's very nice. So nice.

Here's a silly question I recently thought.

Well, then, hi, Donna's husband too of the correct because

he's listening. Yes, yes, dude, that's We're so glad you're listening.

That's cool. Here's a silly question that I recently thought of.

Well listening and would love to hear your answers. If

you had to swap lives with a cartoon character, who

would you choose a cartoon character.

You had to swap lives? Yeah, I just had to

ask chat GPT, Oh wow, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, because

you know it learns you. Yeah, right, so it learns you,

so you ask This is an interesting take. Yes, so

you asked chat GTP, chat GPT because it learns you

and it starts to know your personality type. Right, So

I'm really curious to see. So here's it here? Write

write it in like this. I wrote, knowing me, what

cartoon character would I choose to be?

Knowing me? What cartoon character would I choose to be?

Okay, now before you look at it, don't don't look

at the answer. Okay, who would you choose to be?

Who do you think you choose to be?

So I know, no, you don't. When I was a kid,

We had this show that I would watch with my

kids called Fairly Odd Parents, and he had two fairies,

Cosmo and Wanda, and he could wish anything he wanted to. Yes,

I don't even remember the kid's name, Billy.

Right, but but I remember Cosmo and Wanda. Yeah.

But I just remember thinking to myself, I would love

to be that kid. I would love to be that kid.

Okay, so what you want to But that's not you

growing up.

No, No, that was me as a kid.

That was me as an adult, you as an adult

wishing you could be.

I'm an adult now and the question is being asked

to me now.

Yeah, okay, but as a kid, who would you have

wanted to be.

As a kid, Yeah, I would say Spider Man.

Spider Man. That's exactly what I was gonna say. Yeah.

So okay, now look at it and see who it

says for you.

Okay, it says that's a fun question. Based on what

I know about you so far, your love of creat

a storytelling, deep spiritual insight, and ability to mixed humor

and depth, especially in sermon writing. Holy cow, this is scary.

I'd guess that you'd pick someone like Buzz Lightyear from

Toy Story. Here's why. He's bold, confident, and mission driven

to infinity and beyond. He has a strong sense of purpose,

but he also learns humility and teamwork along the way,

and like you, he blends inspiration with a bit of

humor and heart. That's just my guess. Would I be right?

Or do you think I'd like to pick someone else?

Okay, so I asked it the same question. Yeah, so

that's a fun question. I actually can make a pretty

good guess based on your personality, humor, leadership, style, and

all the creative work we've done together. Here's my read

on your cartoon character alter ego, and he gave me several.

So it gave me Batman, which is who I wanted

to be as a kid. So Batman my favorite cartoon

character as a kid. It also suggested Woody from Toy

Story Wow, which it suggested Buzz, like, Hey, we could

be Woody and Donna Tello from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Tural.

But the very first one it suggested was also Buzz

light Year.

Oh that's hilarious.

Well, we have the same personality type. That's true. We

have a lot of the same strengths and all of

The tests in the feature were very similar in our stylion.

That chose for both of us buzz light Years the first,

but it chose for me specifically. It chose Batman, which

is the as a kid, the cartoon character I would

have wanted to be as Batman.

That's a good choice. But give me five more options

as well, based on who I am as a person.

Right, yeah, okay, let's see who else again?

All right, let's see love it? Okay, based on everything

I know about you, blah blah blah blah. Are you

kidding me?

Here are the five favorite cato in the world.

Here are the five cartoon characters that fit you. Number one,

Move Fossa. You got that wide, steady presence, that kind

of voice that people listen to when you speak, like

Muve Foster. You leave with purpose. Number two, mister Incredible

from the Incredible.

That one.

I like this option.

I got that one too.

You're about helping others. You want to cost you something.

You love seeing people reach their potential.

Say the Day.

Number three, Dark Winged Duck. I've never even seen an

episode of that. You get a playful confidence. Side Number

four Blue from The Jungle Book, You get that easy,

going down to earth vibe that people put you at ease.

Like Blue, you make others feel safe, out and joyful.

Number five Genie from Aladdin. Genie from Aladdin, You've got

a creative waitty full of life that.

You just said. Fairies who could answer all of your

all of your dreams. Yeah, and so wishes and so there.

Hey, Jeff, huh, you had never had a friend like me.

That was a fun question. That was a fun question,

was very fun. Okay, Donna, do you say Donna? Yeah,

Donna m oh don, you're speaking to the writer in Okay,

that's correct, she's the one who is Normally we say

are forgotten.

I forgot what segment we were wrong, because normally we

say desiree.

I was thinking Donna m and her husband for asking

such a fun question.

It is a fun question.

That is a fun question. You know what else is fun?

The Bible?

The Bible. Wow, what's what's fun is finding a chapter

in the Book of Songs, because there's one hundred and

fifty of them. Yes, and so today we are.

Towards the end.

Yeah, and we are looking at the promises of God.

And by the way, for those who don't know the

book of Psalms, most of them, if was it, all

of them were written as songs.

Yeah, they're all they're all songs. They're all musical. The

whole book is this that exception. The idea of a

psalm is that it is a song. Okay, okay, But

they're also prayers. So a worship song is always is

a prayer song, right, you're speaking to God.

So it's when you pray you sing like this.

No, that's not how that's probably that's a psalter.

Okay, okay. So anyway, when most of them are written

by King David, I would say he wrote the vast

majority of them, a bunch of them, and a lot

of times it'll even give us context on when King

David wrote it, and so we have context of like

what is he in the cave of Adelum? Was it

after his child passed away? Those kinds of things. But

I don't think there's context.

So can I read you a note before we start

about psalms from the Life Application Study Bible, which we love.

It says, most of the psalms are prayers, and most

of these prayers include praise to God. Praise expresses admiration, appreciation,

and thanks praise in the book of Psalms is often

directed to God, and just as often the praise is

shared with others. Considering all that God has done and

does for us, what could be more natural than outbursts

of heartfelt praise. As you read Psalms, note the praise

given to God not only for what he does, like

his creation, his blessings, and his forgiveness, but also for

who He is, loving and just and faithful, forgiving and patient.

Note also those times when the praise of God is

shared with others, and they too are encouraged to praise

Him In what ways have you recently praised God or

told others all that He has done for you? Right?

Isn't it great?

The Life Application Bible asked you a question.

It sure did.

I don't really recall a lot of those types of.

Notesess, A lot of them will ask that, yeah, it.

Actually turned it back on you.

I sure does.

Great.

So here's what it says in Psalm one. We'll just

read the whole thing, and then we'll get to the

promises of God in it. Right, So I will exalt you,

my God and King, and praise your name forever and ever.

I will praise you every day. Yes, I will praise

you forever. Great is the Lord, he is most worthy

of praise. Remember, great is the.

Lord, he is worthy.

No one can measure his greatness. Let each generation tell

its children.

The Lord of Great is the Lord and worthy of Yep.

That's funny. Let each generation if you don't know, that's

like an early eighties worship song that was like really powerful,

it's great, ye really big. Let each generation tell it's

children of your mighty acts, and let them proclaim your power.

I will meditate on your majestic, glorious splendor and your

wonderful miracles. Your awe inspiring deeds will be on every tongue,

and I will proclaim your greatness. Everyone will share the

story of your wonderful goodness, and they will sing with

joy about your righteousness. The Lord is merciful and compassionate,

slow to get angry, and filled with unfailing love. The

Lord is good to everyone. He showers compassion on all

his creation. All of your works well, thank you, Lord,

and your faithful followers will praise you. They will speak

of the glory of your kingdom, and they will give

examples of your power. They will tell about your mighty deeds,

and about the majesty and glory of your reign. For

your kingdom as an everlast and kingdom, you rule throughout

all generations. The Lord always keeps his promises. He is

gracious in all he does. The Lord helps the fallen

and lifts those bent beneath their loads. The eyes of

the Lord look to you, and the eyes of all

look to you, and hope you give them their food

as they need it. When you open your hand, you

satisfy the hunger and thirst of every living thing. The

Lord is righteous, and everything he does he is filled

with kindness. The Lord is close to those who call

on him, yes, to all who call on him. In truth,

he grants the desires of those who fear him. He

hears their cries for help and rescues them. The Lord

protects all those who love him, but he destroys the wicked.

I will praise the Lord, and may everyone on earth

bless his holy name forever and ever. Well, there you go.

It's filled with a lot of great things.

He's excited. Yeah, yeah, so you can see him flipping

back and forth between I'm going to praise you for

your miracles, but I'm also just going to talk about

how you have unfailing love. Right. He goes back and

forth between who God is and what God has done

a lot of times, because we're so obsessed with ourselves,

we don't even think about how good God is. We

just think about how He gives us all our wildness,

hopes and dreams. So a lot of times we thank him.

We're thankful for thanks for the food, thanks for the house,

thanks for the car, thanks for the family. And really

what we're doing is I've got a really good life

because of you. That's it's not wrong, right, But what

we miss out on is the majesty and the wonder

of just contemplating the greatness and the goodness of God.

So he celebrates how powerful God is, how good God is,

how compassionate God is, how merciful God is. And that's

a whole other level of upping your game with regard

to your relationship with God.

Yeah, and it's and it's also how God taught us

to pray. Right, So the first thing that he teaches

us to pray is, you know, our Father art in heaven,

how it would be your name? It's it's how great

is your name? That's what that means it's it's great

is your name, it's it's I'm going to spend time

in my prayers acknowledging the giver of blessings, the giver

of all good things, the giver of our salvation, the

provider that I mean, all things that God is to us.

We'll think about it for the men listening on the

podcasts that are married. If alls you did was say, honey,

I love how you kiss me, I love how you

cook for me. I really appreciate the fact that you

clean the house. I appreciate the fact that you get

the kids ready. I appreciate the fact that you, you know,

keep things in order. I appreciate the fact that assuming

that she does all this. Yeah, I appreciate the fact

that you buy me nice things when you think of me,

and that you give me nice presents. And I really

like that you put yourself together. And I like you.

Right.

If all you do is compliment her about the things

you like that she does for you, she would start

to feel like it was kind of a shallow relationship,

even though you were like, what do you mean, I

kept complimenting it? Well, she would also she wants to

hear those things. She wants to hear that you're acknowledging

and appreciative of what she does for you. Well, he

really wants to hear what do you think about her?

Right right, right now? You're making it all about you

when all you do is thank her for what she

does for you, right right, like like the whole universe

surrounds is, you know, revolving around you, and that she

just lives for you, right It's it's as opposed to

having a mutual two way relationships.

The narcissist who's who thinks he's complimenting.

Right right, right, right right, always saying is I really

like how you cook? I really like how you do

all the work I.

Like, I love you serving me, This is.

Amazing me, as opposed to you know, you're a very

compassionate person. I love I love how you treat people

who are in need or or or I love the

fact that you're so honest and I can always trust you.

And when you start talking about the person rather than

about their deeds, it drives the relationship deeper. So sure,

you should talk about their deeds. David does here, but

he's talking about the person of God even more, and

that hints at a much deeper, much more intentional relationship.

Yeah, that's that's really profound actually, because you know it is.

I said this the other day in a sermon. And

by the way, I stole this because all good pastors,

when you hear something that gave you guys to please

your eyes, he's got to be a way to say.

But I remember, actually, is my good friend Tim.

He was a youth.

Pastor, Tim Chambers. Tim Chambers he used to be a

youth pastor by the way here and Ryan Roade, but

now he's in New York. But anyway, he actually said

when I was literally like sixteen years old, he was

good friends with my youth pastor. Uh. And he said, hey, Chris,

he goes, I just teach my kids three things and

they are in this order and they are dependent on

one another. Are you ready? And I said, yeah, I'm ready,

and he said write this down. He said, no, God,

Love God, Serve God. And and then he just like

gave me this fifteen minute devotional about it. And he says,

he says, you have to get to know God. And

people get it wrong. Some people they were raised in

churches where it's like, hey, serve God, Serve God, Serve God,

serve God. And what they do is they serve God

without knowing him or loving him, and they feel obligated.

They hear the rules, thou shot, thou shot, knots, you know,

all these different kinds of things, and he goes, and

the problem is it becomes daunting because they don't want

to serve him. They have to serve him. He goes.

But if you just take time to get to know God.

Once you get to know him, to know him is

to love him. And then once you love him, to

love him, you absolutely want to serve him and everything

you're going to do, but it's an overflow from your love,

and that love is an overflow from just knowing who

he is. So he said, it's always in that order,

and they're completely dependent on one another to know God,

love God, serve God. And so I just it's always

stuck out to me obviously from that time until now,

and it's been forty years almost since I've heard that,

and then I begin to question it, like is that true?

Is that really true? And I and I believe that

is true. I believe it is the order. So that's

why we tell people read your Bible, right, That's why

we say to people, listen. There's many opportunities today to

listen to podcasts, to you know, join a small group,

you know, figure out how God fits into the equation

of our lives, you know, discuss God in the equation

of things. You know. Last night we had a small

group and it was really fun to hear we talked

about prayer and fasting and things. And I said, hey,

so is prayer a part of your regular routine? And

we went around the room and we just you know,

asked the question, is prayer part of your regular routine?

And it was so interesting to hear some people say absolutely,

I pray every day, and some people to say, well, no,

but wow, this sounds amazing, you know. And here they are,

they're just they're they're they're observing others and they're in

there and you could tell their brains are just sparking,

you know, they're they're they're firing, and all cunaers thinking,

gee whiz. I kind of want that for my own life,

you know. And that's just part of getting to know God.

Being around the things of God and the people of

God who love God already will help you to get

to know him, love him and serve him.

That's a The prayer component can feel really weird because one,

if you're if you come from a religious background, it

can feel daunting because it feels like it's you know,

big and mysterious and you don't deserve to talk to God.

If you don't come from a religious background, it can

feel a little bit like weird because you're talking to

somebody can't see right right, both those things. But if

you can begin to and this is where I think

the benefit comes. Where David is meditating, he says, I

will meditate on your majesty and your glorious splendor and

your wonderful miracles. So when you start to really meditate

on God, when you really and meditate just means to

focus your mind. Right, when you really be focusing your

mind on God, you can begin to visualize the closeness

to him, not that he has a body, but you

know what I mean. You begin to kind of have

this sense of closeness. And then it makes it far

more reasonable to be talking to God. And then, as

Paul says, you know, pray without ceasing. And he's not

saying drive down the road with your eyes closed, you

knowing he's saying that make this conversation with God, just

being an ongoing conversation all the time. Talk to you

getting ready to walk in a meeting, talk to God too, right,

and Hey, God, I need you in this moment. So

it's not about the big words. It's not about long

seasons of prayer, praying for hours at a time. It's

about this non stop conversation, keeping God connecting, being aware

that God is always with you, even when there's nobody

else with you, right, and and so that's a big

part of it.

Yeah, last night, there was a guy in our group, Yusef,

who's listening by the way, and he was saying the

same thing. He was saying. He goes, Eh, when you're

talking about prayer, he goes, Oh, I usually pray in

the morning. He goes, that's how I get started. And

that's my longest prayer of the day. He goes, And

then throughout the day he goes, there's just little snippets

of me just talking to God in one sentences.

I'd say that's mostly the way it works for me.

Me too. But it was really so cute for me

is to watch my wife's reaction because she goes, she

looks over and she goes me too, exactly.

That is exactly me.

She was so excited, you know, because oftentimes people like

we had one guy who said in the group and said, oh,

I say all my prayers at night, and that works

for me, you know, and there's nothing wrong with.

Okay, So you've mentioned Jeff Miller being your best friend

since you were in school.

Ye yeah, yeah.

How often do you just shoot a text to Jeff

during the day or do you get a text from.

I would say four or five times a.

Day, right, so you don't need to call him and

have a thirty minute conversation with him. It's just, hey, dude,

I just saw this. This is great. You're just kind

of continuing to do life with him from a distance, right,

That's what you're doing. And it's the same. It's not

like it's this big, long, all right, sit down, let's

have this intense conversation. Those aren't necessary, and sometimes we

need those. I think it's meaningful. But there's also just

the everyday relationship side of it. So when you come

to the big promise today, you know, it says in

verse thirteen, the Lord always keeps his promises, and he's

gracious in all that he does the Lord helps the fallen,

he lifts those bent beneath their loads. But then verse

eighteen is really the big promise. The Lord is close

to all who call on him, Yes, to all who

call on him in truth. And so this is why

you need to know God's word, because God's word is truth.

David tells us that your word is true. So when

we are praying consistent with what God says, we can

always know that he'll hear in answer and that he'll

intervene for us.

Right.

The Lord always keeps his promises. He's gracious, and all

he does he helps the fallen, he lifts those bent beneath

the load. And the Lord is close to all those

who call on him. Yeah right, Yeah.

In calling on God is those one sentence prayers like

my wife was just mentioning all throughout the day. Okay,

God help me with this, God, what should I do?

God give me wisdom, God give me strength. Right, it's

calling on him right in truth, and he'll jump to

the rescue. There's a note here in my study Bible

that's the Transformation Study Bible, and it sort of summarizes

verses seventeen through twenty one, and it says God is righteous,

so we want to come with clean hands and a

pure heart, and references chapter sixty six and says, but

God is also loving, so we should love him and

obey him. Prayer is not just a creature coming to

its creator, or a servant coming to the master. It

is a child coming to a heavenly father, knowing that

he will meet the need. And he talks about Luke eleven,

you know when stone and bread and all that, and

he says he hears us, watches over us, and supplies

our every need Philippin's four nineteen. When he answers prayer,

we must praise him. And when he answers another prayer,

we must praise him again. Love that, I love that,

and certainly that is that is worthy of our notation

right to say praise God. And then when he answers again,

praise him again. Don't ever take it for granted, right,

which is what David does over and over.

Well, that reminds me of the story the husband and

wife go they've been married for like forty years, and

they go to the wedding of a young couple, and

then throughout the night at the reception, the wife is

just enraptured by how this young man is treating her

his new bride, and he told her fifteen times how

much he loved her. And so they're driving in the

truck on the way back and she says, you know,

I remember when you told me you loved me. No,

man goes She said, why don't you tell me you

love me all the time? He says, well, I'm in

it when I told you, and if anything changes, I'll

let you know.

That's great.

It's kind of our temptation to not bring it up again.

But again, on a relational level, we have to keep

reminding our spouses we love them and our children. I

told my children how many times I told my child

the first time I saw every one of them, I

love you, right, But they needed to hear me tell

them I love them a million times between then and

the time they moved out right. And it's the same

thing with your spouse with it. If you're going to

maintain a relationship, you have to keep reaffirming the things

you said before. This is why even David is acknowledging here.

He's acknowledging that God keeps reaffirming it. Says he always

keeps his promises, right, And it's the same. So God

keeps reaffirming him himself to us, and then it's okay,

and it's important for us to keep reaffirming our appreciation

and our joy and our delight and our trust in him.

And so it's this mutual relational back and forth with hey,

I still love you, I still trust you. You know

things are struggling now, and I'm still relying on you

to provide for me and those kinds of things. And

the Lord says he grants the desires of those who

fear him, and he hears the cries for help rescue.

Sim do you know what I like about this promise?

All week we've been looking at different promises that are

very similar, right, yeah, Deuteronomy. And then it was mentioned

in Deuteronomy in the Gospels, you know, Matthew twenty eight,

and so all of them say, oh God, God is

with you, right, But this one is slightly different. It

says God is close to you. Because there's a big

difference I think with you know, thinking oh God's with me,

and then if you think about the wording God is

close to me, God is near me, God knows me,

and they do mean the same thing. We just don't

think of them sometimes as the same thing. Yes, but

it says God knows your thoughts and emotions and your intentions,

and he knows the depth of your heart better than

you do. He knows the number of hairs that are

on your head. He knows everything about you, even the

hidden parts of your heart, and he still loves us

the same. And so as the song says, right, so

the idea of thinking that God is close to me

for me is just a much better thought than knowing

that he's just with me, right, you know, he's somewhere

in the background with me and rooting me on, versus

right next to me as a close personal friend. You know.

So there's a I can't really get into this. I

was gonna talk. There's a rhythm. There's twenty one verses here.

It goes seven, seven and seven the middle seven. It

ends with the idea that the Lord keeps his promises,

and the Lord helps the fall and lifts them up.

The front and the back explain why one he can

do anything, he does mighty deeds, he's magnificent, and the

back end is because he loves us and he's compassionate. Right,

That's how again, that Middle We've talked about this before

in the Bible, guys, Middle Eastern thinking, the center is

reinforced by the outsides, and that's exactly what happens in

this passage here. And so the whole song is written

with the idea that God's going to take care of

you and he's close to you. Yeah, it's pretty great.

That's great. Well, hey, that is our time, so thanks

for tuning in and hopefully we'll see tomorrow role on

the Bible, gosh h