NASB The Lord is near to all who call on Him, To all who call on Him in truth.
NLT The Lord is close to all who call on him, yes, to all who call on him in truth.
VOICE The Eternal stays close to those who call on Him, those who pray sincerely.
In the context of the Psalm, the psalmist shares their relationship between God and His people. The nearness of God is not just a physical closeness, but one that is relational – showing that God is ready to listen and respond. To call out God in truth describes a genuine, heartfelt plea. There’s no deceit or hypocrisy in our please, but it comes from a place that shares what’s on our hearts from an honest, emotional place. This requirement for truthful connects with the broader story that God desires a sincere heart, as seen in David.
REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: When you talk with God, how much do you tend to hold back?
I think there is something to say about coming to God with integrity. It’s very easy to be in a moment of stress and anxiousness and share with God: “God, I hope they suffer. I hope they pay for what they did against me. I hope they hurt the same way they had hurt me.” Those prayers may express real pain, but the psalm invites us to bring that pain to God in truth rather than revenge. God will listen to them, but God does not bless revenge, even while God remains just. God will deal justice and consequences for all actions that are committed, but none will be done regarding the requests of violence and revenge. God wants us to share those raw emotions, but God wants us to seek towards a place of reconciliation and forgiveness. It doesn’t mean that we must kindle a relationship, but it does mean working back to a place of treating each other with respect. Some relationships (of all kinds) must end for our own physical, mental, and emotional health. It can hurt. It can cause grief. All this though will set us up for the greatest success later in life.
Forgiveness can help free the heart, but it does not erase the reality of harm. In essence, a clear mind for you to close the chapter on that pain and work towards a place where you can move forward to what God has called for you. That forgiveness is not the easiest place to get too. The triggers that can come in that process are also overwhelming during that time. When you are pushing to a place of acceptance and comfortability with the incident(s) that occur, it can be easy for something to trigger pain, a harmful memory, stress and anxiety, and more. It can pull your body into a heightened state of awareness and potentially lead to a fight-or-flight response. When we get to a place of forgiveness and reconciliation, we can feel these things and then pull ourselves back to the present. Without this, we can get stuck in thought patterns and anxiety loops that can freeze us in place until something snaps us out of it. This can be a variety of coping mechanisms, both helpful and harmful.
Calling out to God and sharing the honesty and truth of all of this can help us to process them. We can work through and talk about what everything has done to us, what it meant for us emotionally, mentally, and spiritually; how we can follow through these tougher moments and recognize if our paths of healing have been healthy and helpful or harmful overall, and more. God walks with us through all seasons that we are going through. God is with us in our joy and pain. He cheers us on in our successes and cries alongside us in our pain and agony. We just need to call out to God in honesty and truth and allow His presence to gift us everything that we need to make it through our days.
REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: How can you be more truthful and honest about what’s going on in your life?
Hi God! Thank you for the gifts of peace and justice and compassion of your gift to each of us. We know that these gifts come from the relationship that we have together. I know that I need help sharing everything we you. To be honest and vulnerable with all the good and bad things that we go through in life. It can be scary and be unnerving, but you won’t use it against me. You will help me understand how you can walk me through these harder times and how we can get to the other side stronger than ever before.
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