Closer than your iPhone – Psalm 145:18-21

Have you noticed how much smaller our world has become, especially over the last 20 years or so? I’ve been privileged enough to live through this resizing and reshaping of the world, experiencing the mind blowing difference it has made – that already we take for granted!

For the majority of the history of the world, distance has mattered, especially in regards communication. For thousands of years the only people who could hear you yell were those close enough to hear you! If you were to cry out for help, only those who lived within earshot could have responded. At best (and not often, nor reliably, nor to everywhere), you could write a letter or send someone with a spoken message to communicate with someone far away.

It wasn’t until the late 1800’s that communication started to change – with the invention of the telephone. Suddenly, though only for a minority at first, you could pick up this wooden or bakelite thing and speak to someone on the other end! Suddenly our friends were closer.

And then in the 1980’s two more revolutions really took hold. The internet and mobile telephones. The culmination of which is the smartphones and tablets many of us have access to today. Today I can jump on my phone anywhere with mobile signal (most places I go!), and say hi to a friend, or even broadcast a request for prayer or help. Email, Twitter and Facebook connect me to potentially millions of people at the click of a button. No longer do I need to call out and hope someone hears – I can communicate with almost anyone, anytime, anyplace, in many different ways.

But even with all of this amazing technology, many of us can still find ourselves alone. We can still find ourselves in anguish, in distress, with no one to help us and no one to call upon. We might find ourselves in a place with no friend to listen to our cries, to comfort us in our distress or to guide us into new hope.

Well, not quite no one.

The LORD is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;
he also hears their cry and saves them.
The LORD preserves all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.
My mouth will speak the praise of the LORD,
and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.
(Psalm 145:18-21 ESV)

Despite the rapid proliferation of modern technology, it has nothing on God! Despite the fact that He created the universe and all that is in it, if we call on Him in truth He will be near to us. Not just near in distance, but truly near as a friend and helper.

I don’t know if you have thought that through, but it is a pretty revolutionary thought.

If I said I could today call on the ten richest people in the world to help me, despite being nothing myself, you would probably write me off as a fraud. And since I don’t know any of them personally, you would be right!

Despite that, the Bible constantly declares that God is near to us when we call. Not just ‘some guy’, not even a rich guy, or a wise guy (just what we need….), or a powerful guy. But that the God who spoke the whole universe into being – just spoke it – is near to me when I call on Him for help.

Yes, that is a truly mind bending thought, but if only we could get it into our heads, it would utterly transform our lives!

No wonder at the conclusion David (the author of this Psalm) declares -

My mouth will speak the praise of the LORD,
and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.