Psalm 145-18-19: The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them.
Let us contemplate the meaning of this passage from Psalms 145. The Lord is near. We believe that God is omnipresent, that is, present everywhere. There is no place to which God's knowledge and power do not extend. In truth, The Lord is here in front of us, over us, on our side, inside us, behind us. There are passages in other parts of Psalms, in chapter 139 that support this. It says God knows when we sit down and when we rise up, God understands our thoughts from afar, God is acquainted with all our actions and ways. But there is a difference between God being present in us or around us and God being present because we call upon him in sincere prayer and in truth. What is the difference? For the former, God being present but we don't call upon him or invoke him, He comes as an observer but does not intervene in an extraordinary way. I mentioned in an extraordinary way. Because even if we do not call upon him, God continues to bless us with the basic means of survival, for example, he sends us rain, he brings us the sun at day, he allows crops to grow for food. We normally don't ask God in prayer for these things but God provides these basic necessitates to his children, whether they are good or bad, whether they ask for it or not. For the latter, God being present or near when we call upon Him, that is, when we pray with sincerity and truth, He comes not just an observer, but an active and engaging provider. He fulfils our desires, hears our cry or saves us. He addresses our specific personal needs and intervenes in an extraordinary way. This makes prayer very important. Prayer makes God so near that he listens to every word we say and every desire we have in our hearts. It reminds me of what Vassula said before that when we pray God's ear shall be stuck on our lips and He shall receive each word we say as drops of honey. This is a powerful illustration or visual description of God's action when one prays sincerely. Prayer makes heaven open and pour out its extraordinary graces and blessings. Prayer protects us from Satan's temptations and attacks; it protects us from the malice of the world and from the sins of the flesh; it also frees us from mental and spiritual pride. We know that the world needs a shower of prayer to be purified from sins. But since only a few people pray, those few must pray as if they were many. We must multiply our prayers and make it a living prayer to make up the necessary amount to obtain graces and protection from heaven. Prayers are living when they are flavoured with true love and sacrifice. If we truly understood the importance of prayers, we would never stop praying or miss our daily prayer, because in doing so we deny ourselves of special God's protection and graces. With these thoughts let us come to the presence of God and offer our praises and worship to the God who is near us and hears our prayers He will call upon Me, and I shall hear him; I shall free him and glorify him; I shall satisfy him with a long life, says the Lord. Psalm 91:15-16
From this passage, it appears that a single God is speaking. But our Most Holy God is a trinity. Three distinct persons but one God and these three persons form a unity. And each of the person in the trinity has special attributes, which are not lacking in the others, but which is more dominant in One, but also joins with the others. So, the most Holy Three complete one another forming the most perfect Perfection of our Triune Lord God. And that is why we can see the Father promises first: "He will call upon Me, and I shall hear him". Jesus teaches us to address our prayers to the Father when he told his apostles to pray to the Father. The Father promises that he answers our prayers. And that is a truthful promise towards his children. God is a perfect Father. He is not deaf to his children's call for help. He even answers sinners who are repentant, how much more to those who love him as faithful children. God the Father calls us to seek him always, to trust him, to abandon ourselves under his care and love. God the Father is infinitely holy and infinitely powerful. We are nothing, yet God the Father, in his humility, wanted us to rest in his arm, to be intimate with Him, to call upon him anytime and anywhere and He will answer us. "He will call upon Me, and I shall hear him" That is coming from God the Father; And let us consider the second line in this passage. Here, God the Son, Jesus, also makes his promises. “I shall free him and glorify him”. By his suffering and death, he obtains infinite merits to redeem us. For this reason, He is called the Christ, the Redeemer, the one who saves us. But he did not stop there. In Gethsemane, before going to this passion, he prayed to the Father “I pray also for those who will believe in me; that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.” In this prayer, Jesus asked the Father that the same glory the Father had given him, and he had transmitted to his disciples will also be given to those who believe in Him. All those who live according to Jesus’ teaching will therefore be glorified by Him. Glorification means our body and spirit participates in the divine life and ultimately dwells in the heavenly kingdom. Glorification is our goal and destination. In the last line, the Holy Spirit also speaks and makes his promise. “I shall satisfy him with long life.” What is this long life that the Holy Spirit promises? Do you think it is our early life? Did he promise that if we are faithful children we will live longer here on earth, say 60 years, 70 years, 80 years, 90 years? You can see that both good and bad, both sinners and holy people can live long lives. What is the use of having a long life when life is miserable? What the Holy Spirit promises here is eternal life, a life that has no end! A continuous joy and delight in the presence of the most triune God, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Let us praise the triune God for making this truthful promise to us, that he will answer our prayer, he will saves us and glorify us, and then gives us eternal life. |
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March 2024
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