The Lord is righteous in all his ways...

Reading Psalm 145:17-21

"The Lord is righteous in all his ways
and loving toward all he has made.
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.
The Lord watches over all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.
My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord.
Let every creature praise his holy name
for ever and ever."

This is personal testimony. This is not academic theology or abstract thinking about what God must be like. This is not wishful thinking or spiritual dreaming. David is describing what he has experienced of God. The testimony is personal and the application is personal: "My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord." The longer we live in this conscious relationship with God the more we know of Him and the more thankful we are to have found him.

God ensures that his children feel his righteousness ( in his resistance to sin and the empty wasteland that we experience when we reject his moral law); that we know his love (in the joy and peace he gives as we turn to him); that we sense his nearness (in that assurance of being accompanied on our journey); that our desires are fulfilled (in learning over and over again that he knows better than we do what we need and what our longings are ultimately aimed at); that he hears our cry (that our prayers are not swallowed up by the vastness of the sky above us but find a home in his heart). It is our experience that "the Lord watches over all who love him." Those who love God, who express that love to God through worship and obedience, know the love of God - love is its own reward.

God is multidimensional and he addresses all realities and for this reason David also says: "but all the wicked he will destroy." He is no impotent grandfather of the universe who simply lets everything pass by unnoticed.

"Let every creature praise his holy name for ever and ever."