Sermons on Psalm 145:18
The various sermons below converge on Psalm 145:18 as a pastoral assurance that God is experientially near to those who "call on him in truth," and they uniformly move the claim from abstract omnipresence to accessible encounter. Common moves include making nearness an invitational gift rather than coercion, insisting that sincerity or moral integrity matters for access, and anchoring nearness in God’s trustworthy character (goodness, love, grace). Nuances that may shape a sermon application emerge quickly: some preachers treat nearness as a habit or practice you can direct (a discipline of attention and choice), others make it proportional to moral formation (pursuing godliness increases felt proximity), one sharpens the call into penitential loyalty against external religiosity, and another situates it in the twin registers of filial intimacy and reverent prayer.
Where they diverge is not so much in denying the promise as in locating its driving force and pastoral aim: is nearness primarily a divine initiative we receive and rest in, or a reality we cultivate by ethical formation and directed attention; is “call on him in truth” best read as penitential turning away from hypocrisy, as ongoing companionship rooted in God’s faithfulness, as the fruit of cultivating godliness, or as liturgical/filial access that must be held with reverence—
Psalm 145:18 Interpretation:
Becoming Whole: Embracing God's Nearness and Purpose(Harbor Point Church) reads Psalm 145:18 as announcing not merely divine omnipresence but a gift of "directed nearness" that God offers to human beings who "call on him in truth," and the preacher develops a sustained metaphor of nearness as something we can direct (spiritual, emotional, mental, physical) so that our choices about where to place our nearness shape who we become; he contrasts the theological idea that God is everywhere with the pastoral claim that God gives an experiential, directed closeness (an encounter) which invites human response (calling on God with sincerity) and which does not coerce but invites, illustrated by Jesus’ coming near at Bethesda and by the way a single moment of divine nearness can become a life-changing milestone.
Drawing Near: Experiencing God's Presence Through Godliness(Tony Evans) interprets Psalm 145:18 succinctly by making the verse's nearness consequentially moral: Evans argues the nearer you are to God the more of God you experience, and he frames proximity as the fruit of pursuing godliness—so "calling on him in truth" is read as ethically sincere pursuit of godly character that increases experiential access to God.
Aligning Our Hearts: Loyalty to God Over World(Alistair Begg) treats Psalm 145:18 through James’s moral theology, interpreting "call on him in truth" to mean penitential, sincere prayer as opposed to hypocritical or self-serving petitions; Begg emphasizes that God hears the penitent and not the performative or agenda-driven suppliant, so the verse functions as a corrective to external religiosity and as an inducement to inward loyalty and submission to God's revealed will.
Understanding God's Nature: Goodness, Love, and Grace(Redoubt North Wesleyan Church) takes Psalm 145:18 as an assurance that God's nearness is personal and attentive and reads "call on him" as an invitation to ongoing companionable relationship: the sermon links nearness to God's unchanging goodness and love (God is near because he is loving, faithful, and the provider of grace) and uses concrete object-lessons to make the theological claim that nearness is relational, dependable, and rooted in God's character rather than contingent human achievement.
Intimacy and Reverence in Prayer: Jesus' Teachings(Ligonier Ministries) situates Psalm 145:18 inside a broader pastoral-theological argument about access to God, interpreting the verse as confirmation that the biblical tradition intends corporate and individual accessibility to God (contrasting rabbinic exaggerations of distance); the preacher uses the verse to justify Jesus’ instruction on prayer (the Lord’s Prayer) and to teach that calling on God is both intimate filial address ("Abba/Father") and consistent with reverent submission—so Psalm 145:18 functions as scriptural warrant for both intimacy and structured, God-centered prayer.
Psalm 145:18 Theological Themes:
Becoming Whole: Embracing God's Nearness and Purpose(Harbor Point Church) emphasizes the theme that divine nearness is a gift God directs toward us and a human responsibility we can reciprocally "direct" by choosing where to place our internal nearness; the sermon’s distinctive theological move is to make nearness an ethical-cognitive practice (we choose what to be near) as well as a divine initiative, thus linking Psalm 145:18 to formation of character and communal practice (life groups, church as remedy for "I have no one").
Drawing Near: Experiencing God's Presence Through Godliness(Tony Evans) advances the distinct theme that experiential proximity to God is proportionate to moral proximity—pursuing godliness is not merely obedience but the means by which the believer increasingly "receives" God’s nearness promised in Psalm 145:18.
Aligning Our Hearts: Loyalty to God Over World(Alistair Begg) brings a sharpened ethical-theological theme: "calling on him in truth" is explicitly penitential and rooted in loyalty; Begg adds the facet that prayer disconnected from repentance and submission is effectively inaudible to God, so Psalm 145:18 is a promise conditioned by wholehearted allegiance rather than by ritual observance.
Understanding God's Nature: Goodness, Love, and Grace(Redoubt North Wesleyan Church) stresses that God’s nearness flows from God’s essential identity as love and goodness—this sermon’s distinct contribution is framing Psalm 145:18 not just as access but as the outworking of God’s love-in-action (grace) such that nearness becomes both a gift to be received and a pattern to be extended to others.
Intimacy and Reverence in Prayer: Jesus' Teachings(Ligonier Ministries) develops the theological pairing of intimacy and holiness: the sermon’s distinctive angle is that Psalm 145:18 undergirds a prayer theology that is both familial ("Abba") and doxological ("Hallowed be Thy Name"), so true access to God requires simultaneous warmth of filial address and reverent submission to God’s holy character.
Psalm 145:18 Historical and Contextual Insights:
Becoming Whole: Embracing God's Nearness and Purpose(Harbor Point Church) situates Psalm 145:18 in the Johannine healing story by explaining the Pool of Bethesda’s ancient context—he summarizes the contemporaneous belief that the pool’s waters were stirred (some thought by an angel) and that getting into the water first might bring healing, and he uses that cultural detail to show why Jesus’ personal nearness at that location was a radical and welcomed correction to popular, mechanical religious expectations about healing and access to God.
Intimacy and Reverence in Prayer: Jesus' Teachings(Ligonier Ministries) gives extended historical and cultural background about Jewish prayer-world assumptions that contextualize Psalm 145:18: he explains rabbinic tendencies to portray God as far-off or accessible only to the ritually qualified (high priest), summarizes Midrashic and Talmudic materials (e.g., sayings that God hearkens to all simultaneously, that prayer may be greater than sacrifice, and that prayer should be constant), and shows how Psalm 145:18 functions within that milieu as a biblical corrective and affirmation of broad access to God.
Psalm 145:18 Cross-References in the Bible:
Becoming Whole: Embracing God's Nearness and Purpose(Harbor Point Church) draws Psalm 145:18 into a network of New Testament narratives and theological texts: he uses John 5 (the Bethesda healing) to exemplify how Jesus’ nearness effects healing, quotes Revelation 3:20 ("Here I am…") to show Jesus inviting personal response, invokes the Lazarus account (John 11) and Jesus calming the storm to demonstrate the power of the divine voice, and ties all of this to the cross—arguing that Christ’s atoning work secures unconditional access so the promise "the Lord is near…" becomes an offer rather than a remote fact.
Drawing Near: Experiencing God's Presence Through Godliness(Tony Evans) links Psalm 145:18 thematically to the general biblical teaching that proximity to God yields greater experience of his work (Evans treats the verse as support for the scriptural principle that godliness produces experiential fellowship), but he cites no extended verse-by-verse cross-textual exegesis beyond invoking the psalm as proof text for the link between moral reform and divine presence.
Aligning Our Hearts: Loyalty to God Over World(Alistair Begg) reads Psalm 145:18 in the immediate sermonic frame of James (especially James 1–4): he argues Psalm 145’s "call on him in truth" meshes with James’s insistence that God hears the penitent and not boastful, performative prayer (he references the Pharisee/tax-collector contrast and James’s teaching that prayer unaccompanied by genuine submission is futile), using Psalm 145 to buttress James’s critique of divided motives.
Understanding God's Nature: Goodness, Love, and Grace(Redoubt North Wesleyan Church) uses Psalm 145:18 as a locus for several New Testament references: Colossians 1:15 (Jesus as visible image of the invisible God) and John 14 (seeing the Son is seeing the Father) are invoked to show how the unseen God’s nearness is mediated in Christ, 1 John 4:8 ("God is love") shapes his claim that nearness flows from love, and Psalm 107 and other psalms are used to ground gratitude and God's faithfulness as the basis for approaching God.
Intimacy and Reverence in Prayer: Jesus' Teachings(Ligonier Ministries) groups Psalm 145:18 with several Old and New Testament texts to show biblical continuity about access to God: he cites Psalm 50:15, Psalm 91:15, Psalm 18:6, Psalm 65:2 alongside Psalm 145:18 to show numerous psalms promising God’s attentiveness; he then connects that cluster to Jesus’ Lord’s Prayer (Luke 11; Matthew 6), Daniel’s and Moses’ importunate prayers for corporate restoration, and Hebrews’ presentation of Christ removing barriers to the holy presence—using the cross-textual set to argue Psalm 145:18 is neither isolated nor novel but embedded in Scripture’s prayer theology.
Psalm 145:18 Christian References outside the Bible:
Intimacy and Reverence in Prayer: Jesus' Teachings(Ligonier Ministries) explicitly invokes early and Reformation Christian interpreters while developing the prayer theology linked to Psalm 145:18: he cites Chrysostom and Origen to equate "hallowed" with "glorify/exalt" (Origen connects hallowing with exalting God; Chrysostom aligns hallowing with glorification), he appeals to John Calvin’s observation that hallowing God's Name means men should "never think or speak of Him without the greatest veneration," and he quotes Augustine (paraphrase) to note that praying for God's name to be hallowed is asking that men regard God as holy; these patristic and scholastic citations are used to temper the filial intimacy of "Father" with the necessary reverence—so Ligonier uses classical Christian theology to ensure Psalm 145:18’s invitation to intimacy remains framed by worshipful awe.
Psalm 145:18 Illustrations from Secular Sources:
Becoming Whole: Embracing God's Nearness and Purpose(Harbor Point Church) uses a contemporary secular TV commercial (the Progressive "Dr. Rick" spots) as an opening cultural image to show how day-by-day habits and small cultural signals shape who we become, and then ties that observation to Psalm 145:18 by arguing that just as commercials shape desires, the directed nearness God offers reshapes identity when we "call on him in truth"; additionally, the sermon narrates outreach events (a Marine Thanksgiving and a single-mom tree-lot) and reads congregational hospitality testimonies (a Marine saying "I feel a part of a family again"; a single mom describing feeling "seen") as vivid real-world evidence that God's nearness, as promised in Psalm 145:18, is mediated through ordinary human acts of welcome—these secular/pop-cultural and social anecdotes are elaborated in detail and used to demonstrate how a lived church response embodies the psalm’s promise.
Understanding God's Nature: Goodness, Love, and Grace(Redoubt North Wesleyan Church) employs everyday cultural and public-life material as object lessons—opening with the contemporary civic note of "King's Birthday Weekend" to capture attention and then running a hands-on demonstration with ordinary secular items behind a door (a flashlight, rope, rock, batteries, a photo, chocolates, a glass of water) to analogically illustrate attributes tied to Psalm 145:18 (light/nearness, strength/unfailing, unchanging faithfulness, provision/grace); the sermon describes the children's participation, the placement and retrieval of those props, and their symbolic meaning at length to make the verse tangible to listeners by means of familiar, non-technical images.