#DailyDevotion The LORD’s Name Reveals He Cares For Us
Psalm 145 8The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to get angry and great in kindness. 9The LORD is good to everyone and shows compassion on everything He made. 10Everything You made praises You, O LORD, and Your devoted ones bless You. 11They talk of the glory of Your kingdom and tell of Your power. 12They teach the world His mighty acts and the wonderful glory of His kingdom. 13Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom; You rule through all the generations.
The earlier verses called us to praise and bless the name of the LORD. Now we get around to doing that in these verses. Versus 8 and 9 Basically quote the Lord reveals to Moses in Exodus 34:6 concerning his name, “the LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, slow to get angry, rich in love and faithfulness, 7continuing to show mercy to thousands, forgiving wrong, rebellion, and sin, without treating it as innocent, but disciplining children and children’s children to the third and fourth generation for the sins of their fathers.” The name of the LORD reveals these qualities about our God. It is something we should really take to heart in a world that thinks the Creator of heaven and earth, the god of the Israelites, the God of Christianity, is a mean cruel deity who enjoys punishing people. Quite the opposite, punishing people is our God’s alien work. He doesn’t enjoy it at all. What He wants to do is be gracious, merciful, slow to anger, great in kindness, and compassion to everything He has made. This is what our God is like. When he speaks of everything the LORD has made praises Him, the psalmist is speaking about creation and not all people. His devoted people however do bless Him which means to give thanks to Him. We do this all the time before we eat our meals. Speaking of giving thanks before meals we have the following verses.
14The LORD holds up all who are falling and raises all who are bowed down. 15 The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food at the right time; 16You open Your hand to satisfy every living thing with what it wants.
These words are almost verbatim from Psalm 104:27-28. Used by Martin Luther in his meal prayers in the small catechism, we would do well to pray this prayer at our meal times so we were reminded of the mercy, kindness, steadfast love and graciousness of our God.
17The LORD is just in all His ways and kind in everything He does. 18The LORD is near all who call Him, all who call Him sincerely. 19He does what those who fear Him want; He hears their call for help and saves them.
These are words that we should hold fast in faith particularly in troubling times. It does not always seem this way. The LORD and all His wisdom knows what He is doing. Of course if Jesus’s promises in Matthew 6, “8Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” Also in ch. 7, 7“Ask, and it will be given to you. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you. 8Anyone who asks receives; anyone who searches finds; and anyone who knocks, the door will be opened for him.”
20The LORD protects all who love Him but destroys all the wicked. 21My mouth will praise the LORD, and all people will praise His holy name forever and ever.
The LORD knows how to save those who love Him and preserve them in the day of judgment. Those who have rejected His name that is everything He is and stands for will be destroyed on the last day. Because He preserves us we should praise the LORD His holy name forever and ever.
Merciful, kind, gracious, and forgiving Father to give You thanks and praise for all Your goodness to us and providing us everything we need. Give us faith always to believe this and preserve us in this faith onto life everlasting. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen