Psalms 145:17–20

Psalms 145:17 — "Yahweh is righteous in all his ways" The Hebrew tsaddiq (righteous) applied here to Yahweh is the same term used to describe a morally upright human being, but its application to God carries an absolute and unqualified force. God's righteousness (tsedeq) is not one attribute among others but the very consistency of His character: everything He does — creation, judgment, mercy, preservation — is perfectly ordered toward the good. The phrase "in all his ways" (be-khol-derakav) is deliberate and sweeping: there is no divine act, no providential dispensation, no moment of apparent silence, that falls outside of this righteousness. Coming near the end of the psalm, this verse functions as a doxological anchor, grounding all the prior praise — of God's greatness, His compassion for the fallen, His provision for the hungry — in a declaration that these acts flow from a character that is intrinsically and unimpeachably just. For Israel, this was not merely a philosophical claim but a covenantal one: the God who acts in history is trustworthy because He is righteous.

Psalms 145:18 — "Yahweh is near to all those who call on him" The divine nearness (qarov) expressed here stands in profound tension with, and resolution of, the problem of divine transcendence. The psalm opened by exalting Yahweh's "greatness" as "unsearchable" (v. 3); now it insists that this same infinite God is near. The verb "call" (qara) evokes the whole tradition of Israelite prayer — the cry of the psalms, the intercession of Moses, the lament of the poor — and this verse promises that such calling is never into a void. The phrase "in truth" (be-emet), found in the fuller Masoretic text (echoed in the Septuagint), is theologically crucial: it is not the mere utterance of words but sincere, faith-filled, truth-oriented prayer that draws God near. This conditions the promise without undermining it: God's nearness is not magical or mechanical but relational and covenantal.

Psalms 145:19 — "He will fulfill the desire of those who fear him" The "desire" (ratson) of the God-fearing is not every casual wish but the deep longing of a soul ordered toward God — what Augustine would call the restless heart that finds rest only in God. The "fear" (yir'ah) here is reverent awe, not craven terror: it is the posture of the creature before the Creator, the worshiper before the Holy One. The promise is that God takes such desire seriously, that He is not passive before the prayers of those who approach Him in holy reverence. Structurally, this verse bridges the nearness of v. 18 to the preservation of v. 20: God hears, responds, and acts.

Psalms 145:20 — "Yahweh preserves all those who love him" The verb shamar (preserve, guard, keep) has deep covenantal resonance — it is used of God keeping Israel (Ps 121:4: "He who keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps"), and also of humans keeping the covenant. The movement from "fear" in v. 19 to "love" (ahavah) in v. 20 is significant: fear and love are not opposites in biblical spirituality but complementary dispositions of the faithful heart — fear prevents presumption, love prevents servility. God's preservation of those who love Him is an active, ongoing protective custody, not merely a passive non-interference. In the context of the full verse (which continues, "but all the wicked he will destroy"), the contrast sharpens the stakes of the psalm's moral vision: divine nearness is not indiscriminate; it responds to the orientation of the human heart.

Catholic tradition reads these verses as a richly layered testimony to the nature of God and the structure of the spiritual life.

St. Augustine, commenting on the Psalms, saw in the "nearness" of Yahweh (v. 18) a foreshadowing of the Incarnation itself: God's ultimate act of drawing near is the Word made flesh (John 1:14). The nearness promised here to those who call is perfectly fulfilled in Jesus Christ, in whom divinity and humanity are hypostatically united — God is as near to us as our own human nature. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC §2559) cites Psalm 145:18 directly in its treatment of prayer, calling God's nearness the very foundation of Christian petition: "Prayer is the encounter of God's thirst with ours."

Verse 17's declaration of divine righteousness is illuminated by the Catholic doctrine of divine simplicity (CCC §§212–214): God's righteousness is not separate from His mercy or His love — they are one undivided perfection. St. Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologiae I, q. 21) argues that God's justice and mercy are not in conflict but that mercy is the fullest expression of justice, since it gives more than is strictly owed.

The "desire of those who fear him" (v. 19) maps onto the Catholic mystical tradition's doctrine of desiderium Dei — the God-given longing for God Himself. St. John of the Cross and St. Thérèse of Lisieux both teach that the holy desires placed in the soul by grace are already a form of prayer that God delights to fulfill (cf. CCC §2736). Pope Benedict XVI, in Deus Caritas Est (§17), draws a direct line from the fear/love dynamic in these verses to the integration of eros and agape in the mature Christian heart.

For a Catholic living in an age of ambient anxiety — political instability, ecological uncertainty, the fragmentation of community — these four verses offer not a vague comfort but a theologically precise antidote. Verse 17 invites the believer to practice what the tradition calls confiança: a trust in divine Providence grounded not in optimism but in the conviction that God's ways, even when opaque, are righteous. When injustice seems to prevail, the Catholic does not despair but prays with this psalm.

Verse 18 has immediate, concrete implications for prayer life. The condition "in truth" challenges the Catholic to examine the quality of their prayer: Is Sunday Mass an obligation endured, or a sincere calling upon God? Is the Rosary recited or truly prayed? The promise of divine nearness is not automatic — it is covenantal, requiring the honest orientation of the heart.

Verses 19–20 encourage Catholics to bring their deepest, most serious desires to God — vocational discernment, healing of relationships, perseverance in faith — with the confidence that a God who preserves those who love Him will neither abandon them mid-journey nor remain unmoved by their longing.