What Does Psalm 145:18 Mean?
The LORD is near to all who call out to him, to all who call out to him in truth.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.THE KEY
The repeated “all” makes the LORD’s nearness a present relation for everyone who calls on him with a call grounded in what is firm and true.
THE MEANING
The LORD is near to every person who calls on him in truth. The repeated “all” widens that nearness beyond any one kind of person, while “in truth” gives the call weight and reality. This closeness is present now, not a distant reward.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the LORD is near only to a chosen few: the verse says he is near to all who call on him in truth.
THE ROOT
קָרוֹב
qarov
GROWS FROM
קרב
qarab
to approach, draw near
English “nigh” can sound like a static distance, but this word shares its root with the movement of drawing near. The verse presents closeness as a real relation, not an abstract feeling.
ALSO GROWS
qarav: to approach, draw near
קָרַב
This verb reveals the movement inside “nigh”: closeness is expressed as coming near.
qorban: drawing near
קָרְבָּן
This branch carries the same movement of nearness, making the LORD’s closeness concrete as a relation of approach.
קָרָא
qara
GROWS FROM
קרא
qara
to call, summon, proclaim, or read aloud
“call out to” in this verse is qara. The root of “call” also gives words for reading aloud and for an assembly. Calling is more than sound: it can summon and gather, giving the verse’s address to the LORD a sense of turning toward him.
ALSO GROWS
qeri'ah: a calling; reading aloud
קְרִיאָה
The shared root links the caller’s voice with words spoken aloud and made present.
miqra: an assembly; a reading aloud
מִקְרָא
This branch shows how calling can gather people, opening the verse beyond a private utterance.
אֱמֶת
emet
GROWS FROM
אמן
aman
to be firm, steady, dependable
Emet carries the firmness of aman: truth is something steady and dependable. The call “in truth” therefore has the quality of something the caller can stand on.
ALSO GROWS
emunah: trust, leaning your full weight on; steadiness
אֱמוּנָה
This branch makes the firmness behind truth tangible: the call rests on what is dependable.
amen: Amen; firm affirmation
אָמֵן
The same root links truth with a steady affirmation, giving “in truth” the sense of a call grounded in what holds firm.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s nearness is revealed where people call to him or draw near, making divine presence a relation the text repeatedly places within reach.
For what nation is there so great, that has God so near to them, as the LORD our God is in all that we call upon him for?The LORD is near to those whose heart is broken, and delivers those crushed in breath.THE THREAD
The LORD is near to those whose heart is broken, and delivers those crushed in breath.Psalm 34:18 uses the same Hebrew word for “nigh”, קָרוֹב (qarov), meaning near. Here the LORD is near to those who call in truth; there he is near to the brokenhearted, and both verses root that closeness in קרב (qarab), to draw near.
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