PRAYER · ASHREI · 4 OF 5
Near to all who call
The King who sustains living things is near to those who call on him. Follow the closing verses of Ashrei without losing their words about truth, reverence and love.
In this lesson
From an open hand to a listening ear
In the previous reading, the eyes of all turn toward Hashem, who gives food and opens his hand. The psalm now speaks about calling, crying out and being heard. These images belong to one praise: the God whose kingdom endures also attends to those who need him.
Ashrei is the prayer centered on Psalm 145. Tehillim, the book of Psalms, gives us words of praise, longing and trust. Here we read the psalm's final five verses. Hashem means “the Name,” our respectful way of referring to God.
Read each verse as a whole. A biblical verse often sets two clauses alongside each other. The second may extend the first, make it more precise or introduce a contrast. Stopping halfway can change what we hear.
Read the complete ending
צדיק ה׳ בכל דרכיו וחסיד בכל מעשיו.
17. Hashem is righteous in all his ways, and kind in all his deeds.
קרוב ה׳ לכל קראיו לכל אשר יקראהו באמת.
18. Hashem is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.
רצון יראיו יעשה ואת שועתם ישמע ויושיעם.
19. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them.
שומר ה׳ את כל אהביו ואת כל הרשעים ישמיד.
20. Hashem guards all who love him, and he will destroy all the wicked.
תהלת ה׳ ידבר פי ויברך כל בשר שם קדשו לעולם ועד.
21. My mouth will speak the praise of Hashem, and may all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
Make a five-line outline before opening the first check. For each verse, name its main action or description. Use the verse number so that someone else can find your evidence.
1. What does each verse contribute?
Verse 17 praises righteousness and kindness throughout Hashem's ways and deeds. Verse 18 speaks of nearness to those who call in truth. Verse 19 joins desire and crying out with fulfillment, hearing and saving. Verse 20 contrasts guarding those who love him with destroying the wicked. Verse 21 joins the speaker's praise with a call for all flesh to bless his name.
An outline that says only “God helps us” misses the distinct work of these five verses.
Keep “in truth” with the call
Verse 18 repeats “to all.” The second clause does not abandon the first; it specifies the calling: in truth. The Hebrew word emet means truth. Nearness belongs here with a truthful turning toward Hashem, not merely the production of sounds.
A worked reading has two steps. First quote the scope: “all who call on him.” Then preserve the description: “who call on him in truth.” Together they direct our attention to how we call, while keeping the invitation broad.
2. What disappears if we stop after the first clause?
We lose “in truth,” the words that describe the call in the second clause. Conversely, quoting only “in truth” loses the repeated “all” and the declaration of Hashem's nearness. A careful account retains both.
Now separate the actions in verse 19. Write one column for the people and one for Hashem. Fear of Hashem includes reverence: taking his greatness and our relationship with him seriously. The verse puts that reverence beside desire and an urgent cry, not beside a claim that we need nothing.
3. Who desires, who cries and who hears?
Those who fear Hashem have a desire and cry out. Hashem fulfills their desire, hears their cry and saves them. The verse does not say that reverent people never face distress; their cry is part of the picture.
Read kindness and judgment together
Verse 17 calls Hashem righteous and kind in all his ways and deeds. The word rendered “kind,” chasid, expresses goodness in action. The following verses name hearing and guarding, but also judgment. We must not remove the final clause of verse 20 to make the ending sound easier.
Make a two-part note on verse 20 before opening the check. Keep the two groups and the two actions separate.
4. What contrast does verse 20 actually make?
Hashem guards all who love him; he will destroy all the wicked. “Everyone receives the same treatment” cannot stand in for this verse. The judge and guardian here is Hashem. The verse does not hand its reader authority to label a disliked person wicked or carry out its judgment.
Words that repeat can do different work. Compare “all” in verse 17 with “all” in verse 18. Ask what each instance includes. Do this with the source in view, not from the general impression that the psalm uses expansive language.
5. Do these two uses of “all” describe the same thing?
No. In verse 17, “all” describes the reach of Hashem's righteousness and kindness across his ways and deeds. In verse 18, “all” names those who call on him, with “in truth” specifying that call. The same word serves two related but different statements.
Let trust remain trust
Consider this invented conclusion: “If rescue has not arrived immediately, the person must have called falsely.” Before opening the answer, identify two things the conclusion adds to the passage. Then write a more careful sentence about verse 19.
6. Why does that conclusion outrun the verse?
It adds an immediate timetable and a way to judge another person's truthfulness from their suffering. Neither appears in these verses. Verse 19 praises Hashem as the one who hears and saves; it gives the reverent person's cry a place in prayer.
A sound sentence might say: “We bring our need to the One who hears, with reverence and truth.” That expresses the passage's direction without pretending to know when or how another person's distress will end.
Our response to these words can be concrete: attend to the truth of our own call, listen carefully to a neighbor's distress and refuse to use a promise of divine care as a reason to dismiss their need. This is a way to bring the reading into our conduct, rather than a new translation of the verse.
My mouth and all flesh
Return to verses 1–2. The speaker begins with “I” and a commitment to praise forever. Compare that beginning with verse 21. Write two things that return and one way the final verse widens the view.
7. How does the ending gather up the beginning?
The speaker's own praise returns: “My mouth will speak.” Blessing Hashem's name and “forever and ever” also return. The ending widens from the speaker's mouth to all flesh, the larger company invited to bless his holy name.
This is not a change of subject away from the King. It joins personal praise to the wider praise toward which the psalm has been moving.
Explain the ending independently. In four or five sentences, connect nearness, truthful calling and praise. Cite three phrases from verses 17–21. Include one question the passage leaves you wanting to study further. Leave the answers above closed while you write.
8. Does your account preserve the passage's shape?
Check that you have more than three isolated quotations. Explain a relationship: for example, why “in truth” belongs with calling, or how “my mouth” relates to “all flesh.” Preserve both clauses if you use verse 20. Attribute the claims to the psalm rather than turning them into your prediction about a particular person's life.
A useful further question asks about something specific: how a commentator explains “in truth,” or how this praise prepares us to bring requests. A question marks the next learning step; it need not become a guessed answer.
Read in context
Psalm 145: read verses 17–21 within the whole psalm. Compare the opening, the care for all living things in verses 14–16 and the closing call to praise. The explanation and practice questions here are close-reading work, distinct from the source and its original English rendering.