But for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.
– Psalm 73:28
I love this verse. At the end of this chapter, I distinctly remember when I heard a sermon on this Psalm in college. As a university student surrounded by all kinds of alluring pleasures and pursuits in the world. As I’m out on my own, in a sense, for the first time and seeing people around me doing all sorts of things and wondering, “Am I missing out?” Which is part of the picture in Psalm 73.
Psalm 73:28 shows us that it is good for us to be near the Lord.
From the very beginning, the psalmist here is saying, “My steps were about to slip because I was looking around at people in the world and seeing their prosperity and thinking, ‘I need to live like they’re living.'” The whole Psalm is about this wrestling in him. And it gets to the end; is this not a great verse? He concludes, “But for me, it is good to be near God. He is my strength, my satisfaction, my inheritance, my joy. He is my pleasure.” That’s the whole conclusion of Psalm 73. And I’m so thankful for God’s grace in my own life. For reminding me in Psalm 73 that day as a college university student, that what matters most, that the way to life is to be near God, to walk closely with God, to have him, Psalm 73:26, as the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
And I just want to encourage you today… Surrounded by all kinds of temptations in this world, hear the Word of God. It’s good for you to be near God. Hear God speaking to you today, saying life, joy, peace, satisfaction, sustenance, strength, everything you need, and, ultimately, desire is found in nearness to God today. So walk with Him, humbly, closely.
Psalm 73:28 reminds us that God is the only one who can satisfy our souls.
Fix your mind on him, your heart on him, all your heart on him, and say all throughout the day, Psalm 73:28, “For me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.” Oh God, we say with the psalmist in Psalm 73 today, it is good to be near you. We praise you for the privilege of being near you. The fact that we’re talking to you right now, the Creator of all, the Sovereign Ruler and Sustainer of all, and the only One who can satisfy our souls.
And Jesus, you’ve made it possible for us to be near you, to walk with you today. So we pray that over our lives. May our lives today be marked by nearness to you. Lord, may our lives tomorrow be marked by even more nearness to you. May every day you draw us closer to you. God, we pray this over people around us. We intercede, help people to be drawn closer to you around us and use our lives today to help them draw closer to you, that they might experience your goodness in deeper ways.
God, we pray for people we know who don’t know you, who don’t know what it’s like to be near you. God, help us to share the gospel today, to lead people to be near to you. The fact that we have opportunities today to lead people to be near to you; God, help us to steward these opportunities.
Prayer for the Bole People
And God, we pray for people who are far from you and have never heard the truth about your love for them, your nearness to them in Jesus. God, we pray specifically for the Bole people of Nigeria. God, please draw the Bole near to you. Please cause the gospel to spread to the Bole, that they might come near to you and experience you as their Refuge, as their Savior, as the Satisfier of their Souls.
God, we pray that for the Bole. And we pray that you would help us to tell of all your works to them, people groups like them around the world, and to people right around us today, and tomorrow. God, we praise you for Psalm 73:28 and the truth it represents. It is good to be near you. We pray that you’d help us to walk in nearness to you, all our moments all throughout our days. In Jesus’ name, we pray according to Psalm 73:28. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
