“Because he has his heart set on me, I will deliver him; I will protect him because he knows my name.” (Psalm 91:14 CSB)
Devotional
What’s the difference between knowing about someone and actually knowing them? This verse is unusual because it’s God speaking in the first person, right at the end of a psalm that has otherwise been describing his protection in the third person the whole way through.
Let’s figure out together what condition God actually names here, because it isn’t perfect performance. It’s two things: a heart set on him, and knowing his name. Setting your heart on someone is about direction and attachment, not achievement. Knowing his name, in the world this psalm was written in, was never trivia. It meant relationship, the kind of knowing that comes from actually walking with someone rather than just knowing facts about them from a distance.
We can know a great deal about God, doctrine, verses, the shape of his character, and still not actually have our heart set on him, still be relating to him more like a subject we’ve studied than a person we’re close to. That gap is worth being honest about, since it’s a quieter, more common problem than we usually admit.
What changes here is not trying harder at religious performance. It’s actually turning our attention and affection toward him, moving from knowing about to knowing, the way you’d move from reading about a friend to actually sitting across from them.
God responds to that kind of nearness with deliverance and protection, not because we’ve earned it through flawless behaviour, but because that is simply how he responds to those who are actually close to him.
Reflection
I know a lot about God that I don’t always translate into actually knowing him closely, day to day. I can tell the difference in myself between studying him and sitting with him, and I don’t do the second one nearly as often as the first. I want my heart set on him this week, not just my mind informed about him. That feels like the harder, truer thing to aim for.
Prayer
Father, thank you that you don’t ask for flawless performance, only a heart actually set on you. Forgive us for settling for knowing about you instead of knowing you. Draw our hearts closer this week, not just our understanding. Thank you for responding to nearness with protection and care.