“I will extol you, my God and king, and bless your name for ever and ever. Every day I will bless you, and praise your name forever and ever” (Psalm 145:1-2).

This is a great psalm of praise, highlighting the universality of God’s benevolence: “The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made” (145:9); “the Lord upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down” (145:14); “all flesh will bless his holy name forever and ever” (145:21); God satisfies “the desires of every living thing” (145:16). This universality goes not only to every creature in every place, but also reaches throughout all time, because “your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations” (145:13), and therefore “one generation shall laud your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts” (145:4).

But wait. Can this really mean that God cares for EVERYbody? Don’t there have to be some who fall outside of God’s love? The psalm does indeed raise its voice with a contrasting verse to recognizes this possibility: “the Lord watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy” (145:20).

Yet this verse adds ambiguity, rather than clarity – at least, if I’m self-aware enough to be honest about my own soul. That is, if I want to claim I belong in the category of “all who love him,” I’d have to admit that the census of “all the wicked” would include me, just as much. So in the end, all I can do is give thanks that it depends not on me, but on the Lord, who “is faithful in all his words, and gracious in all his deeds” (146:13).

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I put my trust in you, O Lord, for you are the one who hears the cry of the lost, and saves us; therefore my mouth will always praise you, and along with every other creature I will bless your holy name forever and ever.