Psalm 145

Introduction

In the first part of Psalm 144, David the king appealed to the Lord his God for victory over his enemies. And in the second part, he described the blessings which the king’s people can expect as a result of his victory: they will live in peace and they will prosper and they’ll have families and they’ll be safe and secure. And the blessings he described are a foretaste of the blessing which Christ’s people can expect in the new heavens and earth. Because of Christ’s victory on our behalf over sin and satan and death, we can look forward to perfect peace and rest and happiness in the life to come.

And what will we do in the life to come? In the life to come we’ll praise the Lord our God for ever and for ever. And that’s what today’s psalm is about.

According to the title, it’s a psalm of praise. And it’s another psalm of David. So David has written this psalm of praise to God to teach us to praise the Lord our God in this life and to anticipate what we will do for ever and for ever in the new and better world to come.

The psalm is an acrostic psalm which means that each verse begins with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. As I’ve said before, some scholars believe that poets wrote acrostics to make it easy for people to memorise their poems. But it was also a way to say that this message I’m writing is complete. The author has said everything he wants to say. And what David wants to say is that the Lord our God is worthy of praise both now and for evermore.

One of the commentators (Ash) says that to know God is to praise him. I’ve a feeling he’s quoting someone, but I can’t remember who it is. But it’s true. When we know God — who he is and what he’s like and what he has done for us — then praise is the inevitable outcome, because God is so glorious and good and majestic and praiseworthy. David knows God. And therefore he wants to praise him for ever. And he wants us to praise God too.

Verses 1 and 2

In the two opening verses, David the king says that he will exalt ‘my God the King’. So, while David was a king, he understood that the Lord his God was the true king: the one who rules over all things in heaven and on earth. There is no one greater than our God; there is no one higher than he is; he is the Most High God, the great King over all kings.

David says that he will exalt the Lord, which means he will lift him up with his praise. He will regard him highly. And he says that he will praise God’s name. When he refers to God’s name, he means God’s character and all the ways God has made himself known to us. And so, David will praise God for who he is. And he says he’ll praise God’s name for ever and ever. So, he will not grow weary in praising the Lord, but will praise him continually. Indeed, he says that he will praise God every day. Every day he’ll praise and exalt and extol him. To extol God means to boast about him and to declare his greatness. And that’s what David is determined to do. He wants to praise God his King.

Verses 3 to 20

And in the verses which follows he does exactly that. He boasts about the Lord and he tells us about how great and glorious and good God is.

He tells us in verse 3 that God is great. In fact, his greatness cannot be fathomed. Think about the deepest ocean. If you had the right kind of submarine, and if you had enough time, you could explore it and uncover all of its secrets. It might take years. It might take a lifetime. But you could do it, because even the deepest ocean is finite. There’s an end to it. If you had enough time, you could survey the whole of the ocean. But God is infinite. And therefore his greatness is infinite. You’ll never get to the bottom of it. You’ll never get to the end of it. You’ll never know everything there is to know about God’s greatness, because it goes on and on and on for ever.

In the next verse he refers to God’s works and his mighty acts. So, he’s thinking about what God has done. And what has God done? He created all things in the beginning and he sustains all things day by day. Those are included in his mighty acts. But usually when the Bible refers to God’s mighty acts, it’s referring to what God has done to save his people. Think of how he saved his people from slavery in Egypt. Think of how he saved his people again and again from the Philistines. And especially think about how he saves us from our sin and misery by his Son who gave up his life on the cross to pay for our sins and who was raised to give us life. Praise him for that.

And as he says in verse 4, one generation will commend his works to another and they will tell of his mighty acts. Parents will declare to their children what God has done so that their children will praise him too. And that means the knowledge of God and his greatness is passed down through the generations and in every generation there will be those who know the Lord and who want to praise him. And they will praise him — according to verse 5 — for the glorious splendour of his majesty. So, God is glorious and splendid and majestic. He’s all of these things. And his works, according to the same verse, are wonderful. They are marvellous. And so, David will meditate and think about all the wonderful things God has done for us. And in verse 6 he refers to the power of God’s awesome works and to his great deeds. Awesome deeds are the things God does which produce a sense of awe in those who witness them or hear about them. God astonishes his people because of the things he has done.

The NIV says in verse 7 that they will celebrate God’s abundant goodness. More literally it says that they will pour forth his praises. So, their praise of God will pour forth like water from a fountain: it will be a constant stream of praise. And they will praise him continually like this for the fame of his abundant goodness. So, he is famous for his abundant goodness. He is remembered for it.

And they’ll also sing joyfully of his righteousness. God is the one who always does what is right. Maybe there’s someone you admire and you’re always talking about this person. And yet, even though you might admire this person, you know he or she is not perfect. There are things this person has done which are not right. And yet the Lord our God is righteous in all his ways. He never does anything wrong. Everything he does is right and praiseworthy.

And he is gracious and compassionate and slow to anger and rich in love. This is how God revealed himself to Moses. And again and again God demonstrated that it was true, because again and again he was gracious to his people, giving them what they did not deserve. And he was compassionate towards them again and again, helping them in their distress. He was patient with their sins and his steadfast love for them was rich. It was abundant. It’s never ending.

And by repeating these things about God, David is doing what he said he will do. He’s exalting God the King. He’s praising him and extolling him. By proclaiming who God is and what he’s like and what he has done, David is praising God. And he continues to praise him in verse 9 where he says that God is good to all and he has compassion on all he has made. That is to say, he helps us.

David is referring here to God’s common grace or to his kindness to his whole creation. Because God is good to all, he causes the sun to shine and the rain to fall and the crops to grow so that people across the world have good things to eat. He fills the lives of all kinds of people — the righteous and the unrighteous — with good things to enjoy.

The first part of verse 10 is difficult, because it says that all God’s work will praise him. Clearly lots of people do not praise God. And so, it’s possible David means that one day in the future — when Christ comes again — even unbelievers will discover that everything they heard about God is true and that he is indeed worthy of their praise. That’s one interpretation. Another is that David is personifying nature. He’s imagining how the hills and mountains and fields and rivers and seas will praise God. Think of Isaiah 55, where it says that the mountains and hills shall break forth into singing and all the trees of the fields shall clap their hands. They will join with the saints, who are God’s people, to extol the Lord with their praises. And they will tell of the glory of God’s kingdom so that all men will know of God’s mighty acts and of the glorious splendour of his kingdom. So God is the great king who rules over all that he has made. And his kingdom is everlasting and it endures through all generations. Think of all the great empires which have come and gone. Think of the great emperors and kings and queens who have come and gone. We may know their names, but mostly they are forgotten and the only people who know about them are historians. But God’s kingdom still endures. He was the great king in the beginning and he’s still the great king who rules over all that he has made.

And David goes on to praise God for his faithfulness to his promises and for his loving-kindness to all that he has made. He upholds those who fall and he lifts up those who are bowed down. So, he’s kind and he’s good and he upholds and helps the helpless. How does he help the helpless? He provides them with all kinds of people to help them. Just think of all the people we rely on when we’re unwell: in our health centres and hospitals and the people who care for the sick in their homes. He provides us with all these people to help us. And he also fills our lives with lots of other people who help us in other ways. And God is the one who gives us our food each day; and he opens his hand and satisfies the desires of every living thing. That is, he satisfies our desire for food. He gives us what we need. Because we live in a fallen world of sin and misery, there are plenty of people who do not have enough. But whoever has what they need, they received it from the Lord, whether they realise it or not.

David continues to praise the Lord by telling us in verse 17 that he is righteous in all his ways and he’s loving towards all that he has made. And he’s near to all who call on him in truth. That is, he is near to all who call on him sincerely. He draws near to them to help them. He fulfils the desires of those who fear him. That is to say, he fulfils their holy desires and he hears their cries and he saves them from whatever is troubling them. And even when he doesn’t save his people from trouble, it’s because he has some good reason for afflicting us.

And he watches over all who love him. So, he watches over his people. He watches over us the way a shepherd watches over his sheep. And so, he’s watching over us in order to help us when we need it and to rescue us when we’re in trouble. And just as a shepherd will kill any wild animals which threaten his sheep, so the Lord will destroy the wicked who threaten and hurt and hate his people.

Verse 21

David is telling us why we should praise the Lord our God. And in the final verse he says that he will speak in praise of the Lord; and he wants every creature to praise him holy name for ever and ever.

And all of God’s people will praise him for ever and ever. We’ll praise him for ever and ever, because we will live with him for ever and ever. And we’ll live with him for ever and ever, because the greatest of God’s mighty acts was his sending his Only Begotten Son into the world to deliver us from our sin and misery by his life and death and resurrection, so that all who believe in him may receive forgiveness and peace with God and the hope of everlasting life in the new and better world to come. And in the new and better world to come we’ll join with all of God’s people to exalt him and to praise him and to extol him for ever and for ever.

And so, praise the Lord, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit: one God in three persons, the Blessed Trinity. Praise him today and every day. And thanks to God’s kindness to us in Christ, we’ll praise him for ever and ever.