By Donna Rude
David authored more psalms than any other Old Testament writer—75 of the 150. His reverence for God made him a “man after God’s own heart”. The heading above Psalm 145 reads “a psalm of praise,” the only psalm with this unique title. While all of David’s psalms were sung in praise to God, clearly this one stands apart as the shout or clarion call to worship. I like what John Courson has to say about this psalm, “heaven is going to be a place of praise. We are going to be praising the Lord forever and ever, so we might as well learn to praise Him now!
David in this psalm is fine tuning his already wonderful ability to praise. David in one regards was like the Chris Tomlin/Matt Redman and many others of our times, those who have the gifting of words. I was telling a friend the other day, I am so thankful for gifted artists who can write what I feel about God in their songs. Here, David exalts the attributes of God in a psalm which most likely turned into a song/hymn of his day. Many of our songs that we sing today are pulled from this psalm like “The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.” What I love the most is that David could and did write these psalms in sometimes deep dark times of his life but yet he went and saw beyond his problems and saw His glorious Lord and bless His name with praise.
And oh how we all know or should know that when we do give praise to God, its so freeing. Its gets our eyes off of ourselves and out of our situation mentally. Its not surprising that this happens because doesn’t scripture tell us the garment of praise is that which cures the spirit of heaviness?? I remind myself that when I get into heavy thought about something and turn ito over into praise, and sure enough that spirit of heaviness is lifted off my shoulders!
But also in times of gladness as well. I love how enthusiastic David was for the Lord. You can feel it in his words in this psalms, and you can see it as he was unashamed to dance before the Lord in all his excitement when the ark was brought back to Jerusalem. Scripture said in 2 Sam 6:14 that he danced with all of his might, and that he was called “a man after Gods own heart.” The longer I walk with the Lord and my love for the Lord grows more and more, the more in expressive worship I have become. Its like giving him more of me. The words penetrate through my head and are expressed through my heart and my hands. There is something about worship too that reaches to the core of us, of our inner man that allows the gifts from the Lord to be released. Boldness of the Word of God, a prophet word. Music stirs our soul and therefore praise and adoration of God should be an everyday part of our lives.
Some may of called david a God fanatic but David knew that God was worthy to be praised!! Some might call you a Jesus freak or God fanatic, is that gonna stop you from praising whom you know desires all praise?? The word fanatic is defined as a person filled with excessive and single-minded zeal.
We’ve all been around fanatics. Maybe you are one! A fanatic can come in many sorts. Baseball fanatics are quick to talk about baseball. They know all of the key players and their statistics. They can describe all the game-winning plays. They can tell you how the manager of their favorite team should have done something differently to win the championship. They are consumed with their favorite sport.
Others are fanatics about cars, music, art , politics, their children, their health, food, cooking, travel, and the list could go on and on. Whatever their passion, they talk about it quickly, enthusiastically, and repeatedly to anyone who will listen. No matter where the conversation may be, they take every opportunity to turn it towards their favorite subject.
My husband and I are quite the pair. Since his retirement, we are home together, but in separate ends of the house. Most of our days are spent doing what we are passionate about. He is in the garage wood working, and myself in my craft room. When we are together, all he seems to want to talk about is wood working… kinda drives me crazy. But im sure I drive him crazy as well. My free time, which I haven’t had much of lately is spent in my craft room. As many of you know I am passionate about Operation Christmas Child and so therefore spend much time crafting and enjoy talking about things pertaining to OCC. Like where I found the best bargains! LOL
There is nothing wrong with being passionate about any of those subjects within proper limits. But as those who have experienced the grace and love of our Savior Jesus, He should be our main passion. We who know our glorious God should be first and foremost God fanatics. We should always be ready to talk about God’s greatness, grace and goodness. Everywhere we look, we should see evidences of His glory, which should spill over in endless praise.
In this psalm we can divide it into 4 sections with a final conclusion: Lets jump in… Our 1st section verses 1-7, but lets just read first 1-3
Section 1:PRAISE GOD BECAUSE HE HIMSELF IS GREAT. “I will extol You, my God, O King, and I will bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You, and I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable” (145:1-3).
Don’t miss the little pronoun MY, in verse 1. You cannot praise God unless He is YOUR God. For Him to be YOUR God, you must come as a needy sinner to the cross, where God sent His own Son to bear the penalty for sin that you deserve. God set His seal of approval on the death of Jesus by raising Him from the dead. You must trust in the crucified and risen Savior as your Lord God.
Within these 3 verses, david also says, “I will” 4 times. Worth noting, I think. It’s a choice we make daily.
The greatness of our God…We sing the song How great is our God: Listen to the lyrics (I added emphasis) Oh the splendor of the King, for He is clothed in majesty, may all the earth rejoice He wraps himself in Light, and darkness tries to hide, but it trembles at His voice oh How great is our God, oh sing with me How great is our God, and all will see How great, how great is our God
And Age to age He stands And time is forever in His hands He is the Beginning and the end He is the Godhead Three in One He is Father, Spirit, and Son He is The Lion and the Lamb He is the Name above all names He is Worthy of our praise My heart will forever sing How great is our God
David also knew the greatness of God, and that God alone is great.
Although David was the most powerful king in that part of the world in that day, he does not hesitate to bow before God and acknowledge Him to be his King. In a day when great kings lived in splendor and often demanded that their subjects bow before them and hail them as God? Remember Nebuchadnezzer in Daniel chpt 3??? He threw Meshach, shadrach, and Abed-Nego in to the fire for not bowing down to the king? it is significant that David did no such thing. David knew that God alone was great and God alone is worthy of all praise. A quick story I came across… In 1715, only 300 yrs ago, Louis XIV (14th) of France died. He called himself, “Louis the Great.” His court was the most magnificent in all of Europe. He even planned his funeral to be spectacular. To dramatize his greatness, his body was put in a golden coffin. He had given orders that the cathedral be dimly lit, with only a special candle lit and set above the coffin. Thousands waited in hushed silence. Then Bishop Massillon began to speak. Slowly reaching down, he snuffed out the candle, saying, “Only God is great!” David would have shouted, “Amen!”
verses 4-7 we are to PRAISE GOD BECAUSE HIS MIGHTY WORKS ARE GREAT.
“One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts. I will meditateon the glorious splendor of Your majesty, and on Your wonderful works. Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts, and I will declare Your greatness. They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness and shall sing of Your righteousness” (145:4-7). With our growing age of devices, we have lost the intimate time we had with our families. Where we would just sit around and talk about our day, what God is doing, tell of His greatness. It seems like everyone has there noses in their electronic devices. To some degree I am guilty as well. Oh how wonderful if times could go back where generations upon generations could sit together and declare HIs mighty acts. I am thankful that we still do this as a corporate body when we come together on Wednesdays and Sundays.
God’s mighty acts…they certainly do include the work of creation. In Romans 1:20, says ”for since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.
As you know, the Bible begins by confronting us with the fact of God as Creator. The universe, our planet, and all life on our planet are not the result of sheer chance plus time. It is ridiculous to think so. It is so finely tuned, so much more than a watch but its sad how EVERYONE can see a creator behind the watch, but cannot see a creator behind creation in the universe! I’m sure as David was out day after day night after night, looking up into the heavens, He was confident that God has made everything around him.
God’s mighty works also include His work of redeeming His people. Redemption began after the fall in the garden, when God graciously clothed Adam and Eve with animal skins to and God’s gracious call to Abraham, when He promised to make a great nation from his descendants and to bless all nations through him. It was further demonstrated in the exodus, when the blood of the Passover lamb protected the firstborn in Israel and God parted the Red Sea to lead His people out of bondage. And as we know, His redemption would supremely be seen when God sent His own Son to be the final, sufficient sacrifice for our sins.
For David to be so caught up with God’s greatness as revealed in His creation and His mighty works, and to pen it into a psalm, he had to spend a fair amount of time studying and thinking about these things. It goes the same for us… If we want to be moved by these truths, we must also take time regularly to meditate on God’s Word and His mighty works. SECTION 2: Praise God because of His grace and goodness. read 8-9
“The Lord is gracious and full of compassion; slow to anger and and great in mercy . The Lord is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works” (145:8-9). Many question Gods goodness by saying, “if God is so good, why is there evil in the world? Or why did he allow this or that to happen?
With the passing of Gods faithful instrument, Billy Graham last week, I watched a DVD that we have called, “Billy, The Early Years” . As I watched it, I remembered a man name Charles Templeton. Many of you may remember of him. He rose to fame along with billy in the 40’s. Many have said Templeton was the one that everyone thought was going to overturn the world with the Gospel. However, Templeton ended up leaving the Christian faith, eventually becoming an atheist, because this was his stumbling block. If God is so good, why is there evil in the world? He couldn’t it get past this… Templeton couldn’t reconcile what he observed in life and what scripture declared.
I like what John Courson said, so I will just read his words. “Whenever I have questions about the character or nature of God, I have only to look to Jesus to find answers and solutions for the problems and difficulties. When I look at Jesus, I see that He freely acknowledged the problem of pain, the existence of evil. Jesus taught us to pray, Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Jesus, also said in John 16:33, in this world, you shall have tribulation. That there is going to be troubles, that we are going to have problems, Jesus not only acknowledged evil and pain but confronted them.
John goes on to say that man gave up the right to rule this planet in harmony and tranquility with God the Father when he sinned in the garden of Eden. Satan is in control of this world presently. People ask, “why is God doing this,” but Jesus shows us their question is misdirected. God is not the author of confusion, scripture tells us that in 1 cor 14:33 rather, man brings harm and hurt upon himself when he violates the command and precepts of God.
God is good all the time…and all the time… God is good…, With this He has given us the ability to make choices concerning life. He didn’t create us as robots. He doesn’t force us into His ways. He won’t make us live according to His Word. He allows us freedom of choice. What kind of love would it be if we were made to love. Always and forever God is good, yet man has chosen to submit this planet to the devil and suffer the consequences. But God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whosever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. That is the answer.
Also, it only by Gods goodness and mercy that were alive today . This is true spiritually and even literally. For the air we breathe is composed of nitrogen , oxygen and few other assorted gasses. If the oxygen contend was a mere 2 percent higher, the world would catch fire and we would all burn. If the nitrogen content was 2 percent higher, we would all be poisoned and die immediately. Who keeps the atmosphere in such perfect balance? God.
The question isn’t why is there evil?? The question is why is God so good!!
SECTION 3. Praise God because of His glorious kingdom (145:10-13).
“All Your works shall praise You,, O Lord, and Your saints shall bless You. They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom and talk of your power; to make known to the sons of men His mighty acts and the glorious majesty of His kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures throughout all generations” (145:10-13).
As we have seen, the Psalms repeatedly proclaim that God is the rightful Sovereign over the universe: “The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all” (103:19)
Last week Adrienne taught on Psalm 110. The announcement of the Messsiahs reign. I loved how she pulled in the picures of our recent trip to Israel to show through Matthew the coming of the Messiah. She showed us how David said, “the LORD(Yahweh/God) said to my Lord(Adonai, or master), sit at my right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool. When King Jesus comes in power and glory to crush every enemy and to reign on the throne of David, the earth will know the glory and majesty of His everlasting kingdom.
But also… do you not know that the kingdom of God is now, within you?? If Gods Holy Spirit is living and dwelling in you then you are presently in Gods Kingdom! Jesus is the rightful King, and where the King is, there is the kingdom. Sometimes hard to grasp it all, but in application , make sure that your heart and your home are in submission to the King. Things would go so much more smoother in our lives and Christ would be exalted if we subjected every thought, word, and deed to the lordship of King Jesus!
SECTION 4. Praise God because of His goodness towards all who call upon Him.
12 time david uses the word “all” in this psalm and 8 of them are here in between 14-20. He means what he says. ALL…read 14-20 “The Lord upholds all who fall, and raises up all who are bowed down. They eyes of all look expectantly to You, and You give them their food in due season. You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. The LORD is righteous in all His ways, Gracious in all His works. The LORD is near to all who call upon Him. To all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him, He also will hear their cry and save them. The LORD preserves all who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy.” These verses here, they ooze with the goodness, kindness, and mercy of God toward ALL of His creatures. David’s observation about God opening His hand and giving food to satisfy the desire of every living thing (vv. 15-16) goes beyond people to every animal on earth. If He cares for the sparrow as he states in Matthew 6:26, how much more will He will care for His children.
Also, verses 18 & 19 are worth memorizing and claiming often, “The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He will also hear their cry and will save them.” If we fear Him, our desires will be in line with His will. So when we call upon Him, He will be near to us and hear our cry to save us
Verse 20 is also a wonderful promise, “the Lord preserves those who love Him.” In john 11:27-28 Jesus says, “ my sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand”.
In conclusion: David has told us to praise God always because both He and His works are so great. Praise Him because of His grace and goodness. Praise Him because of His glorious kingdom. Praise Him because of His goodness towards all who call upon Him. He ends with a final determination to praise God: 5. Praise God forever and ever read 21
“My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and all flesh will bless His holy name forever and ever.” Like forever isn’t enough…he had to add and ever! There is a sense of determination in David’s words. Remember how he repeatedly states, “I will” in this psalm. It’s a choice. It always has been and it will always will be. It’s a relationship, not religion.
Like many psalms, the psalmists are in some overwhelming trouble, but yet near the end they always turn to praise. They pour out their hearts to the Lord, but as they do so, they acknowledge the greatness of God and therefore exchange the spirit of heaviness for the garment of praise once again. Isaiah 61:3
The only way that we will join the psalmists in praising God every day, even in times of trial, is to do what they did. We must focus on His glorious majesty and splendor. Then we can join David in becoming God fanatics—those who can’t stop speaking of His glorious name.
Characteristics of God in Psalm 145
• He rules as King over all forever (1, 11-13).
• His greatness is unsearchable (3).
• He does mighty works (4-6).
• He is glorious in His majestic splendor (5).
• He is full of abundant goodness to all (7, 9).
• He is righteous in all His ways (7, 17).
• He is gracious and merciful (8).
• He is slow to anger and great in lovingkindness (8).
• He sustains all who fall and raises up all who are bowed down (14).
• He gives food to the hungry (15-16).
• He is kind in all His deeds (17).
• He is near to all who call upon Him in truth (18).
• He fulfills the desire and saves those who fear Him (19).
• He keeps all who love Him (20).
• He will destroy all the wicked (20).
• His name is holy (21).
Characteristics of God in Psalm 145
• He rules as King over all forever (1, 11-13).
• His greatness is unsearchable (3).
• He does mighty works (4-6).
• He is glorious in His majestic splendor (5).
• He is full of abundant goodness to all (7, 9).
• He is righteous in all His ways (7, 17).
• He is gracious and merciful (8).
• He is slow to anger and great in lovingkindness (8).
• He sustains all who fall and raises up all who are bowed down (14).
• He gives food to the hungry (15-16).
• He is kind in all His deeds (17).
• He is near to all who call upon Him in truth (18).
• He fulfills the desire and saves those who fear Him (19).
• He keeps all who love Him (20).
• He will destroy all the wicked (20).
• His name is holy (21).
Characteristics of God fanatics in Psalm 145
• They extol God and bless His name continually (1-2).
• They are enthralled with His greatness (3).
• They tell the next generation about His mighty works (4).
• They meditate often on God’s glorious majesty and wonderful works (5).
• They tell others about God’s greatness (6).
• They bubble over with God’s abundant goodness and His righteousness (7).
• They are awed by His grace, love, goodness, and mercy (8-9).
• They rejoice in the majesty of His kingdom (11-13).
• They are touched by His kindness to the needy (14-20).
• They look to God to meet their daily needs (15-16).
• They know God as both righteous and kind (17).
• They call upon the Lord in prayer (18).
• They both fear and love God (19-20).
• Their desires are satisfied in the Lord as their Savior and keeper (19-20).
• They know that He will judge the wicked (20b).
• They determine to speak God’s praise and bless His holy name forever (21).
Characteristics of God fanatics in Psalm 145
• They extol God and bless His name continually (1-2).
• They are enthralled with His greatness (3).
• They tell the next generation about His mighty works (4).
• They meditate often on God’s glorious majesty and wonderful works (5).
• They tell others about God’s greatness (6).
• They bubble over with God’s abundant goodness and His righteousness (7).
• They are awed by His grace, love, goodness, and mercy (8-9).
• They rejoice in the majesty of His kingdom (11-13).
• They are touched by His kindness to the needy (14-20).
• They look to God to meet their daily needs (15-16).
• They know God as both righteous and kind (17).
• They call upon the Lord in prayer (18).
• They both fear and love God (19-20).
• Their desires are satisfied in the Lord as their Savior and keeper (19-20).
• They know that He will judge the wicked (20b).
• They determine to speak God’s praise and bless His holy name forever (21).
