Prayer:

Lord God our heavenly Father, we come to this magnificent Psalm today and it is so full of truth and holy exhortation that we can scarce take it all in. But you have given it to your people in every age, and you have given it to us in our day. Help us to grasp its great truths and revelation, and thus may we grow and mature as Christian people to be more pleasing in your sight and useful in the service you give us in our lives. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, we pray. Amen.

If you ever wonder what the daily life a Christian should be like, just read the Psalms. In reading the Psalms, as the Psalms of David, which make up almost half of the 150 Psalms, we see that he was often in distress and crying out to Yahweh God for help and deliverance. Yet his knowledge of God’s nature and character was solid, and his love and devotion to God were strong, so that we learn much about God and how to live a devoted life to him.

Where would we be in our Christian lives without the Psalms? We would be much more tossed about and oppressed by the storms of life. Our feet would not be as stable on the rock of the knowledge of God our strength. Our joy, peace, and stability would be weaker and more wavering. But if we are familiar with the Psalms we can confess with David,

Yahweh is my light and my salvation;    whom shall I fear? Yahweh is the stronghold^[a] of my life;    of whom shall I be afraid?

What do we need most in life? We need the light of the knowledge of God, and we need salvation from our sins, and we also need deliverance from fear. Knowing the living God, we receive these things, and we grow in them as we read the Psalms and sing them and pray them.

I’ve been attracted to Psalm 145 since I heard a man several years ago on YouTube, I believe it was, recite it from memory – what a marvelous psalm – so much content in it.

How shall we approach this Psalm?  If you were going to teach it to the church, how would you begin?

First of all, we must note that this is one of several “acrostic” Psalms in the Bible. The word “acrostic” means that each verse begins with a succeeding letter of the Hebrew alphabet, an alphabet that has 22 letters. Interestingly, this psalm only has 21 verses, the letter “nun” is missing in most Hebrew manuscripts except for one and in a few other ancient versions so it is added in as the last two lines in

v. 13, “The LORD is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works.”

We know this is a true statement and entirely in accord with all the other revelation about the character of Yawheh. If there’s one truth about God that is certain is that he is faithful. He keeps his Word. He does what he says he will do. He keeps all his promises. He fulfills every prophecy he ever inspired his prophets to write.

As 2 Timothy 2:13 says, if we are faithless, he remains faithful—

for he cannot deny himself.

And it says here in v. 13 that God is kind, as Jesus said in Matt. 5:45,  “he sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” He is kind to all humanity. 

Let us confess, let us declare this great statement together, the final two lines of v. 13, The LORD is faithful in all his words    and kind in all his works!

If we had no other knowledge of God than this, he would be worthy of our praise and service! He is faithful and he is kind.

Let’s now consider the whole Psalm. I’m entitling it “Yahweh’s Unending Praise.” There is no doubt that this psalm is about the greatness of Yahweh God. The psalm lays out descriptions of his greatness, reasons for us to praise him for his greatness.

It is easy to say something is “great.” Someone could say, “My uncle Jack was a great man.” But what reasons do you have for saying that? What did he do with his life, what did he devote himself to, what was his character like?

But when it comes to God we have no lack of reasons for saying he is “great” or “his greatness is unsearchable, without limit.” Where would you begin to describe the greatness of God. What are some things you would say if someone asked you why you think God is great?

Let’s look here at Psalm 145 and see how King David describes God’s greatness. David was an amazing man. He was physically strong, evidently handsome, and mighty warrior, but most important, he was a man who knew God, who understood much of his nature and ways and character. He was fiercely loyal to Yahweh and devoted to him in spite of his sins and shortcomings. His love and devotion to Yahweh were rock-solid.

Listen to David’s testimony from Psalm 63:

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;    my soul thirsts for you;my flesh faints for you,    as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.² So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,    beholding your power and glory.³ Because your steadfast love is better than life,    my lips will praise you.⁴ So I will bless you as long as I live;    in your name I will lift up my hands.

David had a great thirst for God. He sought God’s face and God’s presence. His delight was to be in fellowship with God, to be in communion with him.

And so David wrote also this Psalm 145. Let’s see what David can teach us about Yahweh. Let’s absorb ourselves in the revelation of God in this psalm. May the Holy Spirit teach us of God and bring us along the road of being more knowledgeable and devoted worshippers of him. 

Yahweh’s Unending Praise – I want us to look at this psalm and ask three basic questions about Yahweh’s unending praise:

1. From whom does this praise come?

2. When does this praise come?

3. Why does this praise come forth?

I. From Whom Does this Unending Praise Come?

Verse 1 says “I will extol you, my God and King.”

A. So the writer of this psalm, King David, is the first one who is extolling the Lord. What does it mean to “extol” God? It means “to praise him enthusiastically…”  “It is an act of fervent worship, lifting God up in words and heart with deep appreciation for His attributes and actions…” [AI].

Notice in v. 1 that David address Yahweh as “my God and King.’ David was a king, the king of Israel, yet he acknowledges that he too has a king, a much greater king, God himself. The commentators Keil and Delitzsch note that “whoever calls God by such a name acknowledges His royal prerogative, and at the same time does homage to Him and binds himself to allegiance” (p. 838).  

B. Notice what v. 4 says, ^4 “One generation shall commend your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts.”So Yahweh’s praise would not stop with David. But he would teach his sons and daughters about Yahweh’s great worthiness and they in turn would teach their children and so the knowledge of the true God would be passed down from generation to generation.

When Moses was instituting the annual Passover celebration in Exodus 13 it was done so that the remembrance of the exodus from Egypt would not be forgotten by future generations. He wrote in Exo. 13:8, ⁸ You shall tell your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’

It is the solemn obligation of Christian parents to teach their children the Word and ways of the Lord, and it is also the solemn obligation of the church to teach all the people of Yahweh’s greatness as revealed in his holy Word.

Every new generation of people must be evangelized, must be taught the Word of God. “Baby boomers, those born between 1946-1964 must teach the next generation, Generation X (born 1965-19980), and Generation X must teach the Millennials (born 1981-1996), and so forth.

C. Who shall give Yahweh unending praise? Look at v. 10, “all your saints shall bless you!” Everyone who is a saint will bless Yahweh. What is a saint? It is one who is has been set apart to belong to God because of his gracious saving mercy. A saint is a “holy one,’ that is one who is made holy by the justifying grace of God so that he is holy and righteous in God’s sight. Every Christian is a saint, Biblically speaking.

D. Who else does this text say speaks the unending praise of Yahweh? Look at v. 18, “¹⁸ The LORD is near to all who call on him,    to all who call on him in truth.

“To call on God” means to cry out to him to save us from our sins, to receive us to himself. Romans 10:13 says, ¹³ For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

E. But look again at those from whom unending praise comes. Look at v. 19, ¹⁹ He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;    he also hears their cry and saves them.

It is those who fear God who are heard by Yahweh when they call upon him. There is no greater mindset that a human person can have than the “fear of God.” To fear him means we honor him and respect him and obey him. It means we acknowledge how high and holy and perfect he is and by comparison, how weak and ignoration and short-sighted we are. So in deep humility we fear God.

The book of Proverbs extols the fear of God as the chief asset of a godly woman, Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,    but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Prov. 31

F. Finally, look at v. 21, let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.

“Flesh” here evidently refers to all humanity. All humanity is exhorted to bless God’s holy name. Some will and many will not. But this is the command of God. For humanity to refuse to bless God’s name is disobedience and rebellion, and sadly many will be guilty by failing to honor God or give him thanks.

Let us not be among that guilty number but stand with those who bless and praise God’s holy name forever and ever.

And so we have this multitude of people, from David on down to our current generation, who are called upon to give Yahweh unending praise. Those who do, enter into blessedness; those who refuse, cut themselves off from fellowship with the true and living God.

Now let’s consider “when” these saints of God should give Yahweh unending praise?

II. The “when” question

The psalm gives the answer as to when Yahweh should be praised.

Do we praise him just when things are coming along smoothly without any problems? Or do we praise him in sunshine or rain, in smooth sailing weather and also in rough, stormy weather? David said in another psalm, Psalm 57:7, My heart is steadfast, O God,    my heart is steadfast! I will sing and make melody!

David was committed to praising God, to singing to God. Nothing could swerve him. In good times or bad times; it made no difference. David’s heart was fixed, it was steadfast, in worshipping God. It was like Paul and Silas when they were thrown into prison in Philippi. What do we read in Acts 16:25 about these two men who had been beaten up and feet placed in stocks? About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them…

Being in prison, having their feet put in stocks, did not dampen the apostle’s commitment to worship God, to sing unending praise to him. If Paul and Silas could do it in their miserable, bleeding, painful circumstances, we too can do it in whatever tough circumstances may come our way.

We’re dealing with the “when” question. When should God’s people praise him. Let’s look at v. 1:

I will extol you, my God and King,    and bless your name forever and ever.

David gives the big picture first. How long will David praise Yahweh? Forever and ever. He will never stop praising God. Imbedded with this commitment is an acknowledgement that even when he dies his praise will go on. As the Apostle Paul said, “to depart this life and be with Christ is far better than remaining here.” (Phil. 1:23)

Then David gives the short picture, the more immediate picture, the daily picture of his life. He says in verse 2:

² Every day I will bless you    and praise your name forever and ever.

So in the short run, the daily run of his life, as will as the long haul – there is one thing that will characterize the life of David: he will be praising and blessing Yahweh. If you were living at the time of David, and you were a servant in his house, every day as you were working there you would hear David lifting up his voice in praise and song to his God. And if you were a life-long servant – 10 years down the road as both you and David were getting older – there would be no change  - every day without fail you would hear his voice go up in praise to God.

When things were going well in his kingdom, when the enemies were subdued and things were at peace, David would be praising Yahweh. Or later when his son Absalom rebelled against him and tried to usurp the throne, he still would be praising God.

And this continual worship of Yahweh was not limited to David. As we have already seen, it was extended among the people of God “from generation to generation” and among all those who call upon him and fear him and love him.

We’ve looked at who should praise Yahweh and when they should paise him, now let’s consider

III. Why God’s people should praise him

Look at v. 4, every generation “shall declare your mighty acts.”

V. 5 says “on your wondrous works, I will meditate.”

And v. 6 says “They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds”

God’s acts, works, and deeds. What would some of these be? To begin with there is creation itself. Creating the universe out of nothing by the voice of his command is the first and great action of God. He got everything going; he set up the whole universe and the earth and humanity and the animal and plant kingdoms. God as Creator of all is a fundamental fact of human existence which must be acknowledged for a person to have the right perspective and understanding of our existence. To deny this as many people do, is really philosophical suicide – it is a denial of obvious reality. It is a shutting oneself off from truth. It is living in a non-existent dream world.

But in the Hebrew mind, the other great action of Yahweh was his deliverance of them from Egyptian bondage – the exodus, and the maintaining them in the desert wilderness for 40 years and bringing them into the promised land of Canaan.

And then there is God’s provision of rain and food for all the creatures, for giving crops to grow for humanity and grass to grow for sheep and cattle. Verse 15 is a statement of this truth:

¹⁵ The eyes of all look to you,    and you give them their food in due season.

But then there is the all important description of God’s nature and character, the attributes of his being – these are the supreme reasons for offering to him unending praises:

The core of this description of God’s being and nature is in verses 8 and 9:

⁸ The LORD is gracious and merciful,    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.⁹ The LORD is good to all,    and his mercy is over all that he has made.

This is really a reiteration, a repeat of God’s description of himself that he gave to Moses that we find in Exodus 34 when Yahweh passed before Moses and hid him in a cleft in the rock and proclaimed his name to him.

The great mercy of God is seen in the fact that he called the Hebrew people, the least of all the peoples of the earth, to be his very own treasured possession. And he revealed his nature and will to them and gave them the law and showed them that they were sinners under his judgment but also provided a way to cover their sins through the death of innocent animals – which was a picture pointing the coming Savior, the Messiah, whose death on the cross, whose shed blood, would truly and completely wash away their sins.

-Then we see in verses 7 and 17 Yahweh is to be praised for his righteousness. 

- in verses 10-13 he is to be praised for his glorious kingdom, his power, his everlasting dominion

- in verse 18 we see his nearness to his people’s cry. How are these people described? Those who call out to him, who fear him, and who love him. When we are in distress and cry out to God we are in good company with the Lord Jesus. We read in Hebrews 5:7:

in the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.

And in verse 14 we see his compassion for his weak and stumbling people: ¹⁴ The LORD upholds all who are falling    and raises up all who are bowed down.

He knows we are frail humans, we still have to wrestle with indwelling sin and sometimes we fail. Sometimes we need restoration and cleansing and refreshment and encouragement to pick ourselves up and continue to fight the good fight of faith.

Verse 20 gives us another reason to give Yahweh unending praise:

²⁰ The LORD preserves all who love him,    but all the wicked he will destroy.

 We do not have a complete and accurate knowledge of God if we do not include along with his mercy and steadfast love his justice and punishment of evil. God has mercy on sinners whom he calls to himself, but he executes wrath on those who persist in evil and reject him.

What a marvelous God this is. David had a solid grasp of the height and depth of God’s person and nature. He was in a very personal relationship with Yahweh. Every day when he woke up he thought about God. At night we read in Psalm 63:6 of David’s thoughts as he laid down at night: 

 I remember you upon my bed,    and meditate on you in the watches of the night.

What do we see in King David? A man consumed with his God and his King, Yahweh. We see a man overwhelmed with the knowledge of God’s character and his mighty and gracious works.

We see a man who has a right and correct perspective on life. He recognizes that Yahweh is God, and he is a mere man, but that God has called him to himself that he might know him in all of his divine attributes and in knowing him to love him and serve him and praise him.

As Matthew Henry said, “We can never sufficiently extol our God and King; we should therefore make efforts to bless his name every day; and we may be thus employed forever without exhausting the subject.” (p. 328)

We can never exhaust the praises due to Yahweh’s holy name. So let’s be faithful and diligent to praise him every day of our lives as by his grace he will carry us into eternity future with his praises in our hearts and minds.

“To God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, forever and ever. Amen.”

Let us pray together:

Dear heavenly Father, we thank you for the great grace you worked in David’s life – what an example he is to us of a dedicated and devoted worshipper of you. Help us, Lord, to be like David, men and women, boys and girls, who give you unending praise, for you are great and you do wondrous things. Your greatness is unsearchable. Thank you for revealing yourself to us and your will for us in your holy Word. In Jesus our Savior’s name we pray.  Amen.