Great is the Lord

Great is the Lord

Psalm 145:1-7

Theme: God shows the importance of praising God.

Welcome again to Mountain View Baptist Church! We are extremely grateful you have chosen to be in church today. God bless you! If you are first time guest, let us connect with you.

In 2007, there was a Christian homeschooler that won the coveted Heisman Trophy: Tim Tebow. He received accolades and he became only the second player in college football to repeat as the Maxwell Award winner of 2007 & 2008. He was recruited by the NFL to be the next phenom in sports. However, Tim Tebow chose not to receive or allow the notoriety to go to his head. I have always appreciated the humility of Tim Tebow. He took a lot of pressure for his John 3:16 eye black and other decisions he made so that God would get the glory. It is funny how even Christians will stand in the way of winning people to Christ.

Here in this passage, David who is the king is giving praise to the Only King. David was known around the world in his day for his strength, for his might, and for his wealth; yet, David bowed to the One and Only King.

God shows us the importance of praise to God. God is pleased when we praise Him. Recently in my prayer time with God, He has been speaking to me about the importance of praising Him. This passage struck my heart recently about giving praise to God.

It seems for most of us we go to God when we want something from Him but rarely to ever we praise Him for how He is. This passage is rich with praise and great teaching about God.

David gives absolute, surrendered praise to God. God wants us to give praise to Him and there are three practices outlined here.

Practice 1 . . .

Praise God day by day

Here the great King of Israel directs all the praise to the King. The word extol means to be high above, exalted, to reach high as to be lifted up.

David as God’s king adores God as his king. Please notice the personal “my” God. This praise is not just once but notice it is continual praise to God. Here David is giving his devotion and allegiance to God as King.

This means everyday whatever the character of the day, or of my circumstances and conditions during the day, I will continue to glorify God. All before the day, all in the day, all following the day should constrain us to magnify God every day and all year round. Our love to God is not a matter of holy days; every day is alike holy to holy men.

“If we would talk more about the Lord and praise Him, we would have less time to talk about ourselves.”

- M.R. DeHaan

David said I will now bless thy name and bless thee. Even when you don’t feel like blessing God, you bless Him anyway.

This is the center and kernel of true devotion: we do not only admire the Lord’s words and works, but Himself. Without realizing the person of God, praise is well-nigh impossible. Notice David said I will praise thy name, which means to bless that name, and now he vows to praise it; he will extol the Lord in every sense and way.

David describes God as “my” King. Throughout this psalm David acknowledged that it was God who was the real King of Israel. His greatness indeed cannot be comprehended. When we cannot, by searching, find the bottom, we must sit at the brink and adore the depth.

“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33)

In verse 3. We learn that praise is linked to joy. Praise comes from those who are filled with a sense of joy in who God is and how deeply He is committed to His people. Praise exalts the Lord. Do you really believe that God is great? If we believe that God is great, we will trust Him, serve Him, and obey Him.

Christ is the great God as well as our Savior. He is great in all the perfections of nature, of great wisdom, power, faithfulness, holiness, grace, and goodness; great in his person as God-man, God manifest in the flesh; great in all His offices and relations which he bears and stands in to His people, great in all His works of creation, providence, and redemption, in which he is concerned, and upon all which accounts he is to be praised, and greatly praised by his people, even to the utmost of their capacities, here and hereafter.

This greatness is unsearchable which means you cannot plunge the depths of His greatness.

“And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.” (John 21:25)

This means there is so much greatness that the world cannot hold all the books written about Him.

The average depth of the Pacific Ocean is 12,100 feet. The deepest part of the ocean is called the Challenger Deep that is located beneath the western Pacific Ocean in the southern end of the Mariana Trench, which runs several hundred kilometers southwest of the US territorial island of Guam. Challenger Deep is about 35,876 feet deep. There are only three divers to ever explore it’s depth. In 1960 Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh reached the depth in a submersible ship. They could stay 20 minutes. Another diver and filmmaker dove in a submarine designed by himself and only stayed for 3 hours until he had to leave. The depths of this expedition made it impossible to explore.

God is not only unsearchable but He created the Pacific Ocean. What kind of power must God have to create an unsearchable creation?

God is teaching us here that we cannot comprehend and understand the depths of God.

There are so many people who will not accept Christ because they cannot understand God. They are trying to figure God out. God is not to be figured out, He is to be trusted.

The Psalmist demonstrates the first practice we should adopt in our life and that is praise to God. We should daily, personally, and continually give praise to God v.2. It maybe by singing,, prayer, or serving God. God says this should be a personal decision to be continually praising God.

Practice 2 . . .

Praise God from generation to generation vv. 3-7

The current generation should teach the next generation to praise the Lord. This means as the next generation matures into adulthood, they should also praise God. Notice this generation teaches the next generation on who God and how great He is. This is about giving God praise in a personal way. Believers have a responsibility to praise God so that the next generation will learn to praise God. Praising God means first you must love God. Do you love God?

“And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” (Deuteronomy 6:5)

According to verse 13, His throne lasts for all generations. He upholds all who falls v.14 and the eyes of all creatures look to God for their food and provision v.15. He satisfies every living thing v.16 and helps all who call on Him v.18.

Praise to God is for who is: v. 5a-the glorious honor of God’s majesty. Our children and grandchildren will recognize who God and He is the King of all the earth. He is royalty and majestic in His person.

“Satan so hates the genuine praise of Christ that his fiery darts of discouragement are not effective against us when we respond in praise.”

- William Thrasher

Praise to God for what He does vv. 5b-7-God’s marvelous acts-creation, incarnation, salvation, resurrection, and glorification to name just a few.

If we look at the two previous generations and the fact, they are praising God today, how are we doing?

Are we giving our children the gospel? As we teach our children by our example of our view of the greatness of God, they will be more receptive to the gospel. The gospel is the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The next generation will see modeled what our view of God is through our actions.

If we are praising God and declaring His greatness in our life, they will believe in their lives. We need to tell them about God’s greatness, we need to talk about God’s greatness, and we will want them to experience God’s greatness for themselves.

“When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also. Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.” (2 Timothy 1:5–6)

Notice Timothy was influenced by his grandmother and she passed on to her children the faith and now his mother is passing on the gospel to Timothy. Maybe the truth is, this generation of unbelievers is because their parents never taught them the gospel or took them to church.

v.7-the memory of God’s greatness should be a part of their memories of being young and hearing of God’s great truths.

Practice 3 . . .

Praise God from nation to nation vv. 8-13

David knew God and he knew that this wonderful relationship he had with God must be shared with others. All is one of the key words in this Psalm. Jonah knew God but would not share it. God is good to all and His throne lasts for all generations.

We are to carry this truth to the world. There is only one God and all praise should be given to Him in nations. We are to praise Him for His mighty acts and His glorious kingdom.

While the world is trying to conquer each other, we must let the world know that there is but one God and He is Jesus Christ.

In the Old Testament, the enemies of Israel saw the mighty works of God and He worked through Israel. Many turned to the Lord because they knew God was the great and mighty God.

What about your life? Are you struggling for a purpose and meaning? Are you struggling to find hope and a future in your life? It seems there are so many “hope peddlers” today but there is only one true hope. Jesus offers hope through a personal relationship with Him. He made that possible by dying on the cross for our sins and rose again to give us hope and meaning in our life. Will you accept Him today as your personal Savior?

If you are a Christian, when is the last time, if ever, you spent time giving praise to God. One of the greatest joys of the Christian life is giving praise to God. You may dedicate a time to sing to Him, to pray to Him, or to dwell in His presence and think only on Him. David said I will bless Him and praise His name. The deeper we plunge into His greatness, how could we not serve and love God? How could doubt Him? When our focus is taken off of ourselves and placed on Him, it will be a tremendous blessing to God and us. Christian will decide today to praise Him?

“Doth not all nature around me praise God? If I were silent, I should be an exception to the universe. Doth not the thunder praise Him as it rolls like drums in the march of the God of armies? Do not the mountains praise Him when the woods upon their summits wave in adoration? Doth not the lightning write His name in letters of fire? Hath not the whole earth a voice? And shall I, can I, silent be?”

- Charles Spurgeon