19-145 The Praiseworthiness of God

Psalm 145

This past week, we were in Denver for Charis’ graduation and to see mom after her surgery. After 4 weeks, her recovery is going very well—we attribute that to the goodness and mercy of our great God (thank you for your continued prayers). We were thinking about all the ways God has extended His favor to us and it was Friday, May 31st. 5 Years ago to that day, dad passed away and for all of us (especially mom) it has been half a decade without him (all the while God has proven His faithfulness time again). But for dad, I’m sure 5 years for him has been but a moment in the presence of the Savior. Scripture tells us what he has been doing (along with the rest of those redeemed by the grace of God). After Jesus took hold of the 7-sealed scroll (for He is the only one worthy to break its seals and open it):

Revelation 4:8–11 NASB95

8 And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.” 9 And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 11 “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.”

Can you imagine that worship service? For dad, its been going on for 5 years (for others a couple thousand years). Charles Spurgeon once said in a sermon:

Praise is the rehearsal of our eternal song. By Grace we learn to sing and in Glory we continue to sing. What will some of you do when you get to Heaven if you go on grumbling all the way? Do not hope to get to Heaven in that style!

His text came from Ps 103 1

Psalm 103:1 NASB95

1 Bless the Lord, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name.

We should make it our business to bless the holy name of our Lord, b/c this is preparation for what we will do forever and ever (Ps 145:1).

I wanted to set this Sunday apart as a monumental occasion for CCC. It has been a very long time since the last building project for this church body (some of you were part of the progress of that bldg program (1976-1977). Today represents the culmination of a long, intentional, and prayerful vision of a building project that would meet several needs—ultimately a new facility. I can’t tell you how many times the plans have changed—even drastically over the course of many years as we determined needs and wanted to plan for growth and development of ministries. So today is a very special day for CCC. And I wanted to be sure that our thoughts were focused on what they ought to be focused on. So I landed on Psalm 145.

This is David’s last psalm (he wrote 75 of 150). He was greatly used of God to produce the bulk of these praises and he was the obvious choice. He is known as the “sweet psalmist of Israel” (2 Sam 23:1). He was a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22). He was a gifted musician and played his harp for Saul in his younger years. He had a towering view of God’s supremacy, holiness, majesty and grace and had the gifting to communicate these truths to the nation thru the psalms. He has been called the worship leader of the entire Bible and in this last of his psalms, he composes a mighty song of praise to God—by which we might give God the glory due His name.

Of course, that is the chief purpose of the believer—the pursuit of God’s glory. To praise Him and to practice the greatness of God in our every day lives, giving adoration to the only one worthy of praise.

Not only is Ps 145 the last of David’s psalms, it is also the last of the “acrostic psalms.” An acrostic psalm is one in which each verse (or a group of verses, as in Psalm 119) begins with one of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet in sequence: the first with aleph, the second with beth, the third with gimel, and so on. Ps 145 (as you see) has only 21 vv so it leaves out 1 of the letters which happens to be nun (corresponds to our “N”). There are a few ancient documents where this psalm contains this letter which is why NIV, ESV include it at the end of vs 13.

Psalm 145:13 ESV

13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works.

Now, we don’t know whether David wrote this or if it had been accidentally omitted in copies—certainly the truth of it is confirmed by other passages of the Bible. So this is David’s last psalm, his last acrostic psalm and it is exactly what we should expect it to be. Praising God for many of His divine attributes, His nature, His character. There are 5 aspects of God’s nature that David praises in this psalm…we do well to share his deep appreciation and adoration for all that God has revealed of Himself to us.

1) Praise for God’s Greatness

1-6

David was the king of God’s choosing. He is the king of God’s choice nation—Israel. And what David makes clear is that as Israel’s king, His king is the One who is the King of kings. God is his King and he reserves this deliberate, determined, highest praise to Him alone.

“I will extol you” (to elevate, to raise up, to be high) and it means to raise Him up. Of course, He is God Most High and man does not make God but to extol Him is to give Him highest praise and to raise the name of God on earth. That is what we do when we praise Him. All that He is: sovereign, holiness, justice, righteousness, mercy, majesty, strength, beauty and glory—is acknowledged b/c God is our King.

Then David says “I will bless your…” This term for bless is lit to kneel, to bend the knee and in the OT it is the way of expressing thanks and praise to God b/c He has given out of the abundance of His own life. In fact, God is “blessed” b/c of His kindness and faithfulness.

Psalm 31:21 NASB95

21 Blessed be the Lord, For He has made marvelous His lovingkindness to me in a besieged city.

FB Meyer says “Praise will be the employment of eternity…Let us not wait for eternity, but begin to-day.”

vs 2:every day—this praise is the daily life of the Xn. Whatever circumstances you are in… “I will praise your name forever…”

And the reason: vs 3 “Great is the Lord.” And something about that greatness is that it is “unsearchable.” There is in this statement the paradoxical truth of God’s unknowability and the revelation of Himself. In one sense, God is so highly exalted about His creation that to finite creatures like us, He cannot be known. His greatness cannot be measured (that’s what unsearchable means). But there is the other side of this truth that b/c God is kind, generous, compassionate and merciful, He has revealed Himself and His greatness to us in His Word.

David is thinking about God’s mighty works in particular (vv 4-6). And it is that greatness that one generation should speak of to the next.

For us, the greatness of God is seen in the greatest of His acts—redemption. Every generation of redeemed sinners adds to that old story of the great things God has done. We can grieve over the condition of our world—at present time under the power of the evil—the god of this world. Now, evil and sin are granted by God to run its course and where the redeemed even now bow the knee in submission to the King, there is coming a day when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that JC is Lord—to the glory of the Father. That day—it may not be that far off and we long for it b/c God’s greatness will be evident to all.

2) Praise for God’s Goodness

7-10

God’s “abundant goodness” is what motivates the Xn’s eager celebration. David will go on to speak of grace, mercy, patience and rich love—the manifestations of God’s righteousness. When God loves, He is chiefly concerned with seeking the highest good of those He sets His affection upon. And yet we know that He is good to all (vs 9). Even the wicked encounter the common grace of God by which He delays His judgment upon all who deserved condemnation—giving opportunity to embrace the Lord’s grace.

Even now, what we see of a world deserving divine judgment, God is patient toward all, desiring their repentance to give them salvation that we have partaken of. As we praise God for His goodness, our hearts should long for those around us to taste the goodness of the Lord, praying that it will lead them to drink the living water.

3) Praise for God’s Glory

11-13

We could just as easily say that this is “Praise for God’s Government” b/c that’s how His glory is demonstrate, thru His sovereign, unconditional rule over His universe. This is God:

Psalm 103:19 NASB95

19 The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, And His sovereignty rules over all.

Vs 11-13

God’s kingdom/His rule over us (all things) is a necessary rule. Do you remember the account of Nebu? Instead of speaking of the glory of God, he took that for himself when he looked over the city of Babylon and pridefully said:

Daniel 4:30 NASB95

30 “The king reflected and said, ‘Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?’

As these words were on his lips, the fulfillment of the prophecy Daniel gave concerning the king’s dream was fulfilled. God judged Nebu b/c of his arrogance and caused him to be like the beast and eat grass like the cattle. For 7 years Nebu became a madman. But God’s goodness (patience toward him) was great and Nebu said:

Daniel 4:34–37 NASB95

34 “But at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever; For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom endures from generation to generation. 35 “All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, But He does according to His will in the host of heaven And among the inhabitants of earth; And no one can ward off His hand Or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’ 36 “At that time my reason returned to me. And my majesty and splendor were restored to me for the glory of my kingdom, and my counselors and my nobles began seeking me out; so I was reestablished in my sovereignty, and surpassing greatness was added to me. 37 “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride.”

God will never be usurped, His government and His glory will never be taken away from Him as it will endure thruout all generations.

4) Praise for God’s Generosity

14-16

God is powerful, sovereign, rules (the idea of absolute dominion cannot be avoided) but He is also generous: note the ways this is evident:

Sustains those who fall—means to support the believer so that they would live in safety and surety:

Psalm 3:5 NASB95

5 I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustains me.

Psalm 71:6 NASB95

6 By You I have been sustained from my birth; You are He who took me from my mother’s womb; My praise is continually of You.

Raises up those bowed down—God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. What a generous God to lift up those who carry heavy burdens. There is a precious example of this in NT

Luke 13:11–13 NASB95

11 And there was a woman who for eighteen years had had a sickness caused by a spirit; and she was bent double, and could not straighten up at all. 12 When Jesus saw her, He called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your sickness.” 13 And He laid His hands on her; and immediately she was made erect again and began glorifying God.

Give food in due time—another account of God’s generosity that He provides all they need (see Matt 6:25-34).

Opens His hand… Now, what is that desire? It is different for every person but the idea is that there is no wanting when the compassion King provides.

We spend a lot of time worrying about those things God has promised to provide and He is faithful to all His promises (13b—despite not being in NASB).

5) Praise for God’s Grace

17-21

I want you to observe a very comforting word in the final vv of this psalm (actually from vs 14-21). A word that is repeated 10x: “all”

Spurgeon notes: His ways and works are both worthy to be praised. Jehovah cannot be unjust or impure. Let his doings be what they may, they are in every case righteous and holy. This is the confession of the godly who follow his ways, and of the gracious who study his works. Whatever God is or does must be right. In the salvation of his people he is as righteous and holy as in any other of his ways and works: he has not manifested mercy at the expense of justice, but the rather he has magnified his righteousness by the death of his Son.

For this reason David expresses: vs 21. Whatever everyone else does…there is but one proper response to the praiseworthiness of God—to speak of that praise and bless His holy name forever and ever.

As the church, we must have as a central tenet of our existence this commitment to perpetual praise. And God has poured out His blessing on CCC that we cannot but praise, bless Him extol—lift high the name of our great God. It should constantly be on our lips to tell our community all the God has done for us—even the blessing of directing us in this building project—it should be shouted from the rooftops how great He is. He sustains you, He saves you (those who have encountered the transforming grace of LJC), He sanctifies you (sets you apart), He secures you, He strengthens you…what else could we do?

As we go into the groundbreaking ceremony at the south campus, this is what we are doing—praising Him, lifting high the name of our great God & Savior. I hope you can join us. It’ll take a few moments to get people over there but what a joyful day for CCC—for you, for us.