Endless Praise: A Heart for God's Greatness

Bible Passage: Psalm 145

Summary: Psalm 145 is a psalm of praise that exalts God's majesty, goodness, and faithfulness, encouraging believers to proclaim His greatness and reflect on His wonderful works.

Application: This passage encourages Christians to cultivate a lifestyle of praise, even in challenging circumstances, reminding them of God's steadfast love and faithfulness. In recognizing God's greatness, believers can find strength, hope, and a renewed perspective in their struggles.

Teaching: The sermon can teach that praising God is not just a response to His goodness, but also a fundamental practice that transforms our heart and perspective, leading to deeper faith and reliance on God.

How this passage could point to Christ: In Psalm 145, we see an anticipation of the ultimate revelation of God's greatness in Jesus Christ, who embodies the mercy, compassion, and eternal kingship described in the psalm. Christ is the fullness of God's greatness, revealing His character through His life, death, and resurrection.

Big Idea: A life marked by relentless praise shapes our understanding of God's greatness and equips us to face life's challenges with faith and joy.

Introduction

Good morning!

Today we are in Psalm 145; May I ask you to stand, if your able, for the reading of God’s word:

English Standard Version Psalm 145

1 I will extol you, my God and King,

and bless your name forever and ever.

2 Every day I will bless you

and praise your name forever and ever.

3 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,

and his greatness is unsearchable.

4 One generation shall commend your works to another,

and shall declare your mighty acts.

5 On the glorious splendor of your majesty,

and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.

6 They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds,

and I will declare your greatness.

7 They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness

and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

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.

10 All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord,

and all your saints shall bless you!

11 They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom

and tell of your power,

12 to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds,

and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

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.]

14 The Lord upholds all who are falling

and raises up all who are bowed down.

15 The eyes of all look to you,

and you give them their food in due season.

16 You open your hand;

you satisfy the desire of every living thing.

17 The Lord is righteous in all his ways

and kind in all his works.

18 The Lord is near to all who call on him,

to all who call on him in truth.

19 He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;

he also hears their cry and saves them.

20 The Lord preserves all who love him,

but all the wicked he will destroy.

21 My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord,

and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.

Prayer

Lord, we thank you for this beautiful day that you have made. Lord we praise you and bless your name forever and ever, as the psalmist says in the first verse. Lord, we open our hearts to you today as your Holy Spirit applies your Word to our hearts. And we thank you for your Word and your blessings, in Jesus mighty name we pray, Amen.

i. Hook:

So, Psalm 145 is a unique psalm, allow me to give you some facts about this psalm that you may not have known.

It is an acrostic. This means that each verse begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet and give a statement of praise. David did this a couple of other times too, such as Psalm 9, 10, 25, 34, 37 and 145. So, as the young kids would say, this is so David. But this is important because it shows how deeply David thought about praise. It shows that David thoughtfully crafted these psalms, they were not just heartfelt, but structured.

It is the only psalm titled “A Praise of David.” In other words, we see psalms titled, “A Psalm of David,” or “A Prayer of David.” But only once “A Praise.”

It is used in Jewish Daily Prayers, it’s recited three times daily. It is known as “Ashrei” because it is the opening blessing in verse 1.

These three facts, although they are interesting, they say something very important to us as believers today. This psalm of praise was written by King David, who at the time, was placed by God as ruler of his people. And I’m sure that if you look at the kings of the gentile nations, they were worshipped. But God placed David as his anointed. David was a representative that led God’s covenant people in many different ways, but in particular, he led God’s covenant people in worship. Think about that for a second. The King of Israel points his people to one that is greater than him. And he uses this type of praise to aid in memorization and to teach theological concepts to God’s people.

Pause

ii. Contextual Setup:

But before we delve into this psalm, I just want to take a very brief moment to talk about some of the wording that you will see in this psalm.

In other words, we will see all the words that are used for praising.

Some of the words are “extol,” (to tell how great God is), “bless,” (barak, בָּרַךְ to bless means to acknowledge God’s greatness and respond in worship praise and submission), this is different from to “bless” from God to human. So, David blesses the name of God. What else? To commend “your works” is to speak highly of God, to “declare” to “meditate” to “pour forth” to “sing aloud.” Also, the psalms have language that conveys, either time or God’s enduring nature, such as “forever and ever” in fact, this psalm begins and ends with “forever and ever” in verse 1 we see “and bless your name forever and ever,” and in the last verse we have “and let all flesh bless his holy name “forever and ever.” But we also see, generations, everlasting…

These are all words that David composed to worship God, His King. David was intensional with his words, you don’t just mistakingly put together such a composition.

Pause

And David did all this to lead others in praise.

iii. Main Idea:

So, we praise as David invites us into a psalm of praise. This is a praise from one that knows and loves God. This is a man whom sinned against God, yet knew God. Knew of His mercies. This is a praise that describes God in a way that few others in Scriptures do. David speaks of God’s character. My personal favorite is in verse 8, “The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding is steadfast love.” Psalm 145:8. This is a description of God you see throughout the Old Testament. Here’s a few:

Exodus 34:6 “The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,”

Psalm 86:5 “For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.”

Psalm 103:8 “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”

Jonah 4:2 “And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.”

Nehemiah 9:17 “They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.”

Joel 2:13 “and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.”

Nahum 1:3 “The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.”

We’ll touch on more of this later.

David is praising God in all things. We are to keep our eyes on our God, THE KING. The Lord is worthy of all our praise. As David leads us through this meditation of the character and goodness of God, my hope is that you do not merely hear these words. You internalize them and you meditate on the Lord.

Let us together walk through Psalm 145 and be stirred to praise the everlasting King.

1. David’s Praises for His Fame and Glory

Psalm 145:1-7

Psalm 145:1–2 “I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.”

The first two verses, David begins with himself. Look at the first person personal pronouns. For the non-english majors here, that is “I, or me.” He masterfully begins with a personal praise to the Lord. “I will extol you,” “I will bless you.” We start our praise with our individual heart. This praise comes from within.

Lord, I praise you, and I bless your name.

Note the verbs here too. extol, bless, praise. This is personal. David is not praising a distant god or deity, but HIS GOD AND THE KING.

Now, before I continue, we are reading from the ESV and they decided to translate the first verse saying my God and king, but the word King in the Hebrew Ha-Melek, has a definite article, for the non-english majors, that means a “the” before the word melek, which means king. Other translations say, my God, The King, such as the NIV. And I think the ESV should have translated it that way because it echoes the idea of, not just “a” king, but “THE” King, that the King of Israel is referring to. Because David himself is a king and their are other kings in the gentile nations, but there is only one true King.

David then moves to say why his God, The King is great, and his greatness transcends time.

Psalm 145:3–7 “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate. They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness. They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.”

I really enjoy what one commentator says:

Psalms–Song of Solomon I. (145:1–3) O God, I Will Ever Bless Your Name

In 145:3 God’s “greatness is unsearchable.” That is, it goes past the capacity of the human mind to describe or comprehend fully. It will take many worshipers, and a long duration (“forever and ever”; vv. 1, 2, 21), even to begin to do justice to what the Lord deserves.

Again, this is referring to the vastness of the Lord. This vastness is timeless, from generation to generation all shall commend you works. This was thousands of years ago, and we’re still commending the works of the Lord. David recognizes this timelessness and he makes that part of his praise.

Now verse 6 begins to expand the words of David, from himself to others. Now David is moving towards a corporate worship “they” shall speak of the might, “they” shall pour forth the fame of you abundant goodness. Because, again, David is King and he’s leading his people in the worship of the Lord.

2. …for His Goodness

Psalm 145:8-10

Now we come to verse 8.

Psalm 145:8 “The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”

I think this is a verse everyone should memorize. In fact, let’s all say it together, it’s up on the board, “The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding is steadfast love.”

This describes a deeply accurate and Biblically grounded picture of God.

It is rooted in God’s self-revelation, found in numerous passages in the Old Testament. This description of God is also deeply accurate. We see how God dealt with Israel, his covenant people and we see how he deals with us today.

In fact, I have this sort of guilty pleasure that I would like to confess. I watch youtubers play sermons from these outlandish pastors and critique it frame by frame. So, they’ll play the pastor’s video then pause it and give commentary. I won’t mention some of the pastors by name, but I have seen pastors say they travel to and from heaven, they have casual conversations with God and that God asks them for their opinions on things. One guy said that Jesus came to him in the middle of the night and played the saxophone for him. Then, he claims that he knows how to play the sax and he has never taken any lessons. I mean it’s absurd. This is a perfect example of God being gracious, having mercy, being slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. These pastors appear to be so far gone, but they can still repent, be saved. God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Verses 9-10 state:

Psalm 145:9–10 “The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made. All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your saints shall bless you!”

God’s covenant grace began with his covenant people, Israel, but was never intended to be for them alone. Israel was to be a vehicle to bring salvation to the nations. Perhaps that is a sermon for another day, but throughout the Old Testament we see prophesies that speak of the gentiles becoming part of God’s covenant people. And David is echoing this notion.

But this is all part of the goodness of God. David, once again, is moving outward to the praises of God. But David is also moving towards the kingship of God. He is The King.

3. …for His Kingdom

Psalm 145:11-13

We now move to the kingdom that was mentioned earlier.

Psalm 145:11–13 “They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power, to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. 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.”

David turns his attention to God’s Kingship. The Lord is a reigning King whose rule extends over both time and space. Its an everlasting kingdom.

This kingdom, as many of the kingdoms of the gentile nations, are a burden for the people. Most kingdoms take from their people stand on their necks. But this section celebrates being part of God’s kingdom. We know this because of God’s mighty deeds and wondrous works. And we are part of this everlasting kingdom and we should celebrate.

These verses remind me of the story of Nebuchadnezzar and how he concluded that which David states, after refusing to acknowledge the true King, finally he states,

Daniel 4:34 “At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to 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;”

Nebuchadnezzar understood the everlasting Kingdom of God, we should also understand the everlasting kingdom of God. And that should cause us to praise.

4. …for his Provisions

Psalm 145:14-16

Part of this everlasting Kingdom is our God the Provider.

Psalm 145:14–16 “The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing.”

So, during the week I give a class, named Alpha. Maybe some of you have taken it, but its a course for new believers. I love giving that class because I enjoy interacting with new believers. One of the topics that we discussed was faith. Do we have enough faith? What if we lose our faith? What if our faith is misguided? One student gave the right answer. The answer is that our faith is a gift from God.

So, when we speak of provisions, its easy to think that it means physical things, food, a roof over our head, etc. The everyday things that we need to survive. Yes, verse 15 and 16 says “you give them their food in due season. Your open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing.” It could be physical things because we need those things. We all have rent/mortgages, electricity, food bills, etc. But, is that what David is talking about?

Remember, David is speaking of an everlasting Kingdom.

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What I enjoy about listening to fairly new believers is that they are not caught up with the minutia of these everyday things. They are looking at their faith and wondering how they can sustain it long term. Whereas me, and many of you are living out the faith and fixating on the physical.

I guess what I’m calling you to is to move away from the physical provisions and towards the bread of Life.

I think this was ultimately fulfilled in Christ. In John 6:35, Jesus said,

John 6:35 “Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”

Christ was not speaking of physical nourishment, although I recognize we need that.

Pause

John Calvin said that Christ “feeds our souls unto eternal life.”

So, sure you can focus on the mundane. But life has seasons, things change, how about you seek the eternal provisions. Ask of the Lord, sustain me unto eternal life. Don’t focus on the things that come and go. Focus on the eternal.

5. …for His Saving Mercy

Psalm 145:17-21

Now let us move to the last section of our Psalm

Psalm 145:17–20 “The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works. The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them. The Lord preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.”

David is concluding this psalm with a message of the nearness of the Lord. This is a deeply comforting promise. Those that draw near to the Lord, He will also be near. I’m reminded of the some passages that echo this notion:

James 4:8 “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

Psalm 34:18 “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”

John 14:23 “Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

This is a promise to those who are in Christ. This is the work of Christ that we spoke of earlier. The passages speak of those who “call on him,” those who “fear him,” those who “love him.” These are all pictures of those united in Christ.

How do we connect Christ with verses 18-20?

The Lord is near to all who call on Him. Christ is the ultimate expression of God’s nearness.

John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Matthew 28:20 “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

2. The Lord hears their cry and saves them. Christ fulfills the desires of the spiritually hungry and broken. Here are some passages that demonstrate fulfillment:

Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Romans 10:13 “For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.””

3. The Lord preserves those who, and we mentioned these already, “call on him… fear him… and those who love him.” and I’ll let you know, I have passages for days…

John 10:28 “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”

Remember, we spoke about this, Christ sustains us, he preserves us.

And Finally, our last verse for today, bookends the psalm. Meaning David uses similar terms that begin and end the psalm. He uses the term “forever and ever.” And this term seems redundant, right? If something is forever, why write ever? But David is emphasizing the eternal nature of God. lets review: Psalm 145:1 says:

Psalm 145:1 “I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever.”

verse 21 says:

Psalm 145:21 “My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.”

David is giving us an endless praise. Something that lasts generation to generation.

Now, let me end with a very short example of this type of praise. So, as some of you know I grew up in church. From as long as I can remember, I was in church. And, if you grew up in church or if you attend church enough, you will notice people who are fixtures in the church. People that have been there so long, you would think that they were built with the church. Now, this elderly sister was one of those people. She would fit into David’s category of “those who call on him,” etc. One thing I always noticed about her is that she was always singing hymns. She would come over to my house to visit my mother and she would start singing and my mother would join in.

This sister could be visiting someone who is on their deathbed, she would start singing a hymn. She would be visiting someone doing well at the hospital, she would start singing a hymn. In all things she would sing. During times of sorrow, during times of happiness, doing the mundane things in life.

Now, I acknowledge, as did John Calvin, when he stated, “Christ is the great choirmaster who tunes our hearts to sing God’s praises.” Christ is the choirmaster that tuned her heart to worship.

My imperative statement for you today (a command, or a call to do something) is to worship in all things. There is never a great time to praise. We live in very distracting times. So, praise your God, the King. Let us pray.

Prayer

Lord, thank you for this word for us today. Lord, we offer you praise for your grace, for your mercy, for being slow to anger with your covenant people, and for abounding in steadfast love. Lord, we ask that you tune our hearts toward praise, that we do not take for granted your imperative to praise. In Jesus mighty name we pray, Amen.

Prayer 2

So, this was great, you have me for one more week and we’ll be in Psalm 23. Then, your pastor will return. And everything goes back to normal.

Lord, we thank you for this message to praise you, not because its a good and appropriate time to but because you are great and merciful. Lord, you sent your one and only son to die for us so that we could stand before a Holy God. Thank you Lord,

Church receive this benediction:

"May the God of peace who raised Christ from the dead Strengthen your inner being for every good work. And may the blessing of God Almighty Father, Son and Holy Spirit rest upon you and dwell within you this day and evermore. Amen.