Psalm 145
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A Praise of David.
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.
One generation shall praise Your works to another,
And shall declare Your mighty acts.
I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty,
And on Your wondrous 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.
The Lord is gracious and full of compassion,
Slow to anger and great in mercy.
The Lord is good to all,
And His tender mercies are over all His works.
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.
The Lord upholds all who fall,
And raises up all who are bowed down.
The 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.
My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord,
And all flesh shall bless His holy name
Forever and ever.
Unlike many Psalms that are personal prayers or laments { passionate expression of grief or sorrow} Psalm 145 is a pure hymn of praise. No crisis, confession ,or complaint just pure praise.
One thing I found interesting about Psalm 145 is that it is written in alphabetical order according to the Hebrew alphabet. What this was to accomplish was it symbolized completeness or totality. Praising God with every word.
In traditional Jewish prayer services this Psalm is recited three times daily. In Rabbinic tradition reciting this prayer with INTENTION [ with all your mind heart and spirit] was a sign of fullness and trust in Gods care.
So lets get into it psalm 145 [ A Song of God’s Majesty and Love ]
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.
A good place to start is David is the king of Isreal at this time.
David says I will exalt you My God and King.
I will [Not feel like or when I feel like] I will exalt you [lift you up or raise you high] . This is about consciously, actively recognizing God’s greatness. Publicly recognizing God’s greatness. Praise is active not emotional. It’s a decision.
Like we spoke of earlier David was the king . This was in a time when kings often claimed or exalted themselves to divine status, but David is saying.
The New King James Version Psalm 145
I will extol You, my God, O King; And I will bless Your name forever and ever.
David say’s I will praise you MY God the King of King’s. My allegiance is to God. Not my success not to my throne but God and God alone.
The New King James Version Psalm 145
2 Every day I will bless You,
And I will praise Your name forever and ever.
David says I will bless you everyday. Most ancient prayers were event-based. If they had a victory , are it was harvest time or if it was a time of trouble. David say’s regardless of circumstance I will Praise you.
Like in verse one David also says for ever and ever. This is in the rhetorical Hebrew style and it has great meaning.
David is showing a commitment and stability towards his worship of God. He will praise God every day of His life on earth and eternally. There will never come a time when God won’t be worthy of His praise. Regardless of how he feels or his circumstances.
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
And His greatness is unsearchable.
Great is our Lord, and mighty in power;
His understanding is infinite.
In the world at this time people were worshiping all kinds of deferent gods.
David is using language here that means our God is significant , decisive. He is saying our God is the defining reality and is greatly to be praised.
He deserves to be praised excessively. God is great so our praise to Him should also be great.
The words to be praised here are written in a way as to say, God is worthy of the praise whether anyone worships Him or not. Our praise doesn't make God great. God is great so we should praise Him exceedingly
The New King James Version Psalm 145
And His greatness is unsearchable.
Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the Lord,
The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Neither faints nor is weary.
His understanding is unsearchable.
Great is our Lord, and mighty in power;
His understanding is infinite.
His understanding is limitless. It can not be measured.
There is nothing He doesn't know. He doesn't learn things or forget things. His knowledge and wisdom are without limit.
In other cultures around Isreal there gods had limits. The god of this or that but not our God . He is without limits. He is omnipotent
He is unsearchable but not unknowable. Our God draws us close but He is always God He is always King
One generation shall praise Your works to another,
And shall declare Your mighty acts.
I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty,
And on Your wondrous 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.
David switches gears here. He has spoke of the greatness of God. He has spoken about how God is unsearchable. Now he is going to tell how humans engage in His action
I’m going to tie these next scriptures into Exodus because that is likely what David had in his mind as he wrote Psalm 147
Isn’t it awesome how scripture always defines scripture
Exodus was always a story that was explicitly designed to be retold. David new the story of Exodus and now He is using that knowledge to praise God. Every scripture carry’s weight and the goal is to always find out why. For the equipping of the saints. You and me.
And you shall tell your son in that day, saying, ‘This is done because of what the Lord did for me when I came up from Egypt.’
Moses is talking about the festival of unleavened bread and how this is a reminder of there deliverance of bondage in Egypt.
Oral tradition. Building faith through experiences that came before them. What God has done.
The living, the living man, he shall praise You,
As I do this day;
The father shall make known Your truth to the children.
Your mighty acts: This is also Exodus vocabulary. In Exodus 15 and the song of the sea when Moses and the Israelites praised God for opening up the Red sea and swallowed up the Egyptian army.
This is divine intervention. This can only be accomplished by an all mighty God.
I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty,
And on Your wondrous works.
Meditate: this isn’t a silent meditation we might vision [that could be a play on words]
What David is talking about is actively processing God’s actions. Talking them out vocally either inside your head or out loud
glorious ,splendor of your majesty. The Hebrews intentionally wrote all these words together like this so the reader would slow down and dwell upon Gods, glorious splendor and majesty
“Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods?
Who is like You, glorious in holiness,
Fearful in praises, doing wonders?
You stretched out Your right hand;
The earth swallowed them.
You in Your mercy have led forth
The people whom You have redeemed;
You have guided them in Your strength
To Your holy habitation.
The New King James Version Psalm 145
And on Your wondrous works.
and the Lord showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe, against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household.
And He said: “Behold, I make a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord. For it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.
Wow that is awesome. What a powerful promise from God. A promise that will be kept
Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts,
And I will declare Your greatness.
There is something to pay attention here. He say’s men will speak of the might of your awesome acts
The word awesome here is[ nora] it blends fear and awe.
Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. Then they said to Moses, “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.”
David is taking that fear and turning it in to praise of respect an honor not terror.
This is the part that I said pay attention to. He said men will speak of the might of Your awesome acts. Men have told your story. I will declare Your story.
Personal faith and communal witness are intertwined.
This is the covenant community in action. This is generation to generation in action. This is why your faith is personal but not private.
They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness,
And shall sing of Your righteousness.
Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”
In our day we think of righteousness differently than at the time of Exodus and the righting of this Psalm we think of it as a moral thing
The righteousness David is talking about is faithful action.
He kept his promises to Abraham
God heard the cries of His people , He heard them when they were slaves in Egypt.
He acts when injustice becomes unbearable
“Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees,
Who write misfortune,
Which they have prescribed
To rob the needy of justice,
And to take what is right from the poor of My people,
That widows may be their prey,
And that they may rob the fatherless.
What will you do in the day of punishment,
And in the desolation which will come from afar?
To whom will you flee for help?
And where will you leave your glory?
So what vs 7 is saying is they shall utter [ bubble, gush , overflow] with praise they will sing to God for ALL that He does
The Lord is gracious and full of compassion,
Slow to anger and great in mercy.
The Lord is good to all,
And His tender mercies are over all His works.
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.
The New King James Version Psalm 145
8 The LORD is gracious and full of compassion,
Slow to anger and great in mercy.
9 The LORD is good to all,
And His tender mercies are over all His works
This can take us back to
And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth,
Gracious (ḥannûn) – undeserved favor; God bends toward need, not merit.
Merciful (raḥûm) – womb-like compassion; deeply emotional care.
Slow to anger – literally “long of nostrils”; God restrains judgment.
Steadfast love (ḥesed) – covenant loyalty, not mood-based affection.
👉 Point: God’s kingship is not upheld by force but by patience and covenant love. His rule does not depend on immediate punishment to remain legitimate.
The New King James Version Psalm 145
9 The LORD is good to all,
And His tender mercies are over all His works
For the Lord is good;
His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth endures to all generations.
He is good to all. Not just Isreal. Not just believers. His mercy is for all that He has created. This is not salvation. This is God’s character. This is universal kindness to His creation
The New King James Version Psalm 145
10 All Your works shall praise You, O LORD,
And Your saints shall bless You.
God’s creation testifies to God’s greatness. His saints bless him by proclaiming His greatness and all he has done.
The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
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.
They speak. The saints in vs. 10. This means that the saints [this means us] are a messenger of what all God has done.
Kingdom → God’s reign
Power → God’s ability to act
Mighty deeds → historical acts
Splendor → the beauty of His rule
👉 This is not private spirituality
We talked about this earlier our testimony is communal . God’s kingdom grows by declared truth. This is fighting the spiritual battle we face here on earth.
The New King James Version Psalm 145
13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
And Your dominion endures throughout all generations.
And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.
David knew his thrown was temporary.
He also knew God’s kingdom is everlasting, from generation to generation.
David will one day no longer be on the throne. His rein is temporary.
Isreal will be put into exile and then restored and through it all God will still be on the thrown. God is and will always be King.
Isn't that awesome news. We are part of a kingdom that is permanent with a king that truly has the righteousness to rain and will from generation to generation. Eternity!
The Lord upholds all who fall,
And raises up all who are bowed down.
The 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.
This is great stuff right here . God upholds all that are falling This is all who are week
Upholds – sōmēḵ: to support, brace, keep from collapsing.
Raises up – zōqēp̄: to straighten, restore to standing.
He doesn’t wait for you to collapse. He keeps you from collapsing. He helps all that are bowed down under the weight they are caring.
I’ve been keeping this in the old testament but I’m going to the new testament here. This is what David was telling to God and what He was praising God for 10 century's one thousand years before Christ then Christ comes and says this.
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Jesus Is saying come to me I am your Father. You will find peace in me.
For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
That is good stuff. God will sustain us for ever and ever
The New King James Version Psalm 145
15 The eyes of all look expectantly to You,
And You give them their food in due season
The eyes of all. Believer non believer all creations eyes are on God because He is the sustainer of it all and He will provide in His perfect timing
You open Your hand
And satisfy the desire of every living thing.
Open your hand”
Open your hand”
No clenched fist
No reluctance
No scarcity mindset
He will satisfy your desire. He will give us what we need. We a lot of times especially in wealthier country’s loose sight of what we really desire[ food ,life, safety and care] because we are so blessed are NEEDS are met so we begin to desire other things. God meets creation according to their nature, need and His wisdom
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.
The New King James Version Psalm 145
17 The LORD is righteous in all His ways,
Gracious in all His works
“Righteous” (ṣaddîq)
“Righteous” (ṣaddîq)
Right in judgment
Faithful to covenant
Consistent with His own character
“Kind / faithful” (ḥāsîd)
“Kind / faithful” (ḥāsîd)
Loyal love
Covenant mercy
Relational faithfulness
The God of love is also the God of righteousness
The New King James Version Psalm 145
18 The LORD is near to all who call upon Him,
To all who call upon Him in truth.
The Lord is close to those that call Him. That depend on Him. That call on Him in truth
God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
He fulfils the desires of those who fear Him. Fear of the Lord will get there desire’s met because there desire’s will be shaped to desire Gods will.
God hears the cry’s of those that seek Him and He will respond
The New King James Version Psalm 145
20 The LORD preserves all who love Him,
But all the wicked He will destroy.
The Lord preserves those who are conveniently loyal to Him. In the new covenant that is those who except Jesus work on the cross and ask Him to be their Lord and Savior.
SaviorPreserves”
Guards
Watches over
Keeps toward life
The wicked will be destroyed
That is harsh language and it might not be the language we use but that is all that are outside the covenant of God. This is not behavior it’s belief.
This is not impulsive rage it’s a call to repentance.
We saw it earlier in Exodus
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty,
Those who are not Justified by the blood of Jesus.
Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
Gods mercy does not cancel judgement
The New King James Version Psalm 145
21 My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD,
And all flesh shall bless His holy name
Forever and ever.
The New King James Version Psalm 145
1 I will extol You, my God, O King; And I will bless Your name forever and ever.
David is back at the beginning
I will speak intentionally about the greatness of God.
I will speak the truth aligned with who God is, what He does , what He has done and what He is capable of doing
And all flesh all humans all mortality strong week Jew are gentile will all praise the Lord. This is Davids view of what things will look like all creation will worship God for ever and ever for eternity
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Davids vow to praise God openly , publicly becomes contagious. His personal praise becomes communal Hope.
I'm going to close with this. It sums up the psalm in new covenant language.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
