The Greatness of God's Works

Introduction

How many of you have that person in your life that in your eyes in a sense does everything right? They are a person you respect and revere. They are in one word a hero to you. They are one that you lift high and praise at any moment you get the chance. I am sure all of us have someone that we view this way though in a fallible way. As we have lived like this toward others we are worshipping them. We view them as higher or better than ourselves. We view them as someone to imitate and model.

We worship them.

The reason we do this is because God created us with the capacity to worship. He created us with worship a part of our DNA. Paul Tripp states in his book Dangerous Calling (117) that “every human being has been hardwired by God to live in daily awe of God.” We are beings of worship. As a result of sin our hearts have been hardened and twisted and marred causing our worship to veer away from the person we were created to worship—God himself! Not having an awe of God will negatively affect your life. Having a misplaced awe and worship will not bring the peace and contentment that only comes from God. It will not aid you in living with the attitude of worship God demands from you. This morning let the word of God challenge you no matter where the meter of your heart worship to God is pointing. God wants you to even now worship him through the receiving and applying of God’s Word. God takes worship of him seriously and we need to take it seriously also!

God has given us the capacity to worship! Because of our capacity to worship God provided a wonderful gift—worshipping Him! The greatest action we can do as one created to worship is worship God. The best gift God can give to us as one created to worship is worshipping God. Everything God has done, is doing, and will do is to fill the earth with his worship. He fills the earth with his worship for his own good and glory. God desires to see his worship that goes outward to those around and forward throughout time.

The Psalm we are looking at today deals with our worship. This Psalm is the last of the Hebrew Psalter. It is David’s last Psalm. The Psalm is all about worship—worship of God for his greatness and goodness. It entails praising God and exulting God for his great and good character of which flow good and great works.

This Psalm uses the Hebrew alphabet as an acrostic. This format intends to give a sense of fullness on a subject. The first line of each verse starts with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Verses 11-13 start with three letters that form the Hebrew word Malak. This word means “to reign.” David is proclaiming God as king for all generations throughout all time! God is our King and he deserves our worship.

Some in the Jewish tradition believed that if one would recite it three times a day, with heart and lips, one would experience spiritual happiness and enjoy blessings in the world to come (Calvin, Commentary, 4:271). Daniel L. Akin, Johnny M. Hunt, and Tony Merida, Exalting Jesus in Psalms 101–150, ed. David Platt, Daniel L. Akin, and Tony Merida, Christ-Centered Exposition (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2021), 332.

Our sole purpose for existence is to worship God. As we are created to worship it is important that our worship is directed at the Creator of the universe—God himself! We must be as D. Martyn Lloyd Jones stated “true worshippers are real worshippers.” We often go about our day and if someone stopped us and asked do we worship God we would say yes. The question is not do we worship God but are we worshippers of God. Does our life consist of daily worship? Does our life authentically worship God or are we only performing worship? Authentic worship is more than merely doing something. Authentic worship outwardly shows the inner devotion showing that one’s worship is not ritual or merely external but expressive of true gratitude for God and exaltation of God. Worship is an attitude that understands the greatness of God and the lowliness of oneself driving one to exalt God in every area of life. It is to praise God all the time not only when he blesses you and life is going as planned.

Authentic worship expresses adoration to God through obedience and submission. Jesus declares while being tempted by Satan in the wilderness to worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Our worship consists of serving God. Jesus echoes the commands given to Moses to not bow down to any graven image and to not treat the name of God in an empty and vain manner. We are not to worship anything or anyone other than God. Jesus in Matthew 22:37 (“37 And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’”) commands us to love God with all our heart and mind and soul. To worship God is to love God. To love God is to serve God. To serve God is to worship God. God is to be exulted in our lives. He is to be highly raised up.

We have allowed so many distractions to get in the way of being consistent in true worship of God. I pray that as we look at this Psalm of worship that when we are done we will be both challenged and encouraged by the truly magnificent character of God.

Our main idea this morning is:

Let the wonder of our great and good God ignite a heart of consistent worship to Him.

As we look to ignite a heart of consistent worship in our lives we are going to look at Psalm 145. We have three facets to focus on our worship this morning as we look to fuel our heart of worship with the greatness and goodness of God. The three facets are 1) the object of our worship; 2) the activity of our worship; and 3) the reward of our worship.

Let’s begin with the object of our worship.

I. The Object of Our Worship—God Alone!

The Position of God Is High and Lofty

We are to bless, exult, and praise God. David is using contrasting language to emphasize how he views God and How we should view God. In Psalm 145:1-2 David sings that he will extol and bless the Lord forever. He pairs that with Psalm 145:3 where he states the reason for blessing and exalting God. It is because he is great and high. David is using a word picture of God being high and him being low. The word bless means to bow down. The greatness of God causes David to bow down in worship of the greatness of God. He understands that in his fallible humanity he cannot compare to the great God of the universe.

He emphasizes this with stating that his greatness is unsearchable. The word is also translated accurately in the NIV as unfathomable. It is a nautical term referring to dropping a line into the water to measure the depth of the sea. David is saying here that the greatness of God is unfathomable! No end to the greatness of God. It is not measurable, it is unsearchable. God’s greatness can never be completely discovered. Our words, our singing, our actions of righteousness will never be adequate to completely portray the greatness of God. We cannot exhaust God’s greatness. This means that for you and I we have no reason to stop our worship of God! We can never run out of ways to praise God for his greatness! David created a proper distance between him and God. He recognized the magnitude of God’s greatness—unfathomable and unsearchable!

Do you see God this same way? Do you truly see the greatness of God and create that distance where you see the works of God and the character of God and say to yourself I need to spend my life praising and exalting my great God? Every human display of what often called great pales in comparison to the greatness of God. It along with awesome are overused words in our culture. Do not get me wrong, it is not sinful to use the word great or awesome to describe earthly events and people. However, on the spectrum of great and awesome,

Worshipping God though blessing God is humbling yourself and living each day under God’s authority and praising God through acts of exaltation. God’s greatness needs to be fuel for our praise of him. You can just hear the energy in David’s heart and life as he writes this Psalm. Our praise is an act of our will and it is an act of humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God and joyfully praising God for being God and God alone. Our view of God and his position in our lives reveals our level of worship of God does not equate.

We say phrases like that pie was great! That was a great game-winning shot! That was great that you paid off your mortgage! It is great to see you! All of these phrases do not equate with the same level that our God is great!

Is your praise honoring God’s greatness? Are you exalting and blessing God? Are you bowing yourself down before God so that he can be lifted high?! Our lives are lives of worship and need to be living with a right perspective and view of one’s position before God!

As we seek to bless God for his wonderful works it is important to see that our position before God is not only how we have God as the object of our worship. We also have God’s wonderful works as our object.

The Works of God Show Us Who God Is

The works of God show forth the character of God. His works show us who he is. Our worship should center on the works of God because they show us who God is. Our lives must daily live with an attitude of worship for God’s works.

God has given us his word so that we can see his works. He reveals God’s works throughout the entirety of scripture. The entire Bible is God working to be glorified by his creation. We are to have as the object of our continual praise the wonderful works of God. What did the apostles do first in Acts 2:11 as Pentecost took place? They worshipped and praised God for his mighty works! They did not first preach the gospel. They first preached the praise of the glorious God—our glorious God.

Acts 2:11 NASB95

11 Cretans and Arabs—we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.”

One theologian, Herman Bavinck, in his systematic theology stated “the Christian faith is the awesome works of God throughout every generation being recognized then spoken, confessed, and celebrated.” At one point the whole world will know of God’s mighty works. In Psalm 145:10 David tells is that his works give thanks to God. His works point to God’s character. David in this Psalm makes a point to state that God’s works are wonderful and glorious.

God’s works show forth his character.

The Character of God Is Shown Through God’s Works

David in Psalm 145:8 states that God is a God slow to anger. He is praising God for not being a God of no anger but of slow anger. God is merciful and gracious. His anger is slow to manifest because he loves the world. In Psalm 145:9 (“9 The Lord is good to all, And His mercies are over all His works.”) David declares that God’s mercy is not to only those who believe in him but to everyone everywhere. God’s mercy is over all his creation. His mercy is evident in them getting up in the morning. His mercy is evident in driving to work in the morning. The world experiences God’s mercy every day. Exodus 34:6 (“6 Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth;”) and Moses show us the slow moving anger of God. Moses erupted in immediate frustration as he came down the first time. However, God was patient and merciful to Moses and Israel. It is God’s beautiful character that is God’s glory!

God’s mercy is not only for his worshippers. It is for the billions of people around the world. Even though many of them spurn and reject him God still shows mercy.

There is yet another aspect to God’s mercy—his redemptive mercy! One day his mercy will end and people will face is judgement for rejecting his gift of mercy. If not a true worshipper of God and accepter of God’s merciful and redemptive gift you will experience God’s wrath and no longer his judgment. Psalm 145:20 (“20 The Lord keeps all who love Him, But all the wicked He will destroy.”) spells it out clearly for us. What a reason to worship our great God! He has redeemed us, he has redeemed you and loves you! For you his mercy is never-ending (Lamentations 3:22–23 “22 The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.”) Psalm 136:1 tells us that God is good and his steadfast love or mercy endures forever.

If you are here this morning and you still only know God’s common mercy in your life and have never accepted experienced God’s redemptive mercy, talk to me after the service. It is fearful to fall into the hands of an angry God. Yes, he is slow to anger and extremely patient but we do not know when our last day may be. Do not put it off any longer! Accept the gift God has freely offered you! Place your faith in God believing that Christ died on the cross for your sin and rose again. In all of this he satisfied God’s wrath and was your substitute. Call on Christ to be your savior from eternal separation from God in hell for all eternity.

We need to worship God because of his character as it shows by his works. He is righteous, just, good, loving, and merciful. He is gracious and kind. God’s works and character are the object of our worship!

Now let’s look at the activities of our worship!

II. The Activity of Our Worship—Focused on God Alone!

Meditate on God’s Greatness

The wondrous works and character of God are the object of our worship. David states three activities that constitute his worship. The first one we will look at is in Psalm 145:5 (“5 On the glorious splendor of Your majesty And on Your wonderful works, I will meditate.”) David states that he will meditate on the glorious splendor of God’s majesty and his wonderful works. Our worship is fueled by contemplating the truth about God and applying it to every part of our lives.

The Psalmist in Psalm 1:1–2 (“1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! 2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night.”) speaks directly to the heart of a true worshipper. He is one that meditates day and night on the truth about God. God has given to us the truth about him in through the 66 canonical books that we have in our hands today. Are we meditating on the truth of God? Are we meditating on the glory and majesty of God and all of his wonderful works? How often do you meditate on God’s redemptive work through Christ in your life?

Meditation is not just a repetitive reading of words and thoughts. Meditation is a churning, an internal brooding, a rehearsing over and over again in your heart and mind. It is constantly giving God’s works and character sustained attention allowing it to seep deep into your heart and settle in changing your life’s choices and actions to be aligned with the way God prescribes you live.

When our worship is not meditative it becomes formulaic and performative. It becomes shallow and poor rather than deep and rich. When our worship is like this the generation behind us will follow in that same pattern and will think the shallow worship we modeled is proper worship. They will then worship in a shallow manner and perhaps even become more shallow than those before them creating a cycle that will only spiral downward rather than as David describes here in Psalm 145. Our lives must be actively meditating on God’s works and character!

Dad’s, this morning, think about the impact you will have as the shepherd of your family if you are constantly meditating on God? Mother’s think about the influence you will have on your children at home? Husbands your leading of your wife will be so rich and pure and loving if you are consistent in meditating on God. Wives your biblical responsibility as a help-meet to your husband will be such a blessing if you are meditating on God. Children and teenager, you need to be meditating on God daily as well. Your desire to obey and honor your parents will be glorifying to God as you meditate on him. Church member, as we saw Jesus state that we are to worship only him and him only are we to serve, your meditation on God directly impacts your joy and fire to serve God as he provides opportunity to serve. Our meditation will impact every area of life.

In which of these areas are you falling short of meditating on the splendor and majesty of God? How are you failing to meditate on the wonderful works of God? How is your lack of meditation impacting your relationship to God and responsibility to serve God with all of your life and not just were it is convenient? When we truly meditate on God as David writes in this Psalm our own selfishness and pride are defeated and we only want to please and serve God. Our desires, wants, and needs take a different shape and form. They become molded by God’s desires, wants, and needs. He created us with the capacity to worship. He then provided the object for that worship to be satisfied—that object is God himself. It is not us! We are not to meditate on ourselves and all the activities we want in life. Our life is not our own and we need to not meditate on our own desires but on the very character and works of God!

As we do meditate on God’s splendor and wonderful works, we will want to talk about it. We will want to proclaim it.

Proclaim God’s Greatness

David in Psalm 145:6 (“6 Men shall speak of the power of Your awesome acts, And I will tell of Your greatness.”) states that those who meditate on God’s majestic character and wonderful works will speak and tell. They will proclaim the works (acts) and greatness (character) of God. One pastor said it this way “People who have experienced the grace of God speak about the grace of God.” As you and I meditate on God we will want to tell people about him. We need to speak God’s praises to the world.

It is easier to discuss the works and character of God when around family and church family. Do you ever find yourself unconsciously changing the way you talk with non-saved people in the community when opportunities arise to proclaim the majesty of God? Do you maybe you have find yourself praying for Christian’s and offering apologies like “I am so sorry that happened” with your non-Christian friends and co-workers and neighbors? Do you find it easier to see God at work with the your family or church family but only as luck or good fortune to the non-saved? We sometimes find ourselves not invoking and “pushing” our God into their life. This is not what God desires. If we are to worship God as David says we are to worship God, we will proclaim the works and character of God to the world and not change our language because they may not understand or become upset and uneasy. Psalm 145:10 says “10 All Your works shall give thanks to You, O Lord, And Your godly ones shall bless You.” In Psalm 145:12 David says “12 To make known to the sons of men Your mighty acts And the glory of the majesty of Your kingdom.” Christian, we cannot live inauthentic lives and fail to be gripped by the majesty and character of God! Rather we must be gripped by God’s glory! When we are gripped by God’s glory we cannot not speak of God’s abundant goodness and greatness!

We discuss all types of topics throughout a day. How often is God a part of our discussions? Do you talk about God at all during the day? If not, your awe and wonder of God is lacking! Your worship is faltering! We should never have a day go by that does not have God as part of our discussion. God should be involved in the discussion of parents with their children, a husband with their wife, a friend with a friend, with our neighbors, with one another as a church family. When worship is ignited in a person’s heart God will always be a part of their daily conversations. The more we meditate on God the more we understand and know God. This results in more conversation to be had about God and how his works and character impact our lives.

Coming back to Psalm 145:12, it is not only to one another we are to proclaim the works of God. It is to all the sons of men, to all creation. We need to let the world know that they too can experience the goodness and greatness of God through a personal relationship with Him. The greatest work God has ever done is sending Jesus Christ to die on the cross for the sins of the world. We need to proclaim the glory and majesty of God’s kingdom! We need to proclaim the greatness of salvation through Christ. We need to proclaim the greatness of Jesus’ coming kingdom. God is faithful and gracious. The world needs to hear and see it!

Are you proclaiming the greatness of God? One way we can proclaim God’s greatness is with exuberant joy and song.

Sing God’s Greatness

I am sure all of us here can think of a time in life that we received a gift or a significant situation took place or you accomplished something difficult. Think to that moment and the joy that flooded your heart and soul. I remember when Liz walked down the aisle 16 years ago and the joy that I had as I took her hand and 30 minutes later we walked out Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Love to live the rest of our lives together for God’s glory. I remember the tears of joy when Chloe, Ella, and Owen were born. With the advance of AI it is not hard to compile a song even based on scripture to proclaim the joy I have in these scenarios. As God’s children we are blessed—Psalm 128:1, 4—to have a relationship with God. We are blessed to have an awe of God and walk in his ways. If we are blessed than why not sing out the majesty of God!

Psalm 128:1 “1 How blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, Who walks in His ways.” Psalm 128:4 “4 Behold, for thus shall the man be blessed Who fears the Lord.”

If we have a proper worship and focus on the proper object—God’s works and character—we will want to sing out praise and honor to God. It will not matter if we carry a tune or not.

David in Psalm 145:7 (“7 They shall eagerly utter the memory of Your abundant goodness And will shout joyfully of Your righteousness.”) speaks to gushing forth with joyful singing because of God’s goodness and righteousness. Can you honestly say that your life this morning is gushing forth in joyful singing because of who God is and what God has done and is doing and will do? Do you gush forth the testimonies of God in song?

Are you here this morning and you are struggling with anxiety and fear? It is understandable humanly why you are anxious and fearful. We live in a world of fighting and anger. We live in a world that hates God and god’s values. We live in a world that sees true as relative and whatever someone wants truth to be. Wars are taking place, violence is happening, and the price of living has increased.

We live in an anxious and fearful world. The remedy for that is intentionally celebrating in the daily greatness and grace of God! Zephaniah 3:17 says (“17 “The Lord your God is in your midst, A victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.”) that God will rejoice over us one day as he did with Israel. He rejoices over the one who repents and believes in Christ. He rejoices over our obedience. He is always in our midst! Romans 8:36–37 (“36 Just as it is written, “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.”) explains that because of God’s love we do not face condemnation but are justified and one day will be glorified. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. There is no greater conqueror to anxiety and fear than joy and peace! The joy and peace that comes from placing God’s great works and character as the object of our worship! Meditating on and proclaiming them every day of our life. Singing the greatness of God will warm your heart and bring joy and peace that cannot be explained.

Knowing God should make you happy and make you want to sing no matter what you sound like. Harmony and melody are not necessary to celebrate the greatness of God. Part of our worship is joyfully singing praise to God and exulting him as we bow low. It is celebrating God’s coming kingdom! It is coming and we need to be joyfully singing because we have the privilege as God’s children if you have trusted Christ to be a part of the kingdom. Knowing God and singing God’s praises will bring joy. God is the King of kings! He is our King!

In this messy and chaotic world singing God’s greatness will get you through the anxiety and fear. We need to be intentionally celebrating the greatness and grace of God daily!

I am going to reach out to the men in our church for a moment. Emulate God! Emulate the joy of being God’s child! Fathers, your character will give a picture of God to your children. Grandfather, you will give a picture to your grandchildren. As men in this church let us take the lead in joyfully singing the greatness of God and proclaiming it from generation to generation. Church, may our singing be full and rich not because we like or do not like a song but because we love knowing God! Because we love meditating on God! Because we love proclaiming God! Because we love singing glory to God!

III. The Reward of Our Worship—Continued Worship of God Alone! (4)

From generation to generation—the reward is that people like you and I will hear of the wonderful works of God and have their hearts cleansed and have a awe of God and worship of God where they will declare it to another. The reward is God and worship of God. The reward is the opportunity to worship God as He has chosen to have us serve him so that others can serve him! The proclaiming of God’s great works from generation to generation is stated twice. He states it in verse 4 and again in verse 13. It is harder to see in our English translations but verse 13 ends with the same phrase “from generation to generation.”

Verse 4 shows us God’s blueprint and method to extend his worship from generation to generation. Verse 13 provides the assurance of the blueprint carrying on into eternity. God’s greatness will be proclaimed. That is not in doubt. Will you and I be a participant? What are you doing to proclaim the greatness of God’s works to the next generation? What are you doing to encourage those who have come after you with the works of God?

See the reward of our worship is that God continues to be worshipped. It is the excitement of sharing God’s greatness with others. IT is the joy and peace from knowing God. John Piper said this concerning passing it on from generation to generation:

Exalting Jesus in Psalms 101–150 Commend God’s Goodness to the next Generation (145:4–7)

It is the Biblical duty of every generation of Christians to see to it that the next generation hears about the mighty acts of God. God does not drop a new Bible from heaven on every generation. He intends that the older generation will teach the newer generation to read and think and trust and obey and rejoice. It’s true that God draws near personally to every new generation of believers, but he does so through the Biblical truth that they learn from the preceding generations. (“One Generation”)

Israel would have thought about God’s great work in delivering them from Egypt and the wilderness. They would have thought about the time of the judges. For us today it is the salvation story we think of, it is God’s freeing us from slavery to sin to slavery to Christ! We meditate on God’s work of sanctification in the believer’s life from day to day. It is the wonderous and great works of God that we must be praising and proclaiming to the next generation and that generation to the next generation and so on.

God receiving praise and worship will continue on throughout eternity will you choose to let the awe and wonder of the greatness of God and his works strip you of your own selfishness and begin worshipping God as we have looked at this morning?

Conclusion

A song was written in 2016 talking about the holiness of God

Who else commands all the hosts of heaven? Who else could make every king bow down? Who else can whisper and darkness trembles? Only a Holy God

What other beauty demands such praises? What other splendor outshines the sun? What other majesty rules with justice? Only a Holy God

Come and behold Him The One and the Only Cry out, sing holy Forever a Holy God Come and worship the Holy God (Only a Holy God by CityAlight)

Our God deserves and demands our worship. He created us with the capacity to worship and provided himself as the object for our worship. Through our worship we are to proclaim his greatness from generation to generation! He is the GREAT GOD!

O Great God (Chorus) - This song speaks to the greatness of God. The verses speak to the great work of salvation. The song writer then gives this as the refrain:

You are worthy to be praised With my every thought and deed O great God of highest heaven Glorify Your Name through me

We are all here today because someone shared with us the greatness of God. We must tell others about the greatness of God. First Baptist Church, it is because of this, we must let the awe of our great and good God ignite a heart of consistent worship to Him.