Psalms 145

FBMeyer

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Psalms 145:1-9

God’ s Unsearchable Greatness Psalms 145:1-9 This psalm is an acrostic, the verses beginning with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The couplet for the fourteenth letter, Nun, between Psalms 145:13-14, has no place in the text. Some versions have supplied the omission as follows: “ The Lord is faithful in all His words and holy in all His works.” This is virtually a repetition of Psa 145:17. The word all is characteristic of this psalm. It was the Te Deum of the Hebrew Church. The Jews said that its threefold repetition was the best preparation for the praises of the world to come. Speaking of this psalm and those following, Dr. Gilfillan says: “ They are the Beulah of the Book; the sun shineth night and day. Coming at the close of all the prayerful, penitential, and mournful psalms, they unconsciously typify the joy and rest of glory.” The theme of the psalm is God.

He is great, Psalms 145:3; gracious, Psalms 145:8; good, Psalms 145:9; upholdeth, Psalms 145:14; is righteous, Psalms 145:17; is nigh, Psalms 145:18; preserved, Psalms 145:20. And the main aspect of His handiwork is the creation and maintenance of a universe of happy beings who subsist on His bountiful care. His tender mercies are over all His works.

I will extol Thee! This Psalm is a song of thanksgiving and praise on the part of the house of David–and of the Church–after all their tribulations have come to a close. It is an acrostic Psalm, the verse beginning in the Hebrew with the successive letters of the alphabet. Somehow the couplet for the fourteenth letter dropped out of the text as it has come down to us. The Septuagint, however, and other ancient versions (with one Hebrew manuscript), supply the omission thus:–“The Lord is faithful in his words, and holy in all his works., The place of this verse is between Psalms 145:13 and Psalms 145:14 in our English Bibles.

The word all is throughout characteristic of this Praise-source. The Psalm was the Te Deum of the Old Testament and was perhaps the germ of that great Christian hymn. The Jews were accustomed to say that he who could pray this Psalm from the heart three times daily was preparing himself best for the praise of the world to come.

Gilfillan, writing of this and the following Psalms, says, “They are the Beulah of the Book, where the sun shineth night and day, and the voice of the turtle is heard in the land. Coming at the close after all the mournful, plaintive, penitential, prayerful, varying notes, they unconsciously typify the joy and rest of glory.”

Psalms 145:1. I will extol Thee, my God, O King! Praise will be the employment of eternity. There prayer and faith and hope, will not be possible, but we shall bless forever.

Our days of praise shall ne’er be past, While life, and thought, and being last, And immortality endures.

Psalms 145:2. Every day will I bless Thee! Let us not wait for eternity, but begin today. Let us practice on our harps every day, intermitting none, but in dark days as well as in bright! There is always something left to bless God for. There is always Himself. Said the poor old woman at her meager meal, “All this, and Christ!”

Psalms 145:3. His greatness unsearchable The sense is, “His greatness cannot be fathomed.” Out of Christ, men can only find out about God; but they cannot find HIM out.

Psalms 145:4. One generation … To another! The generations as they pass transmit, each to the next, the story of God’s love and power; and so the record can never die (Psalms 44:1; Psalms 78:3).

Psalms 145:5. I will meditate of the glorious majesty of thine honor (R.V.).

Psalms 145:6-7. Men shall speak! … They shall utter! What a tumult of voices! As if the time shall come when the hearts of men shall boil with holy love and their voices rise in song.

Psalms 145:8. The Lord is gracious! Founded on his own proclamation (Exodus 34:6-7). We set to our seal that God is true. Psalms 145:9. The Lord is good Even to the worst; even towards the most insignificant. Tender mercy is the blue canopy which arches over all.

Psalms 145:10. All thy works shall praise Thee! Creation praises God, but not with intelligence. Hence the saints are called upon to interpret her, and to express what she would say but cannot.

Psalms 145:13. Thy kingdom is a kingdom of all eternities, is a sound translation. It will survive the mightiest kingdoms of this world and “stand forever” (Daniel 2:44).

Psalms 145:14. The Lord upholdeth all that fall What a contrast to the preceding majesty! (Psalms 145:5-7; Psalms 146:8).

Psalms 145:16. Thou openest thine hand To supply the wants of creation He has but to open his hand. In God we are satisfied.

Psalms 145:17. The Lord is righteous In all his dealings with us may we have the faith to dare to say this!

Psalms 145:18-19.The Lord is nigh unto all them that callWhat pathos! What exquisite comfort! How nigh He comes! Yet none but the devout soul hears his footfall. He will fulfil the desire. He first instils the desire and then fulfils it.

Psalms 145:21. My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord Holy praise is contagious, from lonely hearts to all flesh (Revelation 5:11-13).

Psalms 145:10-21

God’ s Bountiful Provision Psalms 145:10-21 There is more happiness in the world than we are disposed to think. God’ s works give praise to Him. Take, for instance, the gladness of one summer day, when from the little green lizards upward there is a perfect murmur of enjoyment in the stilly heat. Shall we not trust God, to whom the care of all things is as easy as the opening of the hand is to us? Psalms 104:28. Psalms 145:13 is graven in the keystone of a very old building in Damascus, once a Christian church but for many centuries a mosque. The words are still true and are nearer historical fulfillment today than ever, Psalms 145:18. The Lord is always nigh, though we do not perceive or realize His presence, and it is good to affirm it as we pray. To utter these words often during one’ s daily life is to practice the presence of God, after the manner of the Christian mystics. But some cannot do as much; they can only desire, Psalms 145:19. But He whose love notices the faintest yearning after Himself will fulfill it. See Psalms 145:19. We shall praise God worthily when we see Him as He is!