Please turn with me in God's holy word to the book of Psalms, and our text this evening is Psalm 145. Psalm 145. This portion of scripture is Very rich, as all God's Word is, and we will not have time this evening to look in detail at all 21 of these verses, but we will look at sections of this psalm and hopefully give a good understanding of each verse, seeing how it fits with these sections. We'll read the psalm and then we'll dig in. Hear now the word of the living God. A song of praise of David. I will extol you my God and king. Bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. 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. The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. 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. 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. 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. 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. My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless His holy name forever and ever." Thus ends the reading of God's Word. Let's pray. Oh, Lord, you are worthy to be praised. And so come by your spirit, Lord, and stir us up with this portion of your word. Take this, the very word of your mouth, and speak it to our hearts. O Lord, that indeed we would be stirred, as David was, Lord, to praise you, to extol your name, to speak of your praise, to be crying to you, to be looking to you, to be living for you, because you are worthy, O Lamb of God. We make our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, this rich psalm is a call for us to praise God. We see that in the title, A Song of Praise of David. Now, we need to jump over to the New Testament quickly because I want you to see what the Apostle Peter said David understood about the Redeemer. And so if you'll turn with me to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. And here the Apostle Peter now is describing for us the event that took place when the Lord Jesus, after He ascended up into heaven, He was crucified there around the time of the Passover. And then the feast of the beginning of the harvest was going to be celebrated. And it was a very fitting reminder to God's people that indeed the risen Savior had begun the harvest. the harvest of the world, of the gospel going forth. And the Lord Jesus poured forth in fulfillment of the prophet Joel what took place on the day of Pentecost. The people that were gathered there to celebrate these feasts, you can read in Acts chapter 2 verse 1, when the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place, talking about the Christians. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind. and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as a fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them." And so two things, first of all, over in the book of Ezekiel chapter 37, Chapter 36 as well, the Lord said that He would pour forth His Spirit, that when Messiah would come, that there would be life given to God's people. And in chapter 37 of Ezekiel, the whole nation of Israel is pictured as just a bunch of dried, dead, dusty, crumbling bones. And God tells Ezekiel, to preach the Word of God to the bones. Oh, dry bones, hear the Word of the Lord. And then God tells Ezekiel not only to preach the Word of God to the dead bones, but to pray, to speak to the Spirit and cry to the Spirit to come. And the word for spirit and breath is the same Hebrew word. It's the Hebrew word ruach. And here the spirit comes, the wind comes. And God's presence is what makes these dead bones alive. And so they hear the wind coming like a mighty wind. And then they see the manifestation of the presence of God. And when God delivered His people from bondage in Egypt, you remember there was a physical manifestation of the glory of God. There was the pillar of cloud by day. and the pillar of fire by night. And that was the manifestation of God's presence that protected them from Pharaoh and his army. Pharaoh couldn't get at them. They hadn't crossed the Red Sea yet. And the Lord came down and stood between Pharaoh and the children of Israel. And then the Lord led them Those 40 years through the wilderness when the tabernacle was built by the direction of God Almighty through His servant Moses, it was called the Tent of Meeting. And the cloud would come down and would rest upon the tabernacle. symbolizing God's presence. Well, here we see in Acts 2 these little pillars of fire resting upon each of these believers. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues. And it tells us that there were in... well, we'll just keep reading in verse 4. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together and they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? It would be like if you went to the flea market here in Tazewell, and you're walking in the flea market, and you know there's people, you know, like me. And you hear fluent French and German and Swahili and Norwegian and And you're going, whoo, I have never heard that at the flea market. And so that's what was going on. And we see in verse 6, how is it that we hear each of us in his own native language, Parthians and Medes, Elamites, and he lists all these different nations. Look down in verse 11, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. They were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, what does this mean? But others, mocking Sid, they are filled with new one. But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them, men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give ear to my words, for these people are not drunk as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day." He said it's nine o'clock. That's not what's going on here. These people are not drunk. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. And then we have this wondrous quote from Joel chapter 2, that when Messiah would come, the Spirit of God would be poured out by Messiah upon the people, and old and young and men and women would be filled with the Spirit and would speak the mighty praises of God. And then at the end of this quote, we don't have time to look at the particulars of it, but he says, I'll pour out my spirit in verse 18, and then verse 21, and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And the rest of Peter's sermon is explaining who that Lord is, what is the name that we must call upon to be saved. And so, Peter goes on, verse 22, men of Israel hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst. As you yourselves know, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it, for David says concerning him. And now we have a quote from Psalm 16. And earlier in our series, looking at various Psalms, we've looked at Psalm 16, and we looked at this passage, and Peter's point is, down in verse 29, Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day. David is speaking Messiah's words in Psalm 16 and says, you will not let my flesh undergo decay. You will not let Your holy ones see corruption." And Peter's point is, David's not talking about himself. And Peter points to David's tomb there in Jerusalem. He says, I'll prove to you David wasn't talking about himself. Because his tomb is here in Jerusalem to this very day. Who was he talking about? Well, Peter goes home. Verse 30, But therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. Peter says, there is one whose flesh did not undergo corruption. It is the Son of God come in the flesh. That's who David was talking about. And when David wrote Psalm 16, He looked ahead and saw that His descendant, Messiah, would not only die, but be raised from the dead. And not only be raised from the dead, but be seated upon His throne. Being a prophet, knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh seek corruption. This Jesus God raised up. And of that we all are witnesses, and therefore being exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Again, another Psalm of David, Psalm 110. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucify. Well, it says that they were cut to the heart when they heard this because they realized that they were guilty of participating in demanding that Messiah be put to death. And they cried out, brothers, what should we do? And of course, the gospel message is repent and believe in Jesus. There is forgiveness, no matter what we have done or been, if we repent and turn to Jesus, there is forgiveness. And so this Psalm 145 was penned by this man, David. who had this incredible blessing of these insights into the Savior who would come in the fullness of time. And this King that David is talking about is not himself. It's not his son Solomon, although they were glorious kings, but the king he's going to be talking about in Psalm 145 is a king who has the power and the wisdom and the grace and the mercy to save. It is none other than this one that David foresaw, that Peter talks about in Acts 2, who was willing to lay down his life and be raised from the dead and be seated at the Father's right hand. And so, let's look quickly now at this Psalm 145. First of all, we have a call to praise God. I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever." Now, one other just little neat tidbit that you, unless you know Hebrew and are reading this psalm in Hebrew, this psalm is an acrostic poem. And each verse of this psalm begins with the succeeding letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Each of these verses begins, Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Dalet, and so forth, all through this psalm. and we would say from a to z okay and that's not the hebrew alphabet but that's our alphabet and david now is talking about the glory of God in giving His Son to be our Redeemer. And this psalm is talking about the mercy of God, the presence of God to save us in Christ. And so it begins with this call to praise the God of the Bible, who is the Redeemer. I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. God is worthy to be praised forever. Do you ever struggle with your heart growing cold, weary, tired? Do you ever find yourself thinking, and I learned quickly that this was something I ought not ever say out loud around my daddy. If he ever heard me say, I'm bored. He would quickly say, well, son, I can help you with that. I've got a cure for that. And I learned quickly that it was best for me just to keep that to myself. But even as adults, we find ourselves at times losing perspective. on who God is and who we are and what life is all about. And so this psalm is a reminder to us that the totality of life is included in God calling us from A to Z, the totality of our life, to know and love and follow and serve the living God. Forever and ever God is worthy to be praised. Verse two, every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. Why do we want to praise God? Why are we stirred to praise God forever, to bless His name every day? Look at verse 3. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, because our God is great. His greatness is unsearchable. Look at verse 4. Not only do we want to praise God, but we want The next generation to praise God. One generation shall commend or praise your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts. And so, those mighty acts, those mighty works that God has done specifically are first and foremost, the Bible. all of the great events that God has recorded for us in His Word. Creation, the fall, the announcement of redemption, the flood, God sparing Noah and his family, the Tower of Babel, God calling Abraham to be the father of his people, and then how the Lord saved his people in Joseph, and then the exodus, and then we had the conquest of the land, and the period of the judges, and then the kings. And then finally, in the fullness of time, Messiah himself appears. That is what our hearts need to be dwelling upon. The Word of God, first and foremost. But then, also, singing the new song. We sang Psalm 98. Oh, sing a new song. What's the new song? It's the fresh applications of the truths about who God is to our day. And we are praising God for what He's doing in our own hearts and lives and around us. And we want the next generation and the generations after that to join with us because God is so good. Verse 5, On the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wondrous works I will meditate. that proclamation that we read together last Lord's Day from 1777. What a startling testimony it was. The Congress of the United States passed that proclamation and it was a reference to who the God of the Bible is. It says it is the superintending duty of all men. It is the duty of all men to adore the superintending providence of Almighty God. God the Father is referenced. God the Son is referenced. That we need to confess our sins to Him. And they even quote a portion of Scripture from Romans chapter 14, verse 7, where we read about the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and joy in the Holy Ghost. That's the kingdom that David is talking about. And God has given to us this testimony. And he wants us to hold Jesus dear and to be telling the next generation, the mighty deeds of God. Look at verse 6. They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness. Here you have your children and your grandchildren joining with to praise God, to speak His greatness, look at verse 7, they shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness. We're not just saying God's good, but we're saying God is famous for His goodness. God is famous and we ought to be just enthralled with who our God is. We are called to sing aloud of God's righteousness. Do you sing in your homes? God calls upon you to sing. He calls upon us to sing, not only when we're gathered together here. God is worthy to be praised. Not just one day out of the year. I love Thanksgiving. Glorious holiday. Oh, it makes me happy to think that we have a country that has such a heritage. But it's sad. The president, our current president, he did not even mention the name of God in the Thanksgiving proclamation this year. It's shocking. Horrifying. Who are we to give thanks to? Well, the Lord tells us. Look at verse 8. The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and His mercy is over all that He has made. And in light of the mercy of God in the Lord Jesus Christ, His saving work on the cross, His mighty hand being displayed from His throne in heaven before our very eyes in this day. What should our response be? Verse 10. All your work shall give thanks to you, O Lord. Here we see this call to give thanks to God. And all your saints shall bless you. And that's true not only on Thanksgiving Day, but it is something that ought to just characterize our lives. We ought to be known as a thanking people. People who just can't say thank you enough to God first and foremost, but also to one another. Our lives ought to be peppered with gratitude to Almighty God and showing thankfulness to God for all the blessings. Verse 11, they shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power. And that kingdom has broken into human history. Jesus is the King of Glory. And as we sang this morning, Psalm 24, we delight to fling our hearts wide open to the King. Say, welcome, Lord Jesus. We do that in our homes. Lord Jesus, we delight to have you the King of Glory reigning in our hearts, reigning in our homes, reigning in our church family, reigning in the workplace, reigning in this nation, furthering the gospel to the ends of the earth. And so we're called to speak of the glory of God's kingdom and tell of His power. And who do we tell? Verse 12, to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. Your dominion endures throughout all generations. I wish we had time to go over to the book of Daniel, chapter 4. Here was a very powerful, brutal king. His name was Nebuchadnezzar. And he forgot who was in charge. He thought he was in charge. And the Lord humbled this arrogant, pompous rascal of a man. And God warned him. Gave him a dream. Daniel interpreted the dream. And when he heard the dream, Daniel said, oh king, he said, you need to take this to heart. You need to humble yourself before the God of heaven. And we need to take that to heart. As individuals, as families, we need to take to heart, we're not in charge. The King of Glory reigns. In the church, we need to remember Jesus is the King in the head. And in our country, our civil rulers need to remember who the King of Kings is and the Lord of Lords. Well, David, he says, your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. Your dominion endures throughout all generations. Now some of the manuscripts don't have the last part of verse 13. You'll find it elsewhere in the scripture. We're not going to take the time to talk about this particular variant. But the Lord is faithful in all of his words. And there are many passages in the book of Deuteronomy and the Psalms and the New Testament. The Lord Jesus said that heaven and earth would not pass away until all was fulfilled in God's Word. And indeed, this Psalm itself declares that God is kind in all of His works, down in verse 17. Verse 14, the Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down. What an incredible God the God of the Bible is. The world says, now we're only going to pay attention to the people who are powerful or popular or have lots of possessions. But the Lord has regard for those who are humble before Him, and crying for His mercy in the name of the Christ. Look at verse 15. 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. The beasts of the earth, they understand who feeds them. We ought to be humble before the Lord. Look at verse 17. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works. Oh, the old hymn, "'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take him at his word, just to rest upon his promise, just to know, thus saith the Lord. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust you, how I've proved you o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, oh for grace to trust you more. Verse 19, he fulfills the desire of those who fear him. There are other Psalms that talk about how that the Lord will give us the desires of our heart if we delight ourselves in Him. Psalm 34. This Psalm is reminding us of the mercy of God in Christ. Verse 20, the Lord preserves all who love Him. As we saw this morning, where is the Christian going to end up? By the grace of God, we are going to end up in heaven where the Lord Jesus will wipe away the tears from our eyes and welcome us into His glorious home. We will be home. And between now and then, the Lord promises to take care of us. Oh, what a comfort. This psalm is, the Lord preserves all who love Him. But then we see in verse 20, but all the wicked He will destroy. If they do not repent and turn to Jesus, if they spurn the offer of mercy that God graciously holds His hands, Fourth, as we're going to see in the book of Romans, in chapter 10, the Lord talks about how all day long He had stretched out His hands to an obstinate people. The Lord Jesus wept over Jerusalem. At the end of Matthew chapter 23, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, those who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to her, how often would I have gathered you like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and yet you were unwilling. And so here's this warning that God has recorded, calling upon each of us, we don't want to live against the King of Glory that has been just a little glimpse of His glory in this psalm. But all the wicked He will destroy. And so the take-home message in verse 21, my mouth will speak the praise of the Lord. And let all flesh bless His holy name forever and ever. And so I pray that God will revive my heart and your heart as we begin a new week to live for the King of glory. Our privilege is to run errands for the King. That's what we're going to be doing all week. Jesus is sending us forth to live for Him. to run for His praise, to eat, to drink, to talk, to work, to do our chores, to do our schoolwork, to play, all for His glory. And we want to praise His holy name. Why? Because our God is great. He is worthy to be thanked. Father, we thank you for this psalm. We thank you that your word is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. And we pray that you would write it upon our hearts, that, Lord, we wouldn't be cold and indifferent to you, our great God. Lord, please deliver us from thinking and acting like I'm bored with life. Oh Lord God, it's so easy for all of us to lose sight of your greatness and glory and goodness. And we do thank you that you are gracious and merciful and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Thank you that you are good and your mercy is over all. Lord God, write these things upon our hearts and bless us now as we sing praise to the one who has come to deliver us. The one that reigns on high, holding us in his nailed scarred hands. The one who will come again in glory to end history and make all things new in your good time. In Jesus we pray, amen.