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We praise the Lord for His blessings,
and we should praise Him for who He is. For example, He is
righteous, gracious, and faithful. He's also King. What is involved in praising
God as King? Well, the answer to that is in
Psalm 145. I want you to turn with me to
that passage. It's written by David, and he's
praising God as king. That's a different idea. What's
going on? Matter of fact, I should point
out while you're finding that passage, that we're in 145. That means we have six Psalms
to go before we hit the end of this altar. And all of these
last six Psalms are praise Psalms. Every one of them is praise. The word praise appears 46 times
in these six Psalms. Psalm 145 is an acrostic. Each verse begins with a successive
letter of the Hebrew alphabet, except one letter is missing. but basically it's an acrostic. One author said, he offered an
explanation for that missing letter, and he said, I cannot
but conclude that the gap is meant to remind us that in fact
the fullness of praise is not complete without other voices.
are those other voices which are not found here, and that
those missing voices are those of the church and the heavenly
saints in general." I'm not sure that's the explanation. I just
thought it was cute. There's a missing voice. Maybe
that's ours. Another is said, In the psalm,
there is no development or plot or building of intensity. Indeed,
it is essentially static in form, articulating what is enduring
truth of the world. What is true at the beginning
of the psalm is still true at the end. What is true from the
beginning to the end is that way the Lord securely governs,
and that can be counted on. We are given a series of affirmations
that could be rearranged without taking away from the intent.
This is Israel in its most trustful, innocent, childlike faith. So, the superscription simply
reads, a praise of David. So, how do you praise God as
King? That's the subject of this psalm.
Well, the first thing he does is he praises the greatness of
God. Look at verse 1. I extol you,
my God, O King, and I will bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you. I
will praise your name forever and ever. In other words, David
bowed to praise the Lord, his King, and praise his name every
day forever. Notice the opening line. I will
exalt you, O my God, O King. That's critical to this Psalm. So, When one has come to the
point of knowing the Lord in a personal way, the desire to
sing His praises and to sing it often becomes very strong. You get to know the Lord as God
and King, and you want to praise Him. Verse 3 says, Great is the
Lord, and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable. Verse three is the theme of praise. Matthew Henry said, God's greatness
cannot be comprehended. When we cannot, by searching,
find the bottom, we must sit at the brink and adore the depth. Ah, great is the Lord. His greatness is unsearchable. You're looking, you're sitting
at the brink and adoring the depth. Someone has said the greatness
of the Lord is unfathomable. No one can plunder its depth. So he's praising God for his
greatness, which he says is unsearchable. Or look at verse four. Our generation
shall praise your works to another and shall declare your mighty
acts. David says parents should declare
God's greatness acts to their children. The song should never
die. One generation should praise
your works to another. You should praise the Lord to
your children, one generation to another. Verse five, I will
meditate on this glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wondrous
works. The psalmist himself, will gladly,
gleefully meditate on the glorious splendors of God's majesty and
revealed in his wondrous works of deliverance. So the psalmist
is praising the greatness of God. Again, verse six, man shall
speak of the might of your awesome acts and I will declare your
greatness. You hear it again and again,
do you see it? I will declare your greatness. Your greatness is unsearchable,
verse three. I will meditate on your glorious
splendor and your wondrous works, verse five. And now I will declare
your greatness. All of this is simply I'm praising
the greatness of God, period. Man shall rehearse the power
of God's awesome act of judgment, and David will continue to declare
the Lord's greatness. Verse 7, they shall utter the
memory of your great goodness and shall sing of your righteousness. Again, we're talking about God's
greatness. So if you want to analyze this
Psalm and understand it, then verses 1 to 7 are all saying
basically, I'm praising God for His greatness. So it's the greatness
of God that you praise. That's said over and over again.
Spurgeon said, the text calls for a sacred flattery, and I
would exhort you to liberally to exercise it when you are speaking
of the goodness of God. or another, people everywhere
will enthusiastically pour out the frame of the Lord's great
goodness and the greatness of his righteousness will be the
theme of joyful singing. Praise God. I will declare your
greatness. Now, when you get to verse eight,
there's a switch. Notice it says, the Lord is gracious
and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy."
Now, it is unmistakable that as you're reading the passage,
it's over and over again refers to greatness and all of a sudden
it switches to another subject and it is graciousness. So the first seven verses talk
about God's greatness and verses eight through 9, talk about His
grace. The Lord is gracious. Verses 8 and 9 are a classic
expression of praise for God's grace. David moves from considering
the greatness of God's acts to reflecting, someone has said,
on His motivating attritude. attitudes. God's grace is his
favor and divine enablement that he gives to those who do not
deserve it. His mercy is the forbearance
he demonstrates to those who deserve his wrath, his patience
to those who arouse his anger with their sinning. His loyal
love is amazingly strong and long lasting. In other words,
God's gracious. He's great, powerful, but he's
gracious. Spurgeon said, what an ocean
of compassion there must be since the infinite God is full of it. What a statement. Let me repeat
that. What an ocean of compassion,
an ocean, what a phrase, an ocean of compassion. There must be
since the infinite God is full of it. So think of the vast Pacific
Ocean as an ocean of compassion. I love that. The Lord's greatness
extends to his grace and compassion. He is great in his self-control
and great in his mercy because he's slow to anger. All right,
he says something similar in verse nine, the Lord is good
to all and his tender mercies are all over all his works. Now again, it was his greatness
in the first seven verses and in verses eight and nine, it's
his grace and mercy. He's gracious in verse eight,
he's good in verse nine, but verse nine mentions his mercy
as well. So the Lord is good to everyone, even sending rain
and many other blessings on the just as well as the unjust. His
goodness extends to all without discrimination. He is compassionate
toward all of his creatures without exception. The great God, verses
one to seven, is gracious, verses eight and nine. Does that sum
up those nine verses or what? The great God gracious. Now, he changes subjects again
in verse 10. All your works shall praise you,
O Lord, and your saints shall bless you. Now, as will become
evident, he's now going to talk about God's glorious kingdom. That's not as evident in verse
10 as it is in verse 11. They shall speak of the glory
of your kingdom. You see that? So we're no longer
talking about God's greatness or his graciousness. We're talking
about his glorious kingdom. Now notice, I'm taking these
words right out of the psalm. He uses those very expressions,
greatness, grace in verse eight, and glorious kingdom in verse
11. So let's go back and start this
section where it begins in verse 10. All your work shall praise
you, O Lord, and your saints shall bless you. He exercises
his power under the constraint of his mercy. Matthew Henry commenting
on this said, all of God's works do praise him, as the beautiful
building praises the builder, as the well-drawn picture praises
the painter." Isn't that cute? All God's works praise him like
a beautiful building praises the architect. Well said. All of his works give thanks
to him, though they do it inaudibly. Their very existence demonstrates
his wisdom and power. His saints join in blessing him
for his infinite perfection. Because God is good and compassionate
to all, all his works and all his saints praise him. Now, look at verse 11. They shall speak of the glory
of your kingdom. Now stop for a minute. Look at
verse 10, all your work shall praise you. Verse 11 tells praise
you for what? The glory of your kingdom. So
let me pause and say one more time, repetition is one of the
laws of learning, that the divisions of this psalm, or you're gonna
praise God, it starts out, we're praising you as king. All right,
what does that mean? Praise him for his greatness,
praise him for his grace, and praise him for his glorious kingdom.
That's the outline, and there is more, which we will see as
we go through the rest of the psalm. But let's pick up the
glorious kingdom in verse 11. They shall speak of the glory
of your kingdom and talk of your power and make known to the sons
of men his mighty acts and his glorious majesty of his kingdom. God's faithful and consistent
control of all things from one generation to the next call for
praise of his eternal reign. He rules over all with power
and glory. People speak of the great king
of his kingdom because of his wondrous acts. The universal,
eternal rule of God is in view here, rather than the kingdom
he's going to set up when Christ returns. The saints praise would
include their gratitude for his kingdom. He says in verse 13,
your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and your dominion endures
throughout all generations. Now he's introduced in verse
10 and going through verse 13, the glorious kingdom. And he now says, that your kingdom
is an everlasting kingdom. It's going to last forever. So saints should praise God for
his eternal kingdom and make it known to others. Your kingdom
is an everlasting kingdom and your dominion endures throughout
all generations. So praise God for his glorious
kingdom. Now, so far, we've seen three
things for which we should praise God. His greatness, His grace,
and His glorious kingdom. There's a fourth. Look at verse
14. The Lord upholds all who fall
and raises up all who bow down. The eyes of all look expectantly
to you. and you give them food in due
season. You open your hand and satisfy
desire of every living thing." Now, these verses seem to be
talking about God's goodness. That word does not appear in
these verses, granted, But it seems to be saying that the Lord
upholds all who fall and rise up all who bow down. Well, that's
not so much his greatness or his glorious kingdom. Maybe you
could call it his grace. But given the other things he
says in this group of verses, I think maybe goodness is a good
word. God consistently sustains the
falling, uplifts the oppressed and provides for all. The Lord
is great in his preservation of those who are going down under
the burden of life. He raises up those who buckle
under the pressure and problems of life. Verse 15, the eyes of
all look expectantly to you and you give them food in due season. Every person looks to God for
his provision of his needs, and God meets them when they do.
He is great in his provision. His creatures look to him in
dependence and in expectation, and he provides their food. Verse 16, you open your hand
and satisfy the desires of every living thing. All right, since
God's dominion is everlasting, he cares for his creatures faithfully
and lovingly all the time. One author said, God opens his
hand and satisfies all creation, but he must purchase the church
with his blood in what a variety of ways are our wants supplied,
end of quote. So with no great effort other
than opening his hand, he feeds his numberless creatures throughout
the universe. He satisfies their desires. These are the characteristics
of the one whose dominion lasts forever. Verse 13, since God's
kingdom is over all, he is king. And as king, he provides all
sustenance. and sustaining the falling, rising
up the oppressed, and giving them food. Now, I would like
to suggest that there is one more characteristic of God that
is mentioned in these verses. Beginning in verse 17 and going
through the end of the chapter in verse 21, it seems to me The Lord is talking about his
generosity. He says in verse 17, the Lord
is righteous in all his ways, gracious in all of his works. Now the Hebrew word translated
gracious here is different than the one translated gracious in
verse eight. The one in verse 17, the one
here means fateful. He is great in his righteousness
and kindness. Nothing he does is wrong or unmerciful. Only in God do these virtues
perfectly unite. He says the Lord is near to all
who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. So he's attentive
to those who pray to him sincerely. He is great in his condensation
and availability, always near to those who sincerely seek him.
Therefore, he answers the prayers of the needy, those who fear
him and love him, when they call on him. Verse 19, he will fulfill
the desire of those who fear him. He will hear their cry and
save them. He grants the petition of believers
and will deliver them in a time of need. He is great in his salvation
and deliverance. No one who approaches him in
contrition and faith will ever be turned away. Verse 20, the
Lord preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy. He will protect those who love
him, but destroy those who do not. He is great in His watch
care over all who love Him. He invites them to cast all of
their care upon Him. But He's great in wrath to the
wicked. One more verse. His mouth shall
speak the praise of the Lord, and all flesh shall bless His
holy name forever and ever. For these reasons, David said,
He would praise the Lord and all the people will praise him
forever. David's mind was made up. He
would praise the great God forever. He would exhort everyone else
to do the same. Which leads to the idea that
we should all praise the Lord. While all the rest of the universe
is praising the Lord, we should do the same. The psalm is a great
category of reasons to praise God. Like other acrostic psalms,
it is a model for us to use in recording the many things that
God has done for which we should praise Him. Now, as we've gone
through the psalms, I've mentioned all these things for which we
should praise Him. So let me sum up those things, just in
case you missed them. and we don't remember them because
there are too many. When you praise God as King,
that started out the psalm, praising for his greatness, his grace,
his glorious kingdom, his goodness, and his generosity. Did you get
that? A long list. Greatness, grace,
glorious kingdom, goodness, and generosity. Wow. Notice how often this Psalm refers
to all. It's in verse 9 twice. It's in
verse 10, verse 13, verse 14 twice, verse 15, 17, 18, 20 twice,
21. God is king over all. And so he should be praised for
his greatness, his grace, his glorious kingdom, his goodness
and his generosity. As king who rules over all an
eternal kingdom, God is good and gracious to all and therefore
should be praised by all. The Duke of Wellington, the British
military leader who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, was not
an easy man to serve under. He was brilliant, demanding,
and no one to show his subordinate with complaints, shower his subordinate
sachet with compliments. Yet even Willington realized
that his method left something to be desired. In his old age,
a young lady asked him what, if anything, he would do differently
if he had his life to live over again. Wellington thought for
a moment and then replied, I would give more praise. Now, no doubt he meant that he
would praise people more, which is not a bad idea. But I would
say the same thing about praising the Lord. We thank him for our
food. We thank him for answered prayer. What we need to do is praise
him for more of his attributes, such as his greatness, his grace,
his goodness, his generosity, and his coming glorious kingdom. Father, we admit, confess that
we're remiss in doing this. We often thank you for your gifts
without thanking you, the giver, for who you are. And we've not
always thanked you for your greatness, your generosity, or your glorious
coming kingdom. Lord, thank you for this reminder
that we should not only thank you for what you've done for
us, but who you are in Jesus name. Amen.
19-145. When You Praise God as King
Series 19 - Psalms
| Sermon ID | 822303443778 |
| Duration | 26:35 |
| Date | |
| Category | Teaching |
| Bible Text | Psalm 145 |
| Language | English |
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