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.