Friday, February 9, 2024

Psalm 145 A Praise of David.

 1I will extol You, my God, O King;

And I will bless Your name forever and ever.

2Every day I will bless You,

And I will praise Your name forever and ever.

3Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;

And His greatness is unsearchable.

4One generation shall praise Your works to another,

And shall declare Your mighty acts.

5I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty,

And on Your wondrous works.

6Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts,

And I will declare Your greatness.

7They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness,

And shall sing of Your righteousness.

8The Lord is gracious and full of compassion,

Slow to anger and great in mercy.

9The Lord is good to all,

And His tender mercies are over all His works.

10All Your works shall praise You, O Lord,

And Your saints shall bless You.

11They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom,

And talk of Your power,

12To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts,

And the glorious majesty of His kingdom.

13Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,

And Your dominion endures throughout all generations.

14The Lord upholds all who fall,

And raises up all who are bowed down.

15The eyes of all look expectantly to You,

And You give them their food in due season.

16You open Your hand

And satisfy the desire of every living thing.

17The Lord is righteous in all His ways,

Gracious in all His works.

18The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,

To all who call upon Him in truth.

19He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him;

He also will hear their cry and save them.

20The Lord preserves all who love Him,

But all the wicked He will destroy.

21My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord,

And all flesh shall bless His holy name

Forever and ever.

Preamble: This excerpt from Psalm 145’s Bible Commentary has been copied from the Believers Bible Commentary on Logos Bible study software version 10 (see below)

Psalm 145: The Missing Nun

David’s “Psalm of Praise” is an acrostic, each verse beginning with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. However, in the traditional (Masoretic) Hebrew text, the letter “nun,” corresponding to our “n,” is missing between verses 13 and 14. The ancient Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions add the following: “The Lord is faithful in all His words, and gracious in all His works.” In the twentieth century this same line—the missing “nun” line—was also found in Hebrew in the Dead Sea Scrolls.[1]

Commentary

Vs. 1-3 1I will extol You, my God, O King;

And I will bless Your name forever and ever.

2Every day I will bless You,

And I will praise Your name forever and ever.

3Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;

And His greatness is unsearchable.

David begins with a passionate declaration, saying, that he will extol our God and King, that he will bless His Name forever and ever. For it is by His Name, the Lord Jesus Christ’s Name, that we who believe in Him now have remission of all of our sins and everlasting life (John 3:16; Acts 4:12). This then is the sound of our hearts and the song of all the redeemed, of everyone who has experienced God’s great goodness given us freely through Jesus Christ’s Crucifixion death and His Resurrection from the dead, thus of everyone who now has everlasting life! Everyday then that we now live here on earth is a bonus! Everyday then is a chance to bless His Name and declare His praise, to be His witness and do His works, to reveal our glorious King and His glorious Kingdom of heaven to one and to all, by the lives that we know live as God’s new creations in Christ. For our Lord is great, and He is to be greatly praised, nothing then should be held back in our worship of Him, for His greatness is unsearchable!

Vs. 4One generation shall praise Your works to another,

And shall declare Your mighty acts.

David in his prophetic vision now sees all the generations of the Lord’s redeemed praising the Lord’s works and declaring His mighty acts. Tell all people then what our God has done for you, what He has done through you, wherever and whenever you have a listening ear, tell all people about our Lord and Saviors mighty acts!

Vs. 5I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty,

And on Your wondrous works.

David himself then lead in this, he will not only praise our Lord, but he will meditate on the glorious splendor of Lord and God’s majesty, on all His wonderous works. He then will be captivated by the Lord and not this fleeting world (consider 1 John 2:15-17). How about you?

Vs. 6-7 6Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts,

And I will declare Your greatness.

7They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness,

And shall sing of Your righteousness.

Godly men, righteous men, redeemed people in all generations shall all speak of the might of our Lord’s awesome acts. For the Lord’s mighty acts exceedingly excel all that David’s mighty men ever did (see 1Chr. 11:10-47). Indeed, men in this life always love to extol their own mighty acts, or those of their war heroes, or sports stars, but none of these can even come close to what the Lord our God has done. For all their mighty works throughout their all their lifetimes in all their generations, cannot even come close to what the Lord Jesus Christ did on that faithful Day. For all their works will be forgotten, but the memory of our Lord and Saviors great Work and goodness will never be forgotten! All His works will be held in everlasting remembrance, and of His Righteousness, it will be sung of forever!

Vs. 8The Lord is gracious and full of compassion,

Slow to anger and great in mercy.

The Lord’s greatness is most clearly seen and experienced in His Nature towards us all. For our Lord is always gracious and full of compassion, and He desires the same from us all, for He is not violent, nor easily angered, indeed his soul hates those who love violence (Psalm 11:5), for He is slow to anger, for His desire is never first for judgment, but always mercy, if mercy can be had, for He is great in mercy towards all who call upon Him in truth (Rom. 10:13). If you want and need mercy then come to the One from whom it may be found, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Vs. 9The Lord is good to all,

And His tender mercies are over all His works.

Can there be a more truer statement, I think not. For every living and breathing thing owes its life and existence to Him. And yet we are not mere “things” to Him who loves us and created us. Instead, we are the ones whom His tender mercies go out to. For time and again He renews and refreshes the earth and all things in it and on it, plant life, animal life, and especially our human lives, all have been and are the recipients of His tender mercies over all His works. If it were not for Satan and sin actively destroying, and seeking to destroy us in His creation, we would all be continually experiencing this. Nonetheless the world we live in is broken, and we ourselves have been broken and corrupted by sin, which is why we all need redemption, which we all can have by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who then makes us new creations by God’s Spirit in preparation for His Kingdom and the new heavens and the new earth where righteousness will dwell and God’s tender mercies will always and continually be felt and experienced by all forever!

Vs. 10-13 10All Your works shall praise You, O Lord,

And Your saints shall bless You.

11They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom,

And talk of Your power,

12To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts,

And the glorious majesty of His kingdom.

13Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,

And Your dominion endures throughout all generations.

In response to the Lord’s graciousness towards us all, His own works shall praise Him, yes, all His saints shall bless Him. Indeed, all of the Lords saints shall speak of the glory of the Lord’s Kingdom, which has no end, and of the Lord’s Power which has no limits! And this we will do to make known to the sons of men our Lord’s mighty acts and the glorious majesty of His Kingdom. For the Lord has no equal, and His Kingdom’s majesty cannot be compared to anything on earth, for it to has no equal! For the Lord’s Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and His dominion (rule) endures throughout all generations (now see Daniel 2:44 and 4:1-36, vs. 34-36 where the great Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar declares this and praises Him after the Lord had humbled him, especially see the angel’s prophecy in Luke 1:33 of the Lord Jesus Christ, as well as 1 Tim. 1:17; 1 Peter 1:11 etc.).

Vs. 14The Lord upholds all who fall,

And raises up all who are bowed down.

Moving and captivating are the verses in this Psalm, and this verse in particular is one that reveals to us all just how caring and kind our Lord and Savior is towards all who fall and all who are bowed down (i.e. humble themselves before Him). For in our Lord’s eyes mercy triumphs over judgment (James 2:13). And so, though the world may mock and rejoice when you fall, the Lord does not (Ezekiel 33:11). For He upholds all who fall, and He raises up all who are bowed down, all who are brought low by their life’s circumstances or their sins, our Lord delights in raising men and women up, not running them down (see Psalm 107), saving them, not seeing them condemned (John 3:17; also, Luke 9:56; 19:10 etc.). For the restoration of our persons and souls is His speciality, this is His Purpose in coming to earth, for this is His and all of heavens delight, our salvation and restoration (John 3;16; Luke 15:6-7)! Therefore, He raises up everyone who is brought low who humbles themselves before Him (see 1 Samuel 2:7-8; Psalm 107, vs.41-43; Psalm 113:7-9; 146:8; Ezekiel 33:11; Luke 1:50-55; Luke 15 etc.). Everyone then who turns to Him and believes in Him will be lifted up by Him to new and everlasting life!

Vs. 15-16 15The eyes of all look expectantly to You,

And You give them their food in due season.

16You open Your hand

And satisfy the desire of every living thing.

All of creation then, from the beasts of the field, to the birds of the air, to all of the marine life, even insects, all of it looks expectantly to the Lord for its sustenance, for He marvelously provides for all, for He opens His hand and He satisfies the desire of every living thing! For nature has not been left to run on “autopiloted”, it is run and ruled by the Lord our God who watches over all!

Vs. 17The Lord is righteous in all His ways,

Gracious in all His works.

Everything then that the Lord our God does is done in righteousness, all of His ways are born out of His Righteousness. Just as all of His works are gracious towards us.

Vs. 18The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,

To all who call upon Him in truth.

As for His Works towards us, there is no partiality with Him, He does not favor the rich over the poor, nor does He favor the religious person over the non religious person, rather He is near to all who call upon Him in truth, for everyone and anyone who calls upon the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ in truth will be saved by Him (John 14:6; Rom. 10:9-10, 13).

Vs. 19He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him;

He also will hear their cry and save them.

God then will fill the desire of all who fear Him, for that is who the Gospel is for everyone who fears Him, who believes His Word will be saved by Him, for He hears our cries to Him.

Vs. 20The Lord preserves all who love Him,

But all the wicked He will destroy.

Therefore, all who love Him will be preserved by Him; especially on the Day of His wrath when He judges all; but all the wicked (every unrepentant and unbelieving individual) will be destroyed by Him.

Vs. 21My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord,

And all flesh shall bless His holy name

Forever and ever.

Therefore, just as surely as David’s mouth shall speak of the praises of the Lord so shall my mouth (every redeemed person’s mouth who also feared the Lord and repented and believed) shall now and forever speak the praises of our Lord and Savior, and in His Kingdom all flesh shall bless Him forever and ever, amen.  


Scripture Quotations

New King James (1982): Thomas Nelson.


 Additional Quotations



[1] MacDonald, W. (1995). Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments (A. Farstad, Ed.; p. 777). Thomas Nelson.

No comments:

Post a Comment