I am going to preach about prayer, so we will read «David's Psalm of praise.» Thus we shall have two parts of true worship.
Psalms 145:1-19. I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever. Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.
Notice how long David expected to praise God. He was going to praise God for ever, and then after that, «for ever and ever.» «'Every day will I bless thee,' that is, when I do not seem to be partaking of any choice temporal blessing, I will still bless thee. When I sit like Job on the dunghill, ‘every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name,' thy character, all that has to do with thee, ‘for ever and ever.'» The first two verses are the preface of the Psalm; now the psalmist begins his music:
Psalms 145:3. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
He is great without bound; let him be praised without end. There is no end to his greatness; let there be no end to our adoration.
Psalms 145:3-19. And his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.
The fathers shall be the preachers to their sons, and the sons shall be the preachers to their sons. The flaming torch of Jehovah's praise shall be passed from hand to hand all down the centuries; as long as men shall live, God shall have the praise of the godly: «One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.»
Psalms 145:5. I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty,
This is a beautiful expression: «I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty.» It is a heaped-up expression. David was in an ecstasy of delight when he wrote it; he did not know how sufficiently to express his adoration of God. Other men might praise God for themselves, but that is not enough for David; he must take his own cut at the blessed business: «I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty,»
Psalms 145:5-19. And of thy wondrous works. And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts: and I will declare thy greatness.
«And I will declare.» Yes, in comes David's personal note again; he cannot let the praises of God alone, he must take his full share in this heavenly task. I wish that, whenever there was work to do for God, or prayer to be offered or praise to be given to the Lord, you and I would always interject this personal pronoun, «and I.» You know, perhaps, dear friends, that you never find Bartholomew's name by itself in any of the Gospels, it is always somebody else «and Bartholomew.» It is well to be a good helper of other people; and when others are praising the Lord, it is good to come in as David did with the personal resolve and confession, «and I will declare thy greatness.»
Psalms 145:7. They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness,
Mark every word in this choice expression: «They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness.» They shall see this goodness, and they shall appreciate it as great goodness; they shall remember it, and so have the memory of God's great goodness; and then they shall speak of it: «They shall utter the memory of thy great goodness;» and when they have done so, they shall do it again and again: «They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness.»
Psalms 145:7-19. And shall sing of thy righteousness. The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion;
He has no passion, but he is full of compassion. What a mercy that is for us! Sometimes we hear persons say that God cannot do this or that, that he cannot feel, and cannot suffer. That is not true, for he can do anything that he likes. A god who has no feeling is a poor god, of no service whatever to us; but «the Lord is gracious and full of compassion;»
Psalms 145:8. Slow to anger, and of great mercy.
Oh, what a blessing it is for you and for me that he is slow to anger!
Psalms 145:9. The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.
Whether you search for the far-distant with a telescope, or peer into the minute with the microscope, the Lord's tender mercies are found everywhere. Like the light, without which you see nothing, so is the mercy of God; it enlightens everything: «His tender mercies are over all his works.»
Psalms 145:10. All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord; and thy saints shall bless thee.
«Standing in the inner circle, ‘thy saints' shall mingle their love with their praise, and so ‘shall bless thee.' Theirs shall be a choicer, tenderer worship than that of all ‘thy works' besides.» The works of God are like a great organ, but it is man who puts his finger upon the keys, and brings forth all the music. Man is the interpreter of the universe; he praises God as the inanimate creation can never do.
Psalms 145:11. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power;
I wish we did speak more of such subjects, and talk more upon these sacred themes. I do not think there is ever any deficiency of talk; but I am afraid there is a very great lack of such talk as this: «They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power.»
Psalms 145:12. To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.
See how David keeps to the subject with which he began the Psalm: «I will extol thee, my God, my king.» Ay, and he sings about the King all through this Psalm. His great object is to make us see that there never was such a King as the infinitely-glorious Jehovah, who surpasses all the kings of the earth.
Psalms 145:13. Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
Other kingdoms come and go; they last during their little day, and then they vanish away. Look, for instance, at the kingdom of Alexander the Great, who only reigned for about twelve years, and when he died left no successor. We talk of great earthly monarchies; they are but monarchies of an hour compared with the kingdom of Jehovah. Well might David say to him, «Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,»
Psalms 145:13. And thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.
What kind of a King is this whose kingdom is everlasting, and what are the acts that make him famous? Notice the first thing he is said to do:
Psalms 145:14. The LORD upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.
This is his glory; this is the majesty of the King of kings, that he takes notice of the poor and weak. The compassion of God is to a great extent the glory of God. That he has such tender mercies toward the unworthy, is the subject of the loudest of our songs: «Jehovah upholdeth all that fall;» that is, such as would fall were it not for his upholding. Jehovah lifts up all those who have fallen, and raiseth up those who are bowed down. Blessed be his holy name!
Psalms 145:15. The eyes of all wait upon thee;
What a King is this, who must needs feed all his subjects, and who must have all his subjects depend upon himself alone! «The eyes of all wait upon thee;»
Psalms 145:15. And thou givest them their meat in due season.
It is an act of grace, not of debt: «Thou givest them their meat.» Did you ever think of the vast variety of the separate sorts of food that the Lord provides for each of the creatures he has formed? The meat that feeds an elephant would not feed a lion, that which feeds a lion would not feed a sparrow, that which feeds a sparrow would not satisfy the fish of the sea. To every creature God gives its own food: «Thou givest them their meat in due season.» The fruits of the earth do not ripen all at once, but the various harvests succeed each other. Notice how each of the many flowers is full of honey just at the time when the particular insect which is to come down into the flower-bell is needing that nectar to feed upon. It is marvellous to see how God has timed creation to the ticking of a watch; and when the flower is ready, then comes the fly, the bee, the butterfly, or the moth, that shall be fed thereby. «Thou givest them their meat in due season.»
Psalms 145:16. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.
As men feed doves in their courtyard, carrying down to them their little handful of food, and opening the hand to pour it out, so does God feed all living creatures readily and easily enough by the simple opening of his hand. But he does it. He satisfies the desire of every living thing, and he will satisfy your desire, dear soul, if you take it to him. You say, perhaps, that you are very poor; well, then, cry to him, he has never failed his creatures yet, and he will not fail you. He hears the young ravens when they cry; and he will hear you, a man created in the image of God, when you cry to him.
Psalms 145:17-18. The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his work. The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.
As the omnipresent Deity, the Lord is not far from any one of us; but there is a peculiar nearness of God to his people, a nearness of knowledge, a nearness of affection, a nearness of heart by which he looks upon them as his own special portion, his own peculiar heritage: «Jehovah is nigh unto all them that call upon him.» That is the name of his people; they are a calling people, they are a praying people, and they pray to him «in truth.» There are some who offer the mockery of pretended prayer, but God is not near to them in the special sense in which he «is nigh unto all them that call upon him in truth.»
Psalms 145:19. He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him:
«He will fulfill» he will fill full «the desire of them that fear him.» If you fear him, you need not fear any lack; indeed, you have nothing at all that you need to fear.
Psalms 145:19-20. He also will hear their cry, and will save them. The LORD preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy.
These two things always go together; as surely as the Lord does the one, he will do the other. While he preserves his saints, he will certainly destroy the wicked.
Psalms 145:21. My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord:
God move us each one to do this! Then with the psalmist we may fitly say,
Psalms 145:21. And let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.