Deeper Commentary
Psa 145:1
A praise psalm by David-
This psalm is alphabetic, like other Psalms, but the letter nun
is omitted. It is good homework for the enthusiast to work out why. The
Psalm appears to be David looking forward to how his kingdom would be once
he had taken over from Saul as promised; in this sense it follows on from
the end of Ps. 144, which is all about this. However, as noted on Ps.
144:12-15, this didn't come about as David hoped and envisioned. But it
will do so in the future Kingdom of God, where the Lord Jesus will sit
upon David's throne and rule over a revived Davidic Kingdom. This Psalm
therefore becomes a prophecy of God's future Kingdom, and praise for how
it shall be.
I will exalt You my God as the King. I will praise Your name forever and
ever-
As noted above, David is looking ahead to his kingdom becoming the
Kingdom of God which would be eternal, with him praising God forever. And
David emphasizes that God and not himself is the ultimate king of the
Kingdom. Samuel had well instilled this into him. We see
here a way in which we can now live the eternal life; we praise God's Name
now, and we will eternally do so. If we praise God every day now (:2), we
will do so eternally. We could translate the tenses differently to the
NEV: "I extol You my God [present tense] and I will [do so] for ever".
Likewise :2: 'Every day [in this life] I praise You, and I will [praise
You] for ever and ever'.
Psa 145:2
Every day I will praise You, I will extol Your name forever and ever-
This was David's vision of the Davidic kingdom; praising God's name
daily for ever, implying he would live endless days.
Psalm 145 is David's reflection upon Yahweh's declaration of His Name in Ex. 34:5-7. And it inspires him to praise, and to share with others the news of the God who so glories in forgiving and saving the weak. We note that Ex. 34 doesn't describe the actual passing by of God and Moses' seeing God's back, as promised in Ex. 33. The record reflects the focus God wanted Moses and all of us to have- that getting a physical peek at God is neither here nor there. And as explained on Ex. 33, these wonders are all just the back side of God, and He shows His back rather than His face because of displeasure with human sin, as Jeremiah makes clear. David's reflections on the implications of Ex. 34 are worth thinking through:
"Every day I will praise You, I will extol Your name forever
and ever.
Psa 145:3 Great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised! His greatness is
unsearchable [the grace shown here is indeed unsearchable especially given
the context, of God's grace to an Israel who had as it were committed
adultery on their wedding night]
Psa 145:4 One generation will commend Your works to another, and will
declare Your mighty acts [this refers to how Yahweh had said that His
grace continues to 1000 generations of those who fear Him]
Psa 145:5 Of the glorious majesty of Your honour, of Your wondrous works,
I will meditate [the wondrous works and awesome acts (:6) were in His grace
to Israel and all men, rather than miracles]
Psa 145:6 Men will speak of the might of Your awesome acts; I will declare
Your greatness.
Psa 145:7 They will utter the memory of Your great goodness and will sing
of Your righteousness [Yahweh had said that instead of Moses seeing His
face, He would make His goodness pass before Moses].
Psa 145:8 Yahweh is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and of great grace
[an exact quotation from Ex. 34].
Psa 145:9 Yahweh is good to all, His tender mercies are over all His works
["All" implies that the declaration of who God essentially is therefore
applies to all men, not just Israel at the point of their shameful
adultery against their God. Jonah got this when he quoted Ex. 34 as
applying to the Ninevites, and said he felt repulsed by it- whereas David
marvels at the global scale of God's grace. Hence the Psalm concludes with
an appeal for "all flesh" to praise Yahweh for His Name].
... make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, the glory of the
majesty of His kingdom [knowing Yahweh is like this motivates us to share
the news with all men]
Psa 145:13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, Your dominion endures
throughout all generations. Yahweh is faithful in all His words, and
loving in all His deeds. [This alludes to His mercy lasting to 1000
generations, and may hint that the eternity of God's Kingdom is implied in
His being so saving, gracious and forgiving]
Psa 145:14 Yahweh upholds all who fall, and raises up all those who are
bowed down [Those bowed down by sin, the spiritually fallen, are those who
will be comforted by this declaration of how God's grace triumphs over the
side of His necessary judgment].
.... Psa 145:17 Yahweh is righteous in all His ways, and gracious in all
His works [the declaration of the Name was in response to Moses' request
to know Yahweh's ways, Ex. 33:13, in response to how at the golden calf
sin, Israel had turned out of His way “They have turned aside quickly out
of the way that I commanded them” (Ex.
32:8 ESV) ]
Psa 145:18 Yahweh is near to all those who call on Him, to all
who call on Him in truth.
Psa 145:19 He will fulfil the desire of those who fear Him, He will also
hear their cry and save them". [This again is comfort for all who seek God
but feel their sin and weakness is a barrier].
Psa 145:3
Great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised! His greatness is
unsearchable-
The eternity of David's praise (:2) is related to the unsearchable
greatness of God which he is praising. Paul appears to allude to this in
Rom. 11:33, where the unsearchable greatness refers to the greatness of
God's grace in saving sinners. David is quoting Job 5:9; 9:10, which also
talk of God's unsearchable grace in human salvation. Job and the
Pentateuch were likely the main scriptures known by David. The same
unsearchable nature of God's grace was available to the exiles (s.w. Is.
40:28). The two halves of the verse teach that we are to praise
even though what we praise is not knowable to the end, at least in this
life. We praise God for what we so far understand of Him, and for all the
rest that we rightly sense is beyond our current horizon.
Psa 145:4
One generation will commend Your works to another, and will
declare Your mighty acts-
This is how David imagined his kingdom being. God’s word is a living word. Unlike other history, we can see
the intense personal relevance of all God’s past dealings with men. David at
times gets ecstatic for what God had done at the Red Sea; one generation
would tell accounts like the Passover story to another, they too would sing as Miriam had
done (Ps. 145:4-7). The "works" retold would be of God's saving grace; that
will be our talk throughout eternity, and we should begin living the
Kingdom life now.
Psa 145:5
Of the glorious majesty of Your honour, of Your wondrous works, I will
meditate-
This is defined in :12 as the glory of God's Kingdom. David was about
to become king as promised by Samuel, and he hopes that his kingdom shall
be God's Kingdom. He is commendably full of thought and meditation of
God's Kingdom rather than his own; and there we have an abiding
principle. But David used the same words in Ps. 8:5 when meditating upon
his victory over Goliath; he had been crowned with glory and honour. That
victory was the basis upon which he became king, in the eyes of Israel;
and he meditates how the glory and honour given him was in fact God's and
not his own. The glory and majesty of the kingship and kingdom was "laid
upon" him (Ps. 21:5 s.w.). But David's kingdom didn't fully become God's
Kingdom on earth, and the final glory, honour and majesty will be in the
future Kingdom of God on earth, when the Lord Jesus reestablishes David's
kingdom and reigns on his throne (s.w. Is. 35:2).
The parallel between :5 and :6 is between David meditating and
proclaiming in praise. The proclamation is a result of his meditation.
Meditation upon God's Name, His characteristics, is what gives birth to
praise. Praise is not therefore merely an emotion, it is not what you do
when you feel happy and want to express it, nor is praise the same as
music. It arises from meditation upon God. Man is drawn to what is greater
than him, we have a desire to idolize and worship. We marvel at the ocean
more than at a river, at a mountain more than at a hill. This tendency is
seen especially in the mass following of human "stars" in entertainment
and sport. But that all fades with time. Man's need for a focus in his
worship is ultimately met in God and His ways and Name. Again and again we
find that only true Christianity meets man at his points of acutest need.
Psa 145:6
Men will speak of the might of Your awesome acts; I will declare Your
greatness-
It was David who was doing just this, especially through his Psalms.
But he imagines the Kingdom of God as being a time when all men will have
his uninhibited desire to speak and declare God's greatness.
Psa 145:7
They will utter the memory of Your great goodness and will sing of
Your righteousness-
As noted on :6, it was David who was the singer, and he looked
forward to all men having his same attitude to open and uninhibited
praise. Hence this Psalm, which was intended for all men to sing even now.
Thus David consciously sets himself up as the parade example to all who
shall be in God's Kingdom. We can read this as saying that they
utter or pronounce God's goodness with the words of verse 8; we could add
at the end of :7 "... saying:". But the words of :8 are a direct quotation
from Yahweh's declaration of His Name in Ex. 34. It's as if grateful men
shall then do what Yahweh personally did on Sinai, and proclaim His Name.
This is describing how men will praise God in His Kingdom. "All men" now
don't do so; the situation in view is when the only men on earth are those
praising God. What memories will they be eternally praising Him for?
Surely their memories of what He has done for them in this life. We will
literally be eternally grateful, probably for many things we never
perceived in this life.
Psa 145:8
Yahweh is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and of great grace-
This repeats Yahweh's declaration of His Name to Moses, when He
listed His characteristics. We note that "grace" is His lead
characteristic. And this will be the more apparent when we are in God's
Kingdom, for this is how David imagines us praising God in the Kingdom.
His slowness to anger means that although it will indeed burst at
the last day, He delays it- and that is so that in the gap between His
feelings and their expression, we may repent and change the outcome for
us.
Psa 145:9
Yahweh is good to all, His tender mercies are over all His works-
Many claim God is not good nor of tender mercy. They are in
denial of what God is offering them and doing for them. Job is a classic
case; the loss of his ten children, his health and wealth was all done
because in the end the Lord was very pitiful and of tender mercy (James
5:11). By objecting to this, Job was in fact obscuring or clouding God's
saving intention, His "counsel", by "words without knowledge". This
procamation that God is of tender mercy is part of the statement that
redeemed men will sing eternally (see on :7). Then we will understand,
that in the end the Lord is indeed of tender mercy in all that He did in
our lives. This will be the praise offered to God in His Kingdom. The struggle
of modern man is indeed to believe that God "is good to all". Issues of
the justice of God cloud so many attempted relationships with Him. Only in
the Kingdom will we finally perceive that He has been good to all, and all
His works are encoded with His tender grace. Those issues are left
unresolved in this life in order to teach is humility, and trust that
there will come a day when all shall be clarified and God's essential
goodness and tenderness will be finally perceived.
Psa 145:10
All Your works will give thanks to You, Yahweh; Your saints will extol
You-
God's "works" may refer to the natural creation, which will be endued
with a capacity to praise Yahweh in His Kingdom. In this sense all of
creation groans for that day of His Kingdom (Rom. 8:22). Animals
and the natural creation will somehow be spiritually conscious and praise
God. This is often implied in the psalms, to the point that it is not
purely figurative. But we can also
interpret His "works" as a poetic parallel with His "saints", His people.
We will then realize that God worked with us to prepare us for the final
and eternal day of His Kingdom.
"Your saints" are parallel with "all Your works"; the "all men" in view in this Psalm are the believers not literally every person on earth.
Psa 145:11
They will speak of the glory of Your kingdom, and talk about Your
power-
This eternal speaking about the wonders of God will only be a
continuation of what God's people now do when they meet together (Mal.
3:16). And we must ask ourselves what the real spiritual content is of
many after church conversations... We naturally talk about the things
central to our hearts, and befriend those who have the same interests.
That's what Christian fellowship is to be all about.
Again we see David aware that his kingdom was essentially God's Kingdom; although he imagined his kingdom being established as God's Kingdom, he realizes that all the glory and power was related to God and not himself. The descriptions here of how life will be in God's Kingdom do not focus upon the physical environment which will then be experienced; but rather upon what we will be doing and thinking, particularly focusing upon our praise of Him. And the idea is that this Psalm is to be sung and felt today; we can begin to live the Kingdom life now. In that sense, as we learn in John's writings, we even now "have eternal life".
Psa 145:12
to make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, the glory of
the majesty of His kingdom-
See on :5. We note in this Psalm David's continual desire to tell
others of God's majesty. David knew his sinfulness, he knew his reliance upon the grace of God,
more and more as he got older. One would have thought that after the
Bathsheba incident, David would have kept his mouth shut so far as telling
other people how to live was concerned. But instead, we find an increasing
emphasis in the Psalms (chronologically) upon David's desire to teach
others of God's ways- particularly the surrounding Gentile peoples, before
whom David had been disgraced over Bathsheba, not to mention from his two
faced allegiance to Achish (1 Sam. 27:8-12). There is real stress upon
this evangelistic fervour of David (Ps. 4:3; 18:49; 22:25,31; 35:18;
40:9,10; 57:9; 62:8; 66:5,16; 95:1,8; 96:5-8,10; 100:1-4; 105:1,2; 119:27;
145:5,6,12). Indeed, Ps.71:18 records the "old and greyheaded" David
pleading with God not to die until he had taught "thy strength unto this
generation". As with Paul years later, the only reason he wanted to stay
alive was in order to witness the Gospel of grace to others.
David therefore coped with his deep inner traumas by looking out of
himself to those around him, eagerly desiring to share with them the
pureness of God's grace. He didn't do this as some kind of self-help
psychiatry; it came naturally from a realization of his own sinfulness and
God's mercy, and the wonderful willingness of God to extend this
to men.
Psa 145:13
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, Your dominion endures
throughout all generations. Yahweh is faithful in all His words, and
loving in all His deeds-
These are the words of praise of the faiithful in :12. The
contrast is with how all human kingdoms decline, all is born to roll
downhill, as Daniel 2 shows. The particular "words" and "deeds" David has in view are that despite
all odds, God's word of promise that he would become king and Saul deposed
had come true. We see this faith expressed in this word so often in Ps.
119. David perceived that his kingdom would be everlasting, because it was
to be God's Kingdom. And whilst that didn't come true in his times, it
will do finally, because the Lord Jesus will reign over the restored
Davidic Kingdom, on David's throne, for ever.
Psa 145:14
Yahweh upholds all who fall, and raises up all those who are bowed
down-
The Psalms were likely rewritten by David over the years. The
upholding of the lowly could have referred initially to how he was exalted
from the persecution under Saul, to be king of God's kingdom (s.w. Ps.
3:5; 37:17,24). It was at that time that he was "bowed down" (s.w. Ps.
57:6). But it also has reference to how he was 'upheld' after he
temporarily lost his kingdom after his 'fall' in the matter of Uriah and
Bathsheba (s.w. Ps. 55:12).
However these words are not to be read as a blanket promise. Amos 5:2 is clear: “The virgin of Israel has fallen and shall not continue to rise”. He is able to lift up those who have fallen- if they wish. It is only promised to the righteous that "Though he stumble, he shall not fall, for Yahweh holds him up with His hand" (Ps. 37:24). The "all" of :15 who "wait for You" are the righteous. Likewise :16 says that God satisfies the desire of all, but this is only true potentially as men often live dissatisfied with life.
Psa 145:15
The eyes of all wait for You; You give them their food in due season-
"Wait for" or "wait upon" is a term used for serving or praising God.
As the eyes of servants look to their master, so the eyes of God's people
look to Him (Ps.123:2, and the eyes of David are described often in the
Psalms as waiting upon God (e.g. Ps. 121:1; 123:1). David sees
encoded in the natural creation a prophecy of how things shall eternally
be in God's Kingdom; all turning their eyes to God as the animal creation
subconsciously does. The picture is of God as the great
householder distributing portions to all His household. The "all men" in
view are God's people.
Psa 145:16
You open Your hand to satisfy the desire of every living thing-
LXX "Thou openest thine hands, and fillest every living thing with
pleasure". But the idea is that the natural creation turns its eyes to God
(:15) and He opens His hand to satisfy their desire. As noted on :15,
David sees in this a prophecy of how God's true people would turn their
eyes to Him and have their desires satisfied by His opening hand. In the
context of the exiles, the idea is that their desire for restoration would
be fulfilled when they turned their eyes to their God. Opening the hand is
an idiom for generous response to the cry of the poor (Dt. 15:8,11); our
generosity is to reflect the open handed generosity we have received and
yet hope for from God. "Satisfy" translates word often used to
describe how God's people in His land would be "filled" or satisfied"; if
they were obedient to the covenant (Dt. 6:11; 8:10,12; 11:15 and very
often).
Psa 145:17
Yahweh is righteous in all His ways, and gracious in all His works-
This is evidenced in the natural creation (:15,16), and will finally
be proven true in the lives of God's faithful people. Whether God was just
/ righteous and gracious was under question in the mindset of the exiles,
as Ezekiel's prophecy reflects. And it has always been questioned. But
David sees the Kingdom as a time when people shall finally accept and
perceive His justice and grace. This means that the challenges arising
from His perceived injustice is all designed to elicit our faith in the
Kingdom; for according to David, there will be no answer to the questions
until then. The very existence of those questions is therefore a test of
our humility, the all important characteristic God looks for.
Psa 145:18
Yahweh is near to all those who call on Him, to all who call on
Him in truth-
Literally, 'next to', 'neighbour / relative to'. This is how close God
feels to the broken hearted and crushed; and conversely, how far He is
from the self satisfied and self congratulatory, 'the strong' in secular
terms. It is this feature of Yahweh which makes Him unique; no other God
has this characteristic of 'nearness' (s.w. Dt. 4:7).
Only
those who call upon Him “in truth”, with “unfeigned lips” will he heard
(Ps. 145:18). Men repeatedly ‘sought for’ the Lord Jesus (Mk. 1:37; Jn.
6:26), but He told them to
truly seek Him (Mt. 6:33; 7:7;
Lk.12:31). "In truth" points up how easy it is to call upon God in
prayer but not "in truth". Surface level prayer is one of our great
enemies in the spiritual path.
God's presence is "near" universally. It's not that He somehow metaphysically comes near and then pulls back. His presence, especially in our time through the Comforter, is only a felt experience for those who believe in Him and are welcoming of His presence. It is so true that if we feel God distant from us, who has moved? Not God but us. His nearness is therefore only experienced by those "who call on Him" (as in Dt. 4:7). Ps. 34:18 likewise: “The Lord is near unto them that are of a broken heart".
Psa 145:19
He will fulfil the desire of those who fear Him, He will also
hear their cry and save them-
Often, “desire” is seen by God as prayer (Ps. 10:17; 21:2; 27:4; 59:10;
92:11; 140:8; 145:19; Mt. 18:32; Rom. 10:1; 1 Jn. 5:15). God interprets
that inner desire as prayer, even if it is not articulated in specific
requests. In the context of the exiles, the idea is that if they truly
desired the restoration, it could come in response to their cry. But the
problem was that the Kingdom was not their heart's desire. This
however is no blank cheque offer of anything we ask for; see on Mt. 7:7,8.
As our will comes to align with that of God, we will indeed experience our
desires being fulfilled (Jn. 14:13; 1 Jn. 5:14).
Psa 145:20
Yahweh preserves all those who love Him, but all the wicked He will
destroy-
This doesn't happen now; again, we have the picture of the last days of
judgment at the Lord's coming. See on Ps. 146:9. David felt preserved by God from Saul and
his other enemies (1 Sam. 30:23; 2 Sam. 22:44), because he had preserved
or obeyed [s.w.] God's ways (2 Sam. 22:22,24; Ps. 18:21,23); whereas Saul
didn't obey / preserve them and was destroyed (1 Sam. 13:13,14; 1 Chron.
10:13). Hence Ps. 145:20: "Yahweh preserves all those who love Him, but
all the wicked He will destroy". Solomon's prophetic sonship of David was
conditional upon him preserving or observing Yahweh's ways (1 Kings 2:4; 1
Chron. 22:13; 2 Chron. 7:17); but he didn't preserve of observe them (1
Kings 11:10,11); despite David praying that Solomon would be given a heart
to observe them (1 Chron. 29:19). We can pray for God to work upon the
hearts of others, but He will not force people against their own deepest
will and heart position. Solomon stresses overmuch how God would keep or
preserve the righteous (Prov. 2:8; 3:26), without recognizing the
conditional aspect of this. Why did Solomon go wrong? His Proverbs are
true enough, but he stresses that obedience to his wisdom and
teaching would preserve his hearers (Prov. 4:4; 6:22; 7:1; 8:32; 15:5),
preservation was through following the example of the wise (Prov. 2:20);
rather than stressing obedience to God's ways, and replacing
David his father's simple love of God with a love of academic wisdom:
"Yahweh preserves all those who love Him" (Ps. 145:20).
Psa 145:21
My mouth will speak the praise of Yahweh; let all flesh bless
His holy name forever and ever-
Several times in the
Psalms, David’s poetry matches ‘myself’ with “all men”; he wants all men to
share in
his experience of Yahweh. He sees
his thankful attitude in this life as characteristic of how all in God's
Kingdom will eternally live. The psalm started with "I" will
"bless", then in :10 the faithful "bless", and now "all flesh" blesses
God. David sees himself in the Kingdom as praising together with all the
faithful, at a time when the only people on earth will be the faithful- so
that "all flesh" blesses Yahweh. This is repeatedly the Kingdom vision- of
being together with all others who are faithful. For what makes existence
happy and meaningful is who we are with. An environment where all around
us are believers is indeed the picture of God's Kingdom finally
established on earth.
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