The Lord is righteous in all his ways...

Reading Psalm 145:17-21

"The Lord is righteous in all his ways
and loving toward all he has made.
The Lord is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
He fulfills the desires of those who fear him;
he hears their cry and saves them.
The Lord watches over all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.
My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord.
Let every creature praise his holy name
for ever and ever."

This is personal testimony. This is not academic theology or abstract thinking about what God must be like. This is not wishful thinking or spiritual dreaming. David is describing what he has experienced of God. The testimony is personal and the application is personal: "My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord." The longer we live in this conscious relationship with God the more we know of Him and the more thankful we are to have found him.

God ensures that his children feel his righteousness ( in his resistance to sin and the empty wasteland that we experience when we reject his moral law); that we know his love (in the joy and peace he gives as we turn to him); that we sense his nearness (in that assurance of being accompanied on our journey); that our desires are fulfilled (in learning over and over again that he knows better than we do what we need and what our longings are ultimately aimed at); that he hears our cry (that our prayers are not swallowed up by the vastness of the sky above us but find a home in his heart). It is our experience that "the Lord watches over all who love him." Those who love God, who express that love to God through worship and obedience, know the love of God - love is its own reward.

God is multidimensional and he addresses all realities and for this reason David also says: "but all the wicked he will destroy." He is no impotent grandfather of the universe who simply lets everything pass by unnoticed.

"Let every creature praise his holy name for ever and ever."

The Word and the World

Reading Psalm 145:14-16

"The Lord upholds all those who fall
and lifts up all who are bowed down.
The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food at the proper time.
You open your hand and satisfy the desires
of every living thing."

He upholds, he lifts up, he gives, he opens his hand, he satisfies - He is not a God who just sits by, passively watching to see whether we will sink or swim. He enters into the fabric of our daily lives and takes action on our behalf. We can call on him, count on him and hope in him.

In making these statements in the context of his worship David practices one of the most important tools of faith: Affirmation. By verbally affirming the Word of God, by affirming the truth about God and about how he cares for us the Psalmist gains courage, strength, and confidence. The opposite is also true. If we affirm the negative in our lives, if we affirm our anger or bitterness, if we affirm our disappointments and hurts we will lose strength, become victims and live in emptiness. But when we affirm God and His Word we become full of Him and full of His qualities and attributes. The choice is ours.

The Psalmist shows that God works with us in the context of the broken world. He does not take us out of it (that awaits a future event) but he accompanies us through it and offers practical help to deal with it. God does not prevent us from falling but upholds us, he does not insulate us from becoming bowed down but he lifts us up, he does not keep us from feeling the pangs of hunger but he feeds us, he does not prevent us from feeling the deep needs of life, but he opens his hand and satisfies us.

"The eyes of all look to you."

"...an everlasting kingdom..."

Reading Psalm 145:13

"Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures through all generations.
The Lord is faithful to all his promises
and loving toward all he has made."

We live in a world of constant flux. Change is an everpresent companion and catastrophic change is both the material of the daily news and a frequent visitor to our homes or to those of our family and friends. This is what makes this verse in the Psalms stand out so dramatically. God exists in stark contrast to his fallen creation. The God of the Bible is no pantheistic personalization of the Universe. God made the world but is not dependent on it, he is self-existent. As the New Testament affirms:

"In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
They will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
You will roll them up like a robe;
like a garment they will be changed.
But you remain the same,
and your years will never end."
(Hebrews 1:10-12)

Think of this verse the next time you attend a funeral. As each generation departs God is as vigorous a help to the next generation as he was to the previous. God is the continuity that ties all the generations together. He knew and loved my great grandfather just as he loves and cares for me. In the end he is the one who will bring us all together again and unite us together as one family. This is the promise to all those who have trusted in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins and have become the children of God through faith in him.

The endurance of God's rule as king over all his creation is the foundation for the statement that follows: "the Lord is faithful to all his promises." Because his authority is never shaken, nothing can hinder God's intention to be "loving to all he has made." We are the beneficiaries of the faithful love of a changeless God. This is why my constant prayer for my children is not that they would have great wealth, but that they would be rich in faith.

Praise for God

Reading Psalm 145:10

"All you have made will praise you, O Lord;
your saints will extol you."

We have praise for all kinds of things in this world. We speak in glowing terms of sports teams, hobbies, books we've read, people we admire, historical events, etc. God made all these things and is involved in everything that is good, yet often we fail to recognize him for his "mighty acts" (verse 12). By exalting God we don't give him a higher place in the world, he is already in the highest place, but we give him a higher place in our thoughts and gain a true perspective on our relationship to him and on what is really important in this world.

The Lord is gracious and compassionate

Reading Psalm 145:8-10

"The Lord is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and rich in love.
The Lord is good to all;
he has compassion on all he has made."

Comforting words but not infrequently a passage like this is used to deny the existence of the God of the Bible. "If God is all powerful and perfectly loving then evil would not be allowed to exist in the world. Evil exists, therefore God does not." This argument is only effective on the basis of a denial of the early chapters of Genesis. God created a world in which evil did not exist and put man into a state of probationary perfection. People rebelled against God and refused to submit to him. A historical transition took place in which God cursed man and the earth and allowed a time in which we can experiment with sin and rebellion and in which we can taste both the judgment and mercy of God. It is in this context that a passage like this becomes extremely important. This passage and others like it remind us that even though we have rebelled against God and rejected him, and even though God has revealed his wrath against us he stills loves us and desires our return. In the midst of a situation where we have turned away from him God is pouring out his love and compassion on us and calling us to return to him that we may receive mercy and forgiveness. This combination of both judgment and mercy in the world reveals something of the character of God and of the character that he intends for us. We are in a terrible situation of our own making but God surrounds us with his love until the day when the curse is forever destroyed and those who have received him are renewed in the image of Christ.

One generation to another

Reading Psalm 145:4-7

"One generation will commend your works to another;
they will tell of your mighty acts.
They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty,
and I will meditate on your wonderful works.
They will tell of the power of your awesome works,
and I will proclaim your great deeds.
They will celebrate your abundant goodness
and joyfully sing of your righteousness."

The Psalmist reminds us that the greatness of God is revealed to every generation. Every generation has a story to tell to the next. The further we travel in life the more we have to tell and the greater the obligation to tell it. The obligation is both collective ("they") and personal ("I"). No one else is going to discharge my obligation to seek to pass on the stories of the mighty acts of God that I have witnessed. In the Psalm there is a back and forth interplay between the witness of the congregation and the witness of the individual believer. If I think I have nothing to tell it means that I have probably been living my life with my eyes shut or have been looking only at my own feet. If I have cared to see it I have been a witness to the mighty power of God.

The Psalmist is clear that we are not simply witnesses to ancient history, to something that happened in the dark ages of the past. We are not witnesses to theories that picture God as an unseen force, an ultimate cause. We must give witness to God's "works," to his "mighty acts," and to what this means for us as it reveals "the glorious splendor of your majesty."

If we have an obligation to speak about these things then we have an equal obligation to listen. What have we learned of God from the generation that has come before us? Surely this portion of the Psalm is a testimony to the importance of the work of Church History in preserving a memory of God's action in the world throughout all generations.

It is important both to listen and to tell. If all we do is tell our own stories then we begin to lose perspective and God is diminished. If all we does is listen then we fail to bear witness to what God has done in our own life and the story ends with us.

"They will tell of the power of your awesome works, and I will proclaim your great deeds."

"...his greatness no one can fathom"

Reading Psalm 145:1-3

"I will exalt you, my God the King;
I will praise your name for ever and ever.
Every day I will praise you and extol your name
for ever and ever.
Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
his greatness no one can fathom."

All kinds of thoughts, both great and small, occupy our minds. Everything we think about has an impact on us. Those things that we think about every day for an extended period of time begin to shape us and become formative to our character. This is why it is important to be conscious of our thought life and of what is dominating our minds. David makes a conscious choice to exalt God in his thoughts. He intends to do this regularly ("every day") for an extended period of time ("for ever and ever"). Think of the effect that this choice will have over a lifetime. Our problems, worries, fears, tend to have an intimidating effect on us. Yet, as great as our troubles may seem, God is greater: "his greatness no one can fathom." When we remind ourselves of this "every day" and "for ever and ever" our life begins to appear differently to us than it did when we lived without choosing to cultivate great thoughts of God. Of course, we can allow God to be absent from our minds and fail to receive the comfort and assurance that comes from thinking of him. Even then we don't change the fact that no one can fathom the greatness of God. What are you thinking about today?