My God, the King
CLASS 4 ISSUES
Study Scripture: Psalm 145: 1, 10 – 21
Background Scripture: Psalm 145: 1, 10 – 21
Lesson #3 January 25, 2025
Key Verse
Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.
Psalm 145:13
INTRODUCTION
Have you ever looked at the behaviour and the personality of believers and wondered whether they have joy in their hearts and in addition are concerned about the welfare of people?
Do they look miserable at times when they face sundry difficulties and trials?
Are they constantly bringing up their past saying ineffect that God had not really and truly forgiven them of their past sins even though Scripture says He has done so?
Are believers self-centered?
Are they focusing on god rather than on themselves, forgetting the salvation, the mercy and the power of God?
This Psalm of David will help you to refocus your attitudes and your way of life.
Hopefully it will help you to help others who are living the self-centered life by pointing them to the wonders and the deeds of God.
It is instructive that the Hebrew title for this Psalm is t’hillim which means “Praises”. We are thus examining a Psalm that from beginning to end emphasizes praising to God. This poem is written by a writer we assume is David in the acrostic mode which as one scholar teaches us means each verse begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. So we are pointed to the fact that from A to Z this is a hymn of praise.
It would be wise to ask ourselves why praise at all. If we do we might help ourselves like David to interpret our life through the framework through which we interpret things. This way of examining ourselves will help us determine whether we see life as a “glass half-full” or as the pessimists see life as “a glass half empty”. We can see life as full.
It will be helpful for us to look at how the Bible interprets life, for this teaches us a realistic, honest, and humble God- centered way to see life.
The Psalms look at the real and clear way to see life and declares God is worthy of praise. Then we will come to be like David and say, I will praise the Lord.
One writer rails against the way of modern Christian thinking and the danger it poses to us. He considers this Psalm therefore as particularly helpful to him and he comments:
“Somehow, everything becomes about how it affects us. Everything is about our wants, our goals, our plans, our emotions.
And the fact of the matter is, self-focus, self-interest, ‘me-ism’, never produces a happy life. It never produces healthy relationships. It never makes you thankful. It never produces love for God and worship of God.
And so, Psalm 145 sits in the Psalms to confront our ‘me-ism’ with the truth that we were created to live for something vastly bigger than ourselves”.
This Psalm is therefore a very detailed, awesome and loud series of praise on the glory of God.
We cannot fathom His praises for no matter how deep you go you can never reach the depths that will come near to make you know the depths of this awesome and unfathomable God. His glory is so great you will have to spend billions of years into eternity probing and researching His glory and never get a good handle on Him and His greatness.
This of course then leads us to consider what our living is all about and why we were in the first place created by God.
Is life to be all about us and our needs and what we would like to be? Should we live for His glory and not our own?
Are you giving your children that great gift than as one writer says “to have them growingly blown away, overwhelmed, mystified, in wonder and awe of God’s glory”.
We have to join this scholar in asking:
Are you teaching the younger siblings you have to look for and see opportunities to point to God’s glory?
Have you taught them what makes God so amazing?
Have you taught them why is it important to live for God and not for yourself, being self-centered in how you should look at life?
Are you also committed to praising God for who He is and what He does?
As we study note carefully that Psalm 145 does not make the promise that God always hears our prayers and answers them in a split second.
Many Psalms in this Book tell us that perfectly good and pious people have cried to God for help and they have endured the long silence of God.
The context therefore of this Psalm in the other 149 Psalms is most important.
All the Psalms have to be taken together to reflect all of human life and experiences before God and that immediately leads all of us to have Hope in God, because of who He is and what He does.
There is the Good News in the Old Testament and there is Good News in the New Testament that the character of God in Psalm 145 is true.
We today have seen for ourselves how far God was willing to go and how Christ was faithful to fulfill all of His Father’s promises. We therefore have seen the faithful, righteous, and compassionate nature of God the Father, and the loving and obedient nature of our Lord and Redeemer.
Thus we see God for who He is and we know Psalm 145 is right. We therefore celebrate and rejoice with David and the people of the nation who rejoiced with him.
But we know that life have ups and downs, and the Psalms reflect those ups and downs. Through all of those the Psalms encourage us to give praise and thanksgiving. We lament with the Psalms of lament, and we weep with those who weep. But we conclude with this Psalm and with Psalm 150 that the darkness of life will fly away in the face of the glorious glory of God. The vision in this is right for the reality of God’s eternal kingdom is assured and will fully come.
We celebrate the goodness of God which has been demonstrated in all generations.
This Psalm 145 thus is wide and comprehensive in showing God’s acts of creating and sustaining His creation in acts of mercy and salvation, and remaining close to His people and hearing and responding to their cries.
Every area and subject that can bring forth the praise and thanksgiving to God that is dealt with in every one of the 150 Psalms is dealt with here.
Practically every praiseworthy feature of God or His work is in this Psalm, and so we can see God’s presence shining through.
THE TEXT
Verses 1-2. We learn now what David intends to do. He tells us why we should praise and the lens through which we should interpret our lives.
So he gives personal, celebratory praise. This of course we like David should do daily, day by day, and with enthusiasm like David.
God is King and His divine character is beautiful and awesome and hence He deserves praise all the time, perpetually and throughout eternity.
In the ancient world the “name” was most important and gave meaning to a person. For example, the name Jacob meant “he usurps” because he grabbed the heel of his brother at the time of birth, for he intended to be the first-born of the twins. Later he lived up to his name as he cajoled Esau into giving him the birthright. Then he tricked his father Isaac in giving him the blessing.
For David God’s name reflects His character, His nature, and His essence. David would therefore celebrate and exalt God, raising up to the highest the nature of his King, his God. Praising and blessing was due to his God, and would be given to him forever.
Why?
Verses 3 to 9 tells us why. David tells us God is great with unsearchable greatness, has great goodness, full of compassion and great in mercy, in righteousness, has hesed or “steadfast love”, has done mighty acts which must be lauded or made known, is gracious and showing it over all His works.
Obviously God is the solution to the problems of the world and the problems of the Church.
Verses 10-12. David now refers again to God’s authority and glorious majesty, glory and splendour spoken of in verse 5. God’s works are wondrous or awesome. One writer speaks of God’s works:
“Yahweh’s wondrous works include the creation: The heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1)—light (1:3)—day and night (1:4-5)—the sky (1:6-8)—the waters and dry land (1:9-10)—grass, herbs, and fruit trees (1:11-13)—the great lights in the sky that rule the day and the night(1;11-13)—swarms of living creatures (1:20-25) –and humans, created in God’s image (1:26-27)”.
All of these and the other deeds, with creation itself, will themselves thank God.
The word used Hasid means kind, merciful, or pious. These are people who have shown deep faith in Yahweh. These are His saints, and they are those who are grateful to God and are most willing to have Him guide and direct their life.
Both Yahweh’s kingdom and His name ascribe glory to Him—and give us a glimpse into His nature
The saints are ready and willing to talk about God’s great Kingdom and the glory of it for God will appear in His Kingdom and the divine glory will dazzle all.
They are the messengers of God and also declare His great power. One writer shows us the depths. of David’s regard for God in the words he used:
“The psalmist says that the saints (hasid) will proclaim “the glory of Yahweh’s kingdom” (malkut). The word malkut means royalty or that which involves royalty, such as a kingdom—a realm over which a king reigns.
This is the only verse where the psalmist uses the phrase “the glory of (Yahweh’s) kingdom (malkut). He often speaks of “the glory of Yahweh’s name” (Psalm 29:2; 66:2; 72:19; 96:8; 105:3 115:1; 148:13)
However, both Yahweh’s kingdom and his name are intrinsically tied to his identity and his character. Both Yahweh’s kingdom and his name ascribe to him—and give us a glimpse into the nature of his being”.
Note the saints have a purpose in life. Their purpose is to make God known to all people
Saints are to tell of the glory and the glorious majesty of God’s kingdom.
Let us note carefully the cautions made by Charles Spurgeon:
“As the state cannot teach these holy histories the people of God must take care to do it themselves. The work must be done for every age, for men have short memories in reference to their God, and the doings of his power”.
And also:
“I consider that one of the great lacks of the Church, nowadays, is not so much Christian preaching as Christian talking—not so much Christian prayer in the prayer-meeting, as Christian conversation in the parlor. How little do we hear concerning Christ”.
Verse 13. God is so completely different from earthly kings. In their reign they always lose power and/or die. Their life is short and their kingdoms also cease. We know Egyptians, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Chinese dynasties, Mongolians, Greeks, sundry Europeans and the British, and the United States and others have dominated the world but they have all failed to hold the reigns of power for very long. Their emperors have been transient.
But God’s Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and clearly He deserves praise forever.
The first King is Yahweh and the last King is Yahweh.
Yahweh’s Kingdom is eternal.
He says what He will do and He does it showing love in all His doings.
Verse 14. God upholds and supports those who fall down. He helps them to get up on their feet when they fall physically or spiritually.
God’s help comes at the right time. He rushes to help the despondent who needs comfort. All they have to do is to call on Him and wait confidently.
Verse 15. Therefore the humble as well as every living things looks to God expectantly. God, one writer states, condescends to the needs of His people.
He gives them food in due season.
Verse 16. In response to those eyes focused on Him the ever generous God opens His hand and gives to the needy. So Jesus in Matthew 7:7-8 reminds us to
“Ask and it will be given you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened”.
Verses 17-20. God is righteous in everything He does. They are always right.
He is always gracious, which means is always kind and merciful.
God is a nearby help and He is never distant with His blessings.
All He requires is that you call on Him in truth. This word is Emet and it means that which is real, dependable, stable that a person can count on.
When one comes to Him in faith He will hear, fulfill the desires of their heart, watch and preserve, those who love Him, and destroy the enemies.
Verse 21. David refuses to be silent for he will always exalt, praise, bless, honour God. He will encourage all to do the same at all times and forever.
CONCLUSION
What can we say. James Boice sums it all:
“The last verse of Psalm 145 is the last word we have from David in the bible. It is his last will and testament.
If he had said nothing else in his long life, these words would be a fine legacy for future generations.
In it he praises God and invites others to praise God also”.