Unsearchable Greatness

I will extol You, my God and King,  
and bless Your name forever and ever.  
Every day I will bless You.   
and praise Your name forever and ever.  
Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised,  
and His greatness is unsearchable.  

One generation shall commend Your works to another,    
and shall declare Your mighty acts.  
On the glorious splendor of Your majesty,  
and on Your wondrous works, I will meditate.  
They shall speak of the might of Your awesome deeds,  
and I will declare Your greatness.  
They shall pour forth the fame of Your abundant goodness
and shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.  

The LORD is gracious and merciful,  
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  
The LORD is good to all,  
and His mercy is over all that He has made.    

All Your works shall give thanks to You, O LORD,   
and all Your saints shall bless You!  
They shall speak of the glory of Your Kingdom  
and tell of Your power,  
to make known to the children of man Your mighty deeds,  
and the glorious splendor of Your Kingdom.  
Your Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom,  
and Your dominion endures throughout all generations.  

[The LORD is faithful in all His words  
and kind in all His works.]  
The LORD upholds all who are falling. 
and raises up all who are bowed down.  
The eyes of all look to You,  
and You give them their food in due season.  
You open Your hand;  
You satisfy the desire of every living thing.  
The LORD is righteous in all His ways   
and kind in all His works.  
The LORD is near to all who call on Him,  
to all who call on Him in truth.  
He fulfills the desire of those who fear Him;  
He also hears their cry and saves them.  
The LORD preserves all who love Him,  
but all the wicked He will destroy.  

My mouth will speak the praise of the LORD,  
and let all flesh bless His holy name forever and ever.    

Psalm 145

A few weeks ago at PCPC in Bible study, I heard kindergartener, Daniella Ericson, recite Psalm 145 without a single falter or correction. I was amazed. First, because I always falter and stammer (or forget) when I say a passage I’ve memorized. Second, the words of Psalm 145 are truly an incredible description of our unsearchable, great God. Third, because the beautiful words were spoken by a child, who will now have this hidden in her heart for all her life.

If you see a great sports event, if you have a wonderful meal, if you see something beautiful, if you have an incredible experience, or even if you try a new product you love, what do you do? You tell someone - maybe several someones. They have to look it up on YouTube and see it for themselves. They have to order what you ordered at that restaurant. They have to look at your pictures, which you say don’t do it justice. This is what David is doing when he writes Psalm 145. He’s telling us, “God is so glorious, so beautiful, and so wonderful! You have to know too!” Glorious, wondrous, abundant, great, mighty, and beautiful are just some of the words he uses to attempt to convey the wonder he knows and feels.

What are those mighty works and awesome deeds? For David, he can look back at the protection and provision God gave in delivering the Israelites from Egyptian slavery. He can look to the parting of the Red Sea, the pillar of cloud and fire, manna and water from the Rock, and more. He can look at his own life remembering God enabled him to fight off the lion, the bear, and Goliath. He can look to God’s continual protection and victory in battle and the covenant God made with him to make David’s house into an eternal kingdom. Or he can look to God’s merciful forgiveness of his own sin.

David and the prophets looked forward with faith but were not able to see clearly, yet the wonder of God still captivates them. We have even more to declare on this side of the cross! We have even more reason to be captivated! What can we “commend” to the next generation? We have a treasure in Jesus – a pearl of great price. We declare the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, the Son of God incarnate! We declare God’s grace and love in sending His own Son to be the propitiation for our sin – the final and sufficient sacrifice. We have freedom from sin, a new and living hope, justification by faith, forgiveness, and imputed righteousness through Christ’s death on the cross – no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We have adoption into God’s family – we can cry out “Abba, Father”. We have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit – Christ actually dwelling in us! We have power over sin. Sin and death have lost their sting. We have peace with God. We are given spiritual gifts for the building up of the Church and have been commissioned by Jesus to go and make new disciples. We have the promise of Jesus’ preparing a place for us and that He will be with us always. The apostle Paul, like David, tries to describe his overflowing heart in Ephesians, Romans, and other books of the Bible. John and Peter do the same in their writings. They all overflow with the love and grace abounding to us in Jesus Christ.

But maybe you are not feeling it. Maybe you, like me, often get distracted or discouraged by life on earth:

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal weight of glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal (2 Cor. 4:16-18).

Psalm 145 is telling us, “This is the truest, best reality!” As Pastor Pete Hatton said on Sunday, let’s get our awe back, by fixing our eyes on Jesus our wonderful, merciful, beautiful Savior. He comes after us. He is gentle. He is making us like Him. Jesus is always more, always better, and always greater. Let’s join together and commend Him to the next generation!