Psalm 145: Worshiping a King Who Is Great and Full of Goodness

Introduction

Maybe you watch the evening news, or maybe you have stopped altogether because the headlines leave you so discouraged. The preacher starts from this observation: bombarded with information, we are pushed toward cynicism, apathy and discouragement, with no idea what to do.

This message is part of a series on prayer at the Église Réformée Évangélique de Toulouse. After the prayer of thanksgiving and the prayer of confession, here is the prayer of adoration. And to talk about it, he says, "there is nothing better than a psalm": Psalm 145, a psalm of praise by David.

The message follows three movements. Praising God is our calling. We praise him because he is a king full of goodness. And we must not keep this praise to ourselves.

Message Outline

1. A World Tempted by Cynicism

• The Enlightenment promised that we would discover truth through reason and move toward a harmonious world. Today, people no longer believe that science, religion or the state will solve things.
• What institutions say has lost all credibility. Just look at the French public's confidence ratings for politicians.
• If there is no longer any truth that can settle everything, and everyone offers their own truth, we fall into cynicism and apathy. Christians can be "contaminated" by this way of thinking too.
• But we believe there is a reality that unifies and offers a solution: the Lord. To praise and worship God is to remember who he is.
• If God is the great king who created everything, then the world belongs to him, there is good and evil, and there is hope. We are not condemned to discouragement.

2. An Alphabet of Praise

• Psalm 145 marks the end of the Psalter: it opens the last group of psalms, from Psalm 145 to the end of the book.
• In Hebrew, the first letters of the verses follow the letters of the alphabet. The preacher sees in it "an alphabet of praise."
• David begins this way: "I will exalt you, my God, the King. I will bless your name forever and ever." (verse 1)

3. To Praise Is to Speak Well of God

• Our calling, as Christians and as human beings, is to worship. The word used here is bless, and to bless God is to "speak well of God."
• Say it to yourself, say it to others, say it to God in prayer: you are good, you are just, you are compassionate, you have done all these things. It connects what I think and what I do to the Lord.
• A simple example: blessing the Lord for the brothers and sisters present this morning, because through them we see his goodness toward us.
• Praise is the opposite of turning in on ourselves. We have a natural tendency to shrink the world down to what I need, what I feel, what I want.
• When I am centered on myself, I meet someone and ask "what can this person bring me?" instead of "what can I bring them?" Relationships become unhealthy.
• Human beings long to live for something bigger than themselves, and you can see it in movies. That reality bigger than us is God himself. He wants our prayers, our words, our dreams and our actions to be centered on him, so that people can say: "this person is passionate about God."

4. Being Awestruck by a King Whose Greatness Is Unsearchable

• "Great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised! His greatness is unsearchable." (verse 3) We were placed in this world to be filled with wonder at God.
• Often we make God a small thing, like a tiny person or a tiny tree far off on the horizon of a beautiful landscape, something you could hide with just your finger.
• God does not want to be a reality on the horizon of our life. He wants to be the first reality of our life.
• The question to ask yourself: what captivates me? What makes me say "wow"? Is it God, or the latest move by Messi or Mbappé, or the movie that holds my attention and my dreams?
• A beautiful landscape can captivate us for the Lord, but it is by reading the Bible that we receive a clearer revelation of who God is.

5. A King Full of Goodness Toward All

• "Yahweh is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and of great loving kindness. Yahweh is good to all." (verses 8 and 9) It is the same description of God as at Mount Sinai, when the covenant was made, and the same one given by Jonah, who did not want to go to Nineveh precisely because he knew God's goodness.
• It is this goodness that moved God to send his Son Jesus Christ. God does not use his power to destroy what he created: he wants to create for himself a people who will love him and glorify him.
• Jesus says it: God makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. Even the worst sinners, including serial killers and cruel tyrants, taste his kindnesses: a delicious steak, a beautiful landscape, the scent of flowers, the simple fact of breathing.
• "You open your hand, and satisfy the desire of every living thing." (verse 16) God is not stingy with his compassion, he is generous.
• We often think that a CEO, a president or a star cannot help the weak. The psalm says the opposite: "Yahweh upholds all who fall, and raises up all those who are bowed down." (verse 14)
• "Your weakness is not a limit, but the opportunity to experience the grace of the Savior Jesus Christ." This king says to you this morning: "lift up your head, I am with you, I am for you."

6. Two Promises for Those Who Love Him

• First promise: God answers prayer. "Yahweh is near to all those who call on him, to all who call on him in truth." (verse 18)
• The answer does not depend on who I am or what I do, but on the work of Jesus Christ. That is why we pray "in the name of Jesus Christ": through his blood, we have the boldness to enter God's presence.
• To pray sincerely ("in truth," says the preacher), in the context of Israel, meant not crying out to the Lord while secretly placing your trust in Baal. It is not "I have tried everything, so I will try praying" either, nor "I will pray, and then I will manage on my own." It is truly relying on the Lord.
• Second promise: protection. "Yahweh preserves all those who love him." (verse 20) It is a simple definition of a Christian: someone who loves God.
• In a world that feels so unsafe, our eternal security is in the Lord. That does not mean there will be no sickness, no suffering, no hard temptation to fight, but that God will be there to help us fight.

7. Telling His Wonders to the Next Generation

• "One generation will commend your works to another, and will declare your mighty acts." (verse 4) What we read about God, we must not keep to ourselves.
• What should we tell? The story of salvation: the promise made after the fall, an offspring of the woman who will crush the serpent and be wounded in the heel; a chosen people; a law that shows the need for a deliverer; sacrifices that point to another blood, that of Jesus Christ; prophets who announce a Savior; kings who show the need for a perfect king, just and good.
• "God does not drop a Bible from heaven in every generation." He waits for the older generation to pass on to the new what it has received.
• Teaching children on Sunday is not enough. If we do not talk about God as a family, if we do not pray together, if there are no intentional conversations about God, how will children be able to choose to follow the Lord?
• The goal is not for children to answer "Jesus" to every question, but for them to become worshipers. That requires us to be worshipers too.
• The Bible is not a recipe book you open when you need it. If there is a gap between what I say and what I feel, the children will see it, and my friend will see it.
• This passion is not created instantly, any more than the passion between a husband and wife. It takes work: reading the Word, praying, setting aside time for it.
• Passing it on is not limited to parents. In his greetings, Paul writes: "Greet Rufus, the chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine." The great apostle had a spiritual mother who encouraged him in a hard ministry. In the church, we are called to be fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters to one another.
• The psalm ends this way: "My mouth will speak the praise of Yahweh. Let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever." (verse 21)

Key Takeaways

• In the face of cynicism and discouragement, to praise God is to remember who he is: the king who created everything and who gives hope.
• To bless God is to speak well of him, to yourself, to others and to him in prayer. Praise decenters us from ourselves.
• God does not want to remain a small dot on the horizon of your life: he wants to be its first reality.
• This great king is also full of goodness: he lifts up those who fall, answers sincere prayers and watches over those who love him.
• God's wonders are passed from one generation to the next, in families and in the church, with passion, to form worshipers.

Personal Application

1. What makes you say "wow" right now: God, or something else that captivates your attention and your dreams?
2. In your prayer this week, take time to tell God who he is: good, just, compassionate. What would you say to him specifically?
3. When you meet someone, do you ask yourself what they can bring you, or what you can bring them?
4. Do you feel weak or crushed by a burden too heavy to carry alone? What keeps you from turning to God for help?
5. Who can you tell about God's wonders this week: your children, a friend, a younger brother or sister in the faith?

Verses Cited

• Psalm 145
• Exodus 34:6
• Jonah 4:2
• Matthew 5:45
• Genesis 3:15
• Romans 16:13

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is Psalm 145 an alphabet of praise?

In Hebrew, the verses of Psalm 145 begin with successive letters of the alphabet. This psalm of praise by David also opens the last group of psalms, from Psalm 145 to the end of the book. The preacher sees in it an alphabet of praise, chosen to preach on the prayer of adoration.

What does it mean to bless God in Psalm 145?

To bless God is to speak well of God, in keeping with his word: to say it to yourself, to say it to others and to say it to God in prayer. You are good, you are just, you are compassionate. It connects what I think and what I do to the Lord, and it decenters us from ourselves.

How do we pass on God's wonders to the next generation?

God does not drop a Bible from heaven in every generation: he waits for the older generation to tell his wonders to the new one. This happens through teaching children at church, but above all in families, by talking about God, praying together and having intentional conversations. The goal is not to get good answers, but to form worshipers.