Psalm 145

I'd like you to turn in your Bibles, if you will. One place. We won't be turning from that one place. And that place is Psalm 145. Psalm 145. I'd like to go into something today that we will continue even into next week, perhaps. But I'd like you to consider over the next month, or so I will be here when I attend, and even the next Bible study. Not this one, but the next one. I'd like for you to compile a list of your favorite Psalms.

The Book of Psalm. It's an incredible group of 150. I'd like to make it interactive. I'd like to talk about those Psalms in our next interactive Bible study. It gives you plenty of time to look at them, to read, to study, and hopefully to get the depth. Because sometimes that Book of Psalms is overlooked by so many. Oh, it's easy to quote something. But I feel like we need to dig a little deeper. Because it really helps you not only look at life differently, it helps you look at your Father, God, Lord, and Savior in a whole new light. So today I will be talking about the praise of David.

I want to go into some things in depth because David was a unique individual. And today I'd like to look at the part of Psalms that comes from a man after God's own heart. Next week I'd like to go into the same Psalm of David, but I want to go into the mind, the mind of David, because I think it can really help us to improve, increase, and expound our relationship with our Father. It can be done through studying this.

David was a unique individual. If you looked at his resume, look at his job description, all that he had done. He was what? A shepherd. Started out as a shepherd, I guess, probably his first job. What else did he do? A musician. Yes, and obviously a good one even from his youth. He was a composer, so he not only played, but he actually composed. I heard this week, I read some article, and some of the greatest singers ever in the history of America never wrote a single song.

Elvis Presley said he never wrote a single song. He didn't even desire to write a song. Well, David did what? He wrote. He obviously put it to music, and he oversaw musicians. Anything else? A warrior. Absolutely. After he became a shepherd, then at a young age, he became a warrior, and then he led warriors. Anything else? A king. Absolutely. King. Well, he could dance. His wife didn't like it, but thank God did. But a king, one of as considered the greatest king of all of Israel in their history. So it helps us to understand.

This was a regular Renaissance man, wasn't he? He was not limited to one skill. He was gifted, as we can all see from his writings. Gifted as only a man after God's own heart could be. He had characteristic traits that we could all hope to achieve someday. He was a compassionate man, wasn't he? Anything else? Was he only compassionate? Yes, he was passionate. He was not only compassionate, he was a passionate man in many ways.

Sometimes he got him in trouble. Well, does God want us to be passionate? Oh, just a few of you. Does God want us to be passionate? Oh, he wants all of us to be passionate about what? Him, his ways, his kingdom. Christ was all about his kingdom.

Christ was passionate about his kingdom. He was impetuous. What else? He was brave. At a young age, he was brave. His older brothers, I'm sure they weren't too happy about all the oil thing, but he stepped up when no one else would step up out of a whole entire army of experienced men. And it was this little squirt that his competitor compared to a dog. So he was fearless. Should we be fearless?

Yes. There are certain things we should fear, but for most things, there's stuff we shouldn't fear. I employed a man one time and spent 20-something years in the middle of 25 years. In NAM, he was actually shot four times, and he had three tours. And I asked him, I said, were you scared? He said, of course I was. But he said, I was not scared the third shot, the fourth shot, because I'd been through it before.

Isn't it interesting that David, at a very young age, didn't think at all about fearing the nine-foot, six-inch giant at a very young age? He said, yes, you're going to die, too. You die just like the bear, just like the lion. Most of us, if we go home tonight, we find a lion in the backyard, we're going to have a little fear. Not so with a 15, 16-year-old that was out there with just a sheep. It was this. David was the one who had the heart of the lion. He just did. And with the same passion in which he wrote, composed, composed, played, the same passion was used on the battlefield. His character, through the book, lack of character, bad character, and he said, sins are all laid bare for everyone to see. I don't think there's anyone in here that would say, make me next, put all my sins out. Yeah, David's, they were exposed. Why? You know, wouldn't you turn to God and say, I'd just, I'd take that out. Oh, I like this story. No, I did real good. No, don't put that one in there. But God let us see the complete man. And in a way, he let us see ourselves as people with flaws and with people with godly qualities. Very important. David was a man of passion, as we said. He had how many wives? Eight. Very good, Frank. When seven won't do, get another. That's what David did. Eight wives. Nineteen sons and one daughter. Had five sons with Beshuvah. Last one, ironically, was called Nathan, the man that helped turn David back to God in such a way that we could all learn a lesson. From that example. But I think there's a little of David in all of us. And sometimes there's a lot of David in all of us. I don't know that there is any man in the Bible that I've read that has ever understood God's mercy more than David. You can argue with the statement. There's some great people in there, men and women. But David had an understanding that came out in his writings that I've never been able to compare anyone on that level. So let's go to Psalm 145. This is said to be by various experts. Write their names and you can go and look what you want. This is said to be the crown jewel of David's songs. And it is supposedly, according to these experts, David's favorite song. Let's see why. Let's go if this is a man after God's own heart. Let's go into these 21 verses. Let's look at them. See what we can extract from them. See how that relates to us. And see if we're on that same path. Because there's one thing we do know about David is he will be in the kingdom of God. He's in kind of position.

He doesn't have to wonder when the kingdom of God gets here. Pick me, pick me. He doesn't have to worry. Oh, wait a minute. What am I going to do? Oh, I don't want that job. No, he already knows what his job is going to be. Because he qualified for it. How about you? Have you thought about that? Is it a possibility? Let's go in. Look at man after God's own heart. Let's go. Psalm 145, I'll be reading from the New King James Version. As David looks over my shoulder here to make sure I'm doing this right. For those who are joining us on the webcast, you might find it different today than other days because Jeff and I wanted to do something different. So there will be no scriptures up here. We're only going to this one place, and I hope you'll read with me. But the graphics you will see today, graphics you will see today, in my mind, are some of the things that went through David's mind, went through his heart when he was composing this, when he was thinking about these words. So let's go there. Verse 1, I will extol you or praise you, O God my King, I will bless your name forever and ever. How long is that? It's a long time. Ever. How's he going to do that? Because he will live forever and ever. He understood that, didn't he? He understood what the reward was. He understood what God's plan was. So I will extol you, I will praise you, O God, O King, I will bless your name forever and ever.

Do we?

Some of us may have five years, ten years, twenty years, thirty years left. Are we going to do that? Because David was going to do it. Do you remember what he said in Psalm 23? That if you get into these things of what he would do and how he's going to do it and with us, bless your name. We're going into praise and blessed next week, a little deeper as we go into the mind of David. Because he says through this 21 verses, praise, bless, praise, bless, praise, bless. Except in Hebrew, they're not all the same words. It's just been translated. Is that to help us? I feel like it is. Really there to help us. So he said in verse 1, I will praise your name, I'll bless you forever and ever. And then he goes to verse 2. He says, every day I will bless you. I come a little short on that one. Maybe you don't. I realize this week working on this, going through this message that I don't praise him enough. I look around. I'm not in a hospital bed. I wasn't in one this week. Praise God. None of my family is in the hospital. Thankfully, Chrissy got out. You weren't in there. Praise God. I look. Food costs are astronomical. My refrigerator is full. Praise God. Where do you stop? This is David's point. Where do we stop? Why wouldn't we as verse 2 says, every day I will bless you, and I will praise your name forever and ever. David doesn't mind being redundant, does he? Because basically the first and second verses are the same. Intentional? I think so. I think so. Repetition is the mother of all skills. It helps us to remember that.

Verse 3, Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. My margin says beyond understanding. So here we're praising him, blessing him, Barak. Have a good... to have a good word. We'll go through that next week. When it talks about praise here, he's talking about hello. We're going to go through that next week because I think it will help us to understand. Not just this psalm, but all through there because David wrote so many. And if we can take this as a pattern and learn so much from it, every other psalm we will read will have such a greater impact on our lives. That's the intention. And I not only want you to read psalms during the next month, five weeks, but I want you to be able to teach it. I want you to have your favorites. I want you to be able to take them apart and live by those words because we're all going to have different ones. Oh, yeah, we all like Psalm 23. We can all put a Lord as much as ever to us, you know. But there are so many. I made Mary this week. I did make her. I asked her. Be correct. Give me her top ten so I could look at her top ten. They're not my top ten. There's a couple. What are yours? What will be in there? Why? See, that will make a great Bible study because we're all not going to have the same. I'm going to ask you to bring ten. I'm going to ask you to pick out your favor too, and if somebody else has it, go with one of the others. But we need to share because it's God who said, I will write my laws in your what? Mind and in your hearts. And for some of us, He writes these things in our hearts. He writes them. Tracy, Clive's heart, that He doesn't write in mine. And I want that. I want that. You should want it too. Because I know who my king in the kingdom is. And I want to follow his footsteps, but I also see someone else that I know is going to be there. Unlike Christ, I can relate to this man because he struggles with sin. I struggle with sin. I have to fight it. I have to fight my human nature. I'm a passionate person. You don't have to. I don't have to get up in the morning and go, oh, man, let me pop some pills so I can feel good. I'm up. Feel good. Let's go. My thing is, whoa, hold back. I got to hold myself back because I can get passionate about things. But so did David, but he did it. He did it, and he made it. That's why I feel sometimes there's a lot of David in me. So let's look, as we said in verse 3, Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. His glory. We sing a song, right? How great thou art. Do we mean it? Do we mean it? Do we mean it? Do we mean it? I hope so. But you know, sometimes for us to feel how great he is, he's got to do something for us.

When I had to go back and thank him for little Christi being not seriously damaged, got hurt, I had to go back and say, man, how great. Over a windshield, car, vehicle.

He's pretty great.

But I shouldn't have to do that, should I? I shouldn't have to wait for when he does something to praise how great he really is. It should come naturally. Get up in the morning. Didn't do it this week. It was your fault. Aaron's fault. I couldn't get up and go to the beach in the morning. I don't know why. I just have to blame somebody. But when I go out in the morning to watch the sun come up and to walk and do some prayer and meditation, one of the things that Mary and I do so many times, I have no problem looking and going, wow. I mean, there's something in the ocean. When you're walking on the ocean, you realize how small you are. If you go out there, you realize even smaller you are. Right? You and Dale both have been out on boats. It's like no land in sight. He's awesome. We just forget it. We just, you know, we take it for granted. And that's why I need to read the Psalms. And I'll be, this will be most of my still have messages to give. I still have it. But this is my Bible study this entire month, besides my other Bible study. But I want to get into it. Mary, this was her book, Psalm. Many years ago, we were talking about it, and then she just loved the Psalms. Well, I'm like, okay, that's okay. It's just taken me years to mature to her level of having the understanding of how great these 150 are. Yeah, but I want stories. I want this. I want action. I want things. But it's like, wow, this this really to really get into something, you have to read it. And then it's like, that's deep. That's heavy. Or you can just read it like read all that. But that's not the intention of it. It was put to music for a reason. Music moves us, doesn't it? It's supposed to. Some move us in a wrong way. But most moves, they move, they can you control your emotion and you feel it. You feel the words coming off or somebody singing. It's just like, everybody in here has got a favorite song. I'd be surprised if somebody didn't. You don't have one. We'll get you one next Bible set. And you're going to have to have that. It'll be yours. But it moves us. We have that because we even know the words and we may have not heard the song for 10 years, but at one time it was. That's what these words and songs, songs of David should do to us, should make us feel. Feel like we're one step closer to God. Because I feel like he was. I feel like I've read David's, he was a step closer to God than I am. And I want to walk in some of those steps and I realize and read some of his words. And do that. Let's go to verse four. One generation shall praise your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts.

Do you hand God down? That's what he's talking about here. Hand him down. I'm thankful for you and your wife. You handed God down to your son. Because you would, you can't, you may not have been here without them, right? They handed God down to you. You're handing God down to the son. That's what this is about. We need to do that. That's what David tried to do and it didn't work. Absalom didn't buy it. Abnon didn't buy it. Absalom bought it.

This appears to me because he said he had nineteen sons. We know of one righteous son, don't we? So don't feel bad. You know, we got one out of nineteen that we know of.

But it says here, I will meditate on your glorious splendor. Verse five. He was a thinker. David was a thinker. He took time. What did he meditate on? I don't know. What do you think he saw? What do you think he saw? Everything he looked at, he saw God in. How about you? I wish I lived out where you guys did because I know you see some more. I get I'm in town. I don't get it as well as you do, as some of you others do. Man, how can you not praise God and declare his works? You know he looked up there all the time. You know he felt God's presence when he would see the stars because it's so large. David had never flown to other continents. You have. David had never been in the clouds. You have. Most of you have. Should we be praising more? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. How much more of his heart? I will meditate on the glorious splendor of your majesty. Man, what's it like? And we can go to the Keck and we can see all those shots. We can see all it's taken up in space and we and we send these probes out. We do all this and we see all these things. That's God's backyard. This is like I just go under and it's God's backyard.

And I'm I'm content with my little backyard with our fruit trees and I can see occasional stars and trees. But I have seen more than David saw. And you have too. Do we declare? Do we meditate on the splendor of his majesty? And then it says, and on your wondrous works. What has he done? More? More? There where he goes. Everywhere we look, everywhere we can go on this planet or the next. It's his wonder. It's his glory. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end. Does that not tell you increase where we're going? Does it even give you a hint? There will be no end to it. Well, verse 6, men shall speak of the might of your awesome acts.

Do they? We should because the world definitely isn't going to speak on that. They all believe in a God, so many, of your awesome acts. What about the acts in your life today? I don't know. You have to answer that. Do we declare his greatness enough? I have four names here on my page done a few years ago. And two of them are two women in the National congregation that have known that no matter how long it's been, how often I talk to them, over the last 10, 15, even one of them, 40 years, 40 years, she always praises God for everything. Everything! You can't leave a conversation without them saying what God has done for them. And they don't do it like, oh, look how righteous I am. No, it's who they are. It's part of David. I think David probably drove some people in the palace crazy. Oh, did you see that star? Did you see this? Look up. Why? Because he felt it. Brethren, I feel like we should feel more than we do. We need some of that passion stirred up in us.

Verse 6, men shall speak of the might of the might of your awesome acts, and I will declare your greatness. That's what these women do when I see them or talk to them. Sickness. Oh, yeah, but God, you know, this is nothing compared to lost incredible husband of 55 years. He was a good man. God gave him all those years to me. I'm so blessed about it. They're examples to me. We need to declare God's greatness more. Well, I do. Maybe you don't. Maybe you do it. Fine. Go after it. Go get it. Go do it. The world needs more of that. Verse 7, they shall utter the memory of your great goodness and shall sing of your righteousness. Who? Who? Men, us, men should, men don't, we need to. We need to do it. Nobody else is going to do it.

You look forward to a time when you're going to look at that. Think about it. There'll be a time when you look from out there. Well, yeah, but is that real? It's real. It's real. It's going to happen. David knew it, and we should too. Let's go on to verse 8. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion. The Lord is slow to anger and great in mercy. Does that describe us? Are we that way? I've seen many of you now over the last 18 months, and yes, I must say that so many are full of compassion, slow to anger. And you seem to be merciful. You are to your flawed pastor. But we have to be to everyone. God is merciful. Something we can praise. We got rain on the way up here. I didn't want rain. Aaron drove part of the way, so he had to drive through the rain, so I just sat back. Because it's usually me. I get rain! And this week I did something on the yard, and I had clouds. Clouds came over while I was working in the yard. Man, it felt good, and there was a breeze. Where did that come from? I had a man ask me one time, well, if you really understood whether you would understand this, do you know where wind comes from? I say, yeah, God. Well, you can say that. Well, yeah, I'm going to say that. Where do clouds come from? God! Because He can take them away anytime He wants. He controls it all. Shade, sun. This is what needs to be a part of us. Is that we need that mind. He's gracious and full of slow to anger and great in mercy. I want to be more merciful. I want to be slow to anger. David talked about this. Why? Because he had an issue with it. Remember when Nathan came to him about the little lamb that the neighborhood rich man had stolen? What did he say? Well, you need to go talk to him. Kill him! So you think David isn't reflecting on this? And then what did God do to him? God didn't tell him, kill him! But he did take the use of life. Verse 9, The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. Okay, like that? The Lord is good to all. Yes, He is. Why? He's fair to all. I had a man this week I had a discussion with, because there's a young man in a nursing home that I go and visit, and he's not very old, but he's had all these health problems, and a man told me, he said, it just isn't fair. I said, but God is fair. Yeah, but why should He? Because God's in charge. You're going to find somebody with a higher pay grade than me. I'm going to argue about that. He's fair. His tender mercies are over all His works. Are we His works? Then He's all over us. We should realize that. All over us. Let us remember that tomorrow morning. Let's remember that tonight. The one thing about David, he didn't have Netflix.

Stanley Cup wasn't in play for him to watch or whatever, but you know what he did have? He had time. He had time to go out and look and observe and see the beauty that God has presented here. Verse 10, All your works shall praise you, O Lord, and your saints shall bless you. When? How often? We are the saints. Well, what about us? Do we bless Him? Do we say a good word? Well, I asked somebody who says a closing prayer today to bless the food. Right? I dare say there's people here who have blessed more food than they have their God.

I've had days where I've done that. They have to stop. They have to stop because I've read these instructions. And I didn't have enough of God's heart in me. I'm busy. I don't have time.

Twenty-four hours, same as everybody else. Verse 11, They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and talk of your power. Do we talk of that power? They speak of the glory of your kingdom. See? You know He had to be looking up.

All His works that He did, everything that's out there, they speak of the glory of your kingdom, the talk of your power. The heavens preach a sermon, brethren, every single day.

And we're His greatest work, do we?

No, this is not a contending message by any means. I hope it empowers you. It empowers me to study this and say, I can do better. And I can appreciate the people who already are at that level, who don't think like I do. I can with God's understanding agree to disagree and still love people. Verse 12, "'To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.'" It's all His to do what He wants to do anytime He wants to do it.

"'To make known to the sons of men,'" that's the entire world, "'his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.'" What is that telling me? It's not just the preacher's job. It's all our jobs to proclaim the majesty, to proclaim God. And we need to stand on the street corner out here, no God! No. But there's people in our lives, there's people who need to hear it. Something wearing a crammed down somebody's throat. They need to hear it, and most of all, they need to. What is He doing? See it! See it! God lets us see it! He wants people to see it in, not just here, His greatest works. The apex of His creation is before me. He needs to see it in us.

Verse 13, "'Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations.'" It's eternal! He's sovereign! There will be a kingdom of God! Whether you want to read it in Daniel, whether you want to read it in Revelation, whether you want to read it in a minor product, it's going to go on forever and ever. You can't kill God. You can't die. Neither can His kingdom. You want to be a part?

So we have to understand, in the kingdom of God, this is a bad neighborhood.

This is off the beach. This here is great. Now, in the kingdom, this is going to be... Oh, I've seen that. David saw it through here. That's how he's able to describe it. I mean, this is beautiful. Jeff, you've been to some of these places, and it takes your breath away. Doesn't it? I mean, you just get in that way. You don't want to leave it. Surprised you're still here. Thankfully, you are. It's peace. It's tranquility. It's just like this. And no matter what you've seen, what did he say? Verse 29, I has not seen nor you heard. What he's prepared for us. Let's go to verse 14. The Lord upholds all who fall and raises us, raises up all those who are bowed down. You know any problem bowing down? If you do, you better get that out of your system. Because he holds up all those who can't. I went and I know I need somebody in the hospital one time, and they said, I'm sorry, I can't get on my knees. I said, that's all right. God's got you. You don't have to. But they just felt like, oh, I need to be on my knees by any way possible. Brethren, we have a chance to be on our knees all the time. We have a chance to be to not only appreciate this, but appreciate who gave us this. That's what these things are about. They're there to remind us. And raises up all those who are bowed down. He's going to give that. It's going to happen. Never forget Alex Haley wrote the book Roots.

I saw an interview with him in his office. And there in his office was a picture right behind him, a picture of a country view like similar to this. But it had a fence, and right in the forefront of the fence was a wire fence with wood posts sticking up. And here, right at the front, was a wood post about that tall. And on top of it was a turtle. And the interviewer said, we've talked, and you've said these amazing things. You pointed us out. What's this? He goes, this is very important. He said, I look at this picture every day. He said, what does it mean? He said, that turtle didn't get there by himself. I didn't achieve what I achieved by myself. There's a being, and there's people who helped put me here, just like that turtle. So, brethren, when we enjoy the benefits of majesty of this world, if we remember, we just didn't get it on our own. Somebody helped us. Verse 15, the eyes of all look expectantly to you, and you give them their food-induced season. Do you trust that much? You go to bed, and now you're going, where am I going to get cheese and crackers tomorrow?

Why? Read verse 16. You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. He makes it all possible, doesn't He? It was Christ who stood up and said, don't worry about your life. Look at the birds. Are you not of more value than them? And yet we worry.

You're His. He'll take care of you. Apple of His eye.

Verse 17, the Lord is righteous in all His ways, gracious in all His works. Look at this beast. I think it's an amazing thing if you've ever gone to a zoo. I've never seen one in the wild. Anybody seen one in the wild? Been to Africa, seen one? I've never have. I've seen one in the zoo, and they're amazing creatures. God made that. And you know, He made it a lot easier than I could make a paper airplane. And that's how it is. That's His power, the beauty He gives us. He didn't need to make, He could have made two animals. Okay, that's good enough for beautiful animals. Now look at them. But no, made thousands upon thousands and thousands and thousands. We get to enjoy looking at them.

Amazing. Gracious in all His works. Verse 18, the Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. In truth? That's why He says in Psalm 34, 15, and verse 17, too, that the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and He hears when you cry. He hears when you say something. That's Him. That's why David knew it's Him.

Verse 19, He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him. He also will hear their cry and save them. When you need Him to save you, cry. Cry out. All you're doing is recognizing His power. Too many times you go to somebody's heard, oh God, why did this happen? Oh God, why did this happen? That's how the world does it. We need to do it differently.

Psalm 37, verse 4, you don't have to turn there. You'll know the Scripture. We all use it. How such a beautiful that He gives you. This is God. This is what He knew. This is what we should know that God gives you the desire of your heart. Psalm 37, verse 4. Read the rest of that verse. I don't have time now.

Verse 20, The Lord preserves all who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy. Do you know what He's talking about here? He's talking about the end time. There's a time when all the wicked will be destroyed. We know it if we know the Bible. David knew this. There's a time coming when there will be no more wickedness, no more tears, no more sorrow. Can we not praise God for that? Can we not feel blessed that we know that? Verse 21, My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord, and all flesh shall bless His holy name, forever and ever. Brethren, that's prophetic. All will know His name. All the people on earth will know His name. They're not going to have to call how to worship because they're all going to know what? All are going to know the name of God. So not only does David talk about them, he talks about what it will be like when the kingdom of God gets here. My mouth will praise the Lord forever and ever and ever. That's us. But it starts now, and it starts by getting us fired up, pumped up, juiced, whatever you want to say. If there was a spiritual steroid, I'd have you line up and take it, because I'd be the first one, because I want to do this more. And the only way I know how to do it is to go to the book of Psalms. Good brother, we need to praise, we need to bless, and we need to thank our God and worship Him with a zeal and a desire that we have only scratched the surface on. Let's make this our passion for the next six weeks.