My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord. The "psalm of praise" (title) ends as it began (Psalms 145:1, Psalms 145:2)—with the strong determination of the psalmist that he at least will praise Jehovah. Others, he hopes, will join with him, and all flesh bless his holy Name (literally, the Name of his holiness) forever and ever; but for this result he can only wish and hope and pray—he cannot ensure it. But he can, and does, fulfill his own duty in the matter.
HOMILETICS
Our response to God.
What feeling should the greatness and the goodness of God call forth from us, and how should we utter it? We will praise God in every way that is open to us.
I. CONTINUALLY. (Psalms 145:2.) "Every day" will we bless him: his praise shall be "continually" in our mouth (Psalms 34:1). Not that a man is necessarily more devout because the Name of God is always on his lips, but that the spirit of thankfulness should be always in the heart, and should spontaneously and freely rise for utterance.
II. CONTINUOUSLY. (Psalms 145:1, Psalms 145:2.) "Forever and ever." Through all the days and the years of life—and beyond. Many things eagerly undertaken will be allowed to drop out, but this, never. The tongue may well forget its office before it ceases to praise God. There is. no end to which language can be put which is worthy to be compared with that of rendering praise to the Giver of all good, the God of our salvation. We will bless God-
"While life and thought and being last,
Or immortality endures,"
III. HEARTILY. This may well be included in the "abundant" utterance of Psalms 145:7. For thanksgiving is fundamentally lacking if it does not come from the heart as well as from the lips. Praise should be abundant even to overflow, because the cup of the heart is full of intense gratitude, of filial love and joy.
IV. INTELLIGENTLY. Those who only recognize the more superficial blessings may be content with thanking God for his "benefits," for his bestowments, for those things that gladden the heart and enrich the life; but they who look deeper and judge more wisely will "sing of his righteousness" as well as of his kindness (Psalms 145:7; see also Psalms 101:1). For we have the deepest interest in God's righteousness, and should extol him for that quite as earnestly as we do for the multitude of his mercies.
V. INSTRUMENTALLY. (Psalms 145:4.) It should be our hope, our prayer, and our endeavor that our own praise of God be extended, through us, to our neighbors, and be carried down, through us, to our children and our children's children. It may depend on us, on our devotion and on the conduct of our lives, whether the praises of Christ shall be sung by lips that have so far been silent, by those who are now scarcely able to speak his Name, and by those who are still unborn. How much may a wise and earnest spirit do to enlarge and to perpetuate the praises of his Redeemer!
VI. INDIRECTLY. If all God's works praise him (Psalms 145:10), even those which are unintelligent and insensible, surely we may say that the pure and beautiful lives of the good, the kind, the generous, are ever unconsciously, but most effectively, praising God.
The greatness of God.
In this exquisite psalm the greatness and the goodness of God are celebrated, and the writer passes so freely from one to another, that it is very difficult to keep them separate. Nor is there much need to do so; for God's greatness, his glory, is in his goodness (Exodus 33:19), and the two are really inseparable. Endeavoring, however, to look at them apart, we are here reminded of—
I. HIS MAJESTY. We read of "the splendor of the glory of his majesty" (Psalms 145:5). The manifestations of God's presence, given in the earlier times, were those of radiant, insupportable effulgence; those who witnessed them shrank from them. God dwells in the "light inaccessible, to which no man can approach." The splendor of his glory is such as would dazzle and bewilder our mortal sight.
II. HIS POWER. We have "the might of his terrible acts," "his wondrous works," "his mighty acts." From the time when David looked up into the heavens and was awed by the tokens of Divine power shining down upon him from above, to our own time, when we first sang of him whose power "made the mountains rise," "spread the flowing seas abroad," and "built the lofty skies," men have been affected and subdued by the "almighty power of God;" and they always must be while the wonderful fabric of nature lasts.
III. HIS INFINITY. The kingdom of God is "everlasting;" it endures "throughout all generations." Nations rise and fall, dynasties appear and disappear, centuries begin and end, but God's dominion knows no bound at all. It continues from generation to generation. There is something which powerfully affects us as we think of that which lasts, and will last, while every other thing fades and vanishes away.
IV. HIS HOLINESS. (Psalms 145:6, Psalms 145:17, Psalms 145:20.) The psalmist speaks of God's "terrible acts," and he says that he "will destroy the wicked." History, sacred and profane, is full of proofs that the holiness of God is as great as his majesty and his power. "The face of the Lord is against them that do evil." "By terrible things in righteousness" God makes us to know that sin is hateful in his sight, that continuance in it will result in ruin, in shame, in death. On the other hand, God's greatness in righteousness is seen in the rewards he gives to the upright, in lifting up the lowly, in abundantly blessing the true and pure and good. Who would not fear God who is of such majesty, power, infinitude, holiness? Who would not worship him? How foolish and how guilty to refuse to listen when he speaks, to come to him in willing subjection when he calls us to his service!
The goodness of God.
As the years increase we are inclined to review the past rather than forecast the future. What shall we dwell upon as we look backward? We should cherish not the recollection of past troubles and difficulties, but "the memory of God's great goodness" (Psalms 145:7). And we do well to extend the field of observation beyond our own experience, and regard—
I. THE VAST BREADTH OF HIS BENEFICENCE. "All his works praise him," for he is "good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works." On whom doth not his light arise? He makes his sun to shine on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust. "The eyes of all wait upon him," etc. (Psalms 145:15, Psalms 145:16). To his care the insect owes its hour of pleasure, and to his goodness the strong beast of the forest its strength and swiftness, and to his skill and his remembrance the bird of the air its flight and its song. We, too, ascribe our life, our health, our comforts, our domestic joys, our social happiness, our intellectual delights, our spiritual satisfactions, to the bounties of his hand and the kindness of his heart of love. There is no living thing whose powers and whose pleasures do not testify of the goodness of the beneficent Creator. "All his works praise him" (Psalms 145:10).
II. HIS PITIFULNESS AND HIS TENDERNESS. (Psalms 145:8, Psalms 145:14.)
1. "The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion." This is another utterance of that invaluable truth contained in Psalms 103:1-22.," Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him" (see Exodus 3:7; Joel 2:18). It is one of the truest comforts in suffering and in sorrow that we are pitied by our Divine Savior; that he feels with us in our grief; is "full of compassion" for us. The presence of pure and strong human sympathy is, in itself, an assurance of the Divine; but we are thankful for this clear and express statement of it.
2. The Lord is gentle toward us. He looks upon those that have fallen into error, into fault, into disgrace, into defeat, and he "upholds them;" he regards those that are "bowed down" in sorrow, in weakness, in discouragement, that can "in no wise lift themselves up," and he "raises them up" (see Luke 13:11). The compassion shown by our Lord during his earthly life, his pity for those who were faint and hungry, and for those who were diseased, and for the children of sorrow, is the best assurance, as it is the perfect manifestation of the compassion of the Father himself; while "the gentleness of Christ" in all his treatment of those that were down and that were despised is, and will ever be, the most exquisite illustration of "the gentleness of God" (Psalms 18:35; 2 Corinthians 10:1).
III. HIS PATIENCE AND FORGIVENESS. (Psalms 103:8.) He is "slow to anger, and of great mercy."
1. The patience of God was illustrated in his forbearance with his rebellious people in "the days of old;" the patience of Jesus Christ was shown in his treatment of his disciples who were so "slow of heart to learn," not only what the prophets had spoken, but what their own Master taught them (Matthew 15:17; Matthew 16:9). The patience of our Lord is exemplified in his bearing toward us, whom, notwithstanding all our imperfections, he regards as his friends and fellow-laborers. Now, as before, he is "slow to chide, and swift to bless."
2. He is of "great mercy," pardoning those who have done the worst things, who have gone the furthest or stayed the longest away from him.
IV. HIS RESPONSIVENESS. (Psalms 103:18-20.)
1. He is very near in spirit and in sympathy to those who reverently and inquiringly draw near to him, so that those who seek him may feel that he is not afar off, but "very present" with them; nearer to them than they to one another.
2. He hears and answers his people's prayers; he interposes on their behalf. He gives them their hearts' desires; he saves them from all spiritual evil; he causes them to triumph; he preserves those who love him in their faith and in their love, and therefore in their joy and in their hope. He gives to them the heritage of the holy, here and hereafter.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY