Psalm 145:1-7 - Praise Poured Forth Like a Bubbling Spring

Psalm 145 is the last psalm in the book attributed to David. It is a psalm of pure praise and worship. It has been called “David’s crown jewel of praise” and is a fitting end to the Davidic psalms. It brings all of David's other hymns of praise to a climax. Remember we said yesterday that Psalm 145 is the only psalm that has this particular title, “A Psalm of Praise. In this psalm, David reminds us why we should praise the LORD. We can praise and thank the LORD for all He has done for us. He created us, He cares for us, He provided for us a great salvation and He saves us, He protects us, He provides and supplies for our every need and so much more! But most of all, we should praise and worship the LORD for Who He is! That is why throughout the psalm David mentions many of the attributes of God throughout the psalm, among them His greatness (v. 3), His grace, mercy, goodness and compassion (vv. 8-9), His glory and might (v. 11), His righteousness and kindness (v. 17), and His providential care (v. 20). But along with telling us why we should praise the Lord, David tells us when we should praise Him. He begins by saying that we should praise God from day to day (vv. 1-2). In heaven, we shall praise the Lord forever and forever, but now is the time to get prepared as we praise Him from day to day. No matter how dark and difficult the day may be, there is always something for which we can praise the Lord. David lived a very difficult and challenging life, constantly dealing with overwhelming situations, yet he always found reason and time to praise the LORD anyway! Our universe operates a day at a time as the heavenly bodies move in orbit around the sun, and we are foolish to try to live two days at a time. God promises, "As your days are, so shall your strength be" (Deut. 33:25), not, “As your strength is, so will your days be.”  He promises strength for the day not for tomorrow. Jesus taught us to pray, “Give us this day….”. And some of the strength that the LORD gives us comes from praising and thanking Him. David also tells us that we should praise the LORD from generation to generation (vv. 3-7). One of the important obligations of the older generation is to pass on to the younger generation the truth about the Lord. Whether we admit it or not, every local church is one generation short of extinction, and we must obey 2 Timothy 2:2 where we are told to “train faithful men who will be able to train others also”.  God’s Word often repeats this responsibly to declare to the next generation God greatness and mighty acts (Psalms 48:13; 71:18; 78:6; 79:13; 102:18; Ex. 3:15; 12:14, 17, 42; Judg. 2:10.) God is so great that the human mind cannot fathom Him (Isa. 40:28; Job 5:9; 9:10; 11:7; Rom. 11:33; Eph. 3:8), but the human heart can love Him and tell others how great He is. God's character and God's awesome works furnish us with more material than we could ever exhaust, and we will have all of eternity to keep learning more! But David was not writing only about theology; he was also writing about personal witness, what the Lord has done in our own lives. "Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord" (Psalm 34:11). Yes, the older generation must reach back into their lives and "utter the memory" of God's great goodness (v. 7). The word translated "utter" means "to pour forth like a bubbling spring" (Psalm 19:2; 59:7; 94:4; 119:17). May the LORD give us grace to be mindful to joyfully fulfill this responsibility on a daily basis. God bless!