Psalm 145:1-6 – Psalm 145:7-13

Psalm 145

PSALM 145

The Psalmist is led to celebrate the praises of God by reflecting upon his excellent wisdom, goodness, and righteousness, both in the government of the world generally, and particularly in managing, superintending, and defending the children of men. After recounting in general the praises of his providence, he comes to speak of the special favor shown by him to his own people.

The Praise of David

Note 275. This Psalm is with much propriety entitled “Praise of David;” for it is throughout a continued celebration of the perfections and doings of God. It is certainly one of the most interesting and beautiful of the compositions of the sweet singer of Israel; and so high an opinion did the ancient Hebrews form of it that they were wont to say — “Whoever utters this Psalm thrice each day with the heart and tongue is a happy man, and shall infallibly enjoy the blessings of the world to come.” The time and occasion of its composition can only be conjectured. Dr. Morison thinks it probable that it was composed by David when he and the nation of Israel obtained the blessings which he implored in the preceding Psalm; and that it is that new song which he purposed to sing (Psalm 144:9) when God appeared in glory for his chosen people. This is the last of the alphabetical Psalms. The first verse commences with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the second verse with the second letter, and so on to the close, with the exception that the hemistich of which נ, nun, was the commencing letter is wanting. The other alphabetical Psalms are Psalm 25, Psalm 34, Psalm 37, Psalm 111, Psalm 112, Psalm 119.

Psalm 145:1-6

Psalm 145:1-6

1. I will extol thee, my God and my king! and I will bless thy name for ever and ever. 2. Daily I will bless thee, and will praise thy name for ever and ever. 3. Great is Jehovah, and greatly to be praised, and there is no searching out, his greatness. 4. Generation to generation, will praise thy works, and will show forth thy power. 5. I will meditate upon the beauty of the glory of thy excellency, and the words of thy wonderful things. 6. And they shall speak of the might of thy terrible works, and I will declare thy greatness.

Note 276. The Jewish government was a theocracy.

Note 277. “In seculum et usque.” — Lat. The original Hebrew words are לעילם ועד, leolam vaad, which Dr. Adam Clarke had translated “for ever and onward in this and the coming world.” “These sorts of expressions,” he adds, “are very difficult to be translated.”

Note 278. “Ou, parleray.” — Fr. marg. “Or, will speak of.”

1. I will extol thee, my God and my king. David does not so much tell what he would do himself, as stir up and urge all others to this religious service of offering to God the praises due to his name. The design with which he declares God to be beneficent to the children of men is, to induce them to cultivate a pious gratitude, he insists upon the necessity of persevering in the exercise; for since God is constant in extending mercies, it would be highly improper in us to faint in his praises. As he thus gives his people new ground for praising him, so he stimulates them to gratitude, and to exercise it throughout the whole course of their life. In using the term daily, he denotes perseverance in the exercise. Afterwards he adds, that should he live through a succession of ages he would never cease to act in this manner. The repetitions used tend very considerably to give emphasis to his language. As it is probable that the Psalm was written at a time when the kingdom of David was in a flourishing condition, the circumstances deserves notice, that in calling God his king he gives both himself and other earthly princes their proper place, and does not allow any earthly distinctions to interfere with the glory due to God.

This is made still more manifest in the verse which follows, where, in speaking of the greatness of God as unmeasurable, he intimates that we only praise God aright when we are filled and overwhelmed with an ecstatic admiration of the immensity of his power. This admiration will form the fountain from which our just praises of him will proceed, according the measure of our capacity.

4. Generation to generation, etc. Here he insists upon the general truth, that all men were made and are preserved in life for this end, that they may devote themselves to the praise of God. And there is an implied contrast between the eternal name of God, and that immortality of renown which great men seem to acquire by their exploits. Human excellencies are eulogized in histories; with God it stands differently, for there is not a day in which he does not renew remembrance of his works, and cherish it by some present effect, so as indelibly to preserve it alive upon our minds. For the same reason he speaks of the glorious brightness, or beauty of his excellence, the better to raise in others a due admiration of it. By the words of his wonderful works, I consider that there is an allusion to the incomprehensible method of God’s works, for so many are the wonders that they overwhelm our senses. And we may infer from this, that the greatness of God is not that which lies concealed in his mysterious essence, and in subtle disputation upon which, to the neglect of his works, many have been chargeable with mere trifling, for true religion demands practical not speculative knowledge. Having said that he would speak of, or meditate upon God’s works, (for the Hebrew word, אשיחה, asichah, as we have elsewhere seen, may be rendered either way,) he transfers his discourse to others, intimating, that there will always be some in the world to declare the righteousness, goodness, and wisdom of God, and that his divine excellencies are worthy of being sounded, with universal consent, by every tongue. And, should others desist and defraud God of the honor due to him, he declares that he would himself at least discharge his part, and, while they were silent, energetically set forth the praises of God. Some think, that the might of his terrible works is an expression to the same effect with what had been already stated. But it seems rather to denote the judgments of God against profane scoffers.

Psalm 145:7-13

Psalm 145:7-13

7. They shall steak forth [or, utter copiously] the memory of the greatness of thy goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness. 8. Jehovah is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and great in mercy. 9. Jehovah is good to all, and his mercies above all his works. 10. All thy works shall praise thee, O Jehovah! and thy merciful ones shall bless thee. 11. They shall speak the glory of thy kingdom, and shall talk of thy power. 12. That they may make known his powers to the sons of men, and the glory of the beauty of his kingdom. 13. Thy kingdom is a kingdom of all ages, and thy dominion unto all successive generations.

Note 279. After this verse two lines appear to have been lost in the Hebrew text. The Psalm, as we have said before, is alphabetical; and each stanza begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in regular order, till we come to Psalm 145:14, when a break — the only one in the Psalm — takes place. Psalm 145:13 begins with the letter מ, mem, and Psalm 145:14 with the letter ס, samech. Thus the stanza beginning with the letter, נ, nun, is wanting. It is thus supplied in the Septuagint: Πιστὸς Κύριος ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς λόγοις αὐτοῦ καὶ ὅσιος ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς ἔργοις αὐτοῦ. “Faithful is Jehovah in all his words, and holy in all his works.” Dr. Adam Clarke, after observing that there is not a verse answering to נ, nun, in any of the printed copies of the Hebrew Bible, states, that there is one MS., now in Trinity College, Dublin, which has it thus (he supposes by correction) at the bottom of the page: נאמּנ יהוה בכל דבריו וצׂיד בכל מֵסיו Neeman Yehovah be-cal debaraiv; ve-chasid be-cal maasaiv. This exactly corresponds with the reading in the Septuagint. “Nothing,” says Dr. Lowth in Merrick’s Annotations on the Psalms, “can be more certain than the genuineness of the verse נ which the Septuagint has preserved, varying only in two words from Psalm 145:17.”

7. They shall speak forth, etc. As the verb נבע, nabang, means properly to gush out, some suppose, that, as applied to speech, it means not simply speaking, but an overflowing utterance, like water rushing from a fountain, and the verb ירננו, yerannenu, in the close of the verse, answers to this, meaning to shout, or sing aloud. To celebrate the memory of the Lord’s goodness, is the same with recalling to memory what we have personally experienced of his goodness. We cannot deny God’s claim to praise in all his excellencies, but we are most sensibly affected by such proofs of his fatherly mercy as we have ourselves experienced. David makes use, therefore, of this alluring consideration to induce us the more readily and cheerfully to engage in the praises of God, or rather, (according to the figurative word already used,) to burst forth in celebration of them.

8. Jehovah is gracious, etc. He opens up the goodness of which he spoke by using several expressions, as that God is inclined to mercy, (for such is the proper meaning of the word חנון, channun,) and that he helps us willingly, as one sympathizing with our miseries. It is to be noticed that David has borrowed the terms which he here applies to God from that celebrated passage in Exodus 34:6; and as the inspired writers drew their doctrine from the fountain of the law, we need not wonder that they set a high value upon the vision which is there recorded, and in which as clear and satisfactory a description of the nature of God is given us as can anywhere be found. David, therefore, in giving us a brief statement of what it was most important we should know in reference to God, makes use of the same terms employed there. Indeed no small part of the grace of God is to be seen in his alluring us to himself by such attractive titles. Were he to bring his power prominently into view before us, we would be cast down by the terror of it rather than encouraged, as the Papists represent him a dreadful God, from whose presence all must fly, whereas the proper view of him is that which invites us to seek after him. Accordingly, the more nearly that a person feels himself drawn to God, the more has he advanced in the knowledge of him. If it be true that God is not only willing to befriend us, but is spoken of as touched with sympathy for our miseries, so as to be all the kinder to us the more that we are miserable, what folly were it not to fly to him without delay? But as we drive God’s goodness away from us by our sins, and block up the way of access, unless his goodness overcome this obstacle, it would be in vain that the Prophets spoke of his grace and mercy. It was necessary, therefore, to add what follows, that great is his mercy, that he pardons sins, and bears with the wickedness of men, so as to show favor to the unworthy. As regards the ungodly, although God shows them his long-suffering patience, they are incapable of perceiving pardon, so that the doctrine on which we insist has a special application to believers only, who apprehend God’s goodness by a living faith. To the wicked it is said —

Note 280. “Si la bonte de Dieu ne surmonte cest empeschement, c’est en vain que les Prophetes traitteroyent de sa grace et misericorde.” — Fr.

“To what end is the day of the Lord for you? the day of the Lord is darkness and not light, affliction and not joy.”
(Amos 5:18.)

We see in what severe terms Nahum threatens them at the very beginning of his prophecy. Having referred to the language used in the passage from Moses, he adds immediately, on the other hand, to prevent them being emboldened by it, that God is a rigid and severe, a terrible and an inexorable judge. (Nahum 1:3.) They therefore who have provoked God to anger by their sins, must see to secure his favor by believing.

9. Jehovah is good to all, etc. The truth here stated is of wider application than the former, for the declaration of David is to the effect, that not only does God, with fatherly indulgence and clemency, forgive sin, but is good to all without discrimination, as he makes his sun to rise upon the good and upon the wicked. (Matthew 5:45.) Forgiveness of sin is a treasure from which the wicked are excluded, but their sin and depravity does not prevent God from showering down his goodness upon them, which they appropriate without being at all sensible of it. Meanwhile believers, and they only, know what it is to enjoy a reconciled God, as elsewhere it is said —

“Come ye to him, and be ye enlightened, and your faces shall not be ashamed; taste and see that the Lord is good.”
(Psalm 34:5, 8.)

When it is added that the mercy of God extends to all his works, this ought not to be considered as contrary to reason, or obscure. Our sins having involved the whole world in the curse of God, there is everywhere an opportunity for the exercise of God’s mercy, even in helping the brute creation.

10. All thy works, etc. Though many would suppress God’s praises, observing a wicked silence regarding them, David declares that they shine forth everywhere, appear of themselves, and are sounded, as it were, by the very dumb creatures. He then assigns the special work of declaring them to believers, who have eyes to perceive God’s works, and know that they cannot be employed better than in celebrating his mercies. What is added — they shall speak the glory of thy kingdom — I consider to have reference only to believers. If any incline to think that these words rather apply to God’s creatures universally, I would not object to that view. But the particular kind of speaking or teaching which David here refers to, applies only to saints. Accordingly I have retained the future tense of the verbs, rather than the optative mood, as others have done. In using the term kingdom, David intimates that this is the tendency of the manifestation of God’s works, to reduce the whole world to a state of order, and subject it to his government. He insists upon the excellency of this kingdom, that men may know that things are to be considered as in disorder and confusion, unless God alone be acknowledged supreme. He denies it to be transitory, like all earthly kingdoms, asserting that it will stand fast for ever. And to call our attention more particularly to its everlasting nature, he breaks out into an admiring exclamation, and addresses his discourse to God.