Psalm 145
1I will exalt you, my God, the King. I will praise your name forever and ever. 2Every day I will praise you. I will extol your name forever and ever. 3Great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised! His greatness is unsearchable. 4One generation will commend your works to another, and will declare your mighty acts. 5I will meditate on the glorious majesty of your honor, on your wondrous works. 6Men will speak of the might of your awesome acts. I will declare your greatness. 7They will utter the memory of your great goodness, and will sing of your righteousness. 8Yahweh is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and of great loving kindness. 9Yahweh is good to all. His tender mercies are over all his works. 10All your works will give thanks to you, Yahweh. Your saints will extol you. 11They will speak of the glory of your kingdom, and talk about your power, 12to make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, the glory of the majesty of his kingdom. 13Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. Your dominion endures throughout all generations. Yahweh is faithful in all his words, and loving in all his deeds. 14Yahweh upholds all who fall, and raises up all those who are bowed down. 15The eyes of all wait for you. You give them their food in due season. 16You open your hand, and satisfy the desire of every living thing. 17Yahweh is righteous in all his ways, and gracious in all his works. 18Yahweh is near to all those who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. 19He will fulfill the desire of those who fear him. He also will hear their cry, and will save them. 20Yahweh preserves all those who love him, but he will destroy all the wicked. 21My mouth will speak the praise of Yahweh. Let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.
Introduction
Psalms 145
The five foregoing psalms were all of a piece, all full of prayers; this, and the five that follow it to the end of the book, are all of a piece too, all full of praises; and though only this is entitled David's psalm yet we have no reason to think but that they were all his as well as all the foregoing prayers. And it is observable, 1. That after five psalms of prayer follow six psalms of praise; for those that are much in prayer shall not want matter for praise, and those that have sped in prayer must abound in praise. Our thanksgivings for mercy, when we have received it, should even exceed our supplications for it when we were in pursuit of it. David, in the last of his begging psalms, had promised to praise God (Psa 145:9), and here he performs his promise. 2. That the book of Psalms concludes with psalms of praise, all praise, for praise, is the conclusion of the whole matter; it is that in which all the psalms centre. And it intimates that God's people, towards the end of their life, should abound much in praise, and the rather because, at the end of their life, they hope to remove to the world of everlasting praise, and the nearer they come to heaven the more they should accustom themselves to the work of heaven. This is one of those psalms which are composed alphabetically (as Ps. 25 and Ps. 34, etc.), that it might be the more easily committed to memory, and kept in mind. The Jewish writers justly extol this psalm as a star of the first magnitude in this bright constellation; and some of them have an extravagant saying concerning it, not much unlike some of the popish superstitions, That whosoever will sing this psalm constantly three times a day shall certainly be happy in the world to come. In this psalm, I. David engages himself and others to praise God (Psa 145:1, Psa 145:2, Psa 145:4-7, Psa 145:10-12). II. He fastens upon those things that are proper matter for praise, God's greatness (v . 3), his goodness (Psa 145:8, Psa 145:9), the proofs of both in the administration of his kingdom (Psa 145:13), the kingdom of providence (Psa 145:14-16), the kingdom of grace (Psa 145:17-20), and then he concludes with a resolution to continue praising God (Psa 145:21) with which resolution our hearts must be filled, and in which they must be fixed, in singing this psalm.
David's psalm of praise.
Cross-references: Ps 145:9 · Ps 145:1 · Ps 145:2 · Ps 145:4 · Ps 145:10 · Ps 145:8 · Ps 145:13 · Ps 145:14 · Ps 145:17 · Ps 145:21