May it please Almighty God to bless us together as we read his holy word. Let's turn to the book of Psalms and we'll read Psalm 145. Psalm 145. It's titled David's Psalm of Praise. It's a very wonderful psalm, and it's a very encouraging psalm. So, Psalm 145.

I will extol thee, or praise thee, my God, O King, and I will bless thy name for ever and ever. Every day will I bless thee, and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts. I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works, and men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts, and I will declare thy greatness.

They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness and shall sing of thy righteousness. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works.

All the works shall praise thee, O Lord, and thy saints shall bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom and talk of thy power, to make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.

Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down. The eyes of all wait upon thee, and thou givest them their meat in due season.

Thou openest thine hand and satisfies the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works. The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.

He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him. He also will hear their cry and will save them. The Lord preserveth all that love him, but all the wicked will he destroy.

my mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.

This is a very wonderful psalm that Davy wrote and headed a psalm of praise and it is really to come to almighty God and to thank him and to praise him for all that he has done and to show his greatness and his power. What a blessing it is that God has granted us this privilege to read the outpouring really of David's heart as he wrote this psalm.

And he comes and he addresses God and he says I will extol thee and as I've said I will praise thee, my God, O King. It's a great blessing to be able to come to Almighty God as our God. David knew it. God had been with David. He directed him. He'd encouraged him. He delivered him. And therefore he was able to come with a confidence I will extol thee, my God, O King.

See how he addresses Almighty God as the King. And he is indeed the King. How often we fail to realize that in our little lives, that we come into the presence of the King of Kings. You know, you and I would deem it a favor, wouldn't it, to be able to come and to meet with the king and to speak to him and yet we as unworthy sinners can approach unto the king of kings the majesty on high and we don't have to have any appointment we can come exactly as we are this is the gracious god that we have and so david says and i will bless thy name forever and ever. Every day will I bless thee, and I will praise thy name forever and ever.

Well, he had a good desire, didn't he? And we should also desire to emulate such a situation. Truly to bless God every day, to praise him every day, forever and ever. You know, often we fail, I'm sure, in these things. But nonetheless, God is still gracious. He's still mindful of us. He doesn't cast us off. He remembers that we are dust.

And then David comes and says, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. We have this wonderful phrase, in the 48th Psalm where it commences with that and also we have it in the Chronicles, the first book of the Chronicles, the 16th chapter where it's exactly the same words and we believe that the Chronicles were written by Ezra. And so how good it is to come and be able to express the same terms, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised.

And I'm sure that's a test of the reality of our religion. If our great concern is to realise the Lord is great and that he is greatly to be praised and his greatness is unsearchable. How true that is. God is so great. It's unsearchable, his greatness. It's just beyond our natural comprehension. That's what it means. Unsearchable. However hard we may try to search out the greatness of God, yet we are utterly unable to, because he is so high and lifted up, he is unsearchable. What a mercy to have a view of that, the greatness of our God, an unsearchable God.

One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts. Again, that's a great and important consideration, isn't it? That means that you and I should pass on this praise. One generation shall praise thy works to another, testify of what God has done, testify of his goodness and mercy so that his name does not lie forgotten in unthankfulness. but we're able to praise him to the coming generation, the rising generation, that we as older people don't just pass it over, but to praise the works of God, the works of God in our own life. the works of God that we observe going on in the world.

Well, says David, one generation shall praise thy works to another and shall declare thy mighty acts. Again, if we're honest, how we fail really in doing this as we should. And then he says, I will, David speaking, I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty and of thy wondrous works. Surely we have reason, do we not, to speak of the glorious honour of God's majesty and of his wondrous works. And yet, how back we are so often, so happy to talk about everything under the sun, apart from that which generates honour and glory to our God.

Well, David was clear in his consideration. One generation shall praise thy works to another and shall declare thy mighty acts. I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty and of thy wondrous works. And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts. and will declare thy greatness."

Well, we see God's acts, don't we, in the world. We see it today. God's terrible acts. We see it in earthquakes and volcanoes and famines and floods. We see God's great works. And it's good to acknowledge that it is so.

And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts. And I will declare thy greatness well what a wonderful thing if we have the same spirit as David did that God may be lifted up high and honoured and glorified and then he goes on and says they shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness again we need to ponder these words they shall abundantly not perhaps just once in our life or perhaps once a year or he says here they should abundantly utter we have much to thank God don't we for of his great goodness and sing of thy righteousness how righteous is our God well we read this psalm probably many times and yet it's good to just these great statements they shall abundantly utter, that means speak forth the memory of thy great goodness and shall sing of thy righteousness then he says the Lord is gracious and full of compassion slow to anger and of great mercy David knew the truth of that God's people know the truth of it. It's a blessing in our little lives if we know the truth of this. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion. That means he hasn't dealt with you and me as our sins deserve. And he's been slow to anger and of great mercy. This is the great God that you and I are privileged to deal with. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great mercy.

And then he says, the Lord is good to all. The Lord is good to all. If we were dealt with as our sins deserve, we wouldn't be here. But what a kind and gracious God we have, and surely we can confirm that this word is true. The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works. That's a wonderful statement, isn't it? His tender mercies. How merciful is our God. and yet to think that in those mercies he is tender. He doesn't deal with us as our sins deserve. We enjoy his tender mercies. And he says, and his tender mercies are over all his works. They're to be seen, they're to be observed.

All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord, And thy saints shall bless thee. Well, again, how important it is that we heed such an exhortation. And thy saints shall bless thee. Do we Bless the Lord. Do we bless the Lord? Do we honour and glorify his name? For what he is, and for what he's done, and for his faithfulness, and for his love toward us, and his wonderful mercy. Oh, what a great God we have. And thy saints shall bless thee. That means that those who are called by God's grace will indeed bless him. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom and talk of thy power.

Another word of encouragement for us today, to speak, to speak of the things of God. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom and talk of thy power. Well, that's a word of exhortation for us, isn't it? In our conversations, we meet with the Lord's people Do we speak in these terms? Do we come like this, that we desire to speak of the glory of the kingdom of God and talk of His power? What does it do? It brings honour and glory to His great and holy name. And He says, to make known to the sons of men His mighty acts and the glorious majesty of His kingdom. in they that fear the Lord, spake often one to another, so that his name may be lifted up and honoured and glorified. We're very backward, aren't we? We're very backward, really, in honouring and glorifying our God. And yet he's worthy of all adoration. He's worthy of praise. He's worthy of thanks. What a mercy for God we have.

Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. Good again it is for us to realize the truth of God's word, that his kingdom, glory, heaven is everlasting. It won't cease. It won't vanish away. It is an everlasting kingdom. And what a wonderful blessing if you and I have a good hope, through the grace of God, that because of his love and mercy, we shall be with him in that everlasting kingdom, which endureth throughout all generations. And it doesn't fade away. This is the truth of God's Word, this is the encouragement for us as we press on through this life to realise that we have this to look forward to.

David says, the Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up those that be bowed down. How kind and gracious our God is. Sometimes we are bowed down. We're bowed down because of the sins which thus so easily beset us. We're bowed down by it. And yet here we have this great and glorious statement, the Lord, nonetheless, upholdeth all that fall, and raises up all those that are bowed down. What a mercy if you and I know the great and glorious truth of this. And what does it do? Surely it brings praise and honour and thankfulness to our God.

The eyes of all wait upon thee, and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfieth the desires of every living thing. Well, that can be naturally, and of course it is also spiritually. And it's a good thing if you and I are blessed with a true desire after heavenly things, and to realise the promise is the Lord satisfies and the desires of every living thing.

The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works. That's the great God that you and I are privileged to come to, are privileged to deal with. This great God who is high and lifting up, he's righteous in all his ways. Nothing is unrighteous with our God and holy in all his works. We have to deal, we do deal with a holy God. That should influence us as well in our lives to realise that we have a holy God who knows everything about us. Every thought, every step we take, every word we utter, God knows all about us.

Then he says, the Lord is nigh unto all them. that call upon him to all that call upon him in truth. That means that as we come to God in prayer, which we will tonight, coming to God in prayer, we must believe that he is a prayer hearing and a prayer answering God. So we don't pray in vain to an unknown God, but we pray to that God who through his grace has revealed himself unto us, we who are less than the least of all saints, as Paul so aptly expresses it.

He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him. Again, what a mercy to be amongst those who fear God. What a blessing that is. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, spiritual wisdom. What a mercy if you and I are blessed with this wonderful gift. And then he will fulfill the desire of them that fear him. He also will hear their cry and will save them. This is the faithful word of God.

My friends, never give up. Believe. The Lord hears our prayers. Just because we don't get answers in the timescale that we think we should, the Lord has heard our prayers. And if they're in faith, we shall receive that, which shall be really God-glorifying and be good for us. He also will hear their cry. and will save them.

The Lord preserveth all them that love him, but all the wicked will he destroy. That's very clear, isn't it? What a mercy if you and I know that God has loved us. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us. Oh, my friends, amazing, isn't it? To think that this almighty God, who is high and lifted up, looks down upon sinners of the earth, those who are utterly unworthy, and draws them to himself, shows them his amazing love. The Lord preserveth all them that love him. They will not fail, they will get safe home to glory, but all the wicked will he destroy.

And then finally he says, my mouth, shall speak the praise of the Lord." Be good, wouldn't it, if all of us are blessed with that true living desire to speak the praise of the Lord. And David here says it in a very positive way. My mouth, he didn't just think about it. My mouth shall speak. the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.

Well, may God grant that these words, and it's a psalm that is worth pondering and worth meditating upon. It's great truths, and it's a God-glorifying statement. And may you and I be blessed with that true, humble desire to walk in the path that David sets before us so clearly, so that his name is honoured and glorified, and our souls are eternally blessed. Amen.