Psalm 145:1-9

Praise. Of David.

1 I will extol you, my God and King,

and bless your name for ever and ever.

2 Every day I will bless you,

and praise your name for ever and ever.

3 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;

his greatness is unsearchable.

4 One generation shall laud your works to another,

and shall declare your mighty acts.

5 On the glorious splendor of your majesty,

and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.

6 The might of your awesome deeds shall be proclaimed,

and I will declare your greatness.

7 They shall celebrate the fame of your abundant goodness,

and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

8 The Lord is gracious and merciful,

slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

9 The Lord is good to all,

and his compassion is over all that he has made.

Reflection
Here we have a Psalm by, or for, King David (the Hebrew there is ambiguous). Many of the psalms have this prescript, “of/for David”, meaning King David wrote that psalm or it was written for him. The psalms are worship songs, and David took his worship seriously enough to write his own music or commission new music. He was truly a patron of the worship arts.

Why is David praising God in this psalm? Maybe because he has just won a military battle. Maybe his son or daughter was just born. Or maybe none of the other worship songs could articulate his feeling of gratitude to God, so he picked up a pen and spoke what he felt. Any of these could be true. What matters is that praise and thanksgiving for David were deeply personal. What are the “mighty acts” of God that David has experienced in his own life? An event must have happened in his life that he had to give thanks for, not out of duty or obligation, but because it was the only natural response. Praise and thanksgiving are not just good ideas; they are in direct response to what God is doing in our lives.

Something must have happened in David’s life that called his attention to the utter greatness of God. Here is another reason to praise God: God is too great not to be praised. But we don’t just know God’s greatness is our brains like a concept out of a textbook. We know God’s greatness in our hearts like David, because we’ve tripped over God’s greatness in our lives and we can’t help but say, “Wow!”

Closing Prayer:
God, every day is a new day to marvel at your greatness. We praise you for the little things—the day-to-day interactions with people, the beating of our own hearts, the still and quiet moments of rest— that seem so insignificant. You have carefully infused them with value and worth.