[0:00] Psalm 145. If you have the church Bible, it's 631, page 631.
[0:17] So this is the psalm that Bryce is going to be preaching to us in just a second. So I'll read the psalm for us, and then I'll pray for you, Bryce, and you can take over. Psalm 145.
[0:36] It's a psalm of praise of David. I will exalt you, my God the King. I will praise your name forever and ever. Every day I will praise you and extol your name forever and ever.
[0:50] Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise. His greatness no one can fathom. One generation commends your works to another. They tell of your mighty acts.
[1:01] They speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty, and I will meditate on your wonderful works. They tell of the power of your awesome works, and I will proclaim your great deeds.
[1:14] They celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and rich in love.
[1:26] The Lord is good to all. He has compassion on all he has made. All your works praise you, Lord. Your faithful people extol you. They tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might, so that all people may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
[1:44] Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The Lord is trustworthy in all his promises and faithful in all he does.
[1:55] The Lord upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.
[2:10] The Lord is righteous in all his ways and faithful in all he does. The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear him.
[2:23] He hears their cry and saves them. The Lord watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy. My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord.
[2:34] Let every creature praise his holy name forever and ever. Father God, we thank you for your servant Bryce. We pray for him, that you would fill him with your Holy Spirit, and that the words that come out of his mouth are words ordained by you to teach us.
[2:53] We pray for the rest of us sitting under his preaching, that we would listen well, and that we would take on board what you're trying to say to us this morning. Thank you for your word. Please speak to us in Jesus' name.
[3:05] Amen. Thanks, Bryce. Thanks, Bryce. Thank you, Connor.
[3:19] And thank you for having me here this morning. What a privilege to come and worship with you. And thank you for the choices of those songs and for the musicians. Those fit precisely with what we're going to talk about in Psalm 145.
[3:32] So you might keep your Bibles open there. Psalm 145 is the text we'll be looking at this morning. Just to say that it's so good to be with you. Karigaline, we know, is our older sister.
[3:45] That's really the reality. I bring love and greetings from Douglas Baptist, and we're so thankful for the way that you have faithfully pressed on. You have a reputation, a good one. I think of the church in Thessalonica, where Paul says, we know about your work of faith.
[4:05] We know about your labor that's driven by your love. We have heard about your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
[4:17] And we can say these words about Karigaline Baptist. We're very thankful for you. Keep pressing on. So let me pray and ask God for help as we look at Psalm 145.
[4:30] Father, we thank you as well that you say to the Thessalonians that the gospel came not only with words, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.
[4:50] That's what we're asking for today. Let your words come as words, but in power, in the Spirit, with real conviction.
[5:02] To me, to all of us, we plead with you. Amen. This summer, I was traveling in North America, doing an awful lot of driving.
[5:15] And my son Jonathan came for a major leg of the driving bit that left behind the girls. And Jonathan and I went on this kind of tour of northeastern Canada and the United States.
[5:29] And we were driving from Washington, D.C. area up to the Toronto airport. And as we were coming up, Jonathan says, Dad, can we stop at Niagara Falls? Like, I know you took me there when I was a smallie, but now Jonathan's nearly 16.
[5:42] And he was like, I'd like to see it kind of where I could appreciate it. So we were driving right through Niagara, right past. And so I said, sure, we'll stop. So we stopped.
[5:54] And while we were there, it's just this incredible scene of so much water rushing over the falls. While we were there, we saw, Jonathan said, what's all those people down there?
[6:08] And they were all wearing these rain ponchos and they were going up these stairs next to the Horseshoe Falls. And I found out afterwards that what it is, it's a tour called Journey Behind the Falls.
[6:19] And you can actually go right behind the waterfall and you can actually look out some kind of holes in the caves and see the water gushing down and there's these rails. Can you imagine if you were on that tour?
[6:32] And if you were, while you were on the tour, you start to lean over the rail and do this. And the tour guide says, you hold it, what are you doing?
[6:44] That's very dangerous. You can't be leaning over rails. What are you trying to do? And you're like, well, I'm trying to measure how much water is coming over the Niagara Falls.
[6:59] And of course, your guide would say, that's ridiculous. A 300 mil cup and you're trying to measure the amount of water over the falls. Well, that is what Psalm 145 is like for David.
[7:13] He's completely overwhelmed. By the way, if the flow is quite heavy over the, depends on the conditions, but Niagara Falls in one second, apparently, three million liters of water in one second.
[7:29] Can you imagine trying to fit three million apple juice boxes in your cupboard or inside in your fridge? Can you picture that? That comes to roughly 168 million liters per minute, 240 trillion liters per day.
[7:45] You cannot measure that with 300 mil cups. And David is trying to measure the greatness of God and he's got the same quandary.
[7:56] That's what's going on in Psalm 145. He's overwhelmed. Think of that kind of water coming down inside in your shower. Your drain would be immediately overwhelmed. David is wowed by God.
[8:12] And that's what's coming out in this Psalm. Verse 21 in this Psalm is absolutely key. It's the last verse of the Psalm and it says these words. My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord.
[8:29] Let every creature praise his holy name forever and ever. Why that's special is that Psalm 145 is the last Psalm in book 5 of the five books of the Psalms.
[8:43] And if we were reading it in Hebrew we would see that this is a special kind of separate benediction that comes at the end of the five books of the Psalms. And David says my mouth will speak.
[8:57] Some of you may have heard there's a quote that flies around out there that it says preach the gospel at all times use words if necessary. And it kind of sounds quite noble that you would preach the gospel with your life without using words.
[9:12] And most certainly our lives should preach the gospel. But can we say biblically that's faulty. We should say preach the gospel at all times words will be absolutely necessary if you're to preach the gospel.
[9:27] And David wants to use words. My mouth will speak. Throughout the Psalms we have those many many different examples of how the mouth must be used.
[9:41] With singing lips my mouth will praise you. Psalm 62. We could go on and on through the Psalms. My mouth must be involved in praise. David must open his mouth and literally speak.
[9:55] of the magnificence of God. So what about us? Are we wowed and overwhelmed enough by God that we've got to open our mouths and speak?
[10:14] When something has captured your attention and fascinated you, you must speak about it, right? This is David in Psalm 145. Now the Psalms are the songbook that Jesus sang from.
[10:29] There's this important perspective that emerges. In the Psalms, the central figure in the Psalms on first reading seems to be David. God has made a covenant with David and God has promised that there will be a son of David who will rule on his throne forever and ever.
[10:46] But as you start to work your way through the books of the Psalms, you start to realize David's not the central figure. The central figure is the promised son of David, the king who will reign forever and ever, king of all kings, our Lord Jesus Christ.
[11:05] Jesus says in Luke 24, the Psalms must be fulfilled that were written about me. When we read the Psalms, we need to see Jesus. Now, I haven't gone and counted them up myself, but roughly only around 10-ish percent of the Psalms are completely celebration from one end of the Psalm to the other.
[11:28] Psalm 145 is one of those Psalms. That tells us something about our songs, right? Many of the Psalms, how it is, is that they work their way to praise through the realities, the difficulties, the pains, the blessings of life.
[11:43] I'm working my way to praise through the real life things. but then we have some of these Psalms, like Psalm 145, that are complete praise all the way through.
[11:57] David, it's almost like when he gets to this Psalm, he's like, I'm so overwhelmed by my God, I'm going to actually do a search on thesaurus.com and find as many words as I can to describe the greatness of God.
[12:09] And so, he says, I will exalt, I will praise, I will extol, I will commend, I will tell, I will speak, I will proclaim, I will meditate, I will celebrate, I will sing.
[12:22] He's wowed. There's just enough, there's not enough words, but what words I can come up with, I am going to let my mouth speak them about the greatness of God.
[12:35] Many things he has to say about God in this Psalm. My God is king, he is great, he is mighty, he is majestic, he is splendorous, he does great works and marvelous deeds, he is abundant in goodness, he is righteous, gracious, compassionate, forgiving, slow to anger, abounding in love, he rules as king, he is everlasting, always faithful, always trustworthy, caring for the lowly, providing all that I have, providing for all of his creation, he's near, he hears, he satisfies, he rescues, he saves sinners, he protects us, and he justly destroys the wicked.
[13:20] And my mouth must speak in praise of the Lord, praise his holy name forever and ever.
[13:32] In a sense, you know what a cornucopia is? You know those little horns that they put produce in and they overflow the horn, the little basket horns that they put on your table?
[13:42] And they take little pictures of them? Is this idea of an overflowing abundance that comes. Often they're used at times when we would celebrate a season of harvest Thanksgiving.
[13:54] You'd find a cornucopia. This psalm is a cornucopia of praise, overflowing with God's majesty. Now there's a few little features about this psalm that we should note.
[14:09] First of all, as I've mentioned, it's the last psalm of book five in the psalms. So there's five books in the psalms and book five is really the response of restored sinners, those who've been brought back from exile and have been forgiven and redeemed by love.
[14:29] And during the exile psalms, which come in book four, David's voice goes mostly silent. But then David's voice starts to come back in, in book five, in a big way.
[14:40] And finishes off this special psalm with this special benediction. So this is the final psalm that David is noted as writing in the psalm book.
[14:51] So that becomes very special psalm to the Hebrew people. They often would practice quoting this every day, this one song, because it's very special to them. Also, just to note, it was almost certainly this psalm was written by David towards the end of his life.
[15:09] It appears that he was an aging or aged man as he writes the words of this psalm. Then, very interestingly, which, unfortunately, English, we miss completely about this psalm, but if we were Hebrews who could read the Hebrew language, we would see something going on here.
[15:30] The whole psalm, down to verse 20, before you get this final benediction, is an alphabetical acrostic, and it goes right through the Hebrew alphabet, 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
[15:45] So it's a bit like when we sometimes do, have you ever done an acrostic Mother's Day card? Any of you mothers ever got one of those kind of acrostic cards where you say, mother, M-O-T-H-E-R.
[15:58] And so we would write something like, M, marvelously, O, overflowing with love, and T, touching the H, heart of, E, everyone she R, reaches.
[16:15] You ever done one of those cards? Something like that? Received one of those cards? Maybe one of your friends made fun of you with those acrostic cards? That's sort of what's going on here.
[16:27] This is the complete picture of the greatness of God from A to Z, the full alphabet. More precisely, from Aleph to Tav.
[16:39] Or, as we'd say in Greek, from Alpha to Omega. By the way, who's the Alpha and Omega? Our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the completeness of this Psalm and this praise.
[16:52] So what's actually in the Psalm? Well, when you look through the Psalm, if you've read through the Psalms, you'll see actually in Psalm 145, as far as I can see, there's absolutely no new content.
[17:04] It's all things that have been said before throughout the Psalm book, but kind of bunched together. What's new about it is it is completely start to finish praise at the end of Book 5.
[17:19] David, it's almost like he's reflecting towards the end of his life, and he's saying, listen, I've written all these Psalms before. These Psalms have been about through my troubles, this is who my God is.
[17:34] Through my pains and losses, this is who my God is. Through my doubts and darkness, this is who my God is.
[17:48] Through the betrayals, through the blessings and comforts, through the history of my people, through my sin and his forgiveness of my sin, this is who my God is.
[18:06] And now he's come to the end and said, I'm just overwhelmed. I've got to come out with complete A to Z praise in Psalm 145.
[18:18] There are many themes of praise in this Psalm, far too many for me to really go over, but I'd like to just draw out four which I think are prominent and what we could benefit from today. Four themes of praise I see here.
[18:31] First, David is saying, I must speak of my God's greatness in the early verses. Then David says, I must speak of my God's grace.
[18:44] Then David says, I must speak of my God's rule, his kingdom. And finally, I must speak of my God's righteousness.
[18:54] righteousness. Four themes that are quite prominent in this. First, I must speak of God's greatness. If you look with me at verses 3 to 6 here, Psalm 145 verse 3, great is the Lord and most worthy of praise.
[19:11] His greatness no one can fathom. One generation commends your works to another. They tell of your mighty acts. They speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty. And I will meditate on your wonderful works.
[19:25] They tell of the power of your awesome works. I will proclaim your great deeds. His greatness no one can fathom.
[19:37] That's a beautiful picture. You know what a fathom is? We don't use too often anymore the idea of a sounding line.
[19:48] But during days past, when ships used to sail, they needed to know how much water was under the ship so they didn't run aground. So they had these sounding lines, and they would either tie knots every two yards or six feet, and that was a fathom.
[20:03] And they put a weight on the end of the sounding line, they'd throw it in, and they'd measure it up, and they'd call out the fathoms, how much water was under the ship so that it wouldn't run aground. But the realities are, if you try throwing out a fathom line over the Mariana Trench, there's no fathom line that is going to measure the depths of the sea there.
[20:27] And David is saying, that's what the greatness of my God is like. It is unmeasurable. You cannot measure how great he is. It is unsearchable.
[20:39] No one can fathom his greatness. I must speak of my God's greatness. David also says, I must speak of my God's grace.
[20:49] Look with me, please, at verses 7 to 10. He says, they celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and rich in love.
[21:07] The Lord is good to all. He has compassion on all he has made. All your works praise you, Lord, your faithful people. extol you. I must speak of my God's grace.
[21:22] Grace is what is unearned. Grace is what is undeserved. Free.
[21:35] A gift. If you've earned it, it's not grace. If you deserve it, it's not grace. If you worked for it, it's not grace. freely given.
[21:46] The Lord is gracious. He's compassionate. He's merciful. This is how God saves us. God gives us everything we could never get for ourselves.
[21:59] He puts us right with him. When we have nothing to give, when we only deserve judgment, he gives grace. This is how he saves us.
[22:10] And so mercy is quite simply not getting what you deserve. And that's a wonderful thing to get mercy, isn't it? But grace is God giving us everything we could never have on our own merits.
[22:23] He gives them to us freely. So for instance, if we were to say that, what if there was a troubled young man in the area? What if he was an orphan and he happened to be someone who was burning with a lot of hatred and he was an arsonist?
[22:38] And he found a particular wealthy man who had lots of properties in the area and what he did is he set out systematically to find out which properties he owned and burn them.
[22:50] And the day comes where the young man is caught red-handed in the act and he's brought before the wealthy man and the wealthy man says, I will not press charges.
[23:02] Let him go. Let him go free. That would be mercy, wouldn't it? And that would be incredible mercy on behalf of that wealthy man. But can you imagine if the wealthy man were to say, but you know what?
[23:16] I will do more than show mercy. I will offer to take this young orphan as my own son. And I will make him heir to all that is mine.
[23:29] This would be grace. That young man deserves judgment. But he's receiving mercy and then grace. God is a God who is gracious and compassionate to us.
[23:46] And David is wowed by how God is slow to anger, rich in love. This is who my God is.
[23:58] My lips will speak of him, of his praise. I must speak of my God's rule or his kingdom in verses 11 to 13. If you look with me there at verse 11, they tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might so that all people may know your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
[24:21] Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and your dominion endures throughout all generations. Now, think of this, who's writing? David.
[24:32] Of all the kings of Judah, all the kings of Israel, where does David write? The greatest. David, it would seem to us, could easily write about the greatness of his kingdom.
[24:46] He has nothing to say about it here. He speaks of the greatness of God's kingdom, which is ultimately the greatness of the promised son of David, Jesus Christ, king of all kings.
[25:00] And he sees here, he's holding on to these promises of a kingdom that is forever and ever. It's lasting. I must speak of God's rule.
[25:11] But can I ask you, in all seriousness, the psalm starts with, in verse one, I will exalt you, my God, the king.
[25:23] God's love. I think it would be good for each of us to give an assessment, is Jesus really my God?
[25:40] Genuinely, is he the king in my life? Is this Jesus? Is he your king? Does he have authority over you right now?
[25:51] I must speak of my God's rule. I must also speak of my God's righteousness in verses 14 to 20. Just look with me particularly verse 17 please.
[26:03] The Lord is righteous in all his ways and faithful in all he does. The Lord is near to all who call on him in truth.
[26:14] He fulfills the desires of those who fear him. He hears their cry and saves them. The Lord watches over all who love him but all the wicked he will destroy.
[26:28] The term righteous means to put things right. To put things right. Now when we understand what that means that's a really reassuring truth about God isn't it?
[26:43] We see a world where things are not put right yet. It's very reassuring that God will put things right. He's righteous. However, once we see that that's reassuring we have to realize God being righteous is terrifying because if he's a God who puts all things right, if all wrongs must be put right, then my wrongs must be put right by a righteous God.
[27:16] It says, last statement, the wicked he will destroy and the next thing he does is go into benediction. My mouth will praise him. Praise his holy name forever and ever.
[27:32] Here's what happens, is in salvation, God saves people through putting their sins right. God saves me by putting my sin right.
[27:44] He reconciles us through the cross where my sin is completely and thoroughly judged with right judgment. Jesus took the judgment I should have got righteousness.
[28:00] Our salvation, if you're a brother or sister who's trusting in Jesus, who knows his salvation, we need to be clear on this, our salvation only comes to us through judgment.
[28:12] Jesus took that judgment so we could receive mercy, forgiveness, and grace. Salvation through judgment, God puts all things right.
[28:23] And this gracious salvation only comes to those who repent and put their trust in God's King, the one who laid down his life for them at the cross.
[28:33] And he calls on everyone in the world, turn to me, me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth, for I am God, there is no other.
[28:51] Have you turned to him? If you haven't, will you turn to him and be saved? Because he delights to save.
[29:02] This is what he loves to do. This is what Jesus came into the world. He came to be our king, but he came to be our saving king. I will open my mouth and speak of your righteousness.
[29:19] Then we have this again, final benediction. My mouth will speak, verse 21. My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord. Let every creature praise his holy name forever and ever.
[29:31] David is wowed by the greatness of God. David is overwhelmed. So he's put it into words.
[29:43] He's put it into song. He must speak. He has to sing. But can you imagine if this is how wowed David was 3,000 years ago, how wowed David would be to know what we now know?
[30:01] that a child would be born? That that child would be 100% human and 100% God?
[30:12] That that child would live a perfect life as a substitute in the place of those who couldn't do it? That that child would take the judgment of God on himself at the cross in love, bearing the sins of others when he deserved no judgment?
[30:30] so that he could put them right with God? That that child would rise again? That that child would be ascended to heaven and seated at the right hand of God in glory?
[30:45] That that child will come again and he will put all things right? He will judge all things and he will put things right in a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness where he rules.
[31:03] What if David could have seen that 3,000 years ago? I wonder what would have been in our Sam. David sees it now. He sees it all.
[31:15] Do we see it? David is wowed. Jesus, the completeness of God's glory, the Alpha and the Omega, the full alphabet, the story of redemption.
[31:30] He delights to save. Will you turn to him for salvation today? But how will we respond? Can I just say, I read a Sam like this and I'm like, I really need to be wowed more than I am.
[31:49] God, shake the dullness in me so that my lips have to open and I need to speak like David. We need to be wowed.
[32:00] But also, can I say this? I think a response to this is, we should open our mouths and speak of the praise of this great God, if he is our God.
[32:15] We need to literally speak, not just think about it, but actually speak. think of this, David says in the psalm, look at verse 4, he says, one generation commends your works to another, they tell of your mighty acts, they speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty, I will meditate on your wonderful works.
[32:40] And he goes on, one generation to another. This is David's concern, I must speak so that the next generation will also speak and the generation after them will also speak.
[32:51] And you know what, David succeeded. Here we are 3,000 years later and his words have been passed on generation to generation to us. That's cool.
[33:03] That means speaking up can make a difference generation to generation through time. So some very practical things I think we should do in relation to a proper response to this Sam.
[33:16] Sam. here it is. Open your mouth and speak the praise of the Lord. But here's some practical realities. We've already done it this morning, but I think we can do it in a more wild way.
[33:32] Sing. Because David wrote a song. Sing, be here, and be heard when it's time to sing.
[33:43] Every Sunday we gather is an opportunity to speak of the greatness of our God to those who believe already and those who have yet to believe. So sing.
[33:54] Practical reality. Sing out. Be heard. No auditions. We're all called to speak of his greatness through song. Speak then.
[34:05] Others must hear of God's greatness. Can I just say a very practical application is in verse 4 here. The next generation needs to hear. Can you imagine a tech company that would have decided you know what?
[34:18] First generation was adequate. What if Apple decided the first iPhone that's all we needed. They'd have been left behind.
[34:29] Right? We need to realize that this glorious message needs to pass from our lips to the next generation so that they will tell the next generation so they will tell the next generation.
[34:42] Speak so that generations to come will hear. Can I just say a little word to parents? We do need to focus on the next generation hearing.
[34:54] They need to hear it from our lips. When we come here and sing they need to hear us sing. When we're at home we need to speak of the greatness of God and take opportunities to point our children to the greatness of God. And what I just say don't miss opportunities to bring your children to places where they will hear of the greatness of God.
[35:12] That probably means a lot more trips to the petrol station to fill up and pay. That means a lot more time driving around in your car and prioritizing where you're going to bring your children because my children must hear of the greatness of this God.
[35:30] Practical application. For Carigline Baptist can I just say to encourage you, you are known for your concern for next generations. It's already been announced this morning that amazing things going on with youth and children.
[35:44] And can I say, they must know our God. And I know this concerns you and I know it's very costly to invest in the next generation. Could I just say keep enduring in that?
[35:55] Keep speaking to them of the greatness of God. We trust that generations to come will hear from them about how great and how wowed they've become by our great God.
[36:08] Also speak of your future hope. The psalm, to an extent, the psalm feels like, well, where's the realism of the previous psalms?
[36:18] Because in the previous psalms, there's lots of real life stuff in there. This seems almost too good. It's kind of too utopian. But I think what it is, is that David, as he ages, realizes, you know what, what I'm talking about in this psalm is real life.
[36:34] It's the life to come. And I'm full of anticipation. Notice how many times David talks about forever and ever. He's anticipating the life to come.
[36:45] And so there's a little word here for those of us who hesitate, are aging. How's that? I don't want to call anybody aged yet. But this utopian outlook is truly life.
[37:01] There's a member of our congregation now in his 90s and his health is really slipping. And his mind is slipping a bit. He says to me, when I go visit him several times in the conversation, maybe three, four times, he'll say, oh, what part of America are you from?
[37:17] And I say, well, I'm actually Canadian. And he's always, what part of Canada? Oh, I'm from the west, in the mountains. Oh, right, you're from the west. What's it like there? Do you like it there? And then maybe seven minutes later, we have the same conversation again and again.
[37:32] He keeps springing up. But you know, this man, before he started to slip mentally, and now that he's slipped mentally, there is one line he repeats five to ten times every time I visit him, and it's this, Bryce.
[37:46] And he says it with emotion in his voice and often tears in his eyes. Bryce, the Lord. has been so good to me.
[37:58] He can't stop saying it, whether fully in his right mind or slipping. He has to speak these words again and again and again.
[38:08] If we're aging, we've still got words to speak, just like David does in this psalm. David cannot contain God's greatness. He says, verse 21, my mouth will speak in praise of the Lord.
[38:24] Let every creature praise his holy name forever and ever. Can I say just to you, brothers and sisters, let it be said of Keragoline Baptist Church, these people actually believe in this great God, and they can't help opening their mouths to speak and to sing of the greatness of their Lord.
[38:50] Let's pray. Father, we thank you for these words of David. We confess that we're often not wowed as David was, but we know that him led by the Spirit has brought us these words.
[39:04] Would you lead us by your Spirit to be wowed by your greatness and then to open our mouths and speak of your majesty? Amen.
[39:17] Thanks very much, Bryce.
[39:37]