"Undiluted Praise"

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. Great is the law and most worthy of praise, his greatness, no 1 can fathom. 1 generation commends your works to another.

They tell of your mighty acts. They speak of the glorious fender of your address you, and I will meditate on your wonderful works. They tell of the power of your awesome works, and I will proclaim your great deeds. They celebrate your abundant goodness and joy asing of your righteousness. The lord is gracious, uncompassionate, slow to anger, and rich in love.

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, say that all people may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. Your kingdom is an ever us in kingdom and your dominion endures through all generations.

The lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does. 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. 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 desire eyes 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. My mouth will speak in praise of the lord, let every creature praise his holy name forever ever.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Bart. I'm pastor here at Hopechurch, and it's great to open up god's word together. Please would you, have some 145 open in front of you, page 6 32, 6 31, and 6 32. And let me pray for us as we come to god's word.

Hembley father, we, praise you again that we have your word that you have spoken. And would you help us as we've already prayed to be attentive, to be ready to list and and learn from you. And father, as David was moved to praise you, please move our hearts. However, we're feeling this morning, whatever we've come with, would you open our eyes more to you and your greatness and move us to praise you, amen. So we come to the last in our series on the book of Psalms, it, it has been good to get into the some of these Psalms.

The the book of Psalms is like the Bible playlist. You've got a whole load of songs in there. And we've seen as we've gone through that there's there's different fields to different psalms, as they might be on a playlist, maybe you've got. But some we started with, the first 1 that we started with was down in the depths. It was Psalm 88.

It starts and ends in darkness. And we thought it was good to to have that son because it helps us when we're feeling like that to know that we can express this to god. We can express to god when we're feeling low when things are feeling awful. And we saw different emotions, different times in life as we've looked at different psalms. Some of them have been to do with joy at deliverance or how to deal with guilt.

And this week's is 1 which is just praise of god. As you get to the end of the book of Psalms, you find the last Psalms are just all praise after praise after praise of god. Now what is praise? We thought about this at, 1 of our prayer meetings recently to say, what does it mean to praise something? Well, praise is when you are so griped by something, so excited by something, so enjoying something that you've just got to tell others about it.

So if you've been to see a film, and you are really gripped by it. Afterwards, you've just gotta go and tell someone about it. That is you praising that film. And we see here King David versus 1 to 3 of Psalm 145. Have a look at them.

He says, 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. Great is the lord, and most worthy of praise, his greatness. No 1 can fathom.

David is saying, he's just gotta praise god to declare god's greatness. He's gotta tell others about it that though other things are worthy of praise. He says, he that the lord god is most worthy of praise. Far beyond anything else, because second half of verse 3, his greatness, no 1 can fathom. Now a fathom, a gather is a measure of depth.

It's a measure normally of depth of water. And so to say god's greatness, no 1 can fathom is to say that god's greatness is like a bottomless ocean, you will never get to the bottom of it. And so David says, because I know god and his greatness that I will never get to the bottom of it. I've gotta praise god. I've gotta tell others about god, and him writing this psalm is part of that.

And I wonder whether god whether David's view of god matches your view of god this morning. Is your understanding of 1 of god, 1 that so grips you that you want to overflow with praise, that you want to sing god's praises as we gather, that you want to go and tell others of the greatness of god. Very often that doesn't match our view of god, does it? I spoke to someone recently, someone who not a Christian, a a neighbor, I was speaking to them, and, he said, he's not not he he doesn't follow a particular religion, not Muslim, not in, there are other influences in his family, but but he's he himself doesn't follow a particular religion, but he says there is a he thinks there is a god out there, a force out there, something out there. And so I I asked him, I said, so what is this god like that that you think is out there?

And that, I, I think, threw him a little bit. He wasn't expecting that. And I think the answer was, he he hadn't really thought about it. But as he described, what he thought was out there. And then me coming back to my study and looking at Psalm a hundred and 45, I thought, what you're thinking of is not something that is gonna cause you to praise.

This isn't a god that you're thinking, he he is infinite in his greatness. And therefore, David would say, well, that's not the god of the Bible. It's not the real god because the real god is so great. You will never get to the bottom of his greatness. You'll want to praise others.

But of course, this isn't just true of those who aren't Christian. Even Christians, we can gather them, we can say, well, we should praise god, and we don't feel it. Do we? And that could be for a whole lot of reasons that we're not overflowing with praise. And maybe that's because Well, other things come to the forefront of your mind, don't you?

Like, the impatience maybe you showed this morning and just getting your family here on time and in the right club. And even now you're wondering whether you did all that quite right. And so that is the forefront of your mind, or maybe you're thinking about the holiday you've just had or the work that you're heading back to, or or or the medical appointments coming up. And god is not at the forefront of your mind because Other things are? Or maybe it's because we flattened god, and we can do this.

We can we can reduce god down, and we can think, yeah, I think I know what god is like. When David says, his greatness, no 1 can fathom. We've made god small. We've made god a pocket guard when he is in fact infinite. And so for all of us, We need to have a better view of god to see his greatness.

And so we're gonna pick out 4 themes from this Psalm as we go through it. 4 things that David praises god for. And the first is his works. God's works. It's the first theme of David's praise.

Just cast your eyes over a few verses. See how David describes god's works. First 4. 1 generation will commend your works to another. They will tell of your mighty acts.

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. They celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully seeing of your righteousness. How does David describe god's works? God's acts god's deeds.

He says they are mighty, wonderful, awesome, great. David is saying I can see the greatness of god in what he has done. That's where we can look. See, the lord god has acted in history. He has done things.

He has worked. He is not far off and distant. It is not that god has merely, wound up the universe and said it running and wandered off to leave us to it. No. He has acted in history.

And David is saying that things god has done. If you look at them, you will be in awe of god. He's greatness. And where do we see these acts of god, or we need to look in the Bible. The Bible records for us the works of god.

From beginning to end, it is a rep port of god's works. And so if you're exploring Christianity, look at the works of god, see what god has done, look in the Bible, And in particular, I want to point you if you're exploring Christianity. I want to point you to the life of Jesus, because that is the climax of the Bible when god himself came and lived among us in the person of Jesus. And when you look at what he did, the works he did. You will be amazed.

You will see that what he did was wonderful. Awesome. And so come along to Hope explored. If you're exploring Chris Christianity. Maybe you could call yourself a Christian, but you're saying I still need to get to grips with what Christianity is really about.

Come along on hope explored. Or invite others to hope explored. Maybe you know someone who you think, I, yeah, I could maybe invite invite them along. 3 sessions, no pressure in them. No 1 has to read the Bible out loud.

They don't have to sing. They don't have to pray out loud. Nothing like that. It's just to come along and explore the Christian faith and to see Jesus and the wonderful things he did. And if you're a Christian today, and you're feeling flat in your relationship with the lord, you and I, we need to come back to god's word and his works, and you need to think about them.

What David did? Verse 5, did you notice? He says, they speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty, and I will meditate on your wonderful works. What does he mean by that? What does he mean to meditate on god's works means to think about them, to mull them over, not to move on from them too quickly.

It says I'll think about them. I I won't just pass over them. Imagine he thinks about them during the day during his lunchtime, during during the afternoon at night, where these on on these bed is meditating or thinking about what god has done. And our danger is that we just pass over them very quickly. Maybe you do a daily bible time.

I hope you do. I'd encourage you to do that if you don't yet. But we tend to we can we can fall into a habit of of treating those bible times a bit like a a a tourist. You know, the kind of tourist who maybe does Italy in a week. It just goes from town to town.

I joined someone on their trip around Europe once on their stretch in Italy where they just did it in a in a week. I won't say what nationality that that person what. But they did the whole lot in a week, but just by going from town to town, so we had a day in Milan, a day in Florence, a day in Florence, day in Venice, day in Venice, and we know we've done Italy. Of course, you don't really know Italy at all. I was a wonderful trip.

It was a fantastic time. We don't really get to know it. But so too, in our bible times, we can read of what God has done, and we can move on very quickly. We can think, oh, I know about that. I I know what happened in that incident.

And we don't meditate on it. I think part of that is to question it. After all, if god's greatness, no 1 can fathom, just a cursory glance at god's word and going, oh, yeah, I know that 1. I know what happens there. Maybe it means that we're not plumbing the depths.

Of god's grace. Maybe there are jewels there that we can find that we haven't found yet. There are going to be. We need to meditate on god's works. Think of them.

Ask question questions about. And if we do, we will find we will join with David verse 6. He moves from meditating, and he says, they tell us the power of your works. And then he says, I will proclaim your great deeds. They celebrate the goodness, your abundant goodness, and joy for leasing of your righteousness.

You see, he goes from meditating to proclaiming to celebrating, and that's what we will do as we ponder more what god has done. David praises god for his works. Second, for his character, by the way, there are 4 things that we're picking out. Here's the second god character, verse 8. Have a look.

The lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. We've noticed for, as we've looked at the Psalms, that sometimes the Psalmists just pauses and declares god's character, and that's what's happening here too. And this is a common description of god in the Bible that god is gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, rich in life. It's interesting that my neighbor, when I said, what's the god like that you think of? He didn't really know.

I think he normally, if you turn to a Bible character, 1 who knows the lord, he's what's god like? This is what you'll get. God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in love. This is how god declared himself to be in exodus. What does it mean?

Let's go through it quick the lord is gracious. That means god pours out on people, love and goodness, though they deserve his judgment. It's god's generosity to those who don't deserve it. Now god's gracious character is something that we can struggle to get our heads around and struggle to get used to that god deals with us on the basis of grace, his love, not our merit. Because we're very used to dealing with 1 another and other people dealing with us on the basis of merit.

We value 1 another based on how successful someone is or whether, they match our social status. Or whether they speak, like we do, and value what we do. And so we compare ourselves to others. Even in church life, we can do this. We can operate on the basis of merit.

There are circles within church life. Outer circles, inner circles, and we want to be in the inner circle, and who cares about those who are further out than me? We can assume god treats us the same way, but god is gracious. Our relationship with him is not based on our merit. His love for you is not based on how good you are, how funny you are, how popular you are, how attractive you are.

So based on his grace, his undeserved favor. And every time we grasp a bit more of his grace, and there is always more to grasp, we want to praise god more that he is He's gracious. And he is compassionate, it says. He sees the suffering of people and is moved by it. If you are suffering at the moment, he is moved by your suffering frame, moved to take action.

We see it time and again in the life of Jesus that he was compassionate. There was a man who came to him with, saying that his daughter was dying, and Jesus was moved to go to that daughter to heal her. But while on the way, if you know the incident, there was a woman who touched him because, she was suffering from bleeding and had been for 12 years, and she she didn't want to make a a scene. So she just touched Jesus's clothing and was healed. And Jesus didn't just move on.

He had to stop and deal with her because out of compassion and love, he wanted her to know that it wasn't just her superstitious touch of him, but her faith in him that had healed her. And while he was doing that, the daughter died. So Jesus went again to the house and raised that daughter to life. Jesus was full of compassion, moved by the hurt of others. Over and over again.

He was compassionate in healing, in teaching, even in confronting people. He was compassionate. This is the god there. That we worship. This is the real god.

And he is. We're told slow to anger. God does get angry, and it is good he does because it would be wrong for him not to be angry by some of the things going on in the world. At the moment, but he is slow to anger, patience, giving people time to turn to him, time to repent. He's not a god of controlled rage.

He is slow to anger. And it says he is rich in love. How do we know god is rich in love? The New Testament tells us John 3 16, maybe 1 of the most famous verses in the Bible. That god so loved the world that he gave his 1 and only son that whoever believes in him may not perish, but have eternal life.

How do we know god loves us? Because he gave his son. Love can be shown by giving things, by giving good things, but real love is shown by giving of self. And that is what god did for us. He gave his son for us.

And so verse 8, this is who god is. Don't paint a false picture of god in your mind. God is gracious and compassionate slow to anger and rich in love. Don't mischaracterize god. People do that.

I don't know if you've known times when someone's been mischaracterized. The someone's been described. And then someone else will say, no, hang on. I know that. Person.

They're not like that. Well, people do that with god. Steven Fry, is a well known atheist, and he says, I put a quote from him up here. Why should I respect a capricious, mean minded, stupid god, who creates a world which is so full of injustice and pain. He's an atheist.

I I he doesn't believe in god, but he said, if there is, this is what god is like. I said, don't miss characterize god? What would David say to her? He would say, I know god. That's not what our god's like.

God's not mean minded. No. No. The real god. The god of the Bible.

Jesus you look at him, he is not this. He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and full of love. And so David praises God for his character. Third. David praises god for his kingdom.

This may surprise you, particularly if you're new to Christian things, that, the Bible talks about a kingdom, the kingdom of god. David, who was king of Israel at this point, isn't talking about his own kingdom. He says, no, god, your kingdom, which does relate to David's kingdom, but he's saying, no, god, your kingdom is bigger. Your kingdom is glorious. He says.

It isn't a geographical kingdom. It's not a kingdom you could put on a mat, but it is nevertheless a kingdom with god as king and people as his subjects. And David says of this kingdom that people tell of the glory of god's kingdom, verse 11. 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. Your kingdom is a never last in kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generation.

David is saying, god, your kingdom is glorious. It is everlasting. It is everlasting. Him. And so the Bible tells us, you see, not just about the existence of god nor the character of god, but speaks of the kingdom of god.

An incredible king a glorious kingdom that will last forever. And when Jesus began his ministry, you read about him in, the beginning of Mark's gospel. The first thing Jesus said was The time has come, the kingdom of god has come near, repent, and believe the good news. Jesus said the kingdom was near because he the king was there. And as you see Jesus in the gospels, as you see him being gracious and compassionate, you get to see how great his kingdom is.

Because he, the king, is what makes it great. It is the most incredible kingdom. And it's unlike any other nation on earth, I don't know how you view the the world situation. At the moment, I think most people are more troubled, now than they used to be. And it's interesting the way leaders of nations talk about their nations.

It just seems like more and more. This isn't just 1 nation. It seems like more and more. The leaders of nations are just talking about what is best for them and their people and their nation. We've gotta put us first.

And that leads to a world where there's increased tension because we're all trying to put ourselves first. What about the kingdom of god? As you look at Jesus, what kind of kingdom is this? Jesus's life is the climax of the Bible. The climax of his life was his death.

And in his death, he was dying to sacrifice himself for his enemies for the sake of those who were opposed to him. That's the kind of king he is. And he calls on his people, those who are his subjects, his people. He calls on them calls on us. Excuse me.

To measure greatness, not by strength, not by intellect or by what you can get for yourself, but by being a servant. And that makes an incredible kingdom. With people in it who know the love and forgiveness of god and who are therefore equipped to go and pour out that love to others. And god's kingdom causes David to praise god. This everlasting, glorious kingdom, he praises god.

And the fourth thing, god's provision. David turns to the lord's provision. He talks about the lord providing for everyone. First 15, if you turn the page, so your page 6 3 2. First 15.

David says the eyes have all looked to you. And you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy fiber desires of every living thing. Now this is called is what theologians call, god's common grace. That is it is common.

He he he she pours out grace and love to everyone. Providing for everyone and everything. He does so for people, does so for animals, does so for the whole world. We are far more dependent, you see, on god than we'd like to think. If you, took away everything that the Lord has provided for you, what would you be left with?

You'd be left with nothing from the food we eat to the clothes we wear to the jobs we have it is all a gift from god. And that is true for all people. For those who are Christians, those who aren't. For everyone in your streets, everyone in your workplace, for those who love god, and for those who hate him. God provides for Steven Fry provides for Richard Dawkins.

He provides for everyone, all that we have. Every breath that we take is a gift from god. And so David praises god for his common grace. And David praises god as well for his saving grace. Verse 18.

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. He hears their cry and saves them. The lord watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy. God's saving grace, his rescuing grace is different from his common grace.

God gives good things to everyone, but he saves those who cry out to him, those who call on him, those who fear him, those who love him. And that distinction is very important. Does god love everyone? Does god provide for everyone? Yes.

God has provided and will provide for everyone. Does he save everyone? No. Not everyone will be saved to eternally. So who is it he saves?

Who does god rescue? Is it the religious? Is it those who are noble? Those were generous. No.

Who is it that god rescues? It is those who cry out to him. Those who call on him. Now why would you cry out to god? You'd cry out to god because you realize you can't help yourself.

You can't rescue yourself. You can't save yourself. You know you aren't good enough. Christianity, you see, is not for the good. It's for those who cry out.

Those who know they need help, know those who know they need forgiveness. It is for those who are a wreck. Those who know they've disobeyed god and call out to him to be forgiven and god saves such people. That's who Jesus came for, sinners. He died on the cross, so sinners like us could come into his kingdom.

God's kingdom is not made up of the elite, but of the saved. And his incredible saving grace won across is available to you if you will cry out to him. God is so close. He hears. Even the cry of your heart, he hears.

He is close. And therefore, whatever your background Hindu background, Muslim background, atheist background. If you repent, turn away from those things, from the old way of life, and cry out to Jesus. You can be saved too. There's a famous verse.

In, in the new testament in the book of acts, which says this, salvation is found in no 1 else for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. God hears you. If you cry out to him, you can be saved too. And David's heart is moved to praise god for his great provision that god is a saving god, that he hears those who cry to him, for god's common grace to everyone and his saving grace to those who call on him. And therefore, as we come to the end of this Psalm, a Psalm, which is just a Psalm of undiluted praise.

I hope this maybe moves you to praise god more. But as we've come face to face as it were with the god of Psalm a hundred and 45. As we've seen more of god, just a little more, that your eyes would be more open to who god is and that you too would want to praise god. With your whole heart, so singing praises to him and wanting to go out and declare his praises to others. As we've thought about his works, his character, his kingdoms, and his provision.

Now I'm just gonna give us a a moment to pause. We've got a little bit of time. Let's take a moment to pause. And so you can look back on the Psalm, look back on the headings and you can take a moment in the quietness of your heart to praise god, or if you're not yet a Christian, to think about these things, or maybe today, to cry out to god for rescue. Let's take a moment in quiet.

Gonna lead us in prayer. Hemily father, we praise you. We recognize with David that you are most worthy of praise. Father, where our hearts are slow to recognize that, open our eyes more. Your greatness, we pray.

I'd say we praise you for your works, your wonderful works for things you have done, father that we can read of in your word. We praise you for your wonderful works in Jesus and all that he did. We praise you for your character, for your graciousness, your compassion, that you are slow to anger and full of love. Father, we praise you for your kingdom, that it is a glorious kingdom because Jesus is it's king, and that he, as our king, came to serve and to die for us. And we praise you for your provision that everything that we have and all that we are comes from you, and we praise you for your saving grace, but those who cry out to you, those who call on you, those who call on the name of Jesus, will be saved for eternity, rather we depend on you, and we praise you for your great glory, amen.