Songs of Praise
Psalm 145:1-2
I will extol 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.
David's Psalm Of Praise.
Often in the book of Psalms there is a preface that names the songwriter or gives insight into the circumstance from which the Psalm was born. Our selection tonight, however, contains a preface that is both unique and striking. It is described as David’s Psalm of Praise. This Psalm, out of all of them, is the one Psalm of Praise that David has asserted a sense of possession over. It is David’s. It is his. This appears to have been David’s way of saying, “Of them all, this one is most precious to me.” It would seem appropriate tonight to call it David’s favorite song of praise. The only other Psalm that bears that same signature possessive notation by David is Psalm 86 and it is David’s Psalm of Prayer.
Psalm 145 is a song of praise; it is the song of the praise that flows from David’s own heart. This is the last of the Psalms that is directly attributed to David and some scholars believe that it was written at the end of David’s life as an effort to preserve David’s personal favorite song of praise. If that is so, the praise contained therein is the best of praise because it flows from the depths of David’s life experience. It was seasoned praise. Praise that has known both the valleys and the mountains, praise that has known both victories and defeats, praise that has been the object of God’s affection and the subject of God’s judgment.
Perhaps most notable however is the possessive nature of it. This is David’s song of praise. We may take it tonight as a model and aim at making our own personal praise as much, like it as possible but it should be noted that even your best imitation of it will not equal it. You have a unique praise. There is a song of praise that belongs to you and you alone. There is a song of victory and triumph, a song of perseverance and endurance, a song about God’s incredible provision that only you can sing. Every instrument gives rise to a unique sound. The piano tuner may tweak each note to bring them each as close as possible to the standard, but each instrument gives birth to a sound that is uniquely its own. So it is with your praise, your praise belongs to you! It flows from your experience, it is the result of your trials and triumphs and it is a song that only you can sing. One of the most important lessons to be learned in this Psalm tonight is to be grasped before we even get into the text of it. Each of us has a song of praise. And each of us is responsible for singing our own song of praise. If you don’t sing it, no one else will. If you don’t thank God for all he has done for you, no one else will. Because, no one can praise him like you can!
Tonight we are only going to address the first 2 verses of Psalm 145 but the whole of the Psalm is highly recommended as a song of praise:
I will extol 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.
Praise
The first two verses of David’s favorite song of praise contain 4 statements of things he will do in regards to his praise. This evening we will address these four things that David says, “I will” do.
1. I will extol thee, my God, O king.
• First of all he says, I will extol thee, my God, O king.
• To extol is to set on high. It means to exalt above all others, to give something first place, or to assign it the highest priority. It is the expression of the greatest possible admiration. This is where David starts his personal song of praise. He says to God, you are my king. I will extol you. I will exalt you. I will build you a throne in my life. I will set you before everything else!
• This is the expression of David’s high opinion of God. He is saying, at the outset, I will set God up in my life as the object of all my praise. No matter what else is going on in my life. God gets first place.
• Remember, this is David at the end of his years. He hasn’t always given God that preeminent place in his life and he’s paid dearly for it. But now, he makes this strong statement at the beginning of his song of praise, “You, God, are my king and I will exalt you. I extol you!”
• I’m making you number one in my life! Before I was number one, but that didn’t work out so well. I see so clearly Lord that this is here the journey of praise begins. You are number one in my life God. You get the highest honors.
2. I will bless thy name for ever and ever.
• Next David says, I will bless thy name for ever and ever.
• The first declaration was more general. I will exalt God above everything in my life. However, the second is much more specific. Now David says, I will bless your name. The difference may seem slight but it is significant.
• One can praise God without truly knowing God. One can exalt God as an abstract concept in their life. It is possible to speak of God in a completely third person kind of sense. One can say God is great, God is wonderful, God is highly exalted, without ever truly knowing who or what God is. Men have been doing I for ages, in countless misguided efforts to praise a God they do not know.
• David says, lest I fall in that trap, I’m going to make this personal. It’s possible to know about God but not know God. Its possible to know God but not know his name. But it is impossible to know God’s name and not know God. This is the great significance of the name in the OT. One has only to know about God in order to praise him. But to know the name of God is to enter into a relationship with God.
• There’s a progression here. David says I will extol God. I’m going to build him a throne and make him king of my life. But then he says, I’m going to bless God.
• Blessing is different than extolling. When you bless somebody, you enrich them, you add something to them, you give them something. If you come to my house and I bless you that means that when you leave you’ve had something added to you.
• David didn’t say, I’m gonna get blessed. He said, I’m going to bless. If you are going to bless God, what can you give to the one that already owns everything? The answer is relationship. I’m going to bless your name means I’m going to worship you from the depths of a relationship. This is personal God. You aren’t just a stranger across the room. I know your name. I know you. I’m going to call upon that name that’s above every name, I’m going to seek your presence, I’m going to draw near to you. I’m going to bless you and in turn I will be blessed by you. You see relationship has mutual benefits. God is blessed when I glorify him from the experience of a relationship with him, but I am blessed as well.
• Some of you need to make this thing personal. Its about more than just going to church, reading your bible and saying your “now I lay me down to sleep” prayer. It’s about a relationship. The continual revelation of God through the pages of the OT is all about his name. Every time he revealed some new aspect of his character he associated it with a name
• You can know him! You need to seek a deeper relationship with him. You need to bless his name!
3. Every day will I bless thee
• David goes on to further unfold his praise song. It was a daily praise. This wasn’t a song that David saved for one night a week. This wasn’t a praise that David offered only in the tabernacle or only at the church. This was a daily blessing. David said, “Every day I will bless thee!”
• Notice, there’s not a qualifier there that says, only on good days I will bless you. No. What David is saying is that no matter how the day is I will bless you. On dark days, I will bless you. On bright sunny days I will bless you. On days that are filled with trouble, David says, I will bless you. On days when everything goes my way, still I will bless you. Because its not about me! I will bless you!
• Whatever the character of the day, whatever the circumstances, whatever the conditions – nothing is going to stop me from blessing you. Every day I will glorify you God. This is the heart of worship. No matter the circumstances, no matter the situation, blessing flows from your relationship with God. You have only to reflect on the goodness of God to find a reason to bless him in any place, at any time, every day!
• David is affirming that he, indeed, has a personal relationship with God and he knows that no circumstance on this earth can diminish the truth that God is worthy to be blessed. So regardless of what the doctor says, I will bless the Lord. Regardless of what the banker says, I will bless him. See this isn’t about getting something from God. This isn’t asking God for a blessing. This is about giving something to God. This is about saying to God, my relationship with you is deeper than these temporary distractions. My relationship with you is deeper than these worldly afflictions. I will bless you no matter what is going on in my life!
4. I will praise thy name for ever and ever
• Finally David gets to the purpose of the whole Psalm. I will praise thy name forever and ever! I said it before, this is a progressive thing. It started with extolling God. David exalts him and declares him to be king of his life. Next David blesses his name. David blesses God from the foundation of his relationship with God, from the revelation of the name of God. Then David establishes the consistency of that blessing. Every day, through good times and bad, in times of plenty and when I find myself in a barren wilderness, I will bless you Lord. Now he’s finally ready to praise the name of God!
• He’s not just praising the abstract idea of God. He’s gonna praise that name that is above all names. He blessed that name one verse ago by entering into relationship with God. Now he’s gonna praise God from the foundation of the relationship that has been established. Genuine praise proceeds from a genuine relationship with God. There are those who praise him in a manner that only offers lip service to him. But this genuine praise, the praise that flowed from the man after God’s own heart, was born in and amplified by a relationship with God!
• David said, I will praise thy name forever and ever.
• Praise is the only thing that we do in this present life that has a lasting, eternal component to it. We pray, but there will come a time when the last prayer will be prayed and we will be forever present with him. All our needs will be met for all of eternity. We walk by faith, but the time is coming when that which is now unseen will be seen and faith, which is founded in that which is unseen will be swallowed by the reality of that which is seen. We hope, and hope is the thing that keeps us and preserves us, but there will come a blessed time when hope will be no more because everything we have hoped for will come to pass. Hope will be swallowed in the splendor of God’s promises fulfilled in every possible way. Every hope will be met and fulfilled.
• But praise will never end. Praise is the atmosphere of heaven. Eternity will echo with praise. The redeemed will sing the songs of Zion, the church will exalt the name of God, the righteous will silence heavens choir as they sing, I once was lost but now I’m found. I was bound but I’ve been set free!
• David understands the significance and timelessness of his praise. I praise God here, I praise God now, and this praise that is on my lips is eternal. Forever and ever I will praise God! This is the triumphant song of a precious saint at the end of his life, declaring that this body may grow old and weak and feeble, but this praise knows no end. You may bury these old bones, but my praise will never end!
• Forever has no end. But that’s not enough for David. Just in case anyone wonders he adds another “ever” to it. This praise isn’t ever gong to die! This praise isn’t ever going to end. This song will never fade! This praise is as eternal as the God that is the object of all my affections!
• Let me tell you tonight, if you want to do something that’s going to last in this life, Praise God. Because your praise is eternal!
Close
Praise is our response to God’s revelation of Himself, the revelation of his name. Praise is an acknowledgment of God’s character and His goodness. But it is more than that. Praise is our expression of delight in God Himself. It is our expression of the love we feel as we consider the majesty of God. David firmly resolved to praise God with all of his heart. David’s resolution to praise God was very personal, but at the same time it was public, for there was no way he could praise God and be secretive about it. So he didn’t hide his praise, instead he made his life a life of praise. He praised God for the blessings of the past. He praised God for blessings in the present. He praised God in anticipation of blessings that were to come in the future. I wonder what would happen if you determined to bless him tonight regardless of what might be going on in you life.
