Tuesday April 09
Sharing the Glorious Majesty of His Kingdom
Psalm 145:8-13 A Psalm of Praise. Of David.
8 The LORD is gracious and full of compassion, Slow to anger and great in mercy.
9 The LORD is good to all, And His tender mercies are over all His works.
10 All Your works shall praise You, O LORD, And Your saints shall bless You.
11 They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom, And talk of Your power,
12 To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, And the glorious majesty of His kingdom.
13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And Your dominion endures throughout all generations.
Psalm 145 is the last psalm in the book attributed to David. It is a psalm of pure praise and worship. It has been called “David’s crown jewel of praise”. In this psalm, David not only reminds us why we should praise the LORD, but when and how we should praise Him. David begins by saying that we should praise God from day to day (vv. 1-2). In heaven, we shall praise the Lord forever and forever, but now is the time to get prepared as we praise Him from day to day. David also tells us that we should praise the LORD from generation to generation (vv. 3-7). One of the important obligations of the older generation is to pass on to the younger generation the truth about the Lord.
Now in verses 8-13, David is reminding us of our great responsibility to share the message of the “glorious majesty of His Kingdom” to all the nations. David knew his basic theology. In verses 8-9, he speaks of the graciousness and compassion of the LORD. How God is slow to anger, great in mercy and good to all. And you can see God’s tender mercies anywhere and everywhere you look! But David also knew that this wonderful truth must be shared with others. Jonah knew it but would not share it (Jonah 4).
You can’t help but notice that the word "all" is one of the key words of this psalm used some 13 times. God is good to all (v. 9) and His throne lasts for all generations (v. 13). He upholds all who fall (v. 14) and the eyes of all creatures look to God for their food (v. 15). He satisfies every living thing (v. 16) and helps all who call on Him (v. 18). One day all flesh will praise Him (v. 21). David acknowledges that God not only loved His nation Israel but “all” the peoples and nations of the world!
Jesus said, "Salvation is of the Jews" (John 4:22), but the message of salvation was not supposed to remain with the Jews. It was not sufficient for the people of Israel to praise God and teach their children to praise Him. They were obligated to share the truth about the Lord with their Gentile neighbors and let their light shine. The prophet Isaiah told Israel in Isaiah 42:6-7: "I, the LORD, have called You in righteousness, And will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, As a light to the Gentiles, To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the prison, Those who sit in darkness from the prison house.”
The Jews were told in Psalm 96:2-4: “Sing to the LORD, bless His name; Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples. For the LORD is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods.” It was very clear that God expected His people to share His glory and salvation to all the nations of the earth! Psalm 145 begins with, "I will extol Thee" but ends with, "All flesh will bless His name" (v. 21).
The church today has a similar obligation and privilege. All of God's works in creation praise Him around the world (v. 10), but for some reason, His own people do not follow this example. In the last 40 days that Jesus spent with His disciple He was, “speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3b). The Apostle Paul turned the world upside down declaring the Lord’s great salvation and His kingdom. The book of Acts ends with Paul as a prisoner in Rome, but even there he continued to: “…explain and solemn testified of the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus…” (Acts 28:23). And the very last verse of Acts we find Paul, “…preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ…” (Acts 28:31).
God has compassion on all and God loves a lost world (John 3:16), therefore we should not keep it to ourselves! Today, there are three billion people who still have not heard the name of Jesus. The glory and wonder of God's spiritual kingdom must be proclaimed from nation to nation beginning with those closest to us!
God bless!
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