This is one of the Psalms I have bookmarked and read it often, because it stirs up the kind of thoughts and feelings about God, that I want to have. 

We might think that people living 3000 years ago, without indoor plumbing, or media, or cars, or conveniences would live a pretty drab existence, without much happiness.  But David and those who sang these psalms, experienced a level of happiness in God that many today, do not have, yet desperately need. 

PSALM 145 I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever ever. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate. They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness. They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness. The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made. All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD, and all your saints shall bless you! They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power, to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. The LORD is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works. The LORD upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing. The LORD is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works. The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them.  The LORD preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy. My mouth will speak the praise of the LORD, and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.

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Nothing lifts my spirit, and brings joy into my heart, like doing just what Psalm 145:1 says . “I will extol you my God and my King.  Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever”.  No matter how I feel, as I begin to speak out loud to God and tell him how good and wonderful and kind he has been to me, it is like God himself breathes his joy and his presence into my heart. 

When we praise God, something supernatural happens, often in our circumstances, but ALWAYS in our hearts. Walls come down, enemies are defeated, problems are resolved or become much smaller, darkness turns to light, demons flee, healing takes place. Depression, fear, anxiety are cast out, our souls are revived as we magnify, and glorify God. 

Of course, we all know about discouraged feelings, and spiritually dull feelings.  David Janecek said one morning at men’s group that he sometimes feels like death warmed over when he wakes up in the morning.  That is not unique to him!  We all need inward revival, morning, noon and night.  And there is nothing like praising God, out loud, to restore our spiritual joy. 

*We are never to let the absence of praise FEELINGS keep us from praise.  We are to let our hearts reach out to these statements of praise, that seem beyond us, and make them our own.  Sometimes the joy, praise, singing and shouting in the Psalms, reveals how far my heart is from what it should be.  But the purpose of praise in the psalms is not to condemn us, but to tug on our hearts, and take us along to new places of worship and delight in God.

*Psalm 145 begins with a vow!  It is a vow to extol God and to do it every day, and to do it forever!  “I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. 2Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever ever.”  

To “extol” means to set on high, to exalt above all others, to let others know our high opinion of a person.  The ISV says, “I will speak highly of you, my God and king.”   

The ultimate purpose of life is to extol, magnify and glorify God.  When you choose this as your life purpose, you know what to do in severe trial, or in abundant blessing.  No matter what happens, you have already determined that you are on a mission to extol God. Paul said my eager expectation and hope is that Christ will be exalted in my body, whether I live or I die! When you vow to extol God, it solves the problem of disappointment, death, and disaster.  Because nothing in life can keep you from this purpose!  If your purpose is to have perfect circumstances, perfect safety, financial security, a perfect marriage, perfect kids, and perfect career, things can happen that ruin those goals.  And so you are constantly disappointed, scared, and self absorbed with your own stuff.  But when your goal is to magnify God, you can do that no matter what happens! Your life becomes simpler and clear, and you know why you are here. Psalm 89:15 NIV says,  “How happy are those who have learned to acclaim you”.

If you begin to say, “I will extol you my God and King”, you will begin to live in victory. Talking this way defeats our enemies and overcomes our problems.  It is the medicine we need for a broken heart, a sad heart, a worried heart. It opens up great fountains of peace and joy to flood our heart. 

AW Tozier said, "Be thou exalted" is the language of victorious spiritual experience. It is a little key to unlock the door to great treasures of grace. It is central in the life of God in the soul. Let the seeking man reach a place where life and lips join to say continually "Be thou exalted," and a thousand minor problems will be solved at once.”

This is one of the most important vows you could ever make in your life.  Because it gets at the core problem of life. Either we are on the throne or God is on the throne. Either our comfort and security is lifted up high, or God is lifted up high. You cannot serve yourself and God. A choice must be made!

This is not an easy decision to make.  Not many decide to make it. It will put you on the narrow road.  And it will cost you a lot.  Tozier said, “The moment we make up our minds that we are going on with this determination to exalt God over all we step out of the world's parade. We shall find ourselves out of adjustment to the ways of the world...”.  For the world does not honor God!

You show that you put God high above all others by the daily choices you make.  But also by how you speak.

Psalm 145 calls us to bless, to praise, to sing, to speak out loud to God and about God. “Every day I will BLESS you, and PRAISE.” “I will DECLARE your greatness.” “My mouth will SPEAK the praise of the LORD.”  “All your saints shall BLESS you.”  “They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall SING ALOUD of your righteousness.”  

Praise is spoken.  Praise is not quiet!  We cannot just think God is great, we have to say it, sing it and sometimes shout it. David said in Psalm 40:10 “I have not covered up Your righteousness in my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and salvation; I have not concealed Your loving devotion and faithfulness from the great assembly.

“We tell our children about the mighty acts of God.” We share stories about about God’s wonderful goodness. Verse 12 NIV says, “They will tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might so that all men may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom”.  

*Our praise should be great because God is great! Verse 3 “Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.”  Another version says, “Great is the Lord and worthy of much praise, whose grandeur is beyond understanding.”  The Lord is worthy of our most effusive and enthusiastic praise. We praise God for his power in creation, for his love to us in Christ, and for his grace in our salvation.  Yet we know, his power, his love, his grace, are far beyond what we can comprehend. 

*This Psalm goes on to tell us what God is like and why we should extol him.  This psalm more completely reveals the attributes of God, than any other chapter in the Bible. James Montgomery Boice said this psalm is a “summary of all David had learned about God during a long lifetime of following hard after the Almighty.” If you ONLY had the revelation in this psalm, you could come to know God, and love him and understand how worthy he is of your praise! 

Let’s go through these reasons to extol God. *We extol God because of the great and powerful things he has done in history, and in our own lives. David calls these “mighty acts, awesome deeds, wondrous works”.  Verse 4-7 “One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts…. on your wondrous works, I will meditate. They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness.”  We tell our children how God created the heavens and the earth. We share stories of God’s miraculous provisions for saints like George Mueller or Hudson Taylor. We share our own testimonies of how God saved us, how he has helped us, and healed us.  We talk about the powerful works of the Holy Spirit in our lives, the gifts of the Holy Spirit and His leading. 

*We extol God for his lavish goodness to us. “They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness...”. Did you have a place to sleep last night?  Do you have enough to eat today? Do you have clothes to put on to keep you warm. Have you recovered from any sickness or disease through your life.  Have you seen anything good or beautiful in God’s creation?  Does Jesus love you and did he give himself for you?  Are you a child of God?  Did he give you the gift of the Holy Spirit?  Do you have an inheritance waiting for you in heaven?  If these things are true, then you can speak of God’s abundant goodness to you! 

* We praise God for his righteousness.  “They shall pour forth the fame of his abundant goodness, and they shall sing aloud of your righteousness.”  “The LORD is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works”. God is good and kind because he is righteous.  There is nothing evil in God.  He has no evil intent towards his children. John said, “God is love and in him there is no darkness at all”. It is because God is righteous, that James assure us that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change”. (James 1:17) 

*We extol God for his majesty and glory. Verse 5 “On the glorious splendor of your majesty... I will meditate”. Verse 11 “They shall speak of the GLORY of your kingdom”.  When we encounter God we encounter glory and majesty.  Ezekiel said, “I looked and saw the glory of the LORD filling the temple of the LORD, and I fell facedown.”  Paul said, God has shined his light into our hearts “to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ”.  One of the first evidences that we are saved, is we begin to SEE the glory of God!  And we worship him in his majesty and glory. 

*We praise God for his faithfulness, kindness, compassion, and unfailing love.  Verse 8 “The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”  He doesn’t just love us a little, he abounds in his love towards us!  Verse 13 “The LORD is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works”.  This is who God is. This is how God treats us!  This is how we need to speak about God.  We say, “God you are so gracious to me, you are so faithful to me, your love abounds to me.” 

*We praise him because he tenderly cares for us, especially when we fail, or feel at our lowest moments.  14 “The LORD upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down”.  Do you feel like you are falling, or that you are at a very low place right now?  God is there to hold you up.  That is who he is.

*We praise him because the Lord supplies our needs and satisfies our desires. Verse 15 “The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing. Verse 19 “He fulfills the desire of those who fear him.” We honor God by speaking this way about him!  We say, “Because the Lord is my Shepherd, I lack nothing. We sing, “Hast thou not seen how all thy longings have been granted in what he ordaineth.”  

God satisfies both our outward and inward desires.  Of course God feeds us and clothes us.  And this is no small blessing!  But much more importantly, he satisfies the needs of our soul with his presence and his lovingkindness! How much more reason to extol him!

*We extol God because he comes near to us! Verse 18 “The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth”. We praise him for his presence, for being at our side! We praise him that he will never leave us.  

*We praise God because he is eternal and his kingdom is everlasting. “Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations.”  Our lives come and go.  We are small and fragile, yet we are connected to an Eternal God and an everlasting kingdom. And we will be with him forever!  We have come to a kingdom that cannot be shaken and we will reign with him forever and ever.

*We praise God because he watches over all who love him and keeps them eternally safe.  “The LORD preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.” He keeps, he guards, he protects, those who love him. He watches over us day and night.  But the wicked will be destroyed. Those are strong words, but we worship God for being righteous in his judgment!  In Rev. 19 a great multitude in heaven shouts, “Hallelujah, salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are his judgments.”

*David began this Psalm with a resolution to extol God.   Then after giving all these reasons why he has determined to extol God, he ends the Psalm with the same resolution and calls on all people to join him.  Verse 21 “My mouth will speak the praise of the LORD, and let every creature bless his holy name forever and ever”.

There is flow of self-talk going on in our hearts, literally every moment of every day.  And there is a stream of words flowing from our lips every day.  Let’s determine to extol God in our hearts and with our mouths.

Andrew Brunson was held in a Turkish prison for two years. Since his release he has shared openly his profound feelings of abandonment and brokenness he felt in prison.  He was even concerned that he might be losing his mind.  He was separated from his wife and children and didn’t know what would happen to him or to them. But in prison he made a determination to praise God, and even to dance.  He got the idea from Richard Wurmbrand who practiced literal obedience to the command of Jesus to “Rejoice and be exceedingly glad” and to leap for joy when you are persecuted.  Pastor Brunson decided to obey Christ and do it as a discipline, “not out of any feelings because I didn’t feel any happiness or joy. This was a matter of obeying the words of Jesus”.  “I began every day to set aside five minutes, and I would start out by saying, “I repent that I have not been joyful...Now I am going to perform an act of joy.  I am going to be glad before you in these terrible circumstances.  I am separated from my wife and children.  I don’t know what is going to happen to me and I am isolated and in prison.  But I am going to rejoice”.  Then I would begin to dance, and I would hop around, I would leap...I would dance before God every day as a discipline.  Then I would say, “Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven.”   

That is a determination to extol God.  May God give us resolute hearts like David and Andrew Brunson to praise him every day no matter what life looks like or feels like.