Psalm 145 : All

 

The final psalm of David is filled with praise, awe and one small word that we easily forget, but when remembered, has the power to hold our hearts when everything else seems to shake. Within the course of 21 verses, David used the word “all” 16 times. It’s a word intended to inspire confidence and contentment and to cause us to see God’s work, God’s love and God’s heart beyond ourselves, our feelings and our lives. It’s a word that may not answer all of our questions, but if we allow it, it will give us a place to rest when it seems the parts of life we don’t understand will wear us out. At least 73 of the psalms were written by David, they are filled with questions and cries, with laments and praises, even anger and calls for wrath. David often shared his heart with God and then allowed his heart to be shaped by God, but in this last psalm that bears his name, it’s as if David gently slid his hand under our chin and lifted our heads to set our eyes on the ALL of God. 

Psalm 145 makes no mention of danger, enemies, betrayal or death, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t present. I think it’s a mistake to assume that the laments were written during the dark days and the praises during the bright ones, that we only have songs to sing when our hearts are happy, that our joy is fuller when our lives are easier. How do we build consistency, endurance, or what the book of James calls perfection if our songs are only based on what’s going on around us or what we feel inside of us? What if truth is true no matter who disputes it? What if hope will not disappoint us even when we feel disappointed? What if peace really does go beyond our understanding? What if the greatest thing that can happen to our faith is for it to be tested? What if all the events of our lives are meant to teach us that God is all we need?

Psalm 145 is another acrostic, each line begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It’s a labor of praise, not just spontaneous utterance it’s an effort of truth, not leaning on the emotion of the moment. It’s not what David feels about God, it’s what God has said and proven about Himself. 

Verse 8 describes God in a way that is repeated at least three times within the psalms, “The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” What makes this statement so important is that it’s what God told Moses about Himself. In Exodus 34:6 when God passed by and showed Moses His glory, He said, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness”. This description of God started with God and then has been confirmed by the people of God from generation to generation. This is a truth we should start with. How often do we fear the anger of God rather than trusting in the patience of God? How often do we hide in shame rather than running toward His grace? How often do we sit in lies that say we are forgotten, unwanted, unseen or unheard rather than standing on the truth that says that God doesn’t only have, but He abounds, He overflows of steadfast love? 

The next line might be my favorite, “The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.” God’s goodness is not reserved for the good. He’s not moody or fickle, He doesn’t have favorites. He is who He is, and He is never anything other. I know we like to make things personal, but God is not just good to you and He’s not just good to me, He’s good to all. That doesn’t mean that He doesn’t love each of us personally and intimately, but it does mean that He loves all of us equally. We tend to measure goodness by what we see, but I believe the Holy Spirit, through the psalmist, is calling us to measure it by what we’ve read. He is good to all, that sounds like a generic sweep, we look around and see things in the world and wonder “Where is God?” We grieve and weep and mourn, and often rightly so, and we are tempted to wonder how could this be good? Let’s be honest, there are plenty of things in the world that cannot ever be called good, and yet, the Scripture has said that God is good, not only in His nature, but in His dealing with all. How do we reconcile what we see with what we read? 

That’s at least partially answered in verse 13, “Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations.” Simply put, there is so much more than what we see. Paul explained it this way in II Corinthians 4:17-18, “For this light and momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient (temporary), but the things that are unseen are eternal.” We struggle to believe that we only “know in part” and that we only “see in a mirror dimly”, that even when we prophecy it is only in part. We’ve been taught that seeing is believing and that knowledge is power but Jesus said, in John 6:29 that the work of God, the work that God has given to us and desires from us is to “believe in him  whom he has sent.” True faith is not based on what’s been seen, but what’s been heard (Romans 10:17), what’s been read, it’s believing in the character and person of God as He has revealed Himself through the Scriptures breathed through the Holy Spirit. 

The second half of this psalm tells us what to believe about the world because of what we know about God. “The LORD is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works.” He upholds all who are falling, satisfies the desire of every living thing, and near to all who call on Him. David was telling us to walk or live by faith, not by sight (II Corinthians 5:7). He was calling us to see by the Spirit the way Elisha did in II Kings 6. He and his servant awoke in the morning to find that their home was surrounded by an army of horses and chariots. When his servant cried out in fear, “What shall we do?” Elisha said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Elisha then prayed and asked the LORD to open the eyes of his servant to see and when He did, the servant saw the mountain filled with horses and chariots of fire. Let me ask this, did Elisha see the same sight or did he know it? Did he see in the Spirit, or did he believe in the character of God? Jesus told Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” 

He is the God of all that He is all of the time to all that He has created. He is as near to our broken hearts as He is to our full ones. He is as gentle and kind to our stubborn hearts as He is to our faithful ones. He is as good and compassionate to our silent hearts as He is to our praising ones. He is God, He is good, He is faithful, He is kind, He is patient, He is merciful, He is love, He is who He is always and to all. No matter what you see, no matter how you feel, no matter where you find yourself or how far away from where you want to be you are, God is all that He is, and He has given all of Himself to all of us. He cannot be measured by what we see, but we can measure all we see by who God says He is, “He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.” (Deuteronomy 32:4)