The Lord helps the fallen and lifts those bent beneath their loads.
28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
MAIN POINT: When you hear about all the amazing things Jesus has done, is doing and will do, you won’t be able to help but praise Him.
I never get tired of rehearsing the miracles of Jesus. Salvation plan, creation, incarnation, growth in wisdom and stature, passion for the Father’s house, obedience, turning water to wine, feeding thousands, walking on water, healing every kind of sickness, driving out demons, forgiving sins, speaking of the kingdom, raising the dead, loving the unfaithful, establishing His gathering, giving gifts, and on and on it goes. And this doesn’t even begin to enumerate the wonders from creation to the incarnation nor into eternity future.
One of the greatest wonders God does through Jesus is to lift the person who is burdened. In the exceptionally positive Psalm 145 we see God lifting those who may be burdened in several ways.
We see His glory and are filled with praise.
He is God.
He is the King.
He is eternal.
The person who can see those things is blessed beyond imagination and thus is filled with praise for such an amazing God. This gives the person who sees God a great stability and a hopeful future.
I will praise you every day;
yes, I will praise you forever.
When you begin to understand what this means, you can feel your fears and burdens begin to lighten.
Often in the Psalms or in the Bible you have this list of miracles, and that list nearly always includes the exodus rescue from Egypt that God orchestrated for His people Israel under the leadership of Moses.
But Psalm 145 lets you fill in the blanks. And it is the very nature of an indescribable and innumerable list of acts and character qualities that lets the reader fill in the blanks. But some of the great acts of God might have been missed by the casual reader, so I will point them out to you.
“every tongue”
Your awe-inspiring deeds will be on every tongue;
I will proclaim your greatness.
Isaiah 45:23, Romans 14:11, Philippians 2:11 all reiterate the “every tongue” telling of God’s wondrous promise. Just think of that fact. Sometime, somewhere God will do what seems impossible, and He will place praise in every tongue. When we consider the immensity of that miracle alone, we should be awestruck. And we are reassured that this miracle applies to Jesus. He is the one everyone will be talking about. He is the one worthy of praise. He is the centre of attention.
“Slow to anger’
The Lord is merciful and compassionate,
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
At least 9 times in the Bible God is described as slow to anger. Now that is good news, because we humans are infuriating. We are malicious, spiteful, hateful, devious creatures. We desperately need a patient God. And Jesus is the gracious, compassionate, gentle, meek, humble, servant-hearted, self sacrificing, generous Son of God. Exodus 34:6, Numbers 14:18, Nehemiah 9:17, Psalm 86:15, Psalm 103:8, Joel 2:13, Jonah 4:2, Nahum 1:3.
I live in Belgium, and very few people where I live claim Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Still we see a relatively generous, safe society. We are a somewhat older population with a good number of older people driving, and I am always amazed at the polite and relatively safe driving environment. I credit that to God’s generous general grace. Jesus talks about this in this way.
In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.
And this generous graciousness of God is expressed in other ways in the Bible.
Job 25:3, Psalms 145:9, Acts 14:17, Matthew 5:9, Luke 6:35,
John 13:35, Ephesians 5:1, 1 John 3:9
The Lord is good to everyone. He showers compassion on all his creation.
We don’t deserve God’s patient grace, but God gives it; Jesus shows us through His wonderful deeds how generous Jesus our King is. I am reminded of how Jesus dealt with Peter after Peter’s denial of Jesus. And how not even two months later, Jesus starts His church through the preaching and example of Peter. It would be an unheard of way of establishing a kingdom at any time in history. Such gracious forgiveness, trust and love is unprecedented and unparalleled.
I could go through Psalm 145 line by line and keep showing you ways in which every good and positive thing in the Psalm is done by Jesus as King of His kingdom.
What is your response? I’m sure it is the same as the David’s and mine: Praise
Conclusion:
I’m quite sure that all those who are children of God will respond the same way to the many stories of God’s great, gracious works done through our King Jesus. You will be moved to praise.
A psalm of praise of David.
1 I will exalt you, my God and King,
and praise your name forever and ever.
2 I will praise you every day;
yes, I will praise you forever.
3 Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise!
No one can measure his greatness.
4 Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts;
let them proclaim your power.
5 I will meditate on your majestic, glorious splendor
and your wonderful miracles.
6 Your awe-inspiring deeds will be on every tongue;
I will proclaim your greatness.
7 Everyone will share the story of your wonderful goodness;
they will sing with joy about your righteousness.
8 The Lord is merciful and compassionate,
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
9 The Lord is good to everyone.
He showers compassion on all his creation.
10 All of your works will thank you, Lord,
and your faithful followers will praise you.
11 They will speak of the glory of your kingdom;
they will give examples of your power.
12 They will tell about your mighty deeds
and about the majesty and glory of your reign.
13 For your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.
You rule throughout all generations.
The Lord always keeps his promises;
he is gracious in all he does.[b]
14 The Lord helps the fallen
and lifts those bent beneath their loads.
15 The eyes of all look to you in hope;
you give them their food as they need it.
16 When you open your hand,
you satisfy the hunger and thirst of every living thing.
17 The Lord is righteous in everything he does;
he is filled with kindness.
18 The Lord is close to all who call on him,
yes, to all who call on him in truth.
19 He grants the desires of those who fear him;
he hears their cries for help and rescues them.
20 The Lord protects all those who love him,
but he destroys the wicked.
21 I will praise the Lord,
and may everyone on earth bless his holy name
forever and ever.
 |
| Handwritten Psalm 145 |
Great understanding, deep effect !
ReplyDelete