The Important & Life-Changing Hope of Psalm 145 - Episode 127

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Well, hey there! Welcome to the latest episode of the podcast. I’m so thankful you’re listening, and my prayer for this episode has been for it to encourage and bless you right now, in the exact place you find yourself. Whatever is going on in your life as you listen today, I have prayed and asked God to show up in a way that means something special to you. And I’m trusting Him to do just that. Let’s grab hold of the goodness of our God today as we study His Word.

 

You’re listening to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show, part of the Spark Network, now playing in the Edifi app. This is episode number 127.

 

Psalm 145, getting toward the end of the book of psalms. It’s got some beautiful verbiage that is so helpful for us as we wait on the Lord in our individual circumstances that kind of challenge us, push and pull and yank us here and there, and we need to be able to hit pause and focus on God’s Word. So Psalm 145 gives us that opportunity. It’s like a reset, this passage, and after we read it, and hopefully in the reading of it comes some believing of it, you know as in taking God at His Word, and then we experience the reset. The peace that we’ve been promised, the hope we have in the Lord, the reminders that David provides us with in this psalm are just lovely, like in the truest sense of the word.

 

Let read verses 4-7 from the New Living Translation.

 

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.

 

Don’t we get a boost when we hear someone else sharing about what the Lord has done in their life? The process of telling our children, sharing God’s incredible acts, with the next generation is refreshing. And we see here in verse 4 that each generation is to tell its children, and then allow those children, the next generation, to proclaim God’s power. That’s just how it ought to work in the church. Telling the younger ones what He has done. Not remaining silent, but telling of His mighty acts. And if we can’t recall any mighty acts of God, that’s a whole nother issue. If He hasn’t done anything in our lives that we can recall, we need to be talking to the Lord about that. Have we forgotten? Has praise and thankfulness become too far removed from our daily lives and we just can’t find the good things God has done? Or, do we maybe need to study Jesus’ words in the New Testament, in the four Gospels, to check ourselves and make sure we’re not somehow thinking we’re in the Kingdom if maybe we’re not. If nothing has ever happened, in terms of God’s mighty acts, we need to be looking into that. And Jesus’s words in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are where we should start. 

 

Let’s be thankful children of God who are in the habit, like habitually, talking about what He has done. Has He not done some miraculous things? When we start thinking back over our life and remembering, calling to mind, what He has done for us, it is hard to stop that train once it gets rolling. You’ll remember another thing God did, and something else He did, and oh wow, that one thing way back when, at the time I didn’t realize that was the Lord working on my behalf but now I see it more clearly and I’m so thankful. The snowball starts to roll, ya know? It’s the initial movement, getting the inertia going, that takes a bit work. But it’s such a good work, and so worth it. You’ll be encouraged and the next generation will be so blessed by this picture you paint of what God has done. And why can’t He do even more incredible things in their lives, among their peers? He can. I don’t think He has stopped doing what He loves to do, which is work in people’s lives and bring them into His kingdom. Let’s get excited about that, and let’s try to stay excited about it. 

 

So that’s verses 4 and 5, talking about these things and meditating on His goodness, His splendor, His miracles. Just the majesty that belongs solely and singularly to our God. So much better, more beneficial in every way, as compared to letting the woes of life and the daily news reel be our primary meditation. 

 

In verse 6 we read this: Your awe-inspiring deeds will be on every tongue;

    I will proclaim your greatness.

 

Wouldn’t this world be different, in a good way, if God’s awe inspiring deeds were on every single tongue? If every person on this planet spoke out loud about God’s deeds, and proclaimed His greatness. Nothing would be the same. Not one single thing, I really do believe that. Everything would change, for the better. We can’t make that happen, that’s a big ask right there, a lofty goal, one we can pray for, but what we can do, you and I, is personally proclaim God’s greatness. And we should do that. A lot. A lot lot. 

 

Verse 7 kind of feels like a promise to me - Everyone will share the story of your wonderful goodness;

    they will sing with joy about your righteousness.

Everyone will share the story of God’s wonderful goodness. That has not happened yet, but since this verse is in the Bible, I have prayed and asked God to make it a reality. That we would all share about His goodness, that we would all sing with joy about His righteousness. 

 

Has it been your experience that the righteousness of Jesus has changed your life? 

 

I want to bounce up to verse 1 of Psalm 145 - I will exalt you, my God and King,

    and praise your name forever and ever.

 

We are kind of given a life purpose here. To exalt our God, our King, to praise His name.

 

Isn’t that the heart of true thankfulness? We recently celebrated Thanksgiving in the US and this verse is fitting for this time of year. 

 

Each generation telling of God’s mighty acts. That’s thankfulness! 

Are we proclaiming the Lord’s power? He has power, He is all powerful. Do we believe that? Do we live as if it is true? Do we ever talk about it? It’s not gonna be comfortable for everyone in your life, or in mine, to hear us share about God’s mighty deeds, His power, exalting and praising Him. Some people are not going to like it all that much. It will make some people uncomfortable. But what will do with that discomfort? Stay silent? Give people what they want and not do what God would have us to do, based on this psalm? 

 

Do we fear God more than we fear man? Isn’t the fear of man a snare, a trap? Isn’t a trap or a snare a bad thing? I want to choose what’s better, and I will only find what is really better in the Bible. 

 

He is yet to this day so powerful - let’s proclaim that. 

 

And let’s meditate on God’s majestic and glorious splendor. The majesty of His splendor is so far beyond anything we can relate to, but we can still meditate on it. We should, because the Bible says to.  It’s going to be good for me to do what He says to do in His Word. So I want to do those exact things. What’s good for me, God? I want to do that very thing. 

 

He is majestic. He is glorious. And His splendor is beyond all ability to accurately describe. 

 

He performs wonderful miracles. You know, salvation is a miracle. It took Jesus’ death on the cross to make a way, the one single way, for us to have our sin debt paid. That’s miraculous. Every person who knows Jesus is a living miracle. It’s just that simple. This week, start right there, with your own salvation, and praise the Lord for that miracle. I’m guessing more things will come to mind to thank Him for, more miracles will come to your remembrance. But start right there. Eternity with the Lord, fully forgiven, our sins removed as far as the east is from the west. Is that not truly miraculous? Thank You, Lord. 

 

Waking up each day, seeing God’s creation, breathing air into our lungs, feeling our heart beat - these are awe inspiring deeds that ought to be on every tongue. May we not be a people who fail to share about His goodness. Somebody could be on the verge of something terrible, a crisis in their finances, their health, a relationship, work, under an attack from Satan that is so intense, they may want to give up. But they may not be showing it at all, now outward signs, cuz we’re so good at hiding our low places. You might share something that could give them hope, remind them of something they're forgotten about God ro reveal to them something they never knew about God. Just realizing God loves you and does not loathe or despise, that He really is for you… that can be enough to change a life. That could prevent a suicide attempt, in all honesty. And you can do this as part of your normal life, with your normal personality. You don’t have to go to seminary or try to figure out how to be like a preacher. You be you, and just mention something God has done in your conversations as He leads. Trust Him with the results, the way it could impact someone who needs to know God still does miraculous things. That’s really all there is to it. I read it can be described as sharing bread with a starving person because you were once starving and you now have the Bread of Life. That simple. That impactful. That important. 

 

God’s people should be the most thankful people in the world. Nobody else on this planet should be more thankful than us. So let’s just get thankful.

 

And hey, if it seems like more than you can do, way out of your comfort zone to talk about what God has done, His awesome deeds, let me remind you that most all of us at some point or another, or lots and lots and lots of times, will share about our own awesomeness. Like the movie Bolt, the hamster yelling into the air duct vent, “If you're awesome” - doesn’t he say it’s beyond awesome, it’s be-awesome. Invented a whole new word. We tell those old high school football stories. We tell of our kids football stories. We tell of our favorite NFL teams football stories, and those are not our personal stories, I’m never on the field, right? What about work wins? Yeah, we share about those. 

 

It’s easier to share those things, those awesome deeds, because there’s no real resistance. Nobody gets really, really uncomfortable. The devil isn’t likely to fight against that, cuz it can bleed over into those 1 John mentions, the pride of life, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes. If Satan has a chance at getting you to those places, he’s all for it. 

 

We hold back sharing about God’s awesome deeds because there is resistance and discomfort, for us and those who are listening as we talk. 

 

I’m an extreme introvert, and this kind of stuff is not my natural happy place. Sometimes the Lord takes us to places we would not go unless He called us to go. That can happen even in our conversations. 

 

You will have some degree of push back, internal or external, if you start sharing about God’s awesome deeds. That comes with the territory. You get to choose, but I really hope you choose to do what Psalm 145 encourages us to do. Because as it says in verse 13, the Lord always keeps His promises and is gracious in all He does. He lifts us when we are bent beneath our loads, says verse 14. He satisfies our needs, verses 15 and 16. He is close to all who call on Him, to those who call on Him in truth. Verse 18. He grants the desires of those who fear Him, verse 19. He hears their cries for help, He rescues them, He promises to protect all who love Him in verse 20.

 

Verse 21 ends this psalm and it says, I will praise the Lord, and may everyone on earth bless His holy name forever and ever.

 

How will they know if nobody tells them about our awesome God?

 

All the promises I just read from this psalm are promises God intends to keep. Which of those promises do you most need right now? 

 

Can you lean in, trust Him fully, and recount with thanksgiving a heart filled with praise, the miraculous and the awesome things He has done for you? 

 

Let’s roll into this Christmas season with thankful and joy filled songs about His righteousness in our thoughts and on our tongues. Lord bless you, right here and right now, and continue to bless you and do awesome things in your midst.

 

If you happen to have any prayer needs that I could pray for, feel free to email me at JanLBurt@outlook.com and I will pray. I also have a giveaway to my email subscribers, feel free to sign up for that at JanLBurt.com and the next giveaway winner will be chosen at the very end of November and the December winner will be chosen on December 15th so I can ship the giveaway prizes to get there hopefully by Christmas. 

 

Thanks for listening today. Lord bless you, and I’ll see you next time. Feel free to subscribe and get new episodes as soon as they drop. 

 

Jan L. Burt

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Jan is the author of the new book “A 60-Day Prayer Journal for Parents” & “The Power of God’s Will – 40 Days of God’s Promises Devotional” (available on Amazon) & “The Once-A-Year Homeschool Planner” (a multi-grade, multi-subject planning system) – which can be found at JanLBurt.com. She has also been a regular contributor to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. Find Jan on Instagram: @JanLBurt or at her website JanLBurt.com or at her YouTube channel, “God’s Promises for You with Jan L. Burt”.