One generation shall praise Your works to another

Psalm 145 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

I will extol You, my God, O King, And I will bless Your name forever and ever.
² Every day I will bless You, And I will praise Your name forever and ever.
³ Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised,
And His greatness is unsearchable.
⁴ One generation shall praise Your works to another, And shall declare Your mighty acts.
⁵ On the glorious splendor of Your majesty And on Your wonderful works, I will meditate.
⁶ Men shall speak of the power of Your awesome acts, And I will tell of Your greatness.
⁷ They shall eagerly utter the memory of Your abundant goodness
And will shout joyfully of Your righteousness.

⁸ The Lord is gracious and merciful; Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness.
⁹ The Lord is good to all, And His mercies are over all His works.
¹⁰ All Your works shall give thanks to You, O Lord, And Your godly ones 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 Your mighty acts And the glory of the majesty of Your kingdom.
¹³ Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And Your dominion endures throughout all generations.

¹⁴ The Lord sustains all who fall And raises up all who are bowed down.
¹⁵ The eyes of all look to You, And You give them their food in due time.
¹⁶ You open Your hand And satisfy the desire of every living thing.

¹⁷ The Lord is righteous in all His ways And kind in all His deeds.
¹⁸ The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth.
¹⁹ He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He will also hear their cry and will save them.
²⁰ The Lord keeps all who love Him, But all the wicked He will destroy.
²¹ My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord,
And all flesh will bless His holy name forever and ever.

As I read and meditated on today’s psalm, I couldn’t help but to pause at the verses which say:  One generation shall praise Your works to another, And shall declare Your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of Your majesty And on Your wonderful works, I will meditate. Men shall speak of the power of Your awesome acts, And I will tell of Your greatness. They shall eagerly utter the memory of Your abundant goodness And will shout joyfully of Your righteousness. There was a time, not that long ago, that what the psalmist says was true in our nation and our culture. One generation did praise the works of God to another. The mighty acts of God were declared. Men truly did speak of the power of God’s awesome acts. I was born in 1958. As I was growing up all those things were part of our culture and society. We sang hymns in school, public school. God was honored, reverenced, even praised in movies on television and in music. Today we have a new generation of children and young people being raised by a generation who has not known or been told of God’s awesome acts. They haven’t heard or known God’s abundant goodness. Righteousness is no longer something we shout about. Instead it is despised and viewed unfavorably. An adult who has not engaged in sex because they want to wait until they are married is mocked and ridiculed, while promiscuity is glorified. The accounts of God’s awesome acts, His miracles are considered fairy tales and fables by many. Our schools no longer permit teachers or students to speak of God, to praise Him. Even the open display of the Bible, scriptures, or the cross are thought of as unacceptable in schools and workplaces.  

The psalmist says:  The Lord is gracious and merciful; Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness. The Lord is good to all, And His mercies are over all His works. Those who study social and psychological tendencies will tell us the prejudices are often based in what we don’t know or understand. We fear and so reject or judge people or things that are different than ourselves. Because God’s goodness, His graciousness, His mercifulness, His lovingkindness are no longer spoken of, people no longer know the true character of God. Because God is no longer known, because few people meditate: On the glorious splendor of Your majesty And on Your(His) wonderful works, God is feared and rejected. Proverbs 9:10 says:  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.    While the fear of the Lord may be the beginning of wisdom, knowledge of God, knowing His character of goodness, love, mercy and grace brings understanding of who He is. In the end knowing Him is the end of fearing Him. Rather than fear and reject what we don’t know, as 1 John 4:19 says:  We love, because He first loved us.  God has come to be rejected and despised in our culture because most people don’t know God. They are prejudiced, because they don’t know or understand who God is.

The psalmist says:  Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And Your dominion endures throughout all generations. God is not God because we say He is. Neither does He stop being God because we have stopped saying He is and declaring His awesome acts, His righteousness and goodness.    “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”(Revelation 1:8)    He is the beginning and end, yet God has no beginning or end. He is eternal, everlasting, throughout all generations. The psalmist says:  I will extol You, my God, O King, And I will bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You, And I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised… My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, And all flesh will bless His holy name forever and ever.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit, bless Your name. Forgive this generation which has not known You. Forgive the generations who have failed to declare Your awesome acts. As for me, like the psalmist, I will extol You, my God, O King, And I will bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You, And I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised… My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord.  Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And Your dominion endures throughout all generations. As others come to know You, may they also: love You because You first loved them. May they know Your love, Your mercy, Your grace which is demonstrated for all in the cross, the most awesome of all Your awesome acts.     Amen.