 This morning we're going to consider what I would have liked to have started with, but we were trying to get, you know, they're trying to work me to death, but that's, that's typical for this church and it's great. I love it. I love, I love to teach the word of God, so it's fine and Lord always sustains me. So but this is the, this is the prayer I would have liked to have started with last night because it really sets forth God and it is a prayer of pure praise looking at the attributes of God and as I mentioned last night, if you don't truly know God and as I meant last night, not in the salvation sense, if you don't truly know God in the salvific sense in the sense that you've never bowed your knee to his Lordship and repented of your sins, you might as well not pray except the prayer of repentance. But if you really don't know God as a genuine believer in the sense of who he is, it's really going to affect how you pray and you will be praying as James says for selfish ambitions, you pray but you don't have because you're asking a miss that you might consume it upon your lust. And so we need to learn how to pray and the way we do that is to learn who God is. And once we know who this God is that we pray to, it'll change how you pray. And ladies, it'll also change how you live. And so I'm encouraged and hopeful that as we start this morning, this glorious Saturday that God has given us, that this prayer will truly change your prayer life. So if you would open your Bibles to Psalm 145, Psalm 145, a prayer of pure praise. A couple of years ago, our church on a Sunday night went, we're still one of those archaic churches that actually still meets on Sunday night and midweek too. But we went through Steve Lawson's DVDs. I don't know if any of you have seen them on the attributes of God. And Steve Lawson began his first session with these words. It was a profound statement. He said this, whatever comes into your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you. Let me repeat that. This is actually an A.W. Tozer quote. Whatever comes into your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you. Ladies, have you stopped long enough to think about God? And when you do stop long enough to think about God, what do you think about him? Do you think he's great, kind, merciful, loving, just, angry, holy? Do you think he is a big grandpa up in heaven waiting to lavish all kinds of gifts on you? Or do you think he is watching from heaven every little iota thing you do and ready to zap you when you get out of line? What do you think about God? Whatever you think about God, my friend, should be based on what is true about God. We have a lot of images of God that are vain imaginations. May I say to you this morning as we start, we need to return to God's word to see what God has to say about himself, right? And quit listening to everyone else who would like to change our thinking about this God that we worship. And ladies, we need to tweak our thinking just a little bit about who this awesome God is that we not only serve, but whom we pray to. The psalmist David thought correctly about God and it changed the way he prayed. Now, if you have a correct view of God, it will change the way you pray. If you have an incorrect view of God, it will also change the way you pray. And so we're going to look at Psalm 145. Ladies, it is profound. It is simple. David prays to God and as he does, he focuses on some amazing attributes and characteristics of God. So let's read it together and then I'll give you an outline. I think you have one there before you. It's pretty simple. I will extol thee, my God, O King, and I will bless thy name forever and ever. Every day while I bless thee, and I will praise thy name forever and ever. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in his greatness is unsurachable. One generation shall praise thy works to another and shall declare thy mighty acts. I will speak of the glorious honor of thy majesty and of thy wondrous works and I will speak of the might of thy awe inspiring acts and I will declare thy greatness. They shall abundantly utter the memory of your great goodness and sing of your righteousness. The Lord is gracious, full of compassion, slow to anger and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all. All his tender mercies are over all his works. All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord, and thy saints shall bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom and talk of your power to make known to the mighty men, the mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and your dominion endure throughout all generations. The Lord upholds all that, fall, and raises up all those who are bowed down. The eyes of all wait upon you and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his works and holy in all his works. The Lord is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear him. He will also hear their cry and will save him. The Lord preserves all those who love him, but all the wicked will he destroy. My mouth shall speak of the praise of the name of the Lord forever and let all flesh bless his name forever and ever. Now, we're going to look at when to praise verses one, two, and twenty-one and then why we should praise from verses three to twenty. Now, just a little bit of background about this psalm of praise, of prayer. It was written by David. As far as what historic event was going on, we do not know. Most believe that David wrote Psalm 145 at the end of his life. And so he's reflecting on all the wondrous works of God through his entire life. In fact, this psalm is called a psalm of praise. And it is a fitting psalm of praise, of worship. In fact, if you know anything about the Psalter, Psalm 145 through 150 are called psalms of praise. In fact, do you know that the word praise is mentioned 46 times in these last five psalms? So that's quite a bit, right? And so evidently the psalmist is trying to end the Psalter with a praise to the Almighty God. The Psalm 145 is also alphabetical. And what I mean by that, each verse begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. And there's only one letter that is missing in these stanzas here, and that is the letter N. And most believe that it's left out so that it could fit into three nice stanzas. And I don't know if that's true, but it's possible that the letter N was left out on purpose. I will tell you this as we get started. I know a lot of you like outlines. And this psalm does really not lend itself to outline. Even Charles Haddon's Virgin said he could not outline this psalm, so don't expect me to. If he can't do it, I certainly can't. But it really doesn't have any marked divisions. It's just one great psalm of pure praise and thanksgiving to God. Just a few more things about this psalm. It was said that any Jew who would pray this prayer three times a day would be blessed. And can you imagine if you actually prayed this prayer three times a day? Do you think it would change the way you think about God? I think it would. In fact, in the Jewish church, what they would do, this psalm was prayed twice in the morning and then once at night. And so what a great habit the Jews had to pray this prayer three times. So let's consider when David desires to praise God. He says, I will extol you, my God, O King, and I will bless your name forever and ever. Now, ladies, even though David was the king of Israel, he recognized that God was the true king. You know, David says, I will extol you, I will bless your name forever and ever. I will lift the name of God on high so that everyone can hear about it. Now, ladies, this entire prayer would be in vain if David did not use that two-letter word. You know what that two-letter word is? My God. My, M-Y. You know why I say that? Apart from a personal relationship with God, David could not praise him. There's no way. And ladies, you might be able to, you know, utter a prayer, you know, God bless me. I see the moon, I used to read this to my kids when they were growing up, I don't know why, but you know, I see the moon, the moon sees me, God bless the moon and God bless me. You know, you might be able to read some little prayer like that, or now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep or something like that. You might be able to mutter a little, you know, something like that or sing a song, a spiritual song, but to truly praise God from your heart without knowing he is the king of kings, without having a personal relationship with God, that would be impossible. And this whole prayer is in vain if you do not know who God is, if he is not your God. David's God was also David's king. Is the true God your God? Is he your king? Ladies, let me say up front, prayer will be a mystery to you if you do not have a living relationship with the living God. It'll be a mystery, and also it'll be irksome, as Elizabeth Ellie says, you will not enjoy it. And we need to remember God does not hear the prayers of sinners, he doesn't hear them, so you might as well not even pray. Well, David also recognizes this relationship with God will be throughout all eternity as evidenced by the next words. He says, I will bless your name forever and ever. You know, David didn't wonder about the covenant that he'd made with God, he knew it was gonna be forever and ever, just like the song we just sang, he will hold me fast, I could never keep my hold, but he will hold me fast. Ladies, isn't it wonderful to know that when we are in heaven, we are gonna be praising his name forever and ever throughout all eternity? You know, we not only have the wonderful privilege of talking to God now, but ladies, think of this, we're gonna be able to talk to him forever throughout eternity. Isn't that gonna be wonderful? I will praise his name forever and ever. Well, David will not only bless his name forever in heaven, well, blessing him will be easy, but he's also gonna praise him while he's here on earth as evidenced by the next verse. And quite frankly, some of King David's days were not exactly rosy, just like your days, and some of them are not exactly rosy either. So let's consider what he prays in verse three, or two, every day I will bless you and I will praise your name forever and ever. Now these words are very similar to another Psalm that David wrote. Psalm 34, I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise shall continually be on my mouth. And by the way, Psalm 34 was written when it wasn't exactly a great time in David's life. Psalm 34 was written when David was fleeing from King Saul who was out to kill him. So it wasn't exactly a great day, but David says, I will praise him forever and ever. You know, the 21st century Christian Psalm of praise, I'm afraid would sound something like this. On Sunday morning, I will bless you. Or when I'm having a good hair day, I will bless you. You know what David says? Every day I will bless you, every day. I will bless you when you take my newborn son. I will bless you when my son, my son, Absalom is killed. I will bless you when Shamiah casts curses at me. I will bless you when my dearest friend, Ahithophel, betrays me. I will bless you every day. You know, Job said the same thing. We looked at him a little bit last night after he had a few bad days, actually one bad day, you know, where everything was gone pretty much. You know what he said to his wife when she told him to curse God and die? You know what he said to his wife? You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity? We're gonna bless the Lord. In fact, he said the Lord gives the Lord takes away what blessed be the name of the Lord. Even though he just took my 10 kids, I'm gonna bless him. Ladies, do you find it hard to pray when things are difficult? Can you honestly say I will bless you? I will praise you every day, even, you know, thinking back of the worst day of your life whenever that might have been. Can you honestly say I bless the Lord? I praise the Lord that day? Now you might say, well, Susan, what kind of a God would be worthy of praise even when your day is difficult? Well, verse three, answer that question for us. So we move from when David will praise God, which is now in eternity if you're taking notes, to why he will praise God. And ladies, he gives 16 reasons why he will praise God. And these all have to do with the attributes and characteristics of God. So if you're sitting here this morning and you're having a hard time praising God or blessing God, then you need to write all 16 of these down and you need to get on your knees and thank God for this. We need to be women who are thankful, who praise God. So let's look with the first one. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised His greatness is insurchable. You know reason number one why David wants to praise God, God is great. God is great. Great is the Lord. Our friend, this is a wonderful characteristic of our Lord, he is great. You know what this means? He's exceedingly far above anything else. He is great. And then David says, his greatness is unsurchable. You know what that means? Of His greatness there is no search. You can't figure it out. You can't figure it out. I love what Romans, what Paul says in Romans. Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how insurchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out. Who can know the mind of the Lord? Who has been His counselor? I don't know, not me, you know. I haven't been His counselor or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to Him again for of Him and through Him are all things to Him be glory forever and ever. Amen. Ladies, we cannot search God's greatness. He is far above what we can even think of. In fact, we can search a lot of things, right? My husband calls me the Google Queen. Just ask Susan, she'll Google it and find out for you. You know, we can Google a lot of things, right? And search a lot of things. But you know what? No one can search God's greatness. You cannot search God's greatness. No one has plumbed its depths. And by the way, since this is true, that His greatness is insurchable. Why do we spend time elsewhere searching for the greatness of God other than the 66 books He's left us? Why do we search anywhere else? Well, David reflects on this amazing attribute of God. He reflects on the desire to pass this down to the next generation. One generation will praise your works to another and they will declare your mighty acts. Now, David would have been very familiar to the commandment that many of you are familiar with in Deuteronomy 6.6, where it says, you know, these things I've commanded you, they shall be in your heart and you shall teach them to your children when you sit down, when you lie down, when you walk, by the way, we are to pass down what we know about God to our children, to our grandchildren. David says, one generation will praise your work. I'm gonna pass this stuff down to my kids. I'm gonna pass this down to my grandkids. Ladies, do your children and grandchildren hear you praising the Lord for all He's done? What legacies are you passing down to your children and grandchildren? What kind of a mother or grandmother are they gonna remember when you pass from this life to the next life? Are they gonna think of you as someone who is always complaining, arguing, unhappy? Or are they gonna remember you as one who is full of joy, thanksgiving, always giving praise to God, even when things aren't really good at home? Well, they remember you as a woman of prayer. Well, they remember, you know, my mom prayed about everything. First time anything came into her life, that's what she, let's pray about this. Well, they remember that. Well, David's second reason for giving God praise then would be because of his power, which is evidenced by what he says, your mighty acts or your mighty works. Now, you might be wondering, what's David talking about? What mighty acts, what mighty works? Well, the first one I can think of is creation, right? In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. David knew that. Ladies, do you think that's a mighty act? Can you speak and create something? I know some religions teach that, I'm sorry, you cannot. And also David would know what? He flooded the earth, he parted the Red Sea. I mean, remember most Jews had the first five books of Moses memorized. This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, you'll meditate day and night, you'll be like a tree plant. That's the book of the law, it's the first five books of Moses. David probably had the first five books of Moses memorized. So he knew the mighty acts of God. And David knew this and it caused his heart to well up in praise. My friend, does it cause your heart to well up in praise when you rehearse the works of God in your own life? Do you rehearse the goodness of God as you pray, Lord? I praise you, you know, I can still remember you about 40 years ago when, you know, or 43 now for me when I met my husband or I can remember when you gave us these two to chill. You know, I was at home, I said, do you praise God for the mighty works he's done in your life? Well, David desires to pass down to the next generation, God's wonderful works and mighty acts and so should we ladies. I fear greatly for the next generation. My children, my grandchildren, they do not know who God is. You know why? Because they've traded spending time studying who God is, which is what we call theology, to spending time on technology. Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram. Our children will not know this God. The most children I see today, you know, as soon as they get off the pacifier, they have an iPad. Ladies, I pray this isn't the case with us and I pray that you're not doing that with your children and your grandchildren. In fact, a good exercise for many of us, I give this often to women who tell me they don't have time to spend in the word. Keep a journal of everything that you do every day and then look back and see where is my time? You know, we spend time on what we wanna do, right? And I have counseled women, I have discipled women who will spend two to four hours a day if not more. In fact, now I find it almost frustrating when I'm, you know, with a group of ladies and I don't know how many of them, you know, that's what they're doing and I'm like, you know, could you put it down so we can have a meaningful conversation just for a minute? But they'll spend two to four hours, you know, on all their social networking but they won't even pick up this book for a minute a day. And no wonder, as I mentioned last night, when trials come and ladies, they're gonna come. They're gonna come in your life personally and as God's judgment has fallen on this nation, they're gonna come on this nation. They are coming now. The wrath of God is coming. Are you gonna be able to stand in the day of adversity when those things come? Your, you know, your smartphone isn't gonna save you in that day. It is not. In fact, a lady was telling me the other day at lunch that goes to my church. She said, Susan, you know, they have the capability now where they can come in, ISIS and even other people, from the East Coast and the West Coast and completely, and I've heard it on news the other night too on Fox News, completely take out our power grid. Now ladies, if that were to happen right now, I'm sorry, you can just put yourself on in the trash because you won't have any ability. Most of you won't be able to start your car when you go out to the parking lot because guess what? They're all computerized and run by, and the lights will automatically go off and you won't have to hear me teach anymore and that'll be good because we won't have a microphone. But you know what? For those of us who, you know, this is the most important thing to us, we've hidden God's word in our heart, they're not gonna be great. We still carry our Bible and run out the door, you know? Well, all this contemplation of God's great and mighty works causes David to shout out with words of praise. He can't keep silent. Look at verse five. I will meditate on the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wondrous works. Ladies, David determines to meditate on God's glorious splendor, his honor, his majesty. This would be two more reasons for David to praise God. His honor, which is his magnificence, his beauty, and then his majesty, which is his splendor, his excellency. There's none like him. Ladies, we spend a lot of time thinking about a lot of things. Like, you know, what am I gonna fix for dinner next week? You know, usually Monday morning after Lord's Day on Sunday, the first thing I do after I walk, I go to the grocery store. What am I gonna fix for dinner all next week? Or, you know, what am I gonna wear to church tomorrow morning? And usually it's whatever I wore Saturday night at the conference, because it goes in the suitcase and it comes out the next morning. Or, you know, how am I gonna pay the next bill? I got a water bill the other day, went from $38 to $428, and it was a meter mistake, but I'm like, okay, I'm three of those weeks, my husband was on a sabbatical, I'm like, I don't think I used 52,000 gallons of water while my husband was out of town. But I was like, wow, that's quite a water bill. But you know, maybe you meditate a lot, how am I gonna pay this next bill? But do we stop and meditate on the majesty and the honor of God? You know why I say that? If we would spend time meditating on the majesty and honor of God, it would make those other things seem like, who cares? Who cares what my water bill is? Who cares what I'm gonna wear tomorrow? Who cares? I might care what I fix for dinner next week, but it makes those seem seem less monumental, right? When we meditate on the honor and the majesty of God. David repeats what he just said about meditating on the wondrous works of God here, those works that are distinguished, extraordinary, miraculous. Ladies, do you meditate on the works of God when you pray? You should, you should. Well, others will join David in this praise. Look at verse six. Men will speak of the mind of your awesome acts. They will declare your greatness. Now, what are these awesome acts? Well, the plagues in Egypt, pretty awesome, huh? I mean, I read those 10 plagues and I'm like, whoa. That's pretty amazing. The overthrowing of Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, the earth swallowing up the sons of Korah. I mean, I've heard about the earth swallowing up some few people in Florida. You guys have those, I don't wanna move to Orlando. I mean, you know, you guys have the, it opens up and then you fall in there and then you're gone. So, but you know, the earth swallowing up Korah, the son, that's, that's pretty amazing. And you know what? We would do well to remind ourselves of these awesome acts. Do you read the Old Testament? Oh my goodness, awesome acts that God performed. And David says, as they speak about this, I will declare your greatness. Now, along with these awesome acts that others will speak about will be two more of God's wonderful attributes, his goodness and his righteousness. Look at verse seven. They will utter the memory of your great goodness and sing of your righteousness. The word utter is an interesting word. It means to abundantly sputter forth as a bubbling overflowing fountain. Ladies, do you ever feel that way when desiring to give praise to God for his great goodness? Do you can't wait to tell somebody? I gotta tell somebody. You know, that was at Don Franciscan years ago. I gotta tell somebody what Jesus did for me. Do you ever just can't wait? That's what David says. I can't wait, it's just sputtering forth. I wanna tell people of your great goodness. You know, bad news travels real fast, doesn't it? Why don't we do that with good news? Say what God has done. David wanted to make sure it was God's goodness that was noised about. And this is the fifth attribute of God that is worthy of giving praise for. You know, David, as we know, was the sweet psalmist of Israel and so singing was something he did quite a bit. So he mentions another one of God's goodness, his attributes, his righteousness. In other words, he does what is right. You know, this was a comfort to David and I hope it's a comfort to you. Many of David's friends, many of his family members did not do what was right. You read about his sons. You read about a Hithafel. You read about Shemaiah. I mean, these are men that did not do right by King David. But you know what, he knew God was right. God was righteous. And ladies, people don't do right by us either. I mean, people want to, you know, they want to persecute us. They want to speak evil of us. They want to take us out. You know, I've had several now, you know, people, women that want to take me out. Okay. Should we, is that true? Just wait. Just keep going, okay. Just meditate on the Lord's righteousness. His great goodness. No fire, no alarms. It's okay. Peace out, be calm. Meditate on the glorious works of God. Should we go on? Okay. Peace, brothers and sisters. Well, sisters, there's no brothers in here, so. All right. See, some of you were falling asleep, so that was a good wake up call. That's why I didn't eat oatmeal, because that would make me tired. Ladies, David focused on God's righteousness, not on those who did wrong to him. In fact, we're gonna see right before lunch, King Jehoshaphat, when he was faced with such a numerous armoring coming against him, he didn't know what to do. You know what he did? He broke out in song after the victory and thought of God's righteousness. His righteousness. He does what is right. He's saying about the righteousness of God. My friend, we need songs and hymns that are rich in the theology of our God and not the shallow songs of our day, which tend to focus on felt needs. In fact, while we're on the topic of singing, which is what David was, a sweet psalmist of Israel, you know what, I found in my own pilgrimage of prayer, my daughter and I've talked about this often. One of the ways that we enjoy praying is by singing to God. You know, sometimes I just feel like my prayers or my eyes are dry, my prayers are cold, and as Keith Green sang, I think what is wrong with me? And I'll put on my Pandora favorite station and just worship the Lord and pray to him in that way. It's a wonderful way to praise God and to pray to him. God's righteousness is the sixth thing that David praises God for. Well, David now adds four more attributes about God in verse eight. The Lord is gracious, full of compassion, slow to anger, and have great mercy. So the seventh attribute of God is he's gracious. He is gracious. This is his undeserved favor that God bestows. Ladies, David knew of this in his own life. He was gracious to David, not only that, but he was compassionate, and not only compassionate, but David says full of compassion. This is just like a father who has pity on his children. In fact, it reminds me of, I remember Pharaoh's, the daughter of Pharaoh, and she was out and about, and she saw this little baby floating down the river, little Moses, and you know, that led her, she was compassionate, so she got the little baby out of the river, and she found a mother to nurse him, which happened to be his mother, and she nursed the baby. You know, she was compassionate, and that compassion led her to do something. She didn't say, oh, look at that cute little baby floating down the river, bye-bye, baby. She didn't say that. Her compassion led her to do something, get the baby, get it out of the river, and find somebody to nurse the child. Ladies, that's what David's saying. God is just like that. He's compassionate, and his compassion leads him to do something, he acts on it. He's full of compassion. David knew that. Do you know that? Do you thank God for his compassion towards you? I think of how many times I probably should have been killed, or you know, most of the time when Debbie and I land we're like, thank you, Lord, for your compassion. He's full of compassion. We've had some of those flights for, I'm not quite sure we were gonna land safely or we were gonna get there safely. But he's perfect in his compassion. He's full of compassion. This is the eighth reason that David speaks forth, praise to God in his prayer. The ninth attribute of God that David prays about is the fact that he's slow to anger, which means he's long to become angry. The anger here would be the, have you ever seen someone get angry, really angry in how their nose dilates? You're like that. You know, their face, you can just see it. We've seen some of those on the plane too. Some people have gotten pretty angry. In anger, our nose usually dilates and our breathing becomes intense and there's all that emotion. You know what? God is slow to get angry. He is slow to get angry, unlike a lot of humanity, which is quick to fly off the handle. Have you thanked God lately for being slow to anger in your life? Think of how many times you probably deserved his anger, you know? Each one of us in this room this morning deserve the wrath of God. But he's slow to get anger. Have you thanked him for that? Do you praise him? When you come to prayer, God thank you that you're slow to get angry with me. Yesterday I did this to my husband and I shoulda, you shoulda whooped me right then, but you didn't. Thank you that you're slow to get angry. Well, the fourth attribute in this verse in the 10th on our list is God is of great mercy. His mercy is great just like his goodness. Mercy here is a word in the Hebrew language that refers to a woman and her emotion that she has towards an unborn child that she's carrying. She has mercy on this child and ladies, David experienced God's mercy many times. You know, the first time I think about it is when he committed adultery with Bathsheba. And you know what? According to the Old Testament law, he deserved what? Death. But Nathan the prophet when he came in and confronted him, he said, you're not gonna die but the child will die. That was a merciful God. David should have died. Second time he received God's mercy. Remember when he numbered the Israelites? And the prophet Gad came in, not Nathan, the prophet Gad and said, you know, you're in trouble. You got three choices, David. Here's your choices. You know, pestilence, famine, or you know you can fall into the hands of the Lord and David said, let me fall into the hands of the Lord. He's merciful. Do not let me fall into the hands of men. Let me fall into the hands of the Lord. He is merciful. Ladies, God has poured out his mercy to you and to me. Every one of us in this room deserve hell. Every one of us deserve hell. God has poured out his mercy to us. Do you thank him for that? Lord, thank you for saving my soul. Thank you for electing me before the foundation of the world. Thank you for setting your love upon me. Thank you for showing mercy. Well, not only are his mercies great, but he's good. The Lord is good to all, verse nine. And his tender mercies are over all his works. Now this is the second time that David's mentioned the goodness of the Lord and the mercy of the Lord. And you might say, well, why is he repeating this? Well, you know, if this is towards the end of David's life, which it probably was when he wrote this, he's really reflecting over his life. God has been good to me. God has been merciful to me. And ladies, he's been good to you. He's been merciful to you. In fact, the word tender mercies means tender pity, and it's like the compassion of a parent like the father of the prodigal son. He was full of tender mercy. And ladies, he's merciful towards all his works, all his creation. You might say, what does that mean? Just like Matthew says, he sends rain on the just and the unjust. He causes the son to rise on the evil and the good this morning, the sun rose. And Orlando is full of what? Evil people. But you know what, they get the same sunshine you got. They're gonna get the same rain that you're gonna get, maybe today or tomorrow. His tender towards everything. Well, David goes on to pray. Even the works of God can't keep silent. Verse 10, all your works will praise you, O Lord, your saints will bless you. Ladies, this is rehearsed again in Psalm 148. If you look over, if you have your Bible there, he does this again. Praise the Lord's, praise the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the heights, praise him all you angels, you hosts, sun, moon, stars, heavens, waters. Praise the Lord. And he goes on to say, he's established them forever and ever, he made it a creed which will not pass. Praise the Lord, sea creatures, fire, which we almost just had, hail, snow, clouds, wind, mountains, hills, trees, cedars, beasts, cattle, creeping things, fowls. Hey, he goes on and on, kings, men, women, children, maidens, everybody, praise the Lord. In fact, we have an interesting account in Luke 19. Remember when Jesus was writing into Jerusalem on a donkey? And the disciples began to rejoice and praise God. And they were so excited and the Pharisees didn't like that, remember? You know what Jesus said? If these keep silent, if my disciples were to keep silent, guess what, the stones will cry out. They're gonna praise me. All my works praise me. They all praise him. Well, David goes on to pray that it's not only the works of God that will praise him, but also the saints, which means his holy ones. You know, this is kind of exciting. This includes everyone who's gone before us who's already in heaven. Hannah's one of them that we looked at last night. She's in heaven now, she's praising God. All the angels, all the saints who are here now, all the saints that are gonna still be born. Ladies, do you spend time every day praising God as you pray? David did. Well, David mentions what they'll speak about, which deals with another one of God's attributes. In verse 12, they will speak of the glory of your kingdom and talk of your power. The next attribute that David mentions is God's rule. His kingdom, his sovereign rule. This would be the 11th reason to praise God, his sovereign rule. Ladies, his kingdom is what? His royal rule, his sovereign power. God is sovereign. He rules over everything. Now I know most today do not believe that, they don't think that, they don't live that. It doesn't really matter because one day, every knee will bow, every day, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Some will go into eternity, some will be cast into the lake of fire, forever and ever. Ladies, God is sovereign, his kingdom rules. Is this a topic you've had lately with your friends? You know, sometimes I get with women and I'm like, really? We just spent two to three hours talking about nothing, nothing. You know, I think of that verse in Micah where it says, you know, those that feared the Lord, they got together and they talked about the Lord and it's so exciting and there's a book of remembrance written. That's pretty exciting, ladies. Ladies, we should get together. We should talk with our friends about the sovereign rule of God. He's powerful. If we do that, it'll change the way we think. Madam, if you get with your girlfriends and spent two to three hours talking about, you know, trivial drippings versus getting with your girlfriends for two to three hours and talking about the goodness of God and what he's done in your life and, you know, which one after going home, which conversation would encourage you more as you go throughout your day? Choose your friends wisely. Ladies, we talk about a lot of topics. Children, grandchildren, you know, I can talk about my grandchildren just like anyone else can. We talk about the weather, the latest news, but when did you have a talk about the glory of the kingdom where God rules and reigns? When's the last time you had a talk about that? Well, David repeats the same idea in verse 12 and he says, to make known to the sons of men is mighty acts and the glorious majesty of his kingdom. And so the idea here is that we not only praise God with fellow believers, but we also talk about the attributes of God with unbelievers, the sons of men. Ladies, the world Orlando is filled with people who do not know God. They are sons of disobedience. They are the sons of men. We need to talk about God's kingdom. You know, Solomon, why Solomon said, God has placed eternity in every man's heart. So whether that lost person tells you or not, they believe in God, they do. They know there is eternity to follow because God's word is true. God has placed eternity in every man's heart. So ladies, this behooves us. We should be bold in our witness because there are many who have no idea about this awesome God we serve. Now, this is not just any kingdom we're talking about that compels us to share. It's a very special kind of kingdom. What kind of a kingdom? Look at verse 13. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. Your dominion endures through all generations. Daniel says in his book, how great are your signs? How mighty are his wonders? His kingdom is everlasting. His dominion is from generation to generation. Now, what is this? What is a dominion? Well, it means his reign, his government, his sovereignty. Ladies, other kingdoms rise and fall, but not the kingdom of our Lord. It will be forever and ever. And this is the 12th reason, David praises God. He will reign. He is king now and forever. Well, in verse 14, David is perhaps reflecting at the end of his life, this wonderful attribute of God that of helping him when he was without strength. The Lord opposed all who fall and raises up all who are bowed down. Ladies, the Lord is a sustainer. This is the 12th reason, David praises God. He's the sustainer of those who fall. In fact, this is a part of simple that means the falling. They're ready to fall. They're getting ready to fall. They're getting ready to stumble. They don't have any strength to hold themselves up and he bears them up. He's the sustainer. Ladies, this is the 13th reason for praising God. He upholds those who are ready to fall. He also raises those who are bowed down. Do you know God continually gives strength to those who are bent under the weight of their burdens? Ladies, without his strength, you would not be able to hold yourself up when going through a trial. In fact, the bowing down is those who are so weighed down with burdens in the trials of life. They feel like they're being crushed with such a heavy load and God sustains them. He upholds them. You know, this was true in the life of King David and it's true in your life too. In fact, we could spend the rest of this morning when we won't talking about all the numerous times in David's life where this was true. How many times do we read in the Psalter where David writes, he's my rock, he's my defense, he's my salvation, he's my refuge, he's my strength, he's my habitation. Over and over we read God appell David during difficult times and raised him up. And by the way, he's done the same for you and me, right, over and over and over again. I can recount in my 61 years of life that God has upheld me when I felt like I couldn't go another day. In fact, if we wrote a book about it, I imagine it would be over a thousand pages, don't you? Recounting all the ways that God has upheld us and sustained us. Do you cry out to God in your despair? Do you thank him that he upholds you during difficulty? Well, he also provides for our physical needs as evidenced in the next verse. The eyes of all look expectantly to you and you give them their food in due season. You know, the idea here is that all creatures are looking to God for their needs. You know, isn't it, I think, I find it fascinating that the animal life looks to God. But we as humans who are created in his image, don't we? All of your creation looks to you to give them their food. In fact, look over at the page at Psalm 147-9. He gives to the beast his food and to the young ravens that cry. Or consider what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. Consider what, the birds of the air. You know, they don't toil around. He said, and you're heavenly father, what? They feed him. I feed them. I feed the birds. Amazing, the animal life looks to God and knows he's the sustainer of life and yet we as humans made in the image of God look to others at time to meet our needs. Well, not only are our needs provided, but for our desires as well. Look at verse 16, you open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. Now the hand here is a symbol of God's power or strength. And David prays he opens his hand. He satisfies the desire, not just what is necessary, but the desire of every living thing. Now ladies, when you marry verse 15 and 16 together, verse 15 that he provides for our physical needs, and verse 16, you cannot help but see the Lord's loving kindness of his creation. Ladies, this wonderful characteristic of our God, number 14, is so fitting. God cares for those he created. He shows his loving kindness. Have you thanked him for that? You know, none of you in here look like you're dying of starvation. I like the prayer that was prayed this morning. May we thank the Lord for every bite of food that we are eating this morning at breakfast. You know, there's so many people, I don't even know what the statistics now are. I've had the children that die daily of starvation. Do you thank the Lord that he's provided for you? Well, David rehearses two more attributes. He's already mentioned in the next verse, the Lord is gracious in all his ways, gracious and righteous in all his works. Ladies, in everything the Lord does, he does it right and he does it with grace. He will never be unjust, he will never be impure, that is totally contrary to his nature. Now, is this amazing God within David's reach? Of course he is. And you know what, he's within your reach too. And it's a shame that we don't reach out more, right? In prayer. In fact, look at verse 18, the Lord is near to all those who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth. Ladies, the Lord is near. You know what that word means? He's at hand, he's right there. To those who call upon him, the word there means to call aloud. Oh Lord, help me. To call aloud. And we get the idea, David is crying out to God in prayer, but notice that prayer must be what? In truth. In truth. You know what he's saying? As we cry out to God in prayer, we must be sincere. We must not have hypocrisy. As Jesus says, God is a spirit and those that worship him in spirit or those that worship him must worship him, what? In spirit and what? Truth, truth. You know, some of us come to the Lord in prayer with a bunch of flowery pretending, but not David. In fact, when you read the Psalms, we were talking yesterday in the car on the way here, the young lady that brought us about transparency and I said, well, my transparency's gotten me in trouble many times, more times than I wanna count, but when you read the Psalms, you read a man's prayers that are genuine, they're real. He's transparent with God. He's calling upon him in truth. Lord, this is just how it is, you know? I need help. I wish I had wings. I don't wanna fly away and be like a dove and be at rest, I'm out of here, you know? It's hard, Lord. I trust that you do that in your prayers. I trust you don't come to the throne of grace and pray some rote, stoic prayer. Call upon him in truth. Come boldly, yes, to the throne of grace. Well, did God answer those prayers of David? Of course he did, look at verse 19. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him. He will also hear their cry and save them. Ladies, God will answer those who fear or reverence him. He will deliver them out of all their troubles. Now, does this mean everything went David's way? Nope, and it's not gonna go your way either all the time. And it didn't go the apostle Paul's way that we're gonna look at in just a minute. That thorn in his flesh, it didn't go his way either. But you know what? He will be near us in our troubles and absolutely nothing can take away that inner tranquility of the soul that comes from God alone. So who cares what happens to us? You know, we're not to fear those who kill our body, but we rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. He will be near us. Well, David has another attribute to praise God for in verse 20. The Lord preserves all who love him, but all the wicked will he destroy. The Lord preserves, which means to hedge about us with thorns. Isn't that interesting? He's preserving us. So it's hedged about with thorns, and I don't know about you, but I particularly wanna go through a thorn bush. He protects those who love him. Ladies, what a wonderful promise to those who love God. He preserves us. And I'm sure you'd like to stop right there and say, okay, could you close in prayer? But David's not done yet. Notice what he says. All the wicked will he destroy. You might say, well, good night. Why did David have to go and ruin a perfectly great psalm of praise by adding that phrase? Why did he have to say that? Because God is just. And ladies, this is the 15th attribute that David praises God for. God is a God of justice. He's gonna destroy all the wicked which expresses utter ruin and extermination. And ladies, this attribute is very important when we come to God in prayer. You know why? Because we live in an age that minimizes sin. We minimize sin. In fact, I was talking to a lady the other day and she was talking about a man in our town that had been arrested. And she said, well, you made a mistake. And I said, no, he didn't make a mistake. He sinned grossly. And that's the problem with the church today. Oh, you just made a mistake. No, it's a sin. Ladies, God is just. And you know what? That's just as much of a part of who he is as his goodness, his mercy, his greatness, and all those other attributes we just looked at. In fact, the Bible says he will by no means clear the guilty. Now ladies, what if God decided not to destroy all the wicked? I don't know about you, but I'm glad he does because I don't really wanna spend eternity with a bunch of wicked people, do you? Now, I hope we are all just as excited and thrilled as David with this psalm of praise and we can echo the last verse of this psalm with David. Because he ends the psalm the way he began it with a determination to praise the Lord. My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever. Not only will David praise the Lord, but he also calls upon all flesh to bless his name forever and ever. And ladies, notice, it's not any name. It's a holy name. God is holy. And this is his 16th attribute he praises God for. He's holy. He's separate. He cannot look on sin. And by the way, we're to be holy too. Peter says be holy even as he is holy. Why? Because it is written be holy as he's holy. We're to be holy. What a wonderful song of praise to this great and awesome God. What a wonderful prayer. Ladies, do you give praise in your prayers to God every day as King David did? Do you look forward to eternity where you will bless his name forever and ever? Maybe you're saying, Susan, I do not give praise to God every day in my prayers. And no, I do not look forward to eternity where I'm gonna praise him forever and ever. Well, maybe you don't because you don't have anything to praise God for. Well, King David gives you 16 things to praise God for. And ladies, if you don't have anything to talk to God about, maybe these 16 things will be a good start for you. Why not praise God that he's great? He's powerful, he's worthy of honor, he's majestic, he's good, he's righteous, he's gracious, he's full of compassion, slow to anger, he's merciful, he's sovereign, he's the king who will reign, he upholds those who are falling down, he possesses loving kindness, he's just and he's holy. And just think, this list is just a smidge of what we can praise God for. David could praise God every day because he thought correctly about God. Maybe for some of us, we can't praise God in our prayer life because we have a wrong view of God. Ladies, I wanna encourage you to meditate on Psalm 145 so you can know this awesome God that you're praying to. It will enrich your prayer life and change the way you pray. Well, I think the Jews had a great idea of saying it three times a day. It might do us all some good, right? So I close with quoting one man's remarks. Let the song begin and there shall be no end to it. It shall go on forever and ever a day as the old folks used to say. If there were two forever or 22 forever's, they ought to be spent in the praises of the ever living, ever blessing, ever blessed Jehovah. Let's pray. Father, you are great. You're awesome in power, you're just, you're holy, full of compassion, full of great mercy. Lord, you are a God who is worthy to be praised, who is worthy to be prayed to, who is worthy to be thought correctly of. And Father, forgive us for thinking incorrectly about you. Lord, because we know it changes the way we pray, it changes the way we live when we don't think correctly about you. And I pray for myself, I pray for these women. Lord, that they would go to your word to see what your word has to say about you. And Lord, that that would help them as they pray, that they would know just who this wonderful awesome God is that they're talking to. And then that in return would change the way they live. Thank you for King David. Thank you for this beautiful prayer of praise that he gives to you and that has been left for us to enjoy. We give you our time and our break and Lord pray that in these minutes we have together that you would help us to honor and glorify you in Christ's name. Amen.