Exaltation and Worship

Psalm 145

The last weeks were very active weeks in the life of CACC. Many of you were helping us organize the Food Festival. Some of you spent more hours here in the church building rather than your homes. I enjoyed seeing many of you coming to the church to serve. There was life in our building.

While people were working on the food, I was in my office thinking about my Sunday sermon’s topic. This is the Sunday before Thanksgiving Sunday. According to our lectionary, today’s psalm is Psalm 145. I read it and I was moved by it. Basically, it is about Exaltation and Worship. After weeks of hard work in cooking and organizing, I would like to stress this morning how this psalm puts us in the rhythm of worship and exaltation.

This is a unique psalm. If you read it in Hebrew, you find that there is an alphabetical order in the lines. David used the Hebrew alphabet to write it. It reminds me of Nerses Shenorali who wrote “Aravod Louso” sharagan each verse starting with a letter from the Armenian alphabet. The same is happening here. I don’t know why David missed one letter, though. Perhaps he was more interested in the meaning rather than the form.

This is the last psalm attributed to King David. It is called “A psalm of praise.” It is praise, exaltation, not thanksgiving and prayer. I read that ancient Israelites recited this psalm twice in the morning and once in the evening. They even said that if someone sang this psalm three times during the day, he would be a happy person.

Let analyze the text.

1- God’s Position

Verses 1-2 “I will exalt you, my God the King;
       I will praise your name for ever and ever.

   Every day I will praise you
       and extol your name for ever and ever.”

One can see that David is in the mood of exaltation and worship.

What does is it mean to exalt someone? It means to set on high above all others. It means you consider this person or thing above everything else. It is the greatest expression of honor and adoration. And it is not limited in time, it is going to last forever.

When we were talking about 1 Corinthians, Paul was talking about Love, “Agape.” When you love God, you exalt Him, you adore Him, you praise Him. And if you remember I said that faith and hope will one day come to an end, but love, and praise and exaltation are forever.

I wish I could give more time during the day for exaltation and adoration. David is saying that his praise is for everyday. Sometimes when things are rough in our life, we forget to exalt God. These days, when our church is busy organizing this food festival, we should not forget our daily exaltation to our God. Good or bad days, exaltation should be part of our life.

2- God’s Power

Verses 3-6 “Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise;
       his greatness no one can fathom.

One generation will commend your works to another;
       they will tell of your mighty acts.

   They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty,
       and I will meditate on your wonderful works.

   They will tell of the power of your awesome works,
       and I will proclaim your great deeds.”

Spurgeon said, “Praise may said to be great when the song contains great matter, when the hearts producing it are intensely fervent, and when large numbers unite in the grand acclaim.” How can one sing the Halleluiah Chorus without worshiping God? But in reality there is no song that contains enough music and words to worship God. No words, neither poetry can describe the greatness of our Lord.

His power is so great that generations will speak about it. The psalmist uses many verbs in these three verses: will commend, will tell, will speak, will tell, will proclaim. The psalmist is worshiping and exalting by passing the Good News of God from generation to generation. It is very important that as parents we can pass the knowledge of greatness of God and His power to the next generation.

We will continue in English.