Daily Meditations

Psalm 145:7 God's abundant goodness and righteousness Here are two more themes for our worship and praise that should drive us to tell the next generations of the glory of our God. Firstly, we should have occasions when we celebrate His abundant goodness; times of praise and worship in our corporate gatherings are such occasions but we can also set apart moments with children and grandchildren when we celebrate too. Most of us have a rich history of walking with the Lord, there must have been some “high” or mountain top moments, if so pass them on and tell of the goodness of the Lord. The Psalm also encourages us to “ Joyfully sing of the Lord’s righteousness.”  In other words, we embrace and explain just how perfect He is and how holy are His ways. Children and adults need to grasp this or else they will never understand the need for repentance or the wonder of all that Jesus did for us at the cross. It is His righteousness that makes the Lord our God unapproachable and a Being to...

Psalm 145:6 God's awesome works and great deeds We have been looking at the way in which generations pass on what they know of the Lord to those who come after them. So far,  “they commend Your works and tell of Your mighty acts ,” and “ They speak of the glorious splendour of Your majesty.”  This verse now adds another layer to the rich testimony that we should be passing down to those who succeed us, we have a responsibility to “ tell of the power of God’s mighty works and His great deeds .” It strikes me that there is an agenda here for every Sunday School and church-based children’s work.   We have to excite the young with amazing accounts of all that God has done and who He is, let’s paint Him in vivid colours and big Him up, as if that were necessary. Let’s stir their fertile imaginations with images of a great and powerful God. We can certainly do that with many of the stories in the Bible but, hopefully, we have some of our own to pass on too! Anything that glorif...

Psalm 145:5 Can we see God? We’re still pondering the question, what is it that generations of people have passed on to their successors about the greatness of the Lord. David uses a regal metaphor here, let’s imagine ourselves as spectators inside Westminster Abbey or Windsor Chapel at the wedding of a senior member of the British Royal Family. All the men are dressed in their best suits, the ladies resplendent in their finest dresses and hats, shoes shine and jewellery sparkles but none of this compares to the splendour of the royals as they parade down the central aisle.  God’s majesty is displayed in the central aisle of His creation from the buttercups that lighten a meadow in spring to the soaring power of an eagle over a mountain peak to the song of a robin in winter, to the majesty of a whale surfacing above the waves, to the setting of the sun in the evening and its arrival every morning, to the vastness of the star-filled heavens, to the humbling crescendos of the thunder...

Psalm 145:4 I will proclaim Your great deeds Later in this Psalm David will go on to name and proclaim the mighty acts of God, as this verse shows us, he believes this to be the responsibility of every generation –  “to commend the works of the Lord and to tell of His mighty acts. ” In particular we have a responsibility to do this to our children – to the next generation. It was not that long ago when churches in every village and town ran Sunday Schools and where Bible stories were recounted and the next generation grew up knowing about the mighty acts of the Lord. I regularly visited schools, with a guitar under my arm, having been invited to take an assembly. It was a joy to tell the ancient stories of God’s power and saving works. Sadly, this rarely happens nowadays.  That means that we all have a responsibility to keep talking about our God and all that He has done both in ancient times or about what He is doing in our lives today. Having had three miraculous healings in...

Psalm 15:3 Great is the Lord! This is a thankless task! Somehow we have to try to grasp the significance of these words, written by King David, and try to understand the greatness of the Lord! Obviously, that is impossible for finite minds that are vastly inferior to His mind and incapable of imagining just how great and wonderful He really is. But even if we’ve just meandered a few feet down the road of grasping the Lord’s greatness we will have had our minds totally blown, as David says, “ He is the most worthy of our praise.”  It doesn’t matter where we direct our praise be it to other human beings, family members, those we love, or those we revere for their gifts and skills; it I still the Lord who is most worthy, for His character and ability far exceeds any human greatness. So much so that it is impossible for us to fathom how great He is.  The Psalms have taught us that God’s mind is so much more powerful than all the world’s computers put together, in fact they are jus...

Psalm145:2 Eternal praise! What a brilliant statement and one for us to take on board. Do we want to be men and women of faith like David? Well, one way to start is to ensure that we praise the Lord our God every day. There are so many ways we can do this, by reading and studying His Word and being amazed at who He is and what He has done. By giving thanks for our daily food and necessities. By witnessing to others about Him. By playing songs and hymns that extol Him and by making music in our heart to Him. By praying and simply thanking Him for all He is and all He has done. By standing still for a moment and looking with awe-filled eyes at His creation or listening to the music of the birds, the trees, the ocean waves or the buzzing of insects and recognising that every bit of creation reveals His character and provision for us. By joining with others who love Him and acknowledging together His sovereignty and authority. By humbling ourselves so that we are completely dependent on Hi...