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Psalm 145:17

Psalm 145:17 Is Creation wholly righteous? With the way that Creation has been treated or abused over the centuries, it’s not always easy to see it as righteous, especially when men use it for non-righteous means. Too many forests have disappeared, too much water is polluted, too many fields are over-farmed, too many animals , birds and sea creatures have been hounded to extinction, and so a keen naturalist may observe destruction and disorder around rather than righteousness. The point that David is making, is that these created works reveal the full glory of God and in themselves do not contain wickedness, as opposed to the human race. Plants are not wicked, neither are most animals, what some of them do is to act as predators and some possess a cruel instinct to maim and kill other species. I believe that they may have been “turned” by the enemy. Interestingly the Bible does separate some creatures and attributes them to the night or to their haunts in the desert, so we conclude tha...
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Psalm 145:16

Psalm 145:16 He provides for every living thing It’s understandable that unbelievers and doubters walk around with their eyes shut and fail to see God’s provision. It is less understandable when believers and followers of Christ don’t notice or care! Firstly, we are blind if we do not see the stamp of God on His beautiful and amazing creative works, every organism and living plant or animal reveals the eternal power and divine nature of God. How can we fail to take notice? But, as we saw in verse 15, it’s not just the created works themselves, it’s also the organisation of these things and the complexity of the management structures that hold them together, that should also leave us wide-eyed with wonder and admiration. As the verse before us says,  “You open Your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing .” That includes the spiders behind the wardrobe, the rats in the ditch, the rabbits on the edge of the fields, the Buzzards and Red Kites that “mew” overhead and the cra...
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Psalm 145:15

Psalm 145:15 He gives us our food Do you remember the words of Genesis 1:30 describing the time after God had finished His creative works, and the earth was brimming with life and was glowing with the energy and perfection in which it had been created? This is what we read,  “And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground – everything that has the breath of life in it – I give every green plant for food. And it was so .” In the next chapter we read how God made man and gave him every tree in the Garden to eat from, apart from the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil and the Tree of Life. (Our earliest ancestors were vegetarians until eating meat was permitted, after the flood.) The Bible is clear, that God not only created a beautiful world for us all to inhabit, and He not only breathed life into all living things, but He also went on to set up food chains and to provide everything that is necessary for all creatu...
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Psalm 145:14

Psalm 145:14 The Lord upholds and lifts up This verse reminds us of the prayer of Hannah, Samuel’s mother, before she hands over her young son to the service of the Lord at the Temple. These are some of the words she prayed to the Lord, “ He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; He seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of Honour.”  (1 Samuel 2:8) Sometimes we need to be reminded that the values and order of things in the world is exactly opposite to those held by the Lord. Who knows what circumstances may cause us to fall? Who knows what might happen in life to bring us to be bowed down? Maybe  financial hardship, or maybe the way we are treated by others? Maybe  shame and self-imposed humiliation? Some are bowed down by the weight of their responsibilities, others by the cares and worries of life, the list is a long one. David reveals his own troubles in Psalm 38 where it is impossible to determine if he was “bowed...
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Psalm 145:13

Psalm 145:13 The everlasting kingdom We need to take a moment to think about the Kingdom of God. Clearly, it is very much in David’s thinking here, even though he was the monarch of a successful kingdom himself and has been acclaimed as one of the greatest kings ever.  So, what exactly is a kingdom in the Bible? It’s simply a country or any area of land that is ruled by a king or a queen, a region that is under the sovereignty of an individual. It is also an area where a particular quality dominates such as “the kingdom of love” or the “kingdom of darkness.” The Bible refers often to the Kingdom of Heaven and Jesus used this term regularly, to distinguish His place and His priorities from the kingdoms of the world. He was referring simply to any government or control where God Himself was on the throne and where spiritual and natural forces acknowledge this. As soon as we become believers in Christ Jesus and accept the sovereignty of God, we choose to move out of the kingdoms ...
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Psalm 145:12

Psalm 145:12 It's so obvious! This verse, and its predecessor, could be part of a motivational talk about Gospel preaching but the preachers here are not evangelists, but God’s created works. Many believers in Jesus Christ feel the weight of His “Great Commission,” and are driven to “ go into all the world and preach the Gospel. ” Mark 16:15-16. Praise God for their faith and their boldness. What this Psalm tells us is that there have always been bold and faithful witnesses to God’s “ mighty acts and the glorious splendour of His kingdom.”  The witnesses are eloquent, vivid and powerful, they proclaim the majesty of God, day after day, to every inhabitant of this world and there is no excuse for those who choose to not see or listen to their message. David is actually putting the onus for declaring the Lord, on creation, which has been working at this from the beginning of time.  Only a complete idiot or egotist can live on this planet and not see what is glaringly obviou...
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Psalm 145:11

Psalm 145:11 The glory of His kingdom It’s intriguing to learn that praise to God is not just expressed by humans and in English!! There are countless, much more subtle ways in which God’s Name is exalted in Creation. We mentioned a few of these in the previous verses and perhaps we are beginning to get the picture that everything that the Lord created is an expression of Him, just as an artist’s work shows off their character and their ability. Therefore, everything that we see or hear on this planet that was deliberately put in place by the Lord has something to tell us about Him. God gave us our 5 senses, primarily so that we might enjoy all that He made for us! Paul puts it much more eloquently than I can;  “ The wrath of God   is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,   19  since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.   20...
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