May 19, 2010
Extolling God Today
“I will extol You, my God, O King, and I will bless Your name forever and ever.”
Psalm 145:1
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Within each of our hearts lies the desire to praise God. Some days we do not feel that way, but deep down, we know that God deserves praise. The Psalmist wants to “extol” God. He emphasizes the intensity of his desire to exalt God and lift Him up. When Moses saw the people of Israel sinning with the golden calf, he slammed the tablets from God upon the ground in his anger. He did not just drop them, he slammed them according to the text. He shattered the tablets (Exodus 32:19). In this case, David did not just want to praise God, but he wanted to extol God intensely.
David also had a particular image of God in mind. He called God “my God” and “King.” I thank Jesus Christ that I know Him personally. Jesus was God and is God (see John 1:1, 14). Jesus is God the Word made flesh who dwelt among men (John 1:14). As God, Jesus maintains constant fellowship with His children. When Jesus died on the cross, He did not die for His own sins, for He was sinless (Hebrews 4:15). He died for my sins. Jesus satisfied God’s demand to punish my sin by taking my sin upon Himself. I often tell people that I drove those nails into the hands of Jesus because I caused His death by my sin. Therefore, I believe He washed away my sins by cleansing me with His blood (Colossians 1:20; Ephesians 1:7). Jesus has forgiven me because I believe He paid all the debt I owed for sin. Jesus urges me to take time to extol Him today. David also called Him “King.”
God selected David to be the second King of Israel. David knew King Saul, his predecessor. King Saul treated David poorly and tried to kill him. Yet, David would not kill Saul, because David knew that God made Saul king. David respected King Saul because David had ultimate respect for God who made Saul king (see the story of God sparing Saul from David’s hand in 1 Samuel 24:1-22). We praise God as king because we respect God and understand that God reigns spiritually over the whole earth. As God, Jesus created all things (Colossians 1:16) and waits for God the Father to make all His enemies His footstool (Psalm 110:1; Matthew 22:44). One day, Jesus will subject all things to Himself on the physical earth, but not all things have been subjected to His rule yet (Hebrews 2:8). Even so, Scripture describes Jesus as “crowned” with “glory and honor” (Hebrews 2:7). One day every knee will bow and “every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11). Why not confess and praise Him right now?
I praise God because He is my personal God and because He is King of this world, and the universe. We praise Him every day, because of His great love for us, and because we are the subjects of the King and transferred as believers into His glorious kingdom (Colossians 1:13). We extol God and bless His name today, tomorrow and forever because we have grateful hearts that respond spiritually to His great kindness and love in our lives.
Application for Today
I will take time today to praise God from the bottom of my heart to the top of my spirit. I want to praise Him throughout today, tomorrow and the next day. No matter how it goes today, I am sure that God will still be “my God” and “King” all day, and forever more. He deserves all the praise I can give to Him for as long as I can extol Him.
Scripture Note
When David wrote Psalm 145, he started each verse with the succeeding letter of the Hebrew alphabet. So verse one starts with the Hebrew letter for “A” and verse two starts with “B” and so on. God inspired poetry and makes our lives to shine as poetry for Him.
