Ps 145

Let me extol you / my God / O king

                And bless your name / for ever and ever.

Every day / I want to bless you

                And praise your name / for ever and ever.

Yhwh is so great / and utterly praiseworthy

                His greatness / is limitless.

In this first stanza, Yhwh’s messiah stands before him and pleads that he be allowed to praise, extol and bless Yhwh and his name for ever. The request is absolute and without remainder. He wants his whole life to be praise of Yhwh and it will be something that occurs every day. He wants to praise Yhwh with all his heart, soul and mind, and for it to never cease.

Yhwh’s greatness, his shining majesty, what impels and compels the messiah to pour out his entire life, is itself limitless. It exceeds every boundary. As such, the messiah cannot, himself, match it, even if he gives himself utterly over to it, because he has a ‘limit’—his death. At some point, his praise will end, but Yhwh’s majesty will not. Yhwh’s majesty is not simply ‘infinite’ in this regard—it is immortal, not-dying. Or, to state it positively, it is limitlessly alive. It was before the messiah and it will be after the messiah.

This is why he looks to the following generations in the next stanza. It is their perpetuity that will become the human limitless that will mirror Yhwh’s limitlessness.

Let one generation / laud your work / to another

                And your mighty acts / let them proclaim

The majestic glory / of your splendor / let them declare

                While your wondrous acts / I make my theme

And of the power / of your awesome acts / let them speak

                While your great acts / I recount

The proclamation / of your abundant goodness / let them utter

                And of your consistency / let them sing

Yhwh is dutiful / and compassionate

                Patient / and greatly loyal

Yhwh is good / to all

                And his compassion / covers all his handiwork

The psalmist now looks to the future—the human ‘forever’, which are future generations. They will take up the psalmist’s praise and they will continue the stream of praise after death has cut-off the psalmist. They will, in turn, pass on the praise to the next generation.

It is important to see how man’s reproduction—his ‘generations’—is how mankind reflects, or participates within, Yhwh’s own forever. This is a type of immortality, a real sign; not just a pointing to Yhwh’s Forever, but a real participating within it. This is how Yhwh’s praise “lives on”, how he is “proclaimed” into life upon life; how his “majestic glory of his splendor” is made the “theme” of each generation.

And the chain is created not simply by each generation offering its praise to Yhwh, but by each generation lauding Yhwh’s to the next generation. One generation must bring the following generation into it’s own praise of Yhwh, and praise Yhwh to that generation. It is not the case that each generation must simply re-create praise, anew. Rather, it is passed on, ‘traditioned’ to the next generation. Just as man participates within Yhwh’s creative act through reproduction, so too must they participate within the act of also passing on Yhwh’s praise.

And it is not simply that the ‘acts’ are passed down, or reported to the following generation. They are passed down as “mighty acts”, “majestic glory of his splendor”, “wondrous acts”, “awesome acts”, “great acts”, “abundant goodness”, his “great loyalty”, and how his “compassion covers all his handiwork.” In other words, the older generation is responsible for creating within the younger generation an ability to see the “majestic glory of his splendor” that inheres in all of Yhwh’s actions, the divine beauty that radiates out of each one. That is how the link in the chain is formed, binding the next generation both to the previous generation and to Yhwh. This is how “life”—the entire spectrum of life, from bodily to covenantal life—is “reproduced”. Arguably, if the “majestic glory of his splendor” is lost, the link in the chain is not formed and the praise that establishes the younger generation in Yhwh’s Forever would be lost or made weak.

In this way, Yhwh’s acts live on in praise, in proclamation, in wonder, in song—both between the generations and to Yhwh.

Let all your handiwork / give you thanks / Yhwh

                And the recipients / of your loyal love / bless you

The glory of your reign / let them tell

                And your might / let them declare

Making known / to mankind / his mighty acts

                And the glorious majesty / of his reign

Your reign / is a reign / that lasts for all time

                Your dominion / endures for all generations.

From within the generations of the covenant we now move further outward to all of mankind. We see here how the praise of Yhwh’s majestic glory of his splendor radiates outward, to eventually cover and encompass all of creation. It was not intended to remain bound within Israel—but, rather, just as it spills over into the younger generations, so too must it spill over the boundary of Israel to the entire world. All of mankind becomes the younger brother and younger generation that must be taught by Israel the see and revel in Yhwh’s glorious splendor.

In this we see how central a role Israel plays—she is the heart of the world. She maintains the right worship of Yhwh. She perceives and enjoys the glory of Yhwh. She protects it from corruption and diminution. And, in this, she maintains it, perceives, and protects for the world. She becomes the foundational link in the chain and, without her, the chain evaporates and the glory departs. She truly is the world’s Eve, the “mother of all the living”. She will be the one who inculcates Yhwh’s praise to and within the world. She is the one who will open the eyes of all mankind to see not simply Yhwh’s works but that they are wondrous and majestic and awesome and abundant.

And in this we see an even deeper level to the generational Forever of mankind—now we see how Yhwh’s Forever is fully realized. It is not accomplished simply within the bounds of Israel. Rather, it is accomplished when Israel passes on Yhwh’s splendor to all of mankind. Then, the whole world is now made into Yhwh’s Forever and they all come to see and praise the “glorious majesty of his reign.” It is only then, when the entire world is united in praise to Yhwh, that Yhwh’s eternal reign, one that “lasts for all time” is made fully manifest and instantiated. It is only then that Yhwh’s dominion will be one that “endures for all generations.”

It is a glorious vision of a future time when, in a way, the entire world will be made into Israel, when the entire world will be brought within the covenant praise of Yhwh, when the praise that is so pure within Israel will spread “like living water” across the world and the praise sung within will be the praise sung without and everywhere. It is then when the unity of man will mirror the One that is Yhwh.

Yhwh is faithful / in all his words

                And loyal / in all his work.

Yhwh supports  / all who fall

                And raises all whose backs are bent

The eyes of all / look to you

                And you give them / their food in due time.

You open your hand

                And satisfy the desire of every living being

Yhwh is consistent / in all his ways

                And loyal / in all his work

Yhwh is near / to all who call on him

                To all / who call on him sincerely

He effects the desires / of all who revere him

                Their cries for help / he hears / and he saves them

Yhwh protects / all who love him

                But all the wicked / will he destroy

The praise of Yhwh / let my mouth declare

                And let all flesh bless / his holy name

For ever and ever.

This final stanza focuses on Yhwh’s acts of goodness. It begins with a summary statement that Yhwh is faithful in his words and loyal in his work. This portion of the psalm looks out at the world and sees in its working the sovereign and kingly benevolence of Yhwh as he administers creation. He is the faithful and loyal king over the cosmos.

The psalmist begins with the widest possible perspective. Yhwh “supports all who fall” and “all whose back are bent”. “All eyes” look to Yhwh. And in this Yhwh supports the “all”, consistently and loyally. The psalmist can see this in the cosmos’ operation and workings—he sees Yhwh’s hand in and through it all. He then narrows the focus to those who “call on him” and those “who revere him.” Contained within the “all” are those in covenant with him, who know how to call on him and who revere him. To them, just as for those whose backs are bent, he “hears their cries for help” and he saves them. We should see in this the particular and special working of Yhwh toward Israel. They are given a primacy of affection and attention. It is the wicked who attack them, that Yhwh himself attacks and destroys. Yet, within the context of the psalm, Yhwh’s special devotion and protection of Israel is not something that simply comes to rest in them. Rather, he looks to them, he protects them, so that they can preserve the beauty of his Name and proclaim it to all the world. In a way, they are the mother of all that must be protected so that she can give birth to “all”.