1 I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever.

2 Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.

3 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.

4 One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts.

5 On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.

6 They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness.

7 They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

David experienced more overwhelming tragedy in his life than most of us will ever know. He endured a terrifying battle with a nine-and-a-half foot tall giant named Goliath. He spent considerable time running for his life from King Saul. He grieved greatly when his best friend, Jonathan, died. His adulterous affair with Bathsheba snowballed into murdering her husband to cover up his sin. He suffered the heart-breaking pain of his own children rebelling against him.

And yet the beat rolled on.

But, here’s the question. How is it that David could sustain those kind of gut-wrenching blows and still have this kind of praise for God that we read in Psalm 145?

I submit to you that Psalm 145 was David’s song because through the course of his life, he learned that his joy was found in the glory of God, not in how the circumstances around him kept changing.

That’s a hard lesson for us to learn. I imagine that’s an even harder lesson for young children to learn, especially when they are only beginning to learn what it means to love God. But the good news is that Psalm 145 outlines how we can teach our children to see the glory of God in all of life.

In verse 2, David says, “Every day, I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.” Notice those first two words: ‘every day.’ God has created me an you so that ‘every day,’ we could unapologetically bellow out this same praise for God.

Then, verse 3 says we should do this because the Lord is great and greatly to be praised. And get this: his greatness is unsearchable. In other words, we can bellow out our praise to God every day for the rest of our life, but we can never praise him so much that we’ll have him all figured out. We will never have reason in this life–or in the life to come–to stop praising God because he is so great.

Finally, verse 4 tells us how to do this. David says, “One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts.” The picture is parents unapologetically bellowing out their praise to God and teaching their children why God is so worthy of what we give him.

So, how do we commend the works of God to the next generation?

First, tell the next generation what God has done in the past (see Psalm 145:4). The stories of Scripture are our stories, too. Just like the people of Israel, we too have been created in the image of God. We, too, have been condemned by sin, but because of the all-sufficient death of Jesus Christ in our place, we have been freed from the condemnation that led to death and we have been given life.

Second, tell the next generation who God is. Psalm 145:5 says one generation will speak to the next of the glorious splendor of your majesty and they will meditate on your wondrous works.

Third, tell the next generation about what God is doing now. Speak of the might of God’s awesome deeds and his greatness (see Psalm 145:6).

And finally, celebrate God together. As verse 7 says, pour forth the fame of God’s abundant goodness and sing aloud of his righteousness. What an awesome picture!

So, here’s the 7-Day Parenting Challenge.

David says in verse 2: ‘every day I will praise.’ Every day for the next 7 days, pray for and take an opportunity to ‘commend the works of God to the next generation.’

Perhaps you’re doing this already, and if you are, that’s great; keep going. But if you’re not, and this pattern from Psalm 145 is a helpful place to start to show the next generation the glory of God, then please use this to spur ideas and thoughts for what God is doing in your life and how you can celebrate his goodness.

And remember, seven days is only a place to begin. Pray that God would cultivate in you and your family a growing desire to bless the name of God and praise his name ‘every day.’

You are loved . . . pk

Our current Q&A thread is on the subject of Divorce and Remarriage.

Through this thread, please try to keep your questions focused on this topic. Feel free to submit as many questions as you would like.

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‘The Heart of the Matter’ : Part of our Kingdom Living sermon series

The Heart of the Matter : Jesus on Anger : Matthew 5:21-26

The Heart of the Matter : Jesus on Adultery : Matthew 5:27-30

The Heart of the Matter : Jesus on Divorce : Matthew 5:31-32