Great is the Lord!

Great is the LORD, and highly to be praise, and His greatness is unsearchable (Psalm 145:3).

As David records reasons for which he will extol, bless and praise the Lord (145:1-2), he begins by simply stating “Great is the Lord!” The Lord is “great” - that is exceedingly, abundantly, above and beyond all we can think and imagine. The word “great” speaks of that which is intense, superlative, utterly above and beyond anyone or anything else. This is ample reason for praising the Lord. What makes the Lord so great? Matthew Henry said it well:

We must declare, Great is the Lord, his presence infinite, his power irresistible, his brightness insupportable, his majesty awful, his dominion boundless, and his sovereignty incontestable; and therefore there is no dispute, but great is the Lord, and, if great, then greatly to be praised, with all that is within us, to the utmost of our power, and with all the circumstances of solemnity imaginable.

Because the Lord is so great, it is to be our daily endeavor to praise Him in the same manner...greatly or “highly”. It is to be our effort to go exceedingly, abundantly above and beyond every other effort to declare the greatness of of the Lord. We are called to employ every faculty of our being to find words and ways by which to give thanks to God. Our praise is never be shallow, but deep. It is never to be low, but high. The Lord is to be highly or greatly praised. We should be going out of our way to make this declaration, “Great is the Lord!” And if we should be inconvenienced in this effort, so be it, for to this purpose we have been called.

The rest of verse three tells us just one of the attributes that make the Lord great. We read, “...and His greatness is unsearchable” The word unsearchable means “past examination or deliberation.” Some may take this as an excuse not to examine or deliberate the things of God that make Him great This is not what this means. The point is that we can examine, discuss, talk about, explore, probe, investigate, survey, assess, study and analyze the person and work of God for hour upon hour, day upon day, month upon month and year upon year and we will never come to the end of our examination. Upon our consideration of the things of God, we will never, if truly seeking, come to the end of God and therefore run out of things for which to praise and thank God. He will always be great to those who rightly ponder Him. May David's resolve be ours as well...I will tell of Your greatness (Psalm 145:5b).

For His Glory,

Ed