Psalm 145: 8 Grace, Mercy, Compassion, and Love

As we continue our study through Psalm 145, considering various translations, I am not advocating the daily use or intense study of all the versions cited here. I do, however, find that it is helpful to consider other translations, especially more literal versions, though at times the phraseology and wooden translation is difficult to understand. 

We won't be using every version here going forward, but I do want to put to rest the idea that the only way English speaking people can know what God has said is to read a specific version, or that any English version of the Bible is inspired. Rather, it is the originals which were inspired and we have plenty of evidence that what we have today is that which was originally given to the apostles, prophets, and others God used to write His Word as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 

Today, as we examine the character of God through Psalm 145, verse 8, I am going to share a whole pile of Bible versions available online to compare and contrast. For these comparisons, I find the site Bible Gateway to be helpful, as it provides up to 5 side by side translations at a time, with dozens to look at, even some in various languages for those who don't have English as their heart language. 

"The Lord is gracious and merciful;

Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness." 

NASB New American Standard Bible

" The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion; 

slow to anger, and of great mercy." 

KJV King James Version

"The Lord is gracious and merciful,

    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love." 

ESV English Standard Version

"The Lord is gracious and compassionate,

    slow to anger and rich in love." 

NIV New International Version 

"The Lord is gracious and full of compassion,
Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness." 

AMP Amplified Bible 

"You are merciful, Lord!
    You are kind and patient
    and always loving." 

CEV Contemporary English Version

"Gracious and merciful [is] Jehovah, 

Slow to anger, and great in kindness." 

YLT Young's Literal Translation

"The Lord is gracious, and merciful, 

slow to anger, and of great mercy."

Geneva 1599, notes from this passage cited below

"He describeth after what sort God showeth himself to all his creatures, 

though our sins have provoked his vengeance against all: 

to wit, merciful, not only in pardoning the sins of his elect, 

but in doing good even to the reprobate, 

albeit they cannot feel the sweet comfort of the same." 

~ Geneva Bible notes

Given all of these various translations available to us, some using the literal word for word, thought for thought, or dynamic equivalent standards for translation, one would think we would have chaos, but rather what I see here is a harmonic blend of interpretations that all say the same things about God. What are these things upon which we all agree about the character of God, whether we are KJV only or prefer the Geneva which predates the King James.

Psalm 145:7- Singing and shouting the righteousness of God

The first night I read this Psalm most recently, which began a month long study and now these blog posts, my focus was actually on the issue of music and the worship of the church. Surely, there are many whose traditions are good and faithful to God's design for worship. Others have fallen into man-centered songs whose primary goal is to talk about how God makes them feel. While these may be helpful in some settings, I believe that the Bible bears out that what we offer to God in corporate worship is not to be dictated by the latest popular song, or led by stylistic preference, but should be focused on allowing the entire congregation of blood bought saints of Jesus Christ to focus on who He is, what He has done, and offer our songs and our lives in devoted praise and obedience.

Today's verse I want to share from the various versions I have been considering, to compare and contrast as I have done here previously, as the multiple translators take the original languages and try to express them as faithfully as possible to the American reader in my case, but in the English language as is the case in many countries across the globe.

The New American Standard Bible (NASB) renders the passage as follows:

"They shall eagerly utter the memory of Your abundant goodness

And will shout joyfully of Your righteousness." 

The King James Version (KJV) is slightly different, but flows with beauty:

"They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, 

and shall sing of thy righteousness."

And last, but not least, the English Standard Version (ESV) another beautiful and rich rendering of what happens when we understand the glory of God as revealed in the rest of this psalm:

"They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness

and shall sing aloud of your righteousness."

Psalm 145: 6 Declaring the greatness of God

Today, a famous man of God passed from this life into eternity to receive the reward of his Lord and King. I have not always agreed with the man's stances on multiple issues, but his love for the Lord and passion to reach the lost were without question to anyone who ever heard him preach. I once reviewed a book of quotes by Mr. Graham, and even watched a movie about him once. I know many a Christian, elders/pastors, missionaries, and many more who will tell you that their eyes were opened to their sinful condition and depraved estate after hearing a fiery preacher speak of the great God. I doubt there are many others alive today whose influence is even close, and I know and love some of the finest preachers of this era. A ministry spanning decades upon decades coupled with the blessing of God allowed this one man to speak in the living rooms of almost every person in the English speaking world, and a whole lot more.

Our passage for today will be quoted from the ESV. In Psalm 145:6 we read:

"They shall speak of the might of Your awesome deeds,

and I will declare Your greatness!"

When one considers the cultural use of the term "awesome", you just might miss this one entirely. However, if you can get past the often flippant use of the term and realize that what is being said here is that God's might inspires a sense of awe and wonder to think that not only does such a God exist, but that He is concerned with the lives of mankind. How marvelous and unexpected, and also quite unjustified it is that God should bother with created beings who live their lives primarily in sin against Him, not giving Him thanks nor praising His works! What an incredibly merciful God is Yahweh/Jehovah!

Psalm 145:5 the glorious honor of God's majesty

There are many passages of Scripture that teach us about the majesty of God. Today's verse deals with this, but we will look at others to see the harmony of the Word of God in regard to the revelation of God, which, if I do my job well, will lead you to praise, honor, adoration, and great love for the Creator of all things and His salvation of sinful man. But first, the text for the day:

Psalm 145: 5 KJV

"I will speak of the glorious honour of Thy majesty, 

and of Thy wondrous works."

This verse correlates with verse 4, so instead of repeating myself, I thought I would bring in other Scripture in regard to the majesty and glory of God. The first passage that comes to mind is one that I knew for years, but truly understood after reading R.C.Sproul's book, "The Holiness of God". That passage is Isaiah 6: 1-7

 "In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, 

high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, 

and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.

And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: 

the whole earth is full of his glory.

Psalm 145: 4 Telling the next generation

Today I am feeling pretty well, and even the rain falling outside my window reminds me of the loving care of our gracious God who sends rain on the just and unjust. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to go out and preach for the first time in a long time, and while I had to lean on my walker the whole time, I was able to speak with clarity to those passing by, the waitress at the restaurant across the street, the people who came out of shops to listen, of the glorious God who gives us all life and breath, the God who deserves all glory, honor, and praise, for He is the Giver of every good gift.

The verse we will be considering this morning is Psalm 145: 4. In the NASB, we read:

"One generation shall praise Your works to another,

and shall declare Your mighty acts."

This was one of the verses that I wanted to spend some time on in the declaration of the Gospel yesterday. Why is it that Christians are known for such passionate proclamation of their faith in the public square? Why do Christians spend so much time teaching their children, going out to reach others with their message, and pass by so much of what the rest of the world is enjoying in the realm  of entertainment and self gratification? There are myriad reasons, one of which is that much of what our culture produces and enjoys are in contradiction to what God has revealed in His Word as healthy and worthwhile.

Psalm 145: 3 Unsearchable greatness

Today I want to look at the focus of the first three verses of Psalm 145. The last few posts, we have been considering the way we should interact with God's Word, and how the praise and blessing from us toward God are to be our eternal theme. Some people unfamiliar with the Psalms have asked me before "Why should we praise this God instead of the other gods(idols) and for that I want to take a look at other passages of Scripture, including Psalm 115 and Job 38. But first, let us look at our verse for the day,  Psalm 145:3

"Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised;

 and His greatness is unsearchable"

First of all, we need to see the difference between the generic word Lord, which means master, and this all capitalized version, LORD. This is the rendering most Bible versions give to the Sacred Name, or the memorial Name by which God revealed Himself to Moses, in English pronounced Yahweh or Jehovah. In this passage, David is not speaking about himself as King, nor the promise that he would be in the line of the Messiah, but speaking of the character and nature of the one true God, the ever living one, the Creator and Sustainer, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The term is very significant and yet often missed by English speakers as most translations don't render the Name, but replace it with LORD. From here on in this post, we will use "Yahweh" where the text says The LORD, as we are talking about a personal God and so using a generic term that people often don't understand hopefully will become more clear.

Psalm 145: 2 Every day I will bless you

Thank you for coming  back for another post about Psalm 145. This psalm has been such a rich blessing to me this past month, and a reminder that while my body and mind are weak and we endure real trials, that our focus is not to be primarily on the things of this earthly existence, but ultimately on the Heavenly promises of the one true and living God, the Creator, Sustainer, and Healer who is worthy of our praise, worship, adoration, and unending love.

As we take a moment to discover the next verse in our Hebrew acrostic poem, we have come to verse 2, which excluding a "thee" instead of "you" is word for word the same between the various versions of the Bible that I own. Those are the NASB, ESV, and KJV. All have their own subtle differences in places, but in this psalm they agree so much that finding differences to enjoy is at times not possible, but in others we find synonyms, greater explanations, and more as we compare the various versions. 

"Every day I will bless you, 

and praise your name for ever and ever."

Psalm 145:2 ESV

As we consider what David was communicating to the children of Israel with these words, they are always to be understood in the greater context, and yet this short verse is enough to challenge the most faithful and obedient Christian, as none of us have yet achieved perfection in our walk with the Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator, the Word become flesh who dwelt among men. The same applies for the youngest believer, the person who just days ago was enlightened and regenerated by the Holy Spirit and given eternal life and forgiveness of sin by the miracle of redemption.

Psalm 145:1 Extolling our God and King

It has been a long time since I posted on this blog, but I wanted to begin to use it again as I have been blessed immensely by my recent study of Psalm 145 and I thought it would be helpful to others to consider some things I have recently learned. Indeed, every day I read over this passage, I continue to learn more about it and feel God speaking to my heart about my own lack of obedience in various ways. This psalm is primarily one of praise to God, beginning in the first verse.

Left to right: KJV, NASB, ESV Bibles

As is often the case, I find a richer depth to Biblical texts by examining the various English translations we have in our home. I have read this psalm many times in the last few weeks and want to share with you all what God is revealing in my life from this beautiful passage. Let's look today at just a small portion of this glorious psalm, which is an acrostic beginning with each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This is similar to Psalm 119 which does the same but has whole sections, broken into 8 verses each, giving us 176 verses and culminating in the longest chapter in the whole Bible. Let's take a look at the text: