Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1468
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, April 13, 1879
“They shall abundantly utter the memory of Your great goodness, and shall sing of Your righteousness.” Psalm 145:7.
THIS is called “David’s Psalm of praise” and you will see that all through it he is inflamed by a strong desire that God may be greatly magnified. Hence he uses a variety of expressions and repeats himself in his holy vehemence. Run your eyes down the Psalm and notice such words as these—“I will extol You.” “I will bless Your name.” “Every day will I bless You.” “I will praise Your name forever and ever.” “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised.” “One generation shall praise Your works to another.” “I will speak of the glorious honor of Your majesty.” “Men shall speak of the might of Your terrible acts” and other words of the same meaning down to the last verse—“My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord: and let all flesh bless His holy name forever and ever.”
David is not content with declaring that Jehovah is worthy of praise, or with pleading that His praise ought to be felt in the heart, but he will have it publicly spoken of, openly declared, plainly uttered and joyfully proclaimed in song. The inspired Psalmist, moved by the Holy Spirit, calls upon all flesh, yes, and upon all the works of God to sound forth the praises of the Most High! Will we not heartily respond to the call? In following out his design of praise, David had spoken in verse five of the majesty of God, the glorious King. His eyes seems to be dazzled by the glorious splendor of the august Throne and he cries, “I will speak of the glorious honor of Your majesty.” Then he thinks of the power of that Throne of majesty and of the force with which its just decrees are carried out and, so, in verse six he exclaims, “Men shall speak of the might of Your terrible acts and I will declare Your greatness.”
Here he speaks briefly both as to the majesty and the might of the dread Supreme, but when he turns his thoughts to the Divine goodness, he enlarges and uses words which indicate the stress which he lays upon his subject and his desire to linger over it. “They shall abundantly utter,” says our text, “the memory of Your great goodness.” Now, our desire, this morning, is that we, also, may praise and magnify the name of the Infinite Jehovah without limit and may especially have our hearts enlarged and our mouths opened wide to speak abundantly of His great goodness. O that in the whole of this congregation the text may become true—“They shall abundantly utter the memory of Your great goodness”—and having uttered it in plain speech, may we all rise a stage higher and, with gladsome music, sing of His righteousness!
You see our objective, an objective in which, I trust, you all sympathize. Come, one and all, and praise the Lord! Is the invitation too wide? Observe the ninth verse—“The Lord is good to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works. All Your works shall praise You.” I will not limit the invitation of the Lord since you all drink of the river of His bounty! Render to Him, all of you, such praises as you can. But there is a special invitation to His saints. Come and bless His name with spiritual, inward, enlightened praise. “Bless the Lord, O house of Israel. You that fear the Lord, bless the Lord.” In your heart of hearts, extol, adore and make Him great, for it is written—“Your saints shall bless You.”
Verily this shall not be written in vain, for our souls shall bless the Lord this day as the Holy Spirit shall move within us! We shall speak upon two things that we may promote the objective we have in view. The first is, the method of securing the abundant utterance of God’s praise as to His goodness. And, secondly, the motives for desiring to secure this abundant utterance.
I. THE METHOD OF SECURING THE ABUNDANT UTTERANCE OF THE DIVINE PRAISE CONCERNING HIS GOODNESS. Our text gives us the mental philosophy of abounding praise and shows us the plan by which such praise may be secured. The steps are such as the best mental philosophy approves. First, we shall be helped to abundant praise by careful observation. Notice the text—“They shall abundantly utter the memory of Your great goodness.” Now, in order to memory, there must first of all be observation. A man does not remember what he never knew! This is
clear to all and, therefore, the point is virtually implied in the text. In proportion as a fact or a truth makes an impression upon the mind, in that proportion is it likely to abide in the memory.
If you hear a sermon, that which you remember afterwards is the point which most forcibly strikes you while you are listening to the discourse. At the time you say, “I will jot that down, for I should not like to forget it, for it comes so closely home to me.” And whether you use your pencil or not, Memory obeys your wish and makes a record upon her tablets. It is so with the dealings of God towards us. If we want to remember His goodness, we must let it strike us—we must notice it, consider it, meditate upon it, estimate it and allow it to exert its due influence upon our hearts—then we shall not need to say that “we must try and remember,” for we shall remember as a matter of course. The impression being clearly and deeply made will not easily fade away, but we shall see it after many days.