Psalm 145:1–9 (ESV)
I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever.
Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.
Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.
One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts.
On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.
They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness.
They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.
The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.
Devotional Meditation
What are these “awesome deeds” of God that have the psalmist so worked up? Let’s unpack this a little...
This phrase is a translation of the verb that usually means “to fear” or “to be feared.” This is that same word that Moses uses to describe God’s deliverance of his people by drowning the armies of Pharoah in the midst of the Red Sea. (Ex. 15:11) When used of God, it signifies God’s capacity and freedom to do whatever he wants, when he wants. If God wants to wipe you off of the face of the earth, he can. If he wants to cut you down with a plague, he can. If he wants to consume you with his holy fire, he can. In other words, what should first strike us as “awesome” is that God owes you nothing--therefore he should be feared.
This, in and of itself, is terrible news. Why? Because we are born as creatures who are in an active state of rebellion against this “awesome” and fearful God. We inherit this sin nature from the moment of our conception. We display its effects throughout our entire lives. St. Augustine described this condition as being “curved in upon ourselves.” We can’t love or trust God with our whole heart because we only want to love and trust ourselves. The notion of a God who demands true worship and holiness that we can’t give him frightens us. The thought of God’s total power over us gives us nightmares. The knowledge that he will judge us one day is too terrible to even think about.
So if God’s “awesomeness” is so terrible and fear-provoking, then why is the Psalmist praising him for it? Because, while it’s true that God can do anything he wants to you, what God has demonstrated by those awesome deeds is that what he wants to do to you is to save you. In expelling Adam and Eve from the Garden, he covers their shame and gives them the promise of a Redeemer. In the flood, God preserves Noah and his family. By the plagues and the waters of the Red Sea, God vanquishes the power of Egypt and creates a people for himself. Again and again, the Old Testament stories reveal that God’s number one desire is to be “gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love” and to extend his hand of mercy “over all that he has made.”
That’s why the cross is his most awesome deed of all. There, God took all the anger and justice and punishment and retribution that he should have poured out on rebellious you and he poured it out on his own Son. The weight of sin that God should have crushed you with was heaped on the shoulders of the sinless Jesus. God watched as the soldiers pierced the hands of his Beloved so that he could stretch his hand over you in mercy and call you his beloved. Through the cross, God made a definitive demonstration of his awesome, terrible power--and he did it all to save you.
That is why we can join this song of the Psalmist. That is why we can praise God for his “awesome deeds” instead of cowering in fear. Because in his awesome deeds, God has demonstrated the depths of his great love for us.