Psalm 145:1, 2 “Quiet”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹A song of praise to David.

I will extol You, my God the King, and I will bless Your name to ages and always.

²In all of a day I will bless You, and I will praise Your name to ages and always.

This is a Psalm that has been near and dear to my heart practically ever since the Lord saved me.  Before then, I had terrible insomnia and had a very difficult time falling asleep each night. A fellow pointed out to me my problem was that I needed to learn to “turn off my mind.” He said I was keeping myself up thinking about “awake” things – that I needed to stop it and focus my mind instead on peaceful, quieting thoughts. He advised me to begin memorizing this very Psalm and, every night, beginning with verse 1, just rehearse it over and over as far as I had memorized, to focus on the meaning of the words, and to let it “lull” me to sleep.

One other very helpful thing he recommended was to keep a notebook next to my bed, so, if I thought of something I really needed to do, I could write it down to remind myself in the morning. Once it was written down, I was to “forget” it for now and get back to Psalm 145.

It didn’t take long and I could fall asleep in a train station! It’s been that way ever since. I am sooooooooooooo thankful. Ever since then, I rarely have any trouble falling asleep at night. If I do, it’s almost always because I had coffee too late or something like that. Even when I have “enormous” disasters cooking at work, I know now how to “turn it off” and just go to sleep. Sometimes I will wake up in the night and have to use the same attack to get back to sleep, and sometimes I’m just plain “awake,” so I’ll finally get up, usually do some Bible study, then go back to bed and finish off the night.

So, I’ve been pondering this Psalm for a long, long time!

Finally, I get to spend some time actually studying it!

As I wade into David’s words, probably the biggest thing that amazes me is how, in a sense, I feel I’ve never really read them before. “I will extol Thee, my God, O King, and I will bless Thy name forever and ever.”

It’s interesting that the book of Psalms ends with six psalms, all of which are simply praises. No requests. No complaints. No nothing. Just praise. Many of the old reformed pastors note this and suggest it is no coincidence. A life lived with God moves more and more to a life of unbroken praise, they suggest. Psalm 145 itself is believed to have been written late in David’s life. I would certainly concur with the sentiment.

I suppose when I first knew the Lord, I thought He was Someone to be served, Someone to be obeyed, Someone to trust with my mountains of fears – and He certainly is all of those things. But I find the words of this Psalm seem to echo a very gradual change filling my heart – a desire simply to praise Him. It’s almost as if I want to say those words, “I will extol Thee, my God, O King, and I will bless Thy name forever and ever,” and then just be done with it. No fears, no struggles, just stay here in this praise, just stay here in this awe of who He is, this glow of love and peace.

It seems, as my mind steps away, I step back into this awful noisy world of conflict and confusion and complete insanity. I wish, as I live in that world, I could keep this state of serenity, this quiet confidence, this love and peace, this simple unbroken praise filling my heart.

And I feel as if I can.

This is what I was born for. I was born to need Him, but, I feel it is so much more true, I was born to praise Him! I do need Him. I want to need Him. I enjoy needing Him. But as He so completely meets my needs again and again and again, I find myself wanting more and more to just praise Him. Of course He’ll take care of me – He is my amazing God! My Rock, my Fortress, my Strength, my Defender, my Savior, my God, my King, my Father, my Shield and my exceeding great Reward!

No wonder David says, “I will praise Your name forever and ever!”

It is nice that he says, “Every day will I bless Thee.” Every day. Days seem to come in a variety of colors! We certainly have good ones and bad ones! But the heart that has learned to look above the days and see the One who ordained them, begins to rise above the “good and the bad,” to find that place of peace regardless.

It seems like my soul wants to be done with all the anxiety and stewing and regretting and fretting and just settle into the Everlasting Arms and stay there. I’m reminded of old Simeon’s words as he saw the baby Jesus, “Lord, lettest now Thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.” Old Simeon was ready to die. What is wonderful is to think it really is possible to “depart in peace” and yet still live in this world!

May the Lord help me today to live in His peace. May we all learn to “turn it off” and just enjoy His praise!