Psalms 145:6-7

And men shall speak of the might of Thy terrible acts: and I will declare Thy greatness.

How “the unspeakable” is spoken of

Various are the ways in which men speak of the Lord. There is an ascending scale in the four sentences of our text. We hear--

I. The awestruck talk. “Men shall. .. terrible acts.” There have been times m human history when men have thus spoken. As often the flood, the destruction of Sodom, the judgments on Egypt, on Canaan. So, too, in regard to Nineveh, Babylon. When such acts are abroad turn them into prayer that men may learn God’s lesson from them. Such acts leave deep impress; the boldest blasphemers are silenced then.

II. The bold discourse. “And I will declare Thy greatness.” After the many have spoken in awe I will deliver my soul with courage. It is the right time for this. I heard it said of a certain preacher by one who was no ill judge, though a simple countryman, “I have heard many preachers, but I never heard one that seemed to make God so great as that man does.” That was high praise--too little deserved in our day. All divinity is now to be shaped according to man, and from man’s point of view. Men are such wonderful beings in this nineteenth century that we are called upon to tone down the Gospel to “the spirit of the age”--that is, to the fashions and follies of human thought as they vary from day to day. This, by God’s help, we will never do. But after the awestruck people talking of God’s mighty acts, and then the child of God coming in with his personal testimony, we have--

III. The grateful outpouring of thankful spirits. “They shall abundantly utter the memory of Thy great goodness.” The Hebrew word tells of a bubbling up, as of a full fountain, a springing well. Did you ever tell the story of your life to anybody to the full? Did you ever write it? I am sometimes not a little amused, certainly not surprised, when I get, as I did this week, a letter upon foolscap, twelve sheets, twenty-four pages, all filled up with the story of a man I never saw, who lives far away in the backwoods. Nothing will do but he must tell somebody or other what God has done for him, and he has selected me to hear it. But I like the instinct that makes a man feel, “I must tell what the Lord hath done for me.”

IV. Listen to the select song. It is of “Thy righteousness.” David says in Psalms 51:1. that he will sing aloud of this. Is it not a strange choice? God’s righteousness is a terror to many. But see how God’s righteousness is preceded and succeeded by mention of His goodness. It is righteous mercy and merciful righteousness. What a horror it would be if we had an unrighteous God. But He is righteous in all that He reveals, commands, decrees, does; in all His judgments, but especially in Christ Jesus. To sing of God’s righteousness is in our day one chief mark of real conversion. If we were more sanctified we should be less tempted to cavil at the righteousness of God. Here is a man who takes down his Bible, and he reads, “These shall go away into everlasting punishment.” “Can’t bear it,” says he. It is because you do not know the mind of God fully, or else, terrible as it is, you would say, “It must be right if God determines it.” The modern men blot out from God’s Word what they like, or they lay it aside altogether. But when the soul is brought to know God it does not question His Word or His doings any more. Men dream, and then assert their visions as truth. If there be a “larger hope,” so be it, but let me not preach it as a doctrine. Let us each learn to say, “I will sing of Thy righteousness.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)