Psalm 145:4

One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(4) Shall praise.—Or, praises, with idea of indefinite continuance; and so in the following verses.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

145:1-9 Those who, under troubles and temptations, abound in fervent prayer, shall in due season abound in grateful praise, which is the true language of holy joy. Especially we should speak of God's wondrous work of redemption, while we declare his greatness. For no deliverance of the Israelites, nor the punishment of sinners, so clearly proclaims the justice of God, as the cross of Christ exhibits it to the enlightened mind. It may be truly said of our Lord Jesus Christ, that his words are words of goodness and grace; his works are works of goodness and grace. He is full of compassion; hence he came into the world to save sinners. When on earth, he showed his compassion both to the bodies and souls of men, by healing the one, and making wise the other. He is of great mercy, a merciful High Priest, through whom God is merciful to sinners.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

One generation shall praise thy works ... - Shall praise thee on account of thy works or thy doings. That is, Thy praise shall be always kept up on the earth. See the notes at Isaiah 38:19; notes at Psalm 19:2. One generation shall transmit the knowledge of thy works to another by praise - by hymns and psalms recording and celebrating thy praise. Successive generations of people shall take up the language of praise, and it shall thus be transmitted to the end of time.

And shall declare thy mighty acts - Thy works of strength or power. God's greatness - his infinity - is in itself a just ground of praise, for we should rejoice that there is One Infinite Eternal Being; and as all that greatness is employed in the cause of truth, of law, of good order, of justice, of kindness, of mercy, it should call forth continued praise in all parts of his dominions.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. shall declare—literally, "they shall declare," that is, all generations.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The people that live in one age shall relate them to their posterity, and so successively in all ages.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

One generation shall praise thy works to another,.... The works of providence done in one age shall be told by the father to the son with praise to the great Performer of them, and so be transmitted to the latest posterity; for in every age there are new and strange things done in Providence, the memory of which is not lost, but they are recorded for the glory of God and the use of men; and the works of grace and salvation wrought by Christ should be, have been, and will be told from age to age; and published in every age by his faithful ministering servants, to the glory of his grace, and the praise of his great name; see Psalm 22:30;

and shall declare thy mighty acts; his mighty acts of nature, in creating all things out of nothing, and upholding all things by the word of his power; his mighty acts of grace, in redeeming his people out of the hands of him that is stronger than they; and from all their sins, and from the curse and condemnation of the law, and wrath to come; and the victories which he has obtained over sin, Satan, the world, and death: or thy powers (b); the powers of the world to come, Hebrews 6:5; the miracles wrought by Christ on earth, and by his disciples in Gospel times, sometimes called mighty works; as the raising of the dead, &c. Matthew 11:5.

(b) "potentias tuas", Vatablus; "potentia facta tua", Piscator; "praepotentias tuas", Cocceius.

Geneva Study Bible

One generation shall praise thy works to {c} another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.

(c) Even as the reason for man's creation and his preservation in this life is to praise God, therefore he requires that not only we ourselves do this, but cause all others to do the same.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

4. shall praise] R.V. shall laud, as the word is a different one from that in Psalm 145:2. The verbs might be rendered as optatives: let one generation laud … and declare &c., but the rendering of the A.V. is preferable.

thy mighty acts] of deliverance, Psalm 20:6; Psalm 106:2.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 4. - One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts. The handing down of God's mercies and deliverances from age to age is always regarded in Scripture as the principal mode whereby they are kept in remembrance (Exodus 12:26, 27; Exodus 13:8-10, 14; Deuteronomy 32:7; Psalm 44:1; Psalm 78:3-7, etc.). Psalm 145:4

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The strains with which this hymn opens are familiar Psalm-strains. We are reminded of Psalm 30:2, and the likewise alphabetical song of praise and thanksgiving Psalm 34:2. The plena scriptio אלוהי in Psalm 143:10; Psalm 98:6. The language of address "my God the King," which sounds harsh in comparison with the otherwise usual "my King and my God" (Psalm 5:3; Psalm 84:4), purposely calls God with unrelated generality, that is to say in the most absolute manner, the King. If the poet is himself a king, the occasion for this appellation of God is all the more natural and the signification all the more pertinent. But even in the mouth of any other person it is significant. Whosoever calls God by such a name acknowledges His royal prerogative, and at the same time does homage to Him and binds himself to allegiance; and it is just this confessory act of exalting Him who in Himself is the absolutely lofty One that is here called רומם. But who can the poet express the purpose of praising God's Name for ever? Because the praise of God is a need of his inmost nature, he has a perfect right to forget his own mortality when engaged upon this devotion to the ever-living King. Clinging adoringly to the Eternal One, he must seem to himself to be eternal; and if there is a practical proof for a life after death, it is just this ardent desire of the soul, wrought of God Himself, after the praise of the God of its life (lit., its origin) which affords it the highest, noblest delight. The idea of the silent Hades, which forces itself forward elsewhere, as in Psalm 6:6, where the mind of the poet is beclouded by sin, is here entirely removed, inasmuch as here the mind of the poet is the undimmed mirror of the divine glory. Therefore Psalm 145:2 also does not concede the possibility of any interruption of the praise: the poet will daily (Psalm 68:20) bless God, be they days of prosperity or of sorrow, uninterruptedly in all eternity will he glorify His Name (אהללה as in Psalm 69:31). There is no worthier and more exhaustless object of praise (Psalm 145:3): Jahve is great, and greatly to be praised (מהלּל, taken from Psalm 48:2, as in Psalm 96:4, cf. Psalm 18:4), and of His "greatness" (cf. 1 Chronicles 29:11, where this attribute precedes all others) there is no searching out, i.e., it is so abysmally deep that no searching can reach its bottom (as in Isaiah 40:28; Job 11:7.). It has, however, been revealed, and is being revealed continually, and is for this very reason thus celebrated in Psalm 145:4 : one generation propagates to the next the growing praise of the works that He has wrought out (עשׂה מעשׁים), and men are able to relate all manner of proofs of His victorious power which prevails over everything, and makes everything subject to itself (גּבוּרת as in Psalm 20:7, and frequently). This historically manifest and traditional divine doxa and the facts (דּברי as in Psalm 105:27) of the divine wonders the poet will devoutly consider. הדר stands in attributive relation to כּבוד, as this on its part does to הודך. Thy brilliantly gloriously (kingly) majesty (cf. Jeremiah 22:18; Daniel 11:21). The poet does not say גּם אני, nor may we insert it, either here in Psalm 145:5, or in Psalm 145:6, where the same sequence of thoughts recurs, more briefly expressed. The emphasis lies on the objects. The mightiness (עזוּז as in Psalm 78:4, and in Isaiah 42:25, where it signifies violence) of His terrible acts shall pass from mouth to mouth (אמר with a substantival object as in Psalm 40:11), and His mighty acts (גּדלּות, magnalia, as in 1 Chronicles 17:19, 1 Chronicles 17:21) - according to the Ker (which is determined by the suffix of אספּרנּה; cf. however, 2 Samuel 22:23; 2 Kings 3:3; 2 Kings 10:26, and frequently): His greatness (גּדלּה) - will he also on his part make the matter of his narrating. It is, however, not alone the awe-inspiring majesty of God which is revealed in history, but also the greatness (רב used as a substantive as in Psalm 31:20; Isaiah 63:7; Isaiah 21:7, whereas רבּים in Psalm 32:10; Psalm 89:51 is an adjective placed before the noun after the manner of a numeral), i.e., the abundant measure, of His goodness and His righteousness, i.e., His acting in inviolable correspondence with His counsel and order of salvation. The memory of the transcendent goodness of God is the object of universal, overflowing acknowledgement and the righteousness of God is the object of universal exultation (רנּן with the accusative as in Psalm 51:16; Psalm 59:17). After the poet has sung the glorious self-attestation of God according to both its sides, the fiery and the light sides, he lingers by the light side, the front side of the Name of Jahve unfolded in Exodus 34:6.