Who can utter the mighty deeds of the Lord or declare all his praise?
Psalm 106:2 (ESV)
Sir Winston Churchill once said, “A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.” Do you know anyone like that? Politicians have long been known for their rhetoric which seems to have no end. Sports fanatics who, even when their favorite team’s sport is not in season, seem to find a way to interject the subject into every conversation. The airwaves are inundated with infomercial after infomercial that never runs out of good things to say about the products they sponsor. It does seem that the world never runs out of praise for the things they deem valuable.
In Psalm 106:2 the psalmist seemed to use a rhetorical question of his own when he asked, Who can utter the mighty deeds of the Lord or declare all his praise? The obvious answer is no one. Our human finite vocabulary does not contain enough words to describe an infinite God. There will never be enough words for us to declare all of the praise that he is due.
Paul wrote the Roman church, Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! (Romans 11:33 ESV) The psalmist wrote, Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. (Psalm 145:3 ESV) Not only is God’s greatness unsearchable, he continues to do great deeds that deserve our praise again and again. King David wrote, You have multiplied, O LORD my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told. (Psalm 40:5 ESV)
The Hebrew word for praise used in Psalm 106:2 is tehillah. Tehillah is a laudation; a hymn and is used in Psalms 40:3, 149:1 and Isaiah 42:10 in conjunction with a new song. The meaning of the Hebrew word for new in these verses is “a fresh, new thing.” It has much the same meaning in the Greek. A new song erupted in heaven when the Lamb (Jesus) took the scroll from the hand of him who sat on the throne (Revelation 5:9-10). And later the 144,000 sang a new song (Revelation 14:3).
There are always fresh new laudations and hymns to sing to God because he is always doing fresh new things. He is ever increasing our revelation of himself through scripture and every day life experiences (Ephesians 1:18).
The more revelation we have of God, the more praise we should offer to him. The deeper we fall in love with him, the deeper the wells of praise should flow. As we attempt to utter all of the mighty deeds of the Lord and declare his praise, whether in song, sermon or sacrifice, we announce to others how valuable he is to us. And if he is valuable to us there will never be enough words for us to tell of all his deeds or utter all his praise.
How valuable is God to you? Have you run out of praise?
Scriptures for meditation:
Psalm 33:3; 98:1
Isaiah 55:9