“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.” (Psalm 145:1-3)

These are the opening lines to one of the greatest expressions of praise in all of Scripture. This Psalm is one long chorus of praise, a reflection on the greatness of our God. These opening three verses confront us with three truths about praising our God.

First, praise is personal. “I will extol you, my God and King…” When we praise God, we do not praise an impersonal force or Being. He is “my” God, and he is your God too. He is our God not in the sense that he belongs to us, but that we belong to him. He is our God in the same way that a man is a child’s father; not because the father belongs to the child but because the child belongs to the father who gave him life. In the same way, God brings us into existence and gives us life. We praise him as our personal God, to whom you and I belong. He is “my” God. He is your God. 

Second, praise is endless. Praise is not a one-and-done thing. It’s not something we do once as an initiation into the faith, after which we never praise again. We praise God “every day” and “forever and ever.” We wake up every morning to praise him with our words, our thoughts, and our actions. Praises for God should never be far from our thoughts and words. In the words of one hymn, “Every step we are breathing in Your grace; evermore we’ll be breathing out Your praise” (Never Once, Matt Redmon, 2012). May we constantly breathe out his praises.

Third, praise is inadequate. Somewhat ironically, praise can never fully express what it tries to describe: the greatness of God’s character and glory. He is “great” and “greatly to be praised” but his “greatness is unsearchable.” Nothing can ever fully or adequately praise God’s greatness. There is no human way to describe God’s greatness; it simply cannot be put into words. This is why praise is endless; we never finish praising God because we can never exhaustively describe his glory and splendor. Realizing that we can never fully praise God doesn’t discourage us and lead us to stop; it’s just one more reason to praise him all the more! If we could completely describe him, then we would be able to comprehend him and that would mean he is lesser than us. We praise him because he is great and his greatness is unsearchable. This week, use the words of Psalm 145 to give voice to your praise for God. Praise him personally and endlessly, rejoicing in the fact that our praise can never even begin to exhaust the greatness of our God.