to be clear (orig. of sound · conjunction + verb, pual passive participle, masculine singular absolute
greatness
וְ֝לִגְדֻלָּת֗וֹve.lig.du.la.To
H1420
greatness · conjunction + preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
unsearchable
חֵֽקֶרChe.ker
H2714
examination · noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 147:5 Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.
Romans 11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
Job 5:9 Which doeth great things and unsearchable; marvellous things without number:
Isaiah 40:28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is…
Job 9:10 Which doeth great things past finding out; yea, and wonders without number.
Psalms 139:6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.
Psalms 48:1 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.
Psalms 96:4 For the LORD is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 145:1-9
The entitling of this David's psalm of praise may intimate not only that he was the penman of it, but that he took a particular pleasure in it and sung it often; it was his companion wherever he went. In this former part of the psalm God's glorious attributes are praised, as, in the latter part of the psalm, his kingdom and the administration of it. Observe,
I. Who shall be employed in giving glory to God.
1. Whatever others do, the psalmist will himself be much in praising God. To this good work he here excites himself, engages himself, and has his heart much enlarged in it. What he does, that he will do, having more and more satisfaction in it. It was his duty; it was his delight. Observe,…
(Compare Psa 18:3; Psa 48:1).
greatness--as displayed in His works.
John Gill on Psalms 145:3
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,.... Christ is the great God as well as our Saviour; great in all the perfections of his nature, of great wisdom, power, faithfulness, holiness, grace, and goodness; great in his person as God-man, God manifest in the flesh; great in all his offices and relations he bears and stands in to his people; and great in all his works of creation, providence, and redemption, in which he is concerned; and upon all which accounts he is to be praised, and greatly to be praised, by his people, even to the utmost of their capacities, here and hereafter; see Psalm 48:1;
and his greatness is unsearchable; the greatness of his nature, and the perfections of it,…
Psalm 145:1-6
1. I will extol thee, my God and my king! [276] and I will bless thy name for ever and ever. 2. Daily I will bless thee, and will praise thy name for ever and ever. [277] 3. Great is Jehovah, and greatly to be praised, and there is no searching out, his greatness. 4. Generation to generation, will praise thy works, and will show forth thy power. 5. I will meditate upon [278] the beauty of the glory of thy excellency, and the words of thy wonderful things. 6. And they shall speak of the might of thy terrible works, and I will declare thy greatness.
1. I will extol thee, my God and my king. David does not so much tell what he would do himself, as stir up and urge all others to…
The Church Fathers
"Great is the Lord, and very much to be praised" (ver. 3). How much was he about to say? what terms was he about to seek? How vast a conception hath he included in the one word, "very much"? Imagine what thou wilt, for how can that be imagined, which cannot be contained? "He is very much to be praised. And of His Greatness there is no end;" therefore said he "very much:" lest perchance thou begin to wish to praise, and think that thou canst reach the end of His praises, whose Greatness can have no end. Think not then that He, whose Greatness has no end, can ever be enough praised by thee. Is it not then better that as He has no end, so neither should thy praise have end? His Greatness is without end; let thy praise also be without end. ...
You cannot, then, heretic [Arian], build up a false doctrine on the basis of an analogy of human procreation. Nor can you gather the means for such a purpose from our discussion, for we cannot embrace the greatness of infinite godhead, "of whose greatness there is no end," in our limited speech. If you should seek to give an account of a human's birth, you must certainly point to a time. But the divine generation is above all things. It reaches far and wide, and it rises high above all thought and feeling. For it is written, "No one comes to the Father, except by me." Whatever, therefore, you conceive concerning the Father—yes, even his eternity—you cannot conceive anything concerning him except with the Son's aid nor can any understanding ascend to the Father except through the Son. "This is my dearly beloved Son," the Father said. "Is," please note, means that who he is, and what he is, is [true] forever. Hence David is also moved to say, "O Lord, your Word abides forever in heaven," for what abides fails neither in time nor in eternity.
Great art Thou, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is Thy power, and of Thy wisdom there is no end. And man, being a part of Thy creation, desires to praise Thee, man, who bears about with him his mortality, the witness of his sin, even the witness that Thou "resistest the proud," -yet man, this part of Thy creation, desires to praise Thee. Thou movest us to delight in praising Thee; for Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee. Lord, teach me to know and understand which of these should be first, to call on Thee, or to praise Thee; and likewise to know Thee, or to call upon Thee. But who is there that calls upon Thee without knowing Thee? For he that knows Thee not may call upon Thee as other than Thou art. Or perhaps we call on Thee that we may know Thee. "But how shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? or how shall they believe without a preacher?" And those who seek the Lord shall praise Him. For those who seek shall find Him, and those who find Him shall praise Him. Let me seek Thee, Lord, in calling on Thee, and call on Thee in believing in Thee; for Thou hast been preached unto us. O Lord, my faith calls on Thee,-that faith which Thou hast imparted to me, which Thou hast breathed into me through the incarnation of Thy Son, through the ministry of Thy preacher.
Dictionary and topics
Contentment — A state of mind in which one’s desires are confined to his lot whatever it may be (1 Tim. 6:6; 2 Cor. 9:8). It is opposed to envy (James 3:16), avarice (Heb. 13:5), ambition (Prov. 13:10), anxiety…
Psalms — The psalms are the production of various authors. “Only a portion of the Book of Psalms claims David as its author. Other inspired poets in successive generations added now one now another…
God · Is declared to be: Unsearchable — Is declared to be: Unsearchable
Praise · Is due to God on account of: His greatness — Is due to God on account of: His greatness
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The strains with which this hymn opens are familiar Psalm-strains. We are reminded of Psa 30:2, and the likewise alphabetical song of praise and thanksgiving Psa 34:2. The plena scriptio אלוהי in Psa 143:10; Psa 98:6. The language of address "my God the King," which sounds harsh in comparison with the otherwise usual "my King and my God" (Psa 5:3; Psa 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…
Ps 145 This hymn of praise is the last in this collection of the psalms of David (Pss 138–145). Praise continues in the last five psalms (Pss 146–150). This psalm celebrates the Lord as King of all (145:1-3, 10-13). God’s actions reveal his royal qualities (145:4-7). He cares for all creatures (145:14-17) and for those who fear him (145:18-20).
145:1-3 The psalmist praises God, the Great King who reigns over all other rulers (see 47:2).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 145:3
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. Worship should be somewhat like its object—great praise for a great God. There is no part of Jehovah's greatness which is not worthy of great praise. In some beings greatness is but vastness of evil: in him it is magnificence of goodness. Praise may be said to be great when the song contains great matter, when the hearts producing it are intensely fervent, and when large numbers unite in the grand acclaim. No chorus is too loud, no orchestra too large, no psalm too lofty for the lauding of the Lord of Hosts.
"And his greatness is unsearchable."
"Still his worth yo…
