Psalm 145:3

Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(3) Greatly to be praised.—See Psalm 18:3 and comp. Psalm 48:1.

And his greatness.—Literally, more expressive, and for his greatness no search. (Comp. Isaiah 40:28; Job 11:7.)

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

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised - See Psalm 96:4, note; Psalm 18:3, note.

And his greatness is unsearchable - See Job 5:9, note; Job 9:10, note; Job 11:7-8, notes.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. (Compare Ps 18:3; 48:1).

greatness—as displayed in His works.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

His greatness, in his being, majesty, and glory, and all perfections.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

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, these are past finding out; and so are his ways and works, and the riches of his grace, John 11:7. The Targum is,

"and of his greatness there is no end.''

So the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions.

Geneva Study Bible

{b} Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.

(b) By this he declares that all power is subject to God, and that no worldly promotion should obscure God's glory.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

3. There can be no worthier object of praise than Jehovah. The verse re-echoes Psalm 48:1 a; Psalm 96:4 a; Job 11:7 ff.; Isaiah 40:28.

greatly to be praised] Better, exceeding worthy to be praised. In most editions of the Prayer Book this verse reads Great is the Lord, and marvellous, worthy to be praised. The comma after marvellous does not appear in the MS annexed as the authoritative copy to the Act of Uniformity of 1662, but was wrongly introduced into the earliest printed copies by the printers, who failed to see that marvellous was an adverb, as in Psalm 31:23.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised (comp. Psalm 48:1; Psalm 96:4). And his greatness is unsearchable; literally, and of his greatness there is no search (comp. Romans 11:33). Psalm 145:3

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.