The Treasury of David
by C.H. Spurgeon
EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS
(Psalms 145 Verse 02)
EXPOSITION
Verse 2. Every day will I bless thee. Whatever the character of the day, or of my circumstances and conditions during that day, I will continue to glorify God. Were we well to consider the matter we should see abundant cause in each day for rendering special blessing unto the Lord. All before the day, all in the day, all following the day should constrain us to magnify our God every day, all the year round. Our love to God is not a matter of holy days: every day is alike holy to holy men. David here comes closer to God than when he said, "I will bless thy name": it is now, "I will bless thee." This is the centre and kernel of true devotion: we do not only admire the Lord's words and works, but himself. Without realizing the personality of God, praise is well nigh impossible; you cannot extol an abstraction. And I will praise thy name for ever and ever. He said he would bless that name, and now he vows to praise it; he will extol the Lord in every sense and way. Eternal worship shall not be without its variations; it will never become monotonous. Heavenly music is not harping upon one string, but all strings shall be tuned to one praise. Observe the personal pronouns here: four times he says "I will": praise is not to be discharged by proxy: there must be your very self in it, or there is nothing in it.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Verse 2. Every day. Then God is to be blessed and praised in dark as well as bright days -- Johannes Paulus Palanterius, 1600.
Verse 2. Every day (in the week) will I bless thee, the Psalmist seems to signify. As there are "seven spirits" peculiarly existing in nearness to God, David holds the seven days of the week like seven stars in his hand, or like a seven branched candlestick of gold, burning every day with his devotion. He calls the seven days to be as seven angels with trumpets. --Thomas Le Blanc.
Verse 2. I will bless thee: I will praise thy name. The repetition intimates the fervency of his affection to this work, the fixedness of his purpose to abound in it, and the frequency of his performances therein. --Matthew Henry.
Verse 2. Praise. If we are to define it in words, we may say that praise is thankful, lowly, loving worship of the goodness and majesty of God. And therefore we often find the word "praise" joined with "blessing" and "thanksgiving": but though all three are akin to each other, they are not all alike. They are steps in a gradual scale -- a song of degrees. Thanksgiving runs up into blessing, and blessing ascends into praise; for praise comprehends both, and is the highest and most perfect work of all living spirits. -- Henry Edward Manning, 1850.
HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS
Verse 2. Every day; for ever.
- Day by day for ever God and I will endure.
- Day by day for ever our present relations will continue. He the God, I the creature; he the Father, I the child; he the blessing, I the blest.
- Day by day for ever he shall have my homage. --W. B. H.