What God Does

Psalm 145

I was reading from Psalm 145, from the Bible, this morning and the idea came to mind to write a devotional on what God does according to verses found in Psalm 145. Then I went through the chapter and wrote down the key works or phrases of what God does. There are at least eleven of them which I found but you may find more. I took these actions from the New Living Translation.

The first three verses are praises for God’s mighty works so I will start with verse four.

1. Mighty Acts (verse 4). Throughout the entire Bible are stories of might acts of God. The most might is when Jesus, God in human form, went willingly to the cross. Why is this the most mighty you ask? It all started when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and brought sin into a perfect world. This ruined mankind’s relationship with God. God wanted to restore this relationship, so He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross for all of us. But Jesus did not stay dead. He rose again on the third day and now lives with God the Father. You can have this restored relationship with God by just asking Him, no strings attached. (Read Ephesians 2:8-9)
2. Powerful (verse 4). Even more powerful than all the superheroes combined. Throughout the Bible you will find God’s powerful acts. One was when He rescued the Jewish slaves from Egypt. First there were ten powerful plagues on the Egyptian people because they would not let the Jews go. Later, after they left Egypt the came to the Red Sea. This sea is a large body of water and God caused it to divide so thousands of Jews crossed over on dry land to the other side. Yet when the Egyptians started to cross the water came together again and caused the Egyptian army to drown. This is just one example of God’s power.
3. Wonderful Miracles (verse 5). When David (the king of Israel at the time) wrote of God’s wonderful miracles I am sure he was thinking of times God saved the Jewish nation and miracles in David’s own life. Yet, my mind thinks of the miracles of Jesus, God in human form, did. One of my favorites is a short story of a woman who had a bleeding problem for twelve years. She just touched Jesus’ hem of his clothes and she was instantly healed. You can read her story in Matthew 9, Mark 5, and Luke 8.
4. Awe-inspiring Deeds (verse 6). The awe-inspiring deed which came to mind is when Jesus was asleep in a boat and a huge storm came up. The disciples with Him were doing all they could to keep the boat from sinking. They woke Jesus up. I imagine some were thinking “how can He sleep in such a storm?” They asked him do you not care we are about to perish? All Jesus said was “Peace, be still!” and the storm stopped immediately. Talk about awe-inspiring.
5. Wonderful Goodness (verse 7). A personal story of God’s wonderful goodness is my knee surgery. I work for Walmart. Walmart has a program to keep their employees working by providing certain surgeries at no cost to the employee if you go to the hospital of the program’s choice. The program for total knee replacement sends you to the location of the hospital for two weeks. You stay in a hotel the whole time and you need to provide a caregiver. Everything is paid for including airfare, hotel, transportation, and food allowance for both the employee and the caregiver. I heard about the program from a coworker in July. I looked it up and applied. It took a couple of months and a ton of paperwork, but I was accepted into the program. I had two different caregivers back out on me before my niece volunteered to go. She is married and has three children, but she did an excellent job caring for me. The program sent me to Missouri for my surgery. Everything went well and everyone was nice and helpful. The I saw the goodness of God the entire time I was gone and since I returned to recover and is still good. To me the whole thing is nothing short of a miracle of God’s Goodness.
6. Merciful (verse 8). When Jesus was dying on the cross, he had two thieves hanging there with him. The soldiers around the cross were mocking and insulting Him. One of the thieves dying on the cross beside Jesus also mocking Jesus. But the other one said to the other thief “Don’t you fear God when you have been sentenced to die? We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” Then he said to Jesus “remember me when you come into your kingdom” and Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.” The thief had sense enough to realize Jesus was God and His dying on the cross was not the end of Jesus. He realized Jesus would be king. He also knew he was a sinner and needed Jesus to be merciful to him.
7. Compassionate (verse 8). Throughout the Old Testament and the life of Jesus we see God being compassionate. There were times in the book of Judges where the Israelites would turn their backs on God and God would allow them to suffer hardship for a time. They would usually repent of their sin and cry out to God to save them. Then God would have compassion on them and send a judge to deliver them from their hardship. Deborah is one of my favorites from the book of Judges.
8. Slow to Anger (verse 8). I have been a Christian my whole life yet there were times I did not act like one. Sometimes I would not attend church for months on end and not paid any attention to my Heavenly Father who just wanted a relationship with me. He could have given me up to go my own way. He could have become angry at my neglect of Him, but He did not. He waited patiently for me to return to Him. Have you ever felt like this?
9. Unfailing love (verse 8). This phrase reminds me of I Corinthians 13, the love chapter. Verse eight simple says, “Love never fails.” Yet, we as humans often fail the ones, we love the most. Yet God’s love for us is perfect, it can never fail no matter what we do or say. God’s unfailing love is trustworthy. Jesus dying on the cross for us is the perfect example of the unfailing love. Jesus did no wrong and He never failed anyone, yet He took all our failings Himself when He died.
10. Always keeps His Promises (verse 13b). From God’s promise to Noah, He would never flood the entire world again to Jesus’ promise He is coming back someday, God has every time keep His promises. I realize Jesus has not come back yet but reading all the stories in the Bible I can see promise after promise God has kept. Never once did God go back on His word and not kept a promise. Therefore, I can trust Jesus when He said He would be back. Are you ready for Jesus’ return?
11. Gracious in all God does (verse 13b). Oh, the gifts God bestows on us who genuinely love and serve Him. The most precious gift is the gift of Salvation. Ephesians 2:8-9 “God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift of God.” When we believe Jesus died and rose again, confessing our sins, He forgives us and gives us salvation. In the following verses lists gifts God graciously gives us. They are helps the fallen, lifts burdens, gives hope, provides our daily needs, grants desires (if they are in accordance with His will), hears our cries for help, rescues us, and protects from harm. There are other gifts God graciously gives us. Finally, the gift of salvation includes Heaven where we will have the restored relationship with God. We will no longer have pain, illness or sorrow our bodies will be restored to perfection, and we will live in peace.

I go back to the first three verses of praise for what God does. Everything I listed is something we can praise God for because of all He has done for us and who He is. Lately I have been studying prayer. One way to structure prayer is using A-adoration (or paise), C-confession, T-thanksgiving, and S-supplication (praying for our needs and the needs of others). Start your prayer with praise for all God does. It will make your prayer more meaningful. For me, I find it humbling to praise God for all He does because I do not deserve any of it. Yet because of God’s great love I do!