God’s Greatness A–z

God’s Greatness A–z

The LORD is merciful and compassionate,

slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.

The LORD is good to everyone.

He showers compassion on all his creation.

All of your works will thank you, LORD,

and your faithful followers will praise you.

They will speak of the glory of your kingdom;

they will give examples of your power.

They will tell about your mighty deeds

and about the majesty and glory of your reign.

For your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.

You rule throughout all generations.

Psalm 145:8-13

When an office-supply store runs an ad that says it has everything you need for back-to-school A–Z, what does it mean? It means that it has a complete selection of school supplies. Anything and everything you can think of that you might need—the store has it.

When King David wrote his last psalm in the book of Psalms, he wanted to express how completely worthy God is of praise. And so in Psalm 145 he told about God’s greatness—in a sense, from A to Z. David’s way of expressing this was not just by stating the greatness of God. He wrote what is called an alphabetic psalm. He began with the Hebrew A and wrote a line for each of the twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Each line celebrates a different aspect of God’s greatness. It was his way of saying, “God is everything good and wonderful. He is great and glorious from A to Z!”

David saw in the greatness of God a huge expanse to explore and discover and celebrate, so he stretched out his praises as far as he could. At the end of his psalm, he called everyone everywhere to join him in praising God forever (SEE VERSE 21). God has no limits but can be explored forever. We can never exhaust all the details of his greatness.

DISCUSSION STARTERS

Work your way through the alphabet as a family, naming things that make God great from A to Z.