Dear all at IPC,

This week in Holiday Bible Club we have been teaching the children and young people these remarkable and beautiful verses from Psalm 145:13&14.

‘Your Kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. The LORD is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works. The LORD upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.’

The stories of the week were on the first six chapters of Daniel and these verses are echoed by both Nebuchadnezar (Daniel 4:34-37) and Darius the Mede (Daniel 6:26-27) in their prayers and proclamations.

In Psalm 145 King David is quite literally giving an A-Z of the glory of the Lord. The Psalm begins with the personal praise of God. By the end of the Psalm, every creature on earth is being called on to worship the Lord. These verses come in the middle of the Psalm, detailing the Lord’s grace and kindness and his specific goodness to his covenant people.

In v13 we are told what God’s kingdom is like: ‘Your Kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations.’ His reign is for all eternity and it is a rule that will be known down through the generations. 

In the UK, we are on our seventh Prime Minister in 10 years. Some are suggesting that the UK is becoming ungovernable. World leaders come and go. For the last few years, the global situation has seemed unstable. But God’s Kingdom is not like that. Spurgeon says his reign is, ‘without beginning, without break, without bound, and without end’. God will never resign, nor be deposed. He will not abdicate nor lose his Kingdom. The Lord will reign forever and ever (Ex 15:18), his kingdom is not temporary but eternal. That is why generation after generation can praise him. We are the fulfilment of this promise today in 2026. Thousands of years after these words were written, we can have great confidence for the future that God’s Kingdom will endure.

In the second half of v13 we are shown what the King is like – ‘The LORD is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works.’

He is utterly dependable – his words stand sure. He promised to uphold creation, and he does. You can trust his word. We live in a world of broken promises, where words are cheap. Yet God keeps his word with the utmost seriousness. When you take up your bible to read it, you do not need to doubt the character of the author, you can rely on God’s word. In a world of unfaithfulness, he is faithful. But more than that, he is kind. He is kind in his work of Creation – we see that in the beauty of the world around us. He is kind in his work of Redemption – out of his sheer grace and love he has saved us. He is also wonderfully kind in his work of providence – that he is working all things out for our good. There are many times when we have to hang on to God’s kindness by faith.

One of the hymns that I turn to most often is that of Samuel Medley (1738-1799)

God shall alone the refuge be,
and comfort of my mind;
too wise to be mistaken, he,
too good to be unkind.

In all his holy, sovereign will,
he is, I daily find,
too wise to be mistaken, still
too good to be unkind.

What though I can’t his purpose see,
nor all his footsteps find?
Too wise to be mistaken, he,
too good to be unkind.

Hereafter he will make me know,
and I shall surely find,
he was too wise to err, and O,
too good to be unkind!

In v14 we are given how the King treats his subjects – ‘the LORD upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.’ This is not unique to Psalm 145 – these are the general and repeated actions of the Lord (Psalm 37:17, 24, 54:4, 119:116). He restores those who are bowed down in distress or humiliation. 

In God there is tender sustaining grace to those who are in trouble and afflicted. The Lord loves to reverse things, to take the things of life which seem so broken and weak and then to use them mightily in his service. He lifts up the weighed down, he raises up the lowly. The Lord is kind to the suffering. He gives strength to those who are bent over feeling the weight of their sin.

The Lord Jesus demonstrated this wonderfully in his ministry: the woman with an issue of blood for 12 years; Jairus and his 12-year-old daughter who has died; a blind beggar sitting beside the road; a leper; a demoniac; a weary multitude; with the sick; the deaf; a paralysed man from birth; with a widow whose only son has died. In all these situations Jesus looks with compassion and reaches out. We could go on looking through the gospels to see Jesus wonderful compassion. His was a life of upholding those who are falling and a lifting up of those who are weary. He truly is a helper to the helpless. 

The picture language is beautiful in the Psalm – if you have trust in Christ, he is holding you up. He’s keeping you standing. If your head has dropped and you are stooping with the weight of this world and your sin, look to him and he is able to raise you up. 

For those of you who have been victims of abuse, broken relationships, violence, bereavement – the list could go on –  Psalm 145 proclaims a God to you who, in the person of Jesus, reaches out to uphold and lift up.

These three verses give a picture of the glorious sovereignty and trustworthiness of God but also his goodness, kindness, gentleness, reliability and faithfulness. They speak of his transcendence and his imminence. 

It is a wonderful message for children, but it’s actually needed by all of us no matter what our age.

Your Minister and Friend,