The Personal Resolve and the Global Acclaim Text: Psalm 145:21
Introduction: The Hinge of History
We come now to the final verse of this magnificent alphabetic psalm of David. Throughout these twenty-one verses, we have ascended the heights of praise, considering the greatness, goodness, and glory of our God. The psalm has been a relentless recital of the attributes and actions of Yahweh. He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion endures throughout all generations. He upholds the falling, feeds the hungry, and is near to all who call on Him in truth. And after this great cascade of praise, David concludes with a verse that serves as a hinge, connecting his own personal, present duty to a glorious, future, global reality.
This verse is not simply a neat bow tied at the end of a package. It is a declaration of war against all pessimism, all retreatist pietism, and all forms of eschatological despair. It contains two movements, two clauses, that are inextricably linked. The first is a statement of personal resolve: "My mouth will speak the praise of Yahweh." The second is a statement of prophetic certainty: "And all flesh will bless His holy name forever and ever."
We live in an age that wants to sever these two things. We have Christians who are content with the first part, a sort of privatized, "just me and Jesus" faith. They will praise God in their hearts, in their homes, and in their churches, but they have no expectation that this praise will ever conquer the public square, let alone the entire globe. On the other side, we have secular utopians who dream of a global unity, a brotherhood of man, but one that is achieved by silencing every particular voice of praise to a holy God. They want the "all flesh" without the "holy name."
But the Bible will not let us have one without the other. David's personal praise is the vanguard of a global conquest. His individual voice is the first drop of a coming deluge. This verse, in its glorious simplicity, is a statement of robust, optimistic, Christ-centered, world-altering faith. It teaches us that what begins in the faithful mouth of one man will inevitably end with all flesh joining the chorus. This is the logic of the gospel. This is the promise of the Father to the Son. And this is the certain destiny of the world.
The Text
My mouth will speak the praise of Yahweh,
And all flesh will bless His holy name forever and ever.
(Psalm 145:21 LSB)
The Personal Resolve (v. 21a)
The verse begins with a simple, declarative statement of intent.
"My mouth will speak the praise of Yahweh..." (Psalm 145:21a)
This is where everything must begin. It begins with a settled decision in the heart that finds its expression through the mouth. Praise is not a feeling, though it involves our affections. It is a duty. It is a declared allegiance. David is not saying, "My heart will feel praiseworthy thoughts." He says, "My mouth will speak." This is vocal, audible, public praise. It is testimony. It is witness.
The mouth is the overflow of the heart, as the Lord Jesus taught us. A heart that has genuinely seen the greatness of God as described in this psalm cannot remain silent. It is an impossibility. If you see a glorious sunset, you say, "Wow." If you witness an incredible act of heroism, you talk about it. And if you have seen the God whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, whose hand opens to satisfy the desire of every living thing, then your mouth will speak His praise. If it does not, it is a sure sign that you have not truly seen Him.
Notice the object of the praise: Yahweh. This is not vague spirituality or a hat-tip to some generic higher power. This is praise directed to the covenant God of Israel, the God who has revealed Himself by name. Our praise must be specific because our God is specific. He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. To praise Yahweh is to praise the Triune God of Scripture. We are not praising an abstract concept of goodness; we are praising the One who defined goodness, the One who is holy, holy, holy.
This personal resolve is the engine of cultural transformation. All great movements in history begin this way, with the word in the mouth. The Reformation began when one man spoke. The gospel spreads when individual believers open their mouths and declare the praises of Him who called them out of darkness into His marvelous light. Your personal, verbal, spoken praise of God is not a trivial thing. It is a gospel grenade. It is a seed that contains a forest. David understands that his personal fidelity in this matter is tied to God's global purpose.
The Prophetic Certainty (v. 21b)
The second half of the verse moves from the individual to the universal, from the present to the future.
"And all flesh will bless His holy name forever and ever." (Psalm 145:21b LSB)
This is not a wish. It is not a hope. It is a declarative prophecy. The Hebrew verb is in the future tense: "will bless." David, speaking by the Holy Spirit, is looking down the corridors of time to a day when the praise he is now offering will be the universal anthem of all humanity.
What does he mean by "all flesh?" This is a Hebraism for all of humanity, every person. This is one of those glorious, steamroller texts of Scripture that demolishes all forms of cultural pessimism. This is not talking about every individual who has ever lived, but rather that the corporate consensus of humanity, all nations, all peoples, will one day bless the name of Jesus. The knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea (Hab. 2:14). All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before Him (Ps. 22:27).
This is a thoroughly postmillennial declaration. The gospel is not a rescue mission to pull a few souls out of a sinking ship. The gospel is the power of God to reclaim the entire ship and make it His flagship. History is not spiraling downward into chaos, waiting for the church to be raptured out of the mess. History is the story of the stone cut without hands growing into a great mountain that fills the whole earth (Dan. 2:35). This verse is a promise that the Great Commission will be successful. Jesus did not command us to disciple all nations as a sort of noble but ultimately futile exercise. He commanded it because it is going to happen.
And what will all flesh do? They will "bless His holy name." To bless God's name is to praise Him, to speak well of Him, to acknowledge His supreme worth and authority. And notice, it is His "holy" name. This is not a syncretistic, lowest-common-denominator blessing. The world will not come to bless a tame, domesticated, therapeutic god. They will come to bless the holy name of Yahweh, the name that is above every name, the name of Jesus. They will bend the knee to His holiness, His absolute righteousness, His transcendent otherness. The world will be converted, not compromised with.
And how long will this last? "Forever and ever." This global blessing is not a temporary fad. It is the permanent state of the glorified earth. It is the new normal that will be established in time and will continue into eternity. The praise that begins in history, when the nations are discipled, will flow seamlessly into the eternal praise of the new heavens and the new earth.
Conclusion: Your Mouth, God's World
So how do we connect these two clauses? How does David's mouth lead to all flesh blessing God's name? The answer is the power of the proclaimed Word, the gospel of Jesus Christ.
When David resolved to speak the praise of Yahweh, he was participating in the great story of redemption that would culminate in his greater Son, Jesus. It is in Jesus that all the promises of God are Yes and Amen. Jesus is the one who perfectly spoke the praise of the Father. And He is the one who received the promise from the Father: "Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession" (Ps. 2:8).
The ascension of Christ was not His retirement. It was His coronation. He is seated at the right hand of the Father, ruling and reigning now, putting all His enemies under His feet. And how does He do this? He does it through the mouths of His people. He does it when you resolve, like David, "My mouth will speak the praise of Yahweh."
Every time you share the gospel, every time you sing a psalm in faith, every time you declare the lordship of Christ over your family, your business, or your city council, you are participating in the fulfillment of this prophecy. You are a foot soldier in the army of the triumphant Christ. Your individual act of verbal praise is not isolated. It is linked by the covenant promise of God to the certain global victory of the gospel.
Therefore, do not be silent. Do not be discouraged by the current rebellion and foolishness of the nations. Their raging is a vain thing. God holds them in derision. The future does not belong to the secularists, the pagans, or the nihilists. The future belongs to Jesus Christ. And because the future belongs to Him, it will one day be filled with His praise. So take up your post. Open your mouth. Speak His praise. For the day is coming when your voice will be joined by the voice of all flesh, blessing His holy name, forever and ever.