PSALM 145: THE PARADOX OF PRAISE AND PAIN
If the series through the Psalms was a symphony, then today’s Psalm is one of the highest points where King David of Israel pours out almost everything he has towards his Maker. I really can’t say anything about today’s reading without repeating almost everything that David has already said: “I will exalt You, my God and King, because Your greatness no one can fathom.”
But yet again, we’re missing significant things in our English translations. This Psalm is headed “The Psalm of David”; but there’s also [Alef] on the Hebrew page. In fact, each sentence in this song is given a letter from the Hebrew alphabet making it easy for children to learn the song, or for adults to list off 21 truths. 
The numerical value of Alef, for example, is one (and also 1,000) and it is a silent letter. Aleph therefore is preeminent in its order and alludes to the ineffable mysteries of the Oneness of God. Indeed, the word aluph (derived from the very name of this letter) means “Master” or “Lord.” So King David in the first sentence calls His Creator God, King. Likewise, all other verses start with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet and unlike English, each letter has its own meaning. This weaves even more truths into the song, thus making the song prophetic – disclosing divine truth. For example, every time you read “all” in English (14x in 21 verses), it’s pointing to the unbreakable bubble of interconnected inseparable attributes that IS our Father and Creator, and which all are only found in Him and in no other. As dogmatic as that may sound in an “inclusive society”, and therefore rather rude to every other god, it’s true simply because it’s only found in the Creator God’s HIStory – this Hebrew script that He protected all these millenniums which describes only our Maker in this way. No other god in history has even bothered to describe himself, or herself, in any terms at all that resemble anything like our all-encompassing 100% Good Maker. So then, while still on the starting blocks, even Alef means something hugely significant.
That said, anyone can lie about themselves. So how can we observe truth in the laboratory of Life?
Well… King David of Israel meditated (listed, remembered, focused on, scrutinized) on all his Creator’s wonderful deeds, beginning first with Elohai HaMelech (the personalized form of the Hebrew word for the Creator God in The Beginning) and this coupled with the Hebrew word for “King”. 
So King David is taking his belief in his personal God right back to where HIStory begins. Then, based on everything written so far since The Beginning, he then calls his Creator not just by His first name Elohim but HaMelech, the king’s King i.e. someone that King David submits to and serves. But the sentence doesn’t stop there. In the same breath, King David blesses Thy Shem l’olam va’ed – Father God’s Name forever and ever. [v1] Now this at surface level is simple enough to understand, until you’ve read yesterday’s Breadcrumb. When Father God embedded His Name inside someone else at the start of Israel becoming a nation.[a] This is crucial to take note of – particularly if that Name will be blessed forever and ever and by default the person who carries within Himself and personifies The Name. This is how highly King David places his personal Creator God and His Creator’s Name inseparably at the top of everything, and we’re only one sentence from the starting blocks!!!
So then, if I want to understand the Creator God at all during the pain that I face in this life (and to get myself to a place where I can at all acknowledge His existence much less praise Him and bless His Name), and this for who He really is and what His Name stands for, and not what I’m blaming Him for, then I need to personalize my connection with Him, and see Him as my sovereign over my life: My God and King. Then I need to fully understand His Shem (His Name) such that I can bless His Shem forever and ever.
With all of that said, what happens when Life knocks the crap out of you? You’re not a king sitting in a palace creating songs. You’re more like Job on an ash heap covered in sores.[b] On the day we buried our son, my Breadcrumb that day just so happened to land Lamentations c3…
“… I am one who has seen affliction… I walk in darkness and not in light… my flesh and skin waste away… my bones are broken… besieged and encompassed with bitterness and hardship, I dwell in dark places…like those who have long been dead… walled in… heavy chain… shut out… torn to pieces…” [Lamentations 3:1-11]
When Life is sh*t, how can I praise my Maker as gracious, compassionate, and good to all [v8-9] 
who opens His hand and satisfies the desires of every living thing, fulfilling the desires of those who fear Him. [v16,19] If my Lord is righteous in all His ways and near to me when I call on Him, hearing my cry and saving me [v17-19] because He watches over all who love Him. [v20] Then our Michael should have fitted that description as he put his trust in his Maker. Was God “faithful to His promises” and “loving to all He had made” – in this case, to Mike and to us as Mike’s family? Did God “watch over” Mike as the sun was rising on August 1st 2009? [v20]
When Father God wove Eternal Life into the fabric of HIStory, this is ‘never-ending life’ which is also ‘continual life’ without breaks. When I stand on the starting blocks of this one great HOPE, Eternal Life – the Good News (gospel) Message that’s freely available to ALL sinners everywhere whatever background whether old or young, rich or poor, male or female, slave or free, Jew or not[c] – I can say that Mike didn’t die. He only passed away and I wrote about this in my first book Breadcrumbs in the Storm. However, what I wrote can’t be understood unless you believe in eternal life. That being true, then all of the above, everything that King David sung about his Creator God, can certainly fit within the realm of possibility. Even in the face of sudden, unexpected, and unexplained death. Even with the deepest questions imaginable raging over a shoestring link to Faith in who Mike’s Maker was and still is. After being sucked into the vortex of our greatest storm yet faced, I looked up… and there I found truth in this one last Psalm read right before the walls caved in. In this paradox of praise and pain, I will trust in Him….
And so I write you my Breadcrumbs: 365 and one for each day in your year. My additional notes are designed to explain the reasoning 
behind it all and, eventually, I will have a Q&A matrix linking the most profound questions ever to plague the human mind with answers found in our Maker’s Handbook for LIFE. Although His greatness is unsearchable [v3], from generation to generation He has been praised. [v4] His documented mighty acts are now miraculously protected 4000+ years and translated into every language on earth. Anyone who comes in close contact with their Creator God will testify to His wonderful works. [v5] The problem has only every been one Alef: Who’s listening, and who will believe it?[d]
CLICK to return to today’s “Daily Breadcrumbs”
Postscript:
As already pointed out in my Breadcrumbs, King David of Israel was both king but also prophetic. Divine clues are woven into even his songs and not least of all the last verse in this song. So, before we move onto his son’s writings The Proverbs (wisdom) of Solomon in tomorrow’s Breadcrumb, and on this the evening of our son’s last day on earth, here’s a thought to conclude…
Tav [v21] the last verse in this song, is marked with the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Tav means mark, sign, omen, or seal. It is the 
symbol of truth, perfection, and completion. It represents the restoration Tikkun of all of existence. Tikkun = improvement, establishment, repair, prepare, and more, and generally refers to practical legal measures taken for restoring/concluding/resetting all things. It is a return to the essence and purpose of one’s life, Hashem (The Name) over all those who love Him; but kol haresha’im (All of, each or every, the entire, or the whole of – evil, wrong, rebellion, sin, what’s wrong with this world) He will destroy. 21 [Tav] My mouth shall speak the tehillat Hashem (Praise of God); and let kol basar (All of, each or every, the entire, or the whole of – the body of humans; of animals · the body itself · male organ of generation euphemism, kindred, blood-relations) bless His Shem Kodesh l’olam va’ed (Sacred/Holy Name forever and ever).
[T.N. See Messianic Psalms which include Ps 2, 22, 45, 72, 110, 47, 93, 96-99, 89 and which indicate Moshiach’s (saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of mashiach, messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a mashiach is a king or High Priest traditionally anointed with holy anointing oil), this Moshiach’s righteous character, experience, ideals, call, and reign.]
[a] Exodus 23:20-22 &v26
[b] Referencing the whole Book of Job
[c] 1 Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 3:38
[d] Isaiah 53:1