Psalm 146
I was
curious about something today as we began this psalm. Yesterday I blogged that Psalm 145 is the
only psalm with the official title of Psalm of Praise. So I was curious. How many times does the expression “Praise
the Lord” appear in the psalms? Because
these are the very words with which Psalm 146 begins.
The
answer? Well, it depends upon the
translation you are reading. The Holman
Bible has the fewest number of references at 23 times in 23 verses. The ESV and the NASB have 34 references in 31
verses. The NRSV has 35 results in 32
verses. The NIV gives a whopping 51
results in 44 verses. So while it
depends on the Bible, on average at least 1/5 of the psalms contain the words
“praise the Lord.”
Why is
this important? Well, I think it is
important because it goes to show that one of the main foci of the psalms is to
give praise to God – regardless of how many psalms are given the title of a
“psalm of praise.” The psalms encourage
us to give praise to God – and that is the very starting point of Psalm
146. We are encouraged to not only give
God praise, but to give Him praise our whole life – for as long as there is
life in my being.
That’s a
pretty neat challenge. From this point
forth, I need to give praise to God.
From this point on I should be about praising the Lord.
As we move
on in the psalm, we find out why we should give praise to God. What prince – or other earthly ruler – can
genuinely respond when we put our trust in them? What fully human being can we put our trust
in when that human being cannot save themselves? If we put our trust in any other human being,
what happens to the trust we put in them when they die? From that perspective, it is pointless to
trust in anyone except for God.
Then the
psalmist very deftly moves to talk about Jacob.
Jacob lived many generations before the psalmist. The point of this is really quite
simple. If God was God when Jacob was
alive and God is still God, then God will be God forever. We can put our trust in Him because He never
dies. He never ceases to exist. God is God and is worthy of our trust! If He made the earth and formed the sea then
He will certainly be powerful enough to reach beyond death and fulfill the
trust that we put in Him.
Then we
get to a long list of God’s abilities.
It begins with God setting the prisoners free. God is God over bondage. God is more superior than the rulers and
those who think themselves worthy enough to enslave another human being. We do not need to fear bondage, because God
is greater than oppression and slavery.
The Lord
opens the eyes of the blind. God is more
powerful than physical defects. God is
not powerless in the face of genetics.
God can do something about those whose condition is different than
“normal.”
The Lord
lifts up those who are bowed down. God
honors those who are humble. God
respects those who give up their own agenda and pursue His righteousness. He is big enough to know those who are
genuinely righteous {on account of their submission before God – through Christ,
we would say from a New Testament perspective} and those who are unrighteous or
only outwardly righteous {pseudo-righteous}.
The Lord
watches over the sojourners. When we are
foreigners in a foreign land – perhaps spiritually speaking, eh? – God watches
over us. When we find ourselves orphaned
in this world and without a support network, God watches over us. When we feel like we have nobody to whom we
can turn, we can always turn to God.
Then we
hear that the Lord will frustrate – no, bring to ruin! – the way of the
wicked. Those people with sin in their
hearts and evil intentions will find that their desires are unsatisfying. They will find their desires truly incapable
of being accomplished. Sure, it might
not seem that way at first. But I don’t
know a single person who has ultimately been able to find long-term contentment
when they pursued their own desires. We
are brought to ruin when we pursue our own desires and let the evil that is in
our hearts reign.
Praise the
Lord. He does all of these marvelous
things. Whom else should we praise if
not the Lord?
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