Psalm 146 – Praise the Lord!

Let all that I am praise the Lord.
2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live.
I will sing praises to my God with my dying breath.

3 Don’t put your confidence in powerful people;
there is no help for you there.
4 When they breathe their last, they return to the earth,
and all their plans die with them.
5 But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper,
whose hope is in the Lord their God.
6 He made heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them.
He keeps every promise forever.
7 He gives justice to the oppressed
and food to the hungry.
The Lord frees the prisoners.
8 The Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are weighed down.
The Lord loves the godly.
9 The Lord protects the foreigners among us.
He cares for the orphans and widows,
but he frustrates the plans of the wicked.

10 The Lord will reign forever.
He will be your God, O Jerusalem, throughout the generations.

Praise the Lord! (NLT)

Psalm 146 begins and ends the same way as all of the last five of the psalms: Praise the Lord!  In Hebrew this word is familiar to us: Hallelujah!  With all that he was, the psalmist would praise God (verse 1).  Verses seven through ten tell us why: God’s justice; God’s sustenance; God’s freedom; God’s healing; God’s gift of power in our lives; God’s protection; and God’s reign.  While these gifts are available to all people, not all people receive these gifts.  Why not?

The answer is there verse three: “Don’t put your confidence in powerful people;
there is no help for you there.”  Throughout the centuries, many have put their confidence in people, or in the things of this world that people offer.  I don’t believe the psalmist outright rejected counsel or help from people, but if we seek a certain quality of life from the people and things of this world, at some point we will be left disappointed.  How can we gain the quality of life that comes only from God?

The answer to this question is in verse five: “joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper, whose hope is in the Lord their God.”  We all need help in life.  If a joyful life is what we desire, then we must seek our help first from God.  God does provide people to help us, but we will not recognize who those people are unless our help first comes from God.  So, ultimately our hope must be placed in God. 

We will all need help or counsel for some situation of life.  Let us be quick to go first to our helper, the God of Israel, the God of us all.  Praise the Lord! 

Posted by Ramón Torres