Psalm 146
Praise for God’s Help
1 Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God all my life long.
3 Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortals, in whom there is no help.
4 When their breath departs, they return to the earth;
on that very day their plans perish.
5 Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God,
6 who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them;
who keeps faith forever;
7 who executes justice for the oppressed;
who gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets the prisoners free;
8 the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.
9 The Lord watches over the strangers;
he upholds the orphan and the widow,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
10 The Lord will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the Lord!
One of the prizes collected during beggar’s night is the occasional temporary tattoo. A piece of plastic that one can apply to any spot of skin with a wet rag and thirty seconds. The tattoo always made us feel like adults sporting our image of a cat or Spiderman and our hearts burst with pride showing our friends our tattoo and our hearts burst with grief as they rubbed off in a few days. But while we enjoyed the albeit too brief presence of our tattoos, we were always reminded of their temporariness.
While many things are temporary in our worlds, like carnival tattoos, Yahweh, our LORD and God, is neither temporary nor brief but eternal and permanent. The Psalmist sings:
Praise the LORD, O my soul!
I will praise the LORD as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God all my life long.
“As long as I live,” “all my life long,” these descriptions are to remind us that Yahweh is not temporary or brief in time, a temporary tattoo that wears off in two weeks, but eternal and permanent. If Yahweh is perpetual, then Yahweh needs to be praised every day “as long as I live,” and “all my life long.” Not just for a brief span of time: days, weeks, months: but the entire span of our lives. Just as Yahweh is eternal, so too does our worship of Yahweh need to be.
But if Yahweh is eternal, then why do we look to others to be our Yahweh? Certainly, many in our country look to politicians, scientists, and others in power to do and provide what only Yahweh can truly do? To the point, many are looking to President-elect Biden to “save” our country, provide “security”, re-establish “dignity.” I wish neither to denigrate or insult Mr. Biden. He is worthy of the respect and honor due his position, as President Trump is due the respect and honor of the office of President. But that position is not Yahweh’s place. The Psalmist sings:
Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortals, in whom there is no help.
When their breath departs, they return to the earth;
on that very day their plans perish.
The Psalmist reminds us that ultimately the only source of our trust is Yahweh, because princes are mortal and Yahweh is eternal. Men and women are temporary, and Yahweh is forever; and that means that human plans fail and die because we fail and die, but Yahweh lives forever because Yahweh is forever in Power and Glory.
For those who place their trust in Yahweh instead of humanity, they are then blessed and happy because Yahweh’s work as LORD and God far surpasses all others. The Psalmist sings:
Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD their God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them;
who keeps faith forever;
who executes justice for the oppressed;
who gives food to the hungry.
What human creation can compare to the one who created heaven and earth out of nothing? What human creation can be equal to the one who created the sea and the entirety of the oceans and lakes? What human and therefore temporary faithfulness can compare to the faithfulness of Yahweh, which is eternal? What human justice for the oppressed can equate with the justice of Yahweh? What human providence of daily sustenance can liken to the Providence of Yahweh? All these things are temporary constructs of a finite and provisional creature, how are they even remotely like the creations of the eternal and almighty Creator, Yahweh? Blessed are they who trust in Yahweh and not people!
Why do we then try to “set the prisoners free” without Yahweh? Why do we try to “give sight to the blind” without Yahweh? Why do we “lift up those that are bent over” without Yahweh? Why do we try to “love the righteous” without Yahweh? Why do we watch “over the alien” without Yahweh? Why do we “sustain the fatherless and the widow” without Yahweh? Why do we most certainly “frustrate the ways of the wicked” without Yahweh? Because we don’t want to Trust and Obey Yahweh, we want to be Yahweh! So, we trust and obey people, who are temporary, instead of trusting and obeying in Yahweh, who is eternal. The results are always less than what Yahweh can do: freedom, sight, strength, love, inclusion, sustenance, justice, ruin, according to us instead of according to Yahweh. Because we are temporary and they thus fail and perish, and Yahweh is eternal and therefore succeeds and lives forever.
But for those in the Covenant with Yahweh, they are content with just being creatures who place their trust and praise in Yahweh alone and not in people. Please make no mistake, I am not a rebel or a slanderer, interested in bashing any politician or political party in power. They are due the honor and respect of being in their position regardless of whether I voted for them or not. My point is entirely different. They are not due what we give to Yahweh and Yahweh alone.
The LORD will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the LORD!
Let our praise and trust be in Yahweh alone, for Yahweh is LORD and God forever and for all generations. Yahweh for ever; even while its Biden or Trump for now!
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