Psalm 146/Commentary

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Psalm 146 “I’ll Praise My Maker”

Five joyous psalms of praise, each of them beginning and ending with Hallelujah, bring the book of Psalms to a close. In this psalm the writer promises to praise God for his entire life, because God is the One who made the heavens and the earth and is faithful and just to the oppressed of the earth. This psalm is a great psalm to read when you hear about injustices, evil men in high places, and innocent people being persecuted or taken advantage of. This is a wonderful psalm to read or memorize when you hear about evil men or women taking advantage of others and seemingly getting away with it. One writer called this psalm, “Where to get a good return on your investment”. “Commentators identify Psalm 146 as a congregational hymn. Its date and author are unknown. The thought moves from a call to praise God (1-2) to a warning against praising men (3-4), to a blessing upon those who trust in God as their Creator and Redeemer (5-9), and concludes with the confession that God reigns (10)” (Williams pp. 521-522).

A Lifetime Of Praise 146:1 The word “praise” can also be translated “hallelujah”. It is compound word made up of two Hebrew words: hallel (an imperative verb meaning “praise”) and jah (a contraction of the name of God, Jehovah). So hallelujah means “praise the Lord”. One writer pointed out that the person who wrote this psalm is not content that the congregation of God’s people should just repeat this great word of praise, ‘Alleluia’, as some trite jingle. Still less, does he use Alleluia as a mantra to be chanted like Hare Krishna in order to artificially work up some state of spiritual ecstasy. When you say the term “Alleluia” you’ve got to be alert, you’ve got to wake up, there’s business at hand, because praising the Lord is serious business. 146:1 “O my soul!”: Notice that praising God is work, it involves effort. “We live in an entertainment culture where everything is supposed to be fun and effortless, so Christians who come to church on Sunday expect the same environment. If it’s worthy doing at all, it must be easy, we suppose….We need to discover the truth that praising God is not something we can do in an apathetic passive state” (Boice p. 1259). Points to Note: 1


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