Psalm 146/Commentary

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

1.

Worship Must Engage Our Minds: If worshipping God is praising Him for who He is, then we must know who He is, and that means thinking about and understanding the nature of God. Which means that we cannot worship God properly without knowing what the Bible says about Him. “The only reason we can worship God is that we know something about Him, something which excites our admiration, our gratitude, our faith, our joy” (Boice p. 1259).

2.

Worship Is Personal: You must worship God yourself. No one else can take your place. Others cannot sing for you, listen for you, or pray for you.

Too many people want a religion in which they can sit back and watch other’s worship and be entertained in the process.

146:2 “I will praise the Lord while I live”: This writer vows to worship God for the rest of his life.

146:2 “I will sing praises to my God while I have my being”: Is this our attitude toward worship, especially the singing element in our worship services?

Do we sing like we love and appreciate God? This sentiment is found in the New Testament when Paul says, “Singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Colossians 3:16).

Man, The False Hope 146:3 “The word princes may seem to remove this advice from the plane of ordinary folk and their needs; but a modern equivalent would be ‘the influential’, whose backing may well seem more solid and practical than God’s. Isaiah 32:5 reminds us that the big names are not always what they seem” (Kidner p. 483).

“The commitment to praise the Lord requires a dissociation from dependency on man. The negative exhortation, “do not put your trust in princes”, is a positive way of renouncing humanism and of abandonment to a God-centered way of life” (Gaebelein p. 865).

We might ask the question, what is the connection between praising God and recognizing the frailty of humanity.

1.

Do we value others more than we value God? One reason why we fail to worship God is the fact that we value human beings more than we value God. So we focus on people and put our trust in them. “We trust politicians, thinking that the president, or congress, or mayor, or some other highly placed persons will be able to solve our problems, but they can’t even solve their own. We trust science, or education, or anything else to be our ultimate savior” (Boice p. 1260).

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2.

Do we value ourselves more than we value God? We think we can handle our troubles by ourselves and overcome all emergencies by our wisdom.

We do not think we need God and therefore do not take time to worship Him. “The only being in the universe that you can depend upon unconditionally is God. So worship God!” (Boice p. 1261).

146:3 “In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation”: How sad that so many people will trust in human opinion rather than in what the Scripture says is truth.

How many of our neighbors or coworkers think that they are “safe” because what they believe about eternity is either a popular human opinion, or, some influential person holds that opinion? As we look to men, we need to ask one question: “Can this person save me?” This question places even kings and presidents in perspective.

Here is a great verse concerning peer pressure and keeping up with the Jones.

Who cares what man thinks? Who cares what the so-called elite say is fashionable or popular? No human being on the earth can save us---only God can do that. Wow! What a relief!

146:4 Man cannot even save himself from dying, this is how powerless even the most influential happen to be. Here is one reason why we should make no ultimate investment in a man.

146:4 “In that very day his thoughts perish”: First, this doesn’t mean that man ceases to exist at death or that death is a state of unconsciousness (Luke 16:19ff). The “thoughts” which perish on the very day that man dies are his earthly plans. “What good are his schemes now? What benefit are his investments to him? When he is taken, all is taken from him. Why then would we trust man? Why would we praise him?” (Williams p. 523). “When a man is no more, all of his ‘plans’ for help and ‘salvation’ will go down with him” (Gaebelein p. 865).

God, Great and Good 146:5 In contrast to frail and finite man, is God. 1.

The Lord is our hope: “God alone can save us, in contrast to the important people of this world, who cannot and would not even if they could” (Boice p. 1261). How many “influential” people would even think about lifting a finger to help you---not even to mention to die for your sins?

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2.

The Lord remains faithful forever: 2 Timothy 2:11-13 This blessing rests upon those who look to the Lord for help, who place all their confidence in Him.

146:6 “Who made heaven and earth”: But how many people place their trust in the words of evolutionary scientists and apostate biblical scholars? God is the Creator, let us measure all human claims by His account of Creation—He was there! “In hoping in Him, we are hoping in the God who is eternal, who stands outside of His creation, who is not bound by it, and who is sovereign over it” (Williams p. 524). “He uses His power and control over all of His created universe, including the sea, to bless every creature (136:25)” (Gaebelein p.

865). Since God is the Creator, then He can really do something about the trials and problems that we face on this earth.

146:6 “Who keeps faith forever”: That is, keeps faith with those who keep faith with Him (2 Timothy 2:11-13). In contrast to man who is fickle and often untrustworthy, God is faithful. “His fidelity to creation encourages God’s people…They believe that since He cares for the creation at large, His care for them will be so much greater!” (Gaebelein p. 865). Compare with Matthew 6:25-28; 2 Timothy 4:16.

146:7 Verses 7 and 8 take us to the New Testament, where Jesus announced the purpose of His mission in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4:18-19), quoting from Isaiah 61:1-2 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor”.

Points to Note: God takes up the cause for the oppressed, He defends and vindicates the faithful who are being persecuted (Psalm 72). He feeds the hungry through His providential care, and He gives freedom to the prisoners. He brought the Jewish captives back to the land from their exile in Babylon and in the New Testament He brings people out of spiritual captivity.

146:8 He has physically healed those who are blind and He also is able to bring honest hearts out of a state of spiritual darkness (Acts 26:18). “Many things in life push us around or knock us down, but God cares for us and lifts us up again (147:3)” (Boice p. 1262). What we are learning is these verses is that God can provide for, and meet all our needs! Here is one more reason why we should praise Him, He takes such good care of us!

146:8 “The Lord loves the righteous”: God loves people who want to do what is true and right. He loves good and honest hearts, tender consciences, and the 4

desire to do the right thing and be moral. Unfortunately, some people in our society think that God despises “moral people” and thinks that they are boring, while secretly liking people who desire to be naughty and devious.

146:9 In addition, God watches over strangers, i.e., non-Jews, who were wanting to do what is right. He cares for the poor and dispossessed. He cares for those who have lost all other support and care in this world. Here we should learn the lesson that God is able to provide for us even when it looks like all human resources have failed. God can even provide for the most vulnerable people in society.

146:9 “But He thwarts the way of the wicked”: Instead of fretting over why evil men prosper (Psalm 73), let us praise God, because He does frustrate and hinder the purposes and progress of the wicked. Even in this life, we do see wicked men frustrated by unforeseen circumstances and setbacks. In our own lifetime we have seen the downfall of many wicked men and or nations. In the context, God providentially frustrates the plans of people who try to take advantage of the widow, stranger, and the orphan. He frustrates the plans of those who try to rid the world of godly people and divine truth. He frustrates the plans of those who try to destroy Bibles, who try to teach false doctrine, who try to keep churches from growing, and who try to prevent the spread of the gospel.

146:10 Since God reigns forever, therefore we should place all our trust in Him. “Here is our sure investment for life. Here is an investment with an eternal return. Here is an investment that will not pass away” (Williams p. 525). Seeing that God reigns forever, therefore, God still to this day watches over the vulnerable and frustrates the plans of wicked men. To this day, man is still frail and God is still the only object of true worship.

Closing Comment “Will you put your hope in God and worship God as the only utterly trustworthy being in this universe? If you will not, your only alternative is despair and cynicism, for people will always let you down. The politicians will let you down.

The intellectuals will let you down. The scientists will let you down. ‘Salvation comes from the Lord’, said Jonah, and he was right (Jonah 2:9). God alone is utterly good, utterly powerful, and utterly trustworthy. Why settle for less? God is the only being about whom we can honestly and truly say, ‘Hallelujah’” (Boice p. 1263).

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