Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD, O my soul!
I will praise the LORD while I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I
have my being.
Do not trust in princes,
In mortal man, in whom there is no
salvation.
His spirit
departs,
he returns to the earth;
In that very day his thoughts perish.
How blessed is he
whose help is the God of Jacob,
Whose hope is in the LORD his 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.
The LORD sets the prisoners free.
The LORD opens the eyes of the blind;
The LORD raises up those who are bowed down;
The LORD loves the righteous;
The LORD protects
the strangers;
He supports the fatherless and the
widow,
But He thwarts the way of the wicked.
The LORD will reign forever,
Your God, O Zion
Praise the LORD!
An Ancient Hebrew Song, otherwise known as Psalm 146
Psalm 146 has a clear place in the theology
of the book of Psalms. The final section
of psalms is devoted to “pure praise” songs, the purpose of which is to
encourage God’s people to give God good press.
The songs all around this one are constantly saying, “Everyone, talk
about God!” It’s kinda like being at an
evangelism convention. Or listening to a
Maranatha worship album over and over again.
So
we see #146 as being the same kind of song—God is a great god, tell
everybody. #145 and 146 do differ from
those that follow them in that they provide quite a bit of content as to what
everybody should actually be excited about (unlike Maranatha worship
tapes, see left). It’s as if someone had read some
of the later psalms and said, “You guys are fanatics! What’s so great about Israel
In
answering this question, #146 begins with a postmodern philosophical
presupposition—“What you see is not what is Real.” It is as if we were suddenly transported into
the Matrix movies: “Everything that seems important around you—governments,
military, economics—all the things that would make you seem secure—none of it
is actually real. It is only the
semblance of reality. The most powerful
people you know of are frankly only the shadow of the true Reality. Looking carefully at them, you can see their
power and authority and wealth shake and finally disappear. If you want true Power, you have to gain it
from another source.”
Yes,
#146 is saying, there may be people who look important and
powerful—celebrities, rulers, Senators, religious leaders, CEOs and more. But they can’t actually make you secure or
powerful—they can’t even do it themselves.
After all, powerful people get assassinated, Senators and presidents
don’t get re-elected or get impeached, CEOs get fired, and everyone
dies—sometimes sooner than later. Even the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll died
young—relatively speaking. Human power,
at best, is transitory, fleeting.
But,
says #146, there is a real Power to access.
He’s called God. He made heaven
and earth. Creator, that’s a pretty
powerful position, isn't it? And not
only did he make heaven and earth—no mean feat, in and of itself—but he also
made the Sea. The Sea, (Yom, remember?)
in Canaanite and Israelite cosmology, is powerful; a god in and of itself. It is chaotic and destructive and threatening
to mankind in general. But God made even
that powerful god. Since there is no
powerful human figure that could order the unorderable Sea, then God must be
the real Reality, the source of all real power.
God is the Matrix of this world.
Not
only is God’s power more powerful than the power of this world’s power, but
even the character of God’s power is different.
This world’s power is characterized by the maintenance of position. Powerful ones must spend all their time
maintaining their power. The wealthy
must work at maintaining their wealth.
The authoritative must work at maintaining their authority. Celebrities must work at maintaining their
fame. This is one of the greatest
indications to show that human power is fleeting—because one has to work so
hard to maintain it.
This
maintenance requires the powerful to work with the powerful. Only power can grant power, wealth is the
only tool to become wealthy and fame is what one must manipulate to maintain
fame. Thus, the powerful do not have
time to work with or for the unimportant, the unwealthy, the unfamous. If they did, then they would lose their human
power, and they would have nothing.
God’s
power, however, is not fleeting, and so it is unnecessary for him to work at
maintaining his power.20
God’s power is the source of all power, so why should he hobnob with the
so-called powerful? He needs nothing to
maintain his position or wealth. This
also frees him to do what is completely just and faithful. He may keep his promises and contracts
because it will not lessen his power to do so.
He can do what is right to all people because it does not frustrate his
abilities if he does.
Most
of all, #146 says, it means that he is a completely free agent to help the poor
and needy. Those who are oppressed—he is
freely able to save. The hungry, he
feeds them all the time. The debtors, he
can set them free from prison. The
blind, he makes them see. The
immigrants, the transitory, the marginalized, the unseen-by-the-law, the needy,
the ones without any hope—God can put his power at their disposal.
And he does. Since human power focuses on those who wield
power, God uses his power to assist those not helped by human. God is kinda like the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation: He assists the needy, not provide entertainment for those on top of
the world. God does not need to feed the
full, so he focuses on feeding the hungry.
He doesn't need to raise up the important, so he focuses on the
humble. He doesn't need to help the
seeing to see, so he helps the blind. He doesn't need to help those represented by government, so he assists those
unrepresented.
And that’s why God is so great. He is the source of all power, and he does
what human power could never do. Him
helping the needy just proves how powerful he really is.
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