Blessing Psalm
146:1–10
Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God. Psalm 146:5 (NIV throughout)
Verses 5–9 of Psalm 146 form a beatitude, presenting the blessings of God.
1. The Lord is our hope (v. 5). God alone can save us. God saves us from our enemies and ultimately from all human calamities and from sin through the work of Jesus Christ.
2. The Lord “remains faithful forever” (v. 6). God remains faithful to us after he has saved us. The faithful can remain faithful to God because God is faithful to them.
3. “The Lord sets prisoners free” (v. 7). Verses 7 and 8 take us to Jesus’s announced purpose of his mission (Luke 4:18, quoting from Isa. 61:1–2) “to preach good news to the poor . . . proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed.” As far as we know, Jesus never literally freed anyone from prison. That fact and the context here show that the deliverance in both places must be spiritual, a deliverance from sin.
4. “The Lord gives sight to the blind” (v. 8). Again, we are reminded of Jesus when the psalmist describes God as giving sight to the blind. The greatest blindness of all is blindness to the truth of God disclosed in Scripture. When Jehovah gives sight to the blind, the blind recognize the Bible to be true and place their faith in Jesus.
5. “The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down” (v. 8). Many things in life push us around or knock us down, but God cares for us and lifts us up again.
6. “The Lord loves the righteous” (v. 8). Why does God grant such blessings? The answer is because he loves us. It is not because we have made ourselves righteous. God has made us righteous in Christ, and even that is because he loves us.
7. “The Lord watches over the alien” (v. 9). God watches over the defenseless and protects them from the wicked.
In the last verse of this psalm the writer says that the God he has been describing and praising will reign “for all generations.” It follows that God also must be praised from generation to generation.
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.
Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865
Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.