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Psalm 146:1-10
A Matter of Choice
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Psalm 146:1-10
A Matter of Choice
The last five psalms of the Psalter are known as Hallel psalms. That’s because they begin with the Hebrew word, Hallel, from which we get Hallelujah, or Praise the Lord.
Psalm 146 is the first of these five psalms. It sets forth a dichotomy between the powers and principalities of this world over against the sovereignty of God. It assumes you can’t have it both ways; and so, it admonishes us not to put our hope in the things of this world, but to trust God to order and provide. It’s a matter of choice. The psalm begins,
“Praise Yahweh, my soul.
While I live, I will praise Yahweh.
I will sing praises to my God as long as I exist” (Psalm 146:1-2).
What does it mean to praise the Lord? This phrase has been used so much it’s lost much of its meaning and reverence. Remember Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker and the PTL Club? If you don’t know, PTL stands for Praise the Lord. The Bakkers ran a lucrative business under that name for twenty-five years. They condemned a lot of sinners and shed a lot of tears in the name of Jesus Christ, but I, for one, never saw it as praising the Lord.
What does it mean to praise the Lord? I found a website that listed seven ways to praise God, all based on Hebrew words and support by scripture. Here they are in a nutshell: Seven Ways to Praise God
• Towdah is the sacrifice of praise. It’s to look to God even when things aren’t going your way … when your world is upside down … when you don’t feel like turning to God. It’s like the little placard that says, “Praise the Lord, Anyhow!” The writer of Hebrews had the spirit of towdah in mind when he wrote, “… let us offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which pledge allegiance to his name.” (Hebrews 13:15)
• Then there is Yadah. Yadah is the act of lifting up your hands in devotion to God. If you do a search on images of praise, this is what you find most often—individuals with their arms lifted high to the Almighty. The writer of Lamentationsexpresses the spirit of yadah when he says, “Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.” (Lamentations 3:41)
• A third form of praise is Barouch. It means to bow or kneel. In the extreme, it means to fall prostrate before the Lord in total surrender to his majesty. Psalms 95:6 invites us, “Oh come, let’s worship and bow down. Let’s kneel before Yahweh, our Maker.”
• The next form of praise is Shabach. Literally, it means to shout—to lift up your voice to the Lord in gratitude for the blessings you have received. Isaiah told the people, “Cry aloud and shout, you inhabitant of Zion; for the Holy One of Israel is great in the midst of you!” (Isaiah 12:6)
• Then there’s Zamar. It refers to playing an instrument to glorify God. We get a big dose of this in the 150th Psalm, where it says,
“Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet!
Praise him with harp and lyre!
Praise him with tambourine and dancing!
Praise him with stringed instruments and flute!
Praise him with loud cymbals!
Praise him with resounding cymbals!”
Some translations say trombone instead of trumpet, but you knew that, didn’t you?
• Of course, there’s Hallel. It not only means praise the Lord, it refers to dancing as a particular form of praise. Psalm 30 says it best: “You have turned my mourning into dancing for me.
You have removed my sackcloth, and clothed me with gladness.” (Psalm 30:11)
• Last, but not least, there’s Tehillah. It’s a combination of all-of-the-above: Singing, shouting, dancing, clapping and rejoicing before the Lord. It’s hard to find one scripture to cover it all, though Psalm 47 comes close. It says, “Oh clap your hands, all you nations. Shout to God with the voice of triumph!” (Psalm 47:1)
In addition, there’s that great scene in Exodus where God parts the waters of the Red Sea and delivers the people of Israel from the Egyptian army. When the waters return and the soldiers and their horses are drowned, Moses’ sister, Miriam, grabs a tambourine and starts singing and dancing and beating out a rhythm. The other women join her in a wild frenzy of praise and celebration, shouting at the top of their lungs, “Sing to Yahweh, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.” (Exodus 15:21)
Now, if you think there’s going to be a test at the end of the sermon, relax. You don’t have to remember all the different ways to praise God. Just do whatever works best for you. As long as you have your heart in it, the Lord is sure to be pleased.
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Praise the Lord at all times—when you’re on top of the world and things couldn’t be better; when you’re down in the dumps, and things couldn’t look worse. Praise the Lord continually, as long as you live.
That’s the way the psalm begins. Then it turns to the dichotomy I mentioned before. The psalmist puts it this way:
“Don’t put your trust in princes,
each a son of man in whom there is no help.
His spirit departs, and he returns to the earth.
In that very day, his thoughts perish.
Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help,
whose hope is in Yahweh, his God:
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them;
who keeps truth forever.” (Psalms 146:3-6)
Here’s a short list of some of the places people I’ve known have put their trust and were let down:
• Their employer
• Their financial advisor
• Their minister
• Their spouse
• Their parents
• Their children
• Their siblings
• Their friends
• The government
• Social Security
• The church
This is not to say all employers are bad or that the people you think you can count on the most are destined to let you down. It does mean we’re only human. That includes you and me and everyone else you can think of.
Individuals and institutions can only do so much. If you depend on them to take care of you and be there for you when the chips are down, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. I’ve heard countless stories—and you have too—of individuals who devoted their lives to employers and companies only to be let go before they reached retirement age and replaced by someone smarter, quicker … and younger. It’s wrong, but it happens.
Even at best, those you depend on will let you down. Parents grow old and have problems of their own. Children are busy with their own lives. Friends will give you sympathy and support, but don’t ask for a loan. The church is committed to helping people—and you may qualify—but there’s only so much to go around. Don’t expect too much.
You get the picture: Woe to those who look to others to come to their rescue. Blessed are those who turn to the Lord.
That’s what the psalmist would have us to do—turn to the Lord—lean on his everlasting arms—trust God to order and provide—know that God will give you grace sufficient for the need in every situation. He writes,
“Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help,
whose hope is in Yahweh, his God….
who keeps truth forever;
who executes justice for the oppressed;
who gives food to the hungry.
Yahweh frees the prisoners.
Yahweh opens the eyes of the blind.
Yahweh raises up those who are bowed down.
Yahweh loves the righteous.
Yahweh preserves the foreigners.
He upholds the fatherless and widow,
but the way of the wicked he turns upside down.” (Psalm 146:5-9)
As you know, a dichotomy is the separation of a whole into two opposite parts. In this case, the whole is life, and the two parts are the powers and principalities of this world over against the sovereignty of God.
Think of it as coin—heads and tails. You can have one or the other, but you can’t have both. You have to choose.
Well, here’s the deal: God made his will plain to the people of Israel. He gave them the Ten Commandments. You could say he put it in black and white. The first begins, “You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3)
The essence of the covenant is this: I will be your God, and you will be my people. Keep my commandments and live in the fullness of my glory.
When the people turned from God and broke the commandments, God sent prophets to call them back to faithfulness and obedience. Time and again, the people turned from God, and time and again the prophets called them to repent and turn from their wicked ways.
Finally, in the fullness of time, God came to earth as one of us. He came in the person of Jesus, his only begotten Son. He came to redeemed us from our fallen nature and reconcile us to himself.
But Jesus did more than restate the Commandments; he showed us by his own example how to live in peace with God and all creation. He taught us in parables and demonstrated for us the power of God to heal and make new. Above all, he showed us the secret of eternal life, that to surrender to God in humility and devotion is to experience life in all its abundance. He said,
“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it,
but whoever will lose his life for my sake, the same will save it.”
(Luke 9:24)
It boils down to this: Who are you going to believe? Who are you going to trust? Whose example are you going to follow?
The world beckons to us in countless ways—how to spend your time and your money, where to devote your energy and resources, what values to esteem and hold dear. All the while, God beckons us to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, promising with every step along the way, “I will be with you.”
It’s a matter of choice, and only you can decide which to choose.
Toward the end of Joshua’s life, he assembled the people of Israel and reminded them of God’s faithfulness and love. He started with how God called Abram and promised to make of him a great nation. He continued with their bondage in Egypt and how God had delivered them from captivity. He recalled the Exodus, the wilderness journey and the taking of the Promised Land.
He made no bones about it: God had kept his promise to the people of Israel; the question was whether the people of Israel would keep their promise to God.
At the end of his speech, Joshua called on the people to put away their idols and devote themselves completely to Yahweh. He put it this way:
Yahweh “gave you a land whereon you had not labored,
and cities which you didn’t build, and you live in them.
You eat of vineyards and olive groves which you didn’t plant.
Now therefore fear Yahweh, and serve him in sincerity and in truth.
Put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, in Egypt;
and serve Yahweh.
If it seems evil to you to serve Yahweh,
choose this day whom you will serve;
whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River,
or the gods of the Amorites,
in whose land you dwell: but
as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.” (Joshua 24:13-15)
As we celebrate the memory of our loved ones on this All Saints’ Day, may Joshua’s words speak for us all: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” The promise is: Those who keep covenant with the Lord will find their place among the saints on high.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Copyright 2011, Philip McLarty. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB), a public domain (no copyright) modern English translation of the Holy Bible.