The Lord raises up those who are bowed down

Psalm 146 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

The Lord an Abundant Helper.

Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
² I will praise the Lord while I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
³ Do not trust in princes,
In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation.
⁴ His spirit departs, he returns to the earth;
In that very day his thoughts perish.
⁵ How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
Whose hope is in the Lord his God,
⁶ Who made heaven and earth,
The sea and all that is in them;
Who keeps faith forever;
⁷ Who executes justice for the oppressed;
Who gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets the prisoners free.

⁸ The Lord opens the eyes of the blind;
The Lord raises up those who are bowed down;
The Lord loves the righteous;
⁹ The Lord protects the strangers;
He supports the fatherless and the widow,
But He thwarts the way of the wicked.
¹⁰ The Lord will reign forever,
Your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the Lord!

In Matthew 22:37-38 Jesus says:  “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’This is the first and great commandment.”   Our obedience to the rest of God’s commandments; God’s instructions about what we should and should not do, is based in our love for God. In John 14:15 Jesus says:  “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”    The psalmist says:  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.  Acts 17:27-28 says: He is not far from each one of us;for in Him we live and move and exist.   If we love God, we will also praise Him, not only for what He does for us, but simply because through Him we live and have our being.  Each day is a gift from Him, so each day should be lived as an expression of praise to the God who gives us life.

The psalmist says:  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.  Many people today are trusting in human ideologies, fostered and imagined by mortal people. It would have been better if these failed and flawed thoughts would have perished with those who imagined them. No human ideology or institution is trust worthy because:  as it is written,“There is none righteous, not even one;There is none who understands,There is none who seeks for God;All have turned aside, together they have become useless;There is none who does good,There is not even one.” Their throat is an open grave,With their tongues they keep deceiving,The poison of asps is under their lips; Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness;Their feet are swift to shed blood,Destruction and misery are in their paths,And the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:10-18)  The failed and flawed human ideologies, that so many are trusting in today, are filled with deceit, bitterness and destruction. Their end is misery to those who follow their path. The psalmist says:  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.  Many people today cry out for justice and equality. No human institution or ideology can create true equality, because the truth is, we are not all equal. It is evident that we are different in many ways. Closing our eyes and our minds to the truth that each person is uniquely created does not create equality or justice. The idea that what is exceptional should be diminished for the sake of what is average is an injustice to us all. If we no longer celebrate what is exceptional, where will our future scientists, doctors and engineers come from? Where will the craftsmen, the tradesmen and the teachers come from? If all are ordinary, where will the artists, the musicians and writers come from? Who will be the athletes that inspire the dreams of children?  God sets us free from the prison of the limitations of human equality, because He created us in His image and likeness. Each person is both themselves a gift from God and uniquely gifted by God. We are free and we are equal when we acknowledge that: He is not far from each one of us;for in Him we live and move and exist.

The psalmist says:  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, to all generations. Praise the Lord!   Rather than bowing down to the whims or the will of human ideology, if we will bow down to God, He will lift us up. His true justice and true equality is based in that He reigns forever. This life, with its goodness and its difficulties is not all that there is. Regardless of any situation or circumstance, regardless of our gender, race, ethnicity or national heritage, regardless of our financial or social standing; regardless of any and every possible way that people can be compared and divided, we are all given the same opportunity to have eternal life with God. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

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. The Lord will reign forever, Your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the Lord!   Amen.