Do not trust in princes, In mortal man

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!

Philippians 2:10-11 says:   At the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  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.  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.”   1 John 4:19 says:  We love, because He first loved us.   It is better that we respond to God’s love now, while we live and have our being; it is better that we praise Him now in love, than to wait until we are made to submit to His judgement and authority.

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.   Everyone has to choose what they will believe in, what they will trust; where they will place their faith and their confidence. Will we choose to trust in governments and human institutions? History shows us that they come and go, they rise and fall. Human ideologies change with the whims of society and culture. Only God is eternal and infinite. He is holy, righteous, loving and merciful. He is unchanging. We have seen over the past year that those who ask us to trust in them, change their minds, their opinions and their recommendations continually. Numbers 23:19 says:  "God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”  Our choice then is to trust what is mortal, finite and continually changing, or to trust God who is immortal, infinite and never changing.

In case you still need more reasons to trust in God, 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. 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!  Amen.  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.  Amen.