Thursday: Praise the LORD, O My Soul

Theme: The Last Beatitude

In this week’s lessons from Psalm 146, we learn more about worship and the God who is the subject and object of our praise.

Scripture: Psalm 146:1-10

In yesterday’s study we looked at the first warning seen in verses 3 and 4, which is the warning not to value others more than we value God. In today's study, we take a look at a second warning in this passage. 

2. We value ourselves more than we value God. It is not only that we value other human beings more than God, though they are weak, dying and untrustworthy. We also value ourselves and our ability more than God. We think we can handle our troubles by ourselves and surmount all emergencies by our wisdom. We do not think we need God and therefore do not take time to worship him. When Queen Elizabeth I was acting particularly dictatorial on one occasion, her wise spiritual counselor, Archbishop Grindal, rebuked her. “Remember, Madam, you are a mortal creature,” he said. Elizabeth did not like to be reminded of that fact. But she was, in spite of her position. 

Here is a story that makes the same point. William the Conqueror, the Norman who defeated King Harold at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and thereby profoundly changed the course of English history, died in 1087. It was in circumstances that caused his biographer, Ordericus Vitalis, to moralize in the language of this psalm. King Philip of France had claimed lands on the border of Normandy that William believed were his. So he crossed to France and waged war on Philip. The war was progressing in his favor. In fact, he was on the verge of celebrating a complete triumph when the horse on which he was riding stumbled, William was thrown forward upon the iron pommel of his saddle, and the king received a fatal injury. He was carried to the Abbey of St. Gervais near Rouen, where on the morning of September 9 he died. His nobles immediately mounted their horses and rode off to secure their own possessions. William's servants, after stripping the body of their dead king of his valuable clothes and jewelry, made off too, leaving the naked body of the conqueror of England to lie on the abbey's bare floor. 

The historian wrote, “Put not your trust in princes, which are nothing, O ye sons of men; but in the living and true God, who is the Maker of all. If riches increase, do not set your hearts on them. For all flesh is grass, and all the glory of it as the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flowers fade away; but the word of the Lord endures forever.”¹

The only being in the universe that you can depend on unconditionally is God. So worship God! That is the connection between verses 3 and 4 and the rest of the psalm and why they occur at the start of this final collection. Mere man cannot save. But, says the psalmist, “Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God” (v. 5). 

The longest stanza of this psalm (vv. 5-9) begins with a beatitude. It is the last in the Psalter,² and what it promises is blessing for those who have learned not to put their hopes in man but on God instead. This stanza is all about God, here called “the LORD” (Jehovah). This great name for God occurs seven times in these verses, once each in four of them and three times in verse 8 alone. Each time it tells us something good about God. 

1. The LORD is our hope (v. 5). This means that it is God alone who can save us, in contrast to the important people of this world who cannot and would not even if they could. Save us from what? From enemies, of course. The psalms speak often of enemies. But ultimately from all human calamities and from sin. God saves us from sin through the work of Jesus Christ.

2. The LORD remains faithful forever (v. 6). Again, not only does God save us: He remains faithful to us after he has saved us. This is what we usually call the perseverance of the saints. Why do the saints persevere? We persevere because God perseveres with us. Or, as we can also express it, the faithful remain faithful to God because God is faithful to them. 

¹Rowland E. Prothero, The Psalms in Human Life (New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., 1904), pp. 93, 94. 

²There are twenty-four beatitudes in all, beginning with the very first word of the Psalter: Psalm 1:1; 2:12; 32:1, 2; 33:12; 34:8; 40:4; 41:1; 65:4; 84:4, 5, 12; 89:15; 94:12; 106:3; 112:1; 118:26; 119:1, 2; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15 (two times) and 146:5. "Blessed" occurs in other verses too, but they are not beatitudes. 

Study Questions: 

1. Explain what the appearances of the name of God tell us about him. 
2. What is meant by the perseverance of the saints? 

Application: When have you in some way valued yourself more than God? What errors about yourself did that reveal? What attributes of God did you minimize or ignore in elevating yourself?

Key Point: The only being in the universe that you can depend on unconditionally is God. So worship God! 

Prayer: Pray that you would place your trust in God and not in your own abilities.