Psalm 146 | Praise the Lord Our Creator

Susie Watkins continues our Psalms series with the "Mini Gospel" of Psalm 146. In the first Psalm of the poems of praise, Susie presents praise as an attitude of our heart containing love for God rather than actions we take. Her message tackles questions of "how do we praise God for his trustworthiness?" and "when can we praise God?". She reminds us to praise the Lord our creator because He is the only one who rescues us from sin and helps us in times of trouble.

Transcript

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Psalm 146. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord my soul. I will praise the Lord all my life. I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground. On that very day their plans come to nothing. Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is the Lord their God. He is the maker of heaven and earth to see and everything in them. He remains faithful forever. He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free. The Lord gives sight to the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down. The Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow. But he frustrates the ways of the wicked. The Lord reigns forever, your God, O Zion for all generations. Praise the Lord.

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Let's dive into Psalm 146. Geral gave a little bit of the structure last week, and so I'm going to just repeat that. It's a collection of poems, prayers, and songs. There's 150 of them, with the first two being an introduction. Then we have Psalms 3 through 145 being divided into five books, and then 146 through 150 are the conclusion. And they are all anonymous. These last five are anonymous, and they're called the poems of praise because they start and end with praise the Lord or Hallelujah. So the last five, 146 being the first of the last five conclusion of Psalms. And so if I were going to give a one-line summary of Psalm 146, it would be Praise the Lord our Creator, because He's the only one who rescues us from sin and helps us in times of trouble. So if you think about that, that's really like a mini gospel presentation in these 10 short verses. So I'll just read my summary again. So now moving on to verse one and two. I will praise the Lord all my life. I will bring, I will sing praise to God as long as I live. So starting with the most basic question here, what is praise? The definition of praise is translated, hallelujah, is translated, praise the Lord, which is a compound word. Yah is short for Yahweh. So an halel is to joyfully adore or boast, to celebrate or be exuberantly foolish in honor of something. So we're called to be exuberantly foolish in honor of Yahweh, and that's what praise the Lord means. So then we move to like what is praise and how do we do it? There's some, you know, the first couple things to come to mind might be like singing or dancing or writing or thinking or speaking, but I think truly there's a thousand or a million different ways that we can praise the Lord. Um it doesn't have to start in a you know, I think it's more of an attitude of our heart rather than a specific action. Um for me, going out into like the dark night sky and looking up and seeing the stars and just being in that space always brings my heart to just like full praise of God's creation. And I think we all probably have different places where we can praise the best. And um and I think that um it doesn't have to be in a specific place or you know or or or you know, a specific way, but again, it's just an attitude of our heart. Um I'm wondering if you're if anyone here has read Theo of Golden, it's a relatively new book. Um so I just listened to this on audiobook relatively recently, and in the book, this lovable 86-year-old man, main character Theo, is exploring the question, what is art? Um he's discussing with another artist what is art. Um he spent a lot of time trying to come up with a definition, and the best definition he can come up with is I don't really know what art is, but something can't be art unless it contains love. So for me, praise is like that also. It's hard to define, but it can't, uh but it has to contain our love for God. Um so again, praise is more of a posture of your heart than a specific action. I mean, I can be in church raising my hand and singing songs to God, but if in my heart I'm thinking, I really just want to wring the neck of my coworker, um, you know, that's not praise to God. So it's uh there's an old Christian saying that sitting in a garage doesn't make you a car, just like sitting in church doesn't make you a Christian. Um what if we're not in a season of praise? Uh things aren't going like we wanted. Um, that was Lack's week's sermon from Tyrrell on Psalm 72. I think he did a great job of just exploring what to do when you're not feeling like you're in that time of praise. Um he said to start with honesty with God. I think that's the first place when you're not feeling like you're in a season of praise. Um and then the present of presence of God can change us and bring us back to that place where we can praise God again. Uh the psalmist says, I will praise the Lord all my life, I will sing praises to God as long as I live. So when do we start to praise, or when do we stop? Um we don't need to have a full understanding of God to start to praise God. I think as soon as we just get a basic understanding of who God is, we can start to praise God, to understand who God is and who we are, and to understand the difference there. So a little child can praise God, a brand new believer can praise God, and then we can continue to praise God as we learn more about Him and who we are, and that praise can just continue to increase into eternity, into beyond our lives when we're in heaven with Him. In Revelations 5:13 it says, Then I heard every creature in heaven and earth and under the earth and on the sea and all that is in them singing to him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power forever and ever. So we're going to continue to praise God into eternity. So moving on to verses three and four, do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground, and on that very day their plans come to nothing. So all of us, no matter if we just won the World Cup or if we're just an everyday Joe, we're all gonna die and our plans are gonna come to nothing. The psalmist warns not to look to the people with temporary or fleeting power as the source of our salvation, but to look to Yahweh. Um And it's not just the influential people where we can be where we can be tempted to look for for our security. Uh personally, other idols such as financial security or healthy living, ensuring a long life, can slither into my mental space when I'm not guarding against them. And how about you? What are the false securities that creep in when you're not paying attention, that that become these uh these idols that we have to fight against? Uh if we look at three verse three and four and we say it inversely, it we get a little different picture of it. So verse three to four says, Do not put your trust in mortal princes. But if we say that inversely, do put your trust in an immortal prince, one who can save. For when this prince, prince's spirit departs and goes into the ground, that very day God's plans are fulfilled. So when you say it that way and we look at it from our New Testament lens, who does it point to? Jesus. Jesus. Um when Jesus' body was crucified and was put in the ground, of course, the disciples wept. They felt totally dejected. They wondered, was this really the end? Was this what they had tied their hopes to? Um those must have been really two long, desperate days of mourning. Of course, mourning their leader, but also mourning their future life options. Um but, spoiler alert, Jesus rises on Easter, and suddenly the promise that he's been making for all these years and the plans come out, and his plans come up out of the grave with him. So God's God's master plan for salvation through Jesus was back online, and rather than death thwarting Jesus' ministry, like all of the other mortal leaders, uh, Jesus' resurrection gave his ministry legitimacy. So the in the early days of the church, after Jesus had ascended, um, the disciples were being were being bold in speaking of Jesus. Um they were um you know gathering other discipl other people in the church, and the Jewish leaders were uh warning them to stop. They were uh imprisoning them. Um they tell Peter to stop talking about about Jesus and stop using that name. So in in Acts 5, it uh it says Peter is replying to the Jewish leaders, we must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him to his own right hand as prince and savior, that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. We are witnesses of those things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him. So the uh the New Testament is confirming this Psalm 146, this mortal, this immortal prince is Jesus. Um in Acts 5 it goes on to say that they are now wanting to put Peter to death, and um the Pharisees are all up in arms. Um, but an honored Pharisee named Gamaliel addresses the assembly, and I love this part. He says, Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. Some time ago, Thutius appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, and all of his followers were dispersed, and it came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. Therefore, in the present case, I advise you leave these men alone, let them go. For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men. You only find yourselves fighting against God. So that's an example from the early church, and uh a modern day example is the the Chinese church. And so I found an article that was in The Economist just as recently as October of 2025, so last October. And this uh the title of this uh article says China is rounding up Christian leaders. It is desperate to squish online worship. So the article is talking about this uh, you know, the attempts of the Chinese government to stop uh the Chinese church, and it says efforts to disband these groups have repeatedly backfired. Rather than bringing churches under party control, they have pushed them online, which has in turn helped to spread the church's teachings more widely around the country. That seems not to have chastened frustrated officials who are only expanding their crackdown. Xi Jinping has demanded strict law enforcement and urge officials to help religious types to establish a correct view of the country. And then the article sums up, finishes off saying China's Christians are unlikely to buckle, they recognize a higher power. So whether it's you know the time of the early church or whether it's today, you know, those who are fighting against uh God's plan uh are not fighting an earthly plan, they're fighting against God, and we know who's gonna win. Um moving on to verse five and six, blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, the maker of heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them, the Lord who remains faithful forever. So we have this blessing, and this blessing comes in the form of the God of the universe being on our side. Um it's his presence that's a blessing. It's not necessarily like I'm a hashtag blessed, I got a new BMW. Look how look how good God is. Not that that can't be a blessing, but um the blessing that uh is deeper and and and life-fulfilling is that the God of the universe is on our side. Um, and that doesn't mean that everything's gonna go well or go according to our plan, but with the God of the universe on our side, we can face the good and the bad things of life with the strength and peace of Jesus. One of my favorite passages, and I think a lot of people um like this, you know, are transformed by this passage is Romans 8. It's the part where it talks about us being more than conquerors. So Romans 8 30. What then shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he also not, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall trouble or hardship, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor demons, nor the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We are blessed because the God of the universe is on our side. So moving on to verses seven through nine, this is going to be some of the audience participation part. Um so there are some sheets that you can share with your neighbor. Um so I'll just read the verses. He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free, the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous, the Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked. As I started looking at these attributes of God, I started to think of how the person who was originally reading Psalm 146 back in the time when it was written, what stories they would think of, like what parts of the Torah that they would go to. So that was my homework. I filled out the the first part of the table for us. Um so uh in and one, and this is not by any means like a complete list. This is just like one example of how God upholds the cause of the oppressed was Hagar. How God gave food to the hungry, manna in the wilderness, how he sets the prisoners free, the slaves being brought out of Egypt, uh, sight to the blind. I had to dig deep for this one. Um, there's a prayer of Elisha's in 2 Kings that says he he prayed for someone to be blind and then he prayed for their sight to return, and it did. Um, how did God lift up those who are bowed down? An example is Naomi. How did he love the righteous? God's covenant promises to Abraham. How did God watch over the foreigner? He showed that in his how he uh cared for Rahab, sustains the fatherless and the widow, Ruth, frustrates the ways of the wicked, backum's donkey. He sees an angel with the sword drawn, and the donkey starts talking. That's always a fun one. Um, so this is the gonna be audience participation time because now as we go and as New Testament believers, we can look at this list and say that this list points us to Jesus. So obviously, we have it have different stories and different things to remind us and to sit to see and confirm that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are one and the same, and uh and we have stories of Jesus basically affirming his lordship by by uh doing this list. So I'm gonna ask for us to go down this list and just just yell out one example for each of these categories. So, what's an example of Jesus upholding the cause of the oppressed? Woman at the well. How about how about giving food to the hungry? Five thousand. Setting prisoners free. Great. Spinning in the mud. List of those who are bowed down. Thank you. Loves the righteous. Great. I also thought of Simeon, who got to see and profess Jesus as Lord before he died, uh, watches over the foreigner. Yep. And also Jesus' parable, he said, when I was a stranger, you welcomed me and all this you did for me. He sustains the fatherless and the widow. I thought of Jesus raising the widow's son at Nain. And frustrates the ways of the wicked. There we go. Great. Good. So we can use these stories and just remind ourselves and affirm Christ's lordship by just going through these examples. And so there's a third column, you can probably see that. Um that's for you to chew on this week. And the top of the uh third column should be 2026 or today. So as you go through this week, I encourage you to try to fill out that list for how is God working today? How do we see him uh watching over the foreigner, sustaining the fatherless and the widow, and frustrating the ways of the wicked in 2026? So that's your homework. Good luck. Um, and then on to the last verse The Lord reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations, praise the Lord. So we can be immensely grateful when we understand who the God that uh reigns forever is the same compassionate God that we learned about in verse 9. This is the God who guarantees justice, the God who saves, heals, and watches over us is the one and watches over the foreigner. And we can be exceedingly foolish in honor of this Yahweh. So this is good news for all humanity, of course, um, no matter the circumstances of our lives. But I thought about how much uh the exceedingly great joy that for anyone living under like an oppressive regime, such as Nazi Germany, um Kim Jong-un, uh current day in North Korea, um, or even just the extra joy that we receive in going through major trials when we know uh that God's presence is there and that he's on our side. Um back to what Gamaliel said 2,000 years ago, if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men. You will only find yourselves fighting against God. So I feel like us being here today in 2026, just being a church and the worldwide church, is basically proving what Gamaliel said, maybe not in the way Gamaliel had thought it would be proved, but um, you know, basically we're an ongoing voice of praise, and that voice of praise started at the creation, has gone through all of humanity, and and what won't end because it goes on into eternity when we're all praising God in heaven side by side with the angels. So, again, my one line summary, Psalm 146 Praise the Lord our Creator, because He's the only one who rescues us from sin and helps us in times of trouble. Praise the Lord.