Pilgrim Worship: Thursday Psalms: Trust in the Lord!

Blessed Thursday to each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, your Savior!

Today's psalm is Psalm 146, most certainly a psalm of praise to and for Lord. It is the first of five hallelujah [which means Praise the Lord!] psalms which close out this wonderful book of songs & poems. But there is more here for you today than a reminder to Praise the Lord, O my soul! Our opportunity today is to personalize this psalm: read these words and hear God speaking to you.

PSALM 146

¹Praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord, O my soul!

²I will praise the Lord as long as I live;

I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

³Put not your trust in princes,

in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.

⁴When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;

on that very day his plans perish.

⁵Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,

whose hope is in the Lord his God,

⁶who made heaven and earth,

the sea, and all that is in them,

who keeps faith forever;

⁷who executes justice for the oppressed,

who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoners free;

⁸the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.

The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;

the Lord loves the righteous.

⁹The Lord watches over the sojourners;

he upholds the widow and the fatherless,

but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

¹⁰The Lord will reign forever,

your God, O Zion, to all generations.

Praise the Lord!

Notice the psalmist's confidence and boldness in the first two verses? We should adopt a similar mindset and live this way as long as we live! In the next two verses, the psalmist states what is obvious: neither prince nor any man can produce or influence salvation; our works & plans perish. Of course, this includes you and me. God is reminding us not to trust ourselves either! Our works, our "goodness", nothing we are or have contributes to our salvation. Our hope is only in the Lord [our] God.

Speaking of the Lord, our lives are all about His actions! The psalmist closes this psalm listing many wonderful things the Lord does for His children, including you & me. Read them all, thinking of the ways in which the Lord does these things for YOU. Two examples: You are a prisoner of sin; the Lord sets you free in His forgiveness! Your eyes are blind to His will and promises; God's Word teaches you His ways.

By His mercy and grace, let us all praise the Lord as long as we live, for He is our help and our hope and does all things for us!