Again, remember that Psalm 146 is the first of the last
five psalms of the book of Psalms that are called the “Hallelujah Psalms”. When
we praise the LORD, we are declaring that we have experienced God personally
through His Son Jesus Christ and that He is worthy of our adoration, love, and
worship. In verse 2, the psalmist declares that as long as he has “his being”,
as long as his mind can think, his heart is beating, and he has breath in his
body, he is going to praise the LORD! And so should we!
Verses 5-6 remind us that we are blessed, we are “happy”, because
we have put our trust and hope in the only true God Who made the heavens and
the earth! We have experienced the “new birth”, we have been “born again” into
His spiritual family through the Cross of Jesus Christ. We have been transformed
by His grace into His kingdom and now are His sons and daughters! Our sins have
been forgiven and we are now “justified”, “robed in the righteousness” of Jesus
Christ. We are a “new creation in Christ Jesus” (2 Corinthians 5:17). That is
why we are blessed and happy!
Now in verses 7-9, we want to praise the LORD because we
have experienced His great love! Notice the list of all the needy people that
the LORD helps – the “oppressed”, the “hungry”, the “prisoners” (v. 7), the “blind”,
the “bowed down” (v. 8), the “strangers”, the “fatherless and the widows” (v.
9). This list of God's gracious ministries to needy people has at its heart "The
LORD loves" (v. 8). He loves the church (Eph. 5:25), a lost world
(John 3:16), and His people Israel (Deut. 4:37), and the greatest proof of that
love is the cross (Rom. 5:8).
Paul wrote, "He loved me and gave Himself for
me" (Gal. 2:20). All of the sins that help to produce these sad
conditions were dealt with on the cross, but their existence in society is
proof that the law of sin and death is reigning in this world (Rom. 5:12-21).
During His ministry on earth, Jesus revealed God's love by helping people who
were hungry, sick, crippled, blind, bowed down, and otherwise unable to help
themselves (Luke 4:16-21; Isaiah 61:1-3).
We love God because He first loved us (1 John 4:19), and if
we truly love God, we will love those who need God's help and will do all we
can to help them (1 John 3:10-24; James 2:14-26). Living in love means more
than enjoying God's love for us (John 14:21-24). It also means sharing God's
love with others. We may not be able to perform miracles to heal the afflicted,
but we can help them in other ways.
Finally in verse 10, we can always praise the LORD because we
reign in life with Him! This statement comes from the song of victory that
Israel sang at the Exodus: "The Lord shall reign forever and ever"
(Ex. 15:18). Think of it: the sovereign Lord of the universe is our loving
heavenly Father! Not only does the Lord reign over the nations (Ps. 47:8), but
we can "reign in life" through Jesus Christ as we yield to Him and
walk in the Spirit (Rom. 5:17). We are now seated with Christ in the heavenlies
(Eph. 1:18-23; 2:4-10; Col. 3:1-4), and the throne of the universe is to us a
throne of grace (Heb. 4:14-16).
We "reign in life" as, by faith, we draw upon our
spiritual resources in Christ and together with Him make decisions and exercise
ministry. We do not need to wait for the kingdom to come to start reigning with
Christ (Matt. 19:28; Rev. 22:5), for God's grace is reigning (Rom. 5:20-21),
and we can reign with Christ today (Rom. 5:21). Then we can have a life of
praising God, trusting God, and loving God.
We will live a life that will glorify God and continuously we
“will praise Him while we have our being”.
God bless!
