Psalm 146--Put Not Your Trust in Princes

Psalm 146
English Standard Version

Put Not Your Trust in Princes
146 Praise the LORD!
Praise the LORD, O my soul!
2 I will praise the LORD as long as I live;
    I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

3 Put not your trust in princes,
    in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
4 When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;
    on that very day his plans perish.

5 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 lifts up those who are bowed down;
    the LORD loves the righteous.
9 The LORD watches over the sojourners;
    he upholds the widow and the fatherless,
    but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

​10 The LORD will reign forever,
    your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the LORD!

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This psalm is not attributed to David, Asaph, Solomon, Moses or any of the other psalmists in particular.  Not knowing the author doesn't change the fact that these themes have run throughout the entire book of psalms and have been picked up on by most of the authors I have listed.  All of God's people and even the people of the earth that have yet to belong to His people should join together and praise Him (the peoples of the world should repent and become His people and then they too will have reason to praise Him).

The LORD's people should not put their trust in anyone else--even the rulers of powerful nations (they are called princes and not kings here because the psalmist is making the point there that the LORD is King over all creation, so all authority given to these leaders of these nations is derivative).  Only the LORD is truly able to save His people completely both in a physical sense and a spiritual sense.  Even if all the nations of the world banded together to try to join their military forces as one, they would not be strong enough to defeat the LORD.  The LORD gives and takes life and when the LORD takes the life away of the ruler of great nation, he is nothing more than a corpse that will turn back to dust, for God made man from the dust of the earth.

Those whom the LORD helps and chooses to save are greatly blessed!  The same God who could speak and create everything out of nothing wields that same power to come to the defense of the oppressed, poor, and hungry.  He gives justices to those who have received no justices.  He gives grace and mercy to those who don't deserve them (for none of us deserve them, and really all of us should see ourselves like the poor and destitute when we look at ourselves in comparison to God).  God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

The LORD loves to open the eyes of the spiritually blind, raise those who spiritually dead to life, and set those who are captives to sin free.  He gives them a new identity declares them righteous.  He adopts them into His family, and He loves them like His only begotten Son.  The LORD takes care of the wanderers, the homeless, the widows and the orphans (and He tells us as His people to watch out for them and care for them too).  This is not to say that God wants people to stay in this condition and just have others take care of them, but God wants us to see people (especially others from the LORD's family) who are down-and-out and need to be treated like family and taken in and given a hand up as much or more than they need a handout.  In such cases the world should say, "See how they love each other because they love Him and He loves them."  This love will spill out onto the world, but it is first and foremost a command for us to take of each other who are part of the family of God--those who are brothers and sisters in the LORD.

It is verses like this though that lead churches and Christians around the world to be engaged in gospel-centered prison ministries, hospital ministries (to build hospitals and minister to those in the hospitals), to have ministries like soup kitchens to feed the homeless, to build orphanages, to become foster parents and/or adopt orphans, and to take care of the elderly, many of whom are living in nursing homes and other such facilities.  There are plenty of other ministries that fall into these categories too, but these are just a few big ones that I can think of.  That being said, this Psalm points directly to the ministry of Jesus to come and do set His people from their bondage to sin and give them a spiritual Exodus.

While the LORD will do all these things and more for the righteous, He will bring the wicked to ruin before He establishes His eternal throne.  When that happens there will be no more darkness, disease, sin, or death.  We will live in perfect peace with each other and with the LORD forever and ever and will have perfect unity with Him and Him with us as He already has with the other members of the Trinity.  Because the LORD does all this on behalf of His people, let all of His people praise Him and make His name great among the nations and invite others to know Him and praise Him.