DUNCAN/While I am, I praise
If you have your Bible, I’d invite you to turn with me to Psalm 146. These final psalms supply us with the substance of the praise that we will be giving to God forever. And the psalmist is so kind to end the Psalter preparing us for something that will never end — The praise of God. In this psalm, we are called to the activity of the praise of God, the meditation upon God’s attributes, and a resolution to engage in the worship of God. Let’s look at it together.
A Call for All to Worship the Lord
Look at verse 1. The psalmist here, calls all of us and each of us to worship the Lord in this psalm. Notice his words, “Praise the LORD!” — That’s plural! Who knew, that when you were a little child in Vacation Bible School or in Sunday school singing, “Hallelu, hallelu, hallelu, hallelujah! Praise, ye the Lord!” that you were being instructed with a plural exhortation. Praise ye — Or in Southern — Praise y’all, the Lord. There must be public and private, corporate and individual praise, in the people of God. It’s not enough to worship the Lord in private. We’re called to worship Him in public. And in the very opening exhortation of this psalm, the psalmist calls all of us and each of us to worship the Lord.
But then you’ll see again in verse 2 another word here. The psalmist gives us an example of resolving to worship. “I will praise the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.” It’s a resolution of determination to praise God. And that’s important. There are situations in life where it requires resolve to praise God. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had a choice to make — Were they going to worship the king or were they going to worship God? All of us are in situations like that in life where it takes resolve to worship the Lord, where the circumstances in life do nothing to encourage us to worship Him, to rejoice in Him, or to trust in Him, and yet, the psalmist exhorts us. “I will praise the LORD as long as I live. I will praise Him no matter what, and as long as there is a breath left in me, I will be praising God.” Have you resolved to praise Him even in those circumstances?
Put Your Trust in the Lord and Not in Mere Men
And then look with me at verses 3 and 4. He reminds us to put our trust in God and not in mere men. Again, there’s the phrase, “son of man,” not being used as a Messianic title but being used as a description of the children of men, those who are mere mortals. No matter how powerful human beings can be — And they can be very powerful — They’re going to die. History is littered with the disappointments of people who have put all their marbles in the basket of mere men, and they’ve failed them, but the Lord will not fail His people. He wouldn’t have to remind us that there’s no salvation in mere men if we didn’t act that way sometimes. “Don’t put your trust in mere men; put your trust in the Lord.”
The Attributes of the LORD
And then what he begins to do from verse 6 all the way to the end of the psalm is tell you what your God is like. Verse 6, he says that your God is the Creator of everything. Recognizing that God is the Creator of everything is an enormous comfort and gives us confidence that He is our help and our hope. Next, “He keeps faith forever.” His faithfulness is everlasting. He will never ever let you go. Look at verse 7. “He executes justice for the oppressed.” The psalmist rejoices that our God is a God who gives justice to those who have been abused by human injustice. And that should be especially significant to us who have brothers and sisters around the world who are being persecuted simply because they are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. They’re experiencing human injustice. And the Lord cares about that and He knows about that, and He intends to do something about that.
Next, “He gives food to the hungry.” He opens His hand, and He gives those in need the food that they require. He feeds the hungry. Verse 7, “The Lord sets the prisoners free.” The Lord sets captives free. In the Bible, there are so many captives that are set free by the Lord — You can think of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego or you can go further back and think of Joseph who was a prisoner. They were imprisoned wrongly, and they were set free. Oh, sometimes there are captives like Stephen in the book of Acts who aren’t set free in this world, but when they enter into heaven the Lord is standing and waiting for them and they’re free indeed.
Next, look at verse 8. “The Lord opens the eyes of the blind.” Don’t you love that refrain that you find in Scripture? He causes the eyes of the blind to be opened and the ears of the deaf to be unstopped. Every time a blind sinner sees Christ, God has performed a moral miracle. He has changed a heart. He has opened blind eyes. He has unstopped deaf ears. The Lord does that. In verse 8 he says, “The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down.” Over and over the Bible celebrates the fact that He exalts the humble, that He lifts up the lowly. The Lord loves to use the overlooked and He loves to lift up those who are bowed down, and He loves to exalt those who are humble in the eyes of others.
The LORD’s Love for His People
And look again in verse 8. “The Lord loves the righteous.” The Lord loves His people with a love that will not quit. In this world, Human love is a fickle thing. But the Lord’s love won’t quit. He loves the righteous and He’ll never stop. And then, if you look in verse 9, he says, “The Lord watches over the sojourners.” He says this because here we have no lasting city. We’re pilgrims and this is not our home. And then verse 9, “He upholds the widow and the fatherless.” He undertakes and supplies widows and orphans. And he continues, “But the way of the wicked He brings to ruin.” He executes judgment on those who are evil.
What’s God like? Look at verse 10. He lasts forever and He rules forever. “The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the Lord!” This is the ultimate contrast with what he said in verses 3 and 4. He lasts forever. He rules forever. Men don’t, however influential. God has revealed His character to the psalmist, in the Word and in the world, and it moves him to praise God.
Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III is Chancellor & CEO of Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) in Jackson.