Pastor Fredo Ramos: Psalm 146. Let all that I am praise the Lord. I will praise the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praises to my God with my dying breath. Don't put your confidence in powerful people.
There is no help for you there. When they breathe their last, they return to the earth, and all their plans die with them. But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper, whose hope is in the Lord their God. He made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them. By way of reflection, the last five Psalms, we finally made it, the last five Psalms are all Psalms of praise, which is a good reminder that throughout this book we have experienced every human emotion and, kind of season of life, and yet they all end as a prayer of praise, celebrating God.
And this one particularly, Psalm 146, is praising God for His justice. And so wherever you find yourself today, know that this chapter, though it might be a heavy chapter, is not your last chapter. God will make all things right. We see that He gives justice to the oppressed. He feeds the hungry.
He frees prisoner. He opens the eyes of the blind. He is being praised and celebrated because God will make all things right. Whatever you're working through today, that will be great or sad is not the last chapter. And Psalm 146 invites us to face those realities head on, knowing that we follow and worship the God of justice.
I love particularly there in verse three. He's very clear. Don't put your confidence in powerful people. There is no help for you there. In other words, there's an invitation now to locate where our hope is to realize that our hope can't be found in people who are powerful, who we think might help us with our life or with our situation.
But to ultimately be reminded that today of all days is a day to place our hope fully on the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And so Lord, we hear you inviting us now to rest in you and to resist the temptation to people please, to rely on their affirmation and how they can help us and to use their power for our good. But would you give us now eyes to see through the power of the Holy Spirit that you are the God of justice. And whatever chapter we're in right now, it is not the final chapter because you, Jesus, are making all things new. And so we look to you today.
It's in your name we pray. Amen.