Monday, November 13, 2023  

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Today’s Scripture Reading
Psalm 146

Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul!

I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God all my life long.

Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help.

When their breath departs, they return to the earth; on that very day their plans perish.

Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God,

who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps faith forever;

who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free;

the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous.

The Lord watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord! (NRSV)

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Reflection

I’ve stared at these ten verses of Psalm 146 for weeks, searching for a clear path into them. The call to praise the Lord “as long as I live,” as noted in verse two is essentially the first duty of every Christian and is usually a no-brainer for me. But as witnesses to a never-ending torrent of recriminations, hate, violence, and warfare, many of us find praising God difficult in the face of so much suffering.

But as I read, prayed, and reread these ten verses, I began to see them as a closed loop containing both the cause and effect of our commitment to a life of faith. Putting our “trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save” is what got us into this mess in the first place. And while many of us will live long enough to see ceasefires signed in various places around the world, gun violence ebb here at home, and perhaps some sense of “normalcy” return to our lives, absent the critical recognition that God is “the Maker of heaven and earth” and that we are not, these relative periods of peace will continue to be fragile, temporary states.

I am, however, struggling through this reflection toward the end of what has been one of the most spectacular summer-to-fall season changes I can remember. To me, there is something sacred and irresistible about a bright blue autumn sky, cooler temperatures, and, of course, the breathtaking array of fall colors that arrive and depart far too quickly. But while these distinctive characteristics of autumn make it my favorite season, it is the “way beyond our understanding” engineering of each change of season that reminds me unquestionably that there is a God, the source of our faith and our hope even in the worst of times.

Finally, as I read — and reread — these verses, I am reminded that as the Lord of all things, God owns the time, space, and means to work out the compassion and justice noted in the second half of these verses even though I certainly can’t comprehend how. As believers living during this time in human history, God’s call for us to praise God as long as we live makes us part of God’s current plan for bringing light into this particularly dark time. So where does all this leave us?

Hallelujah! … even here. Hallelujah! … even now.

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Prayer
Lord, help us to praise and serve you all our lives, especially when it’s hard to do so. Amen.

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Written by John Marr, Member of Fourth Presbyterian Church

Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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