Devotion • July 9
Today's Scripture
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)
Reflection
Anyone who wants a very good summary of the Bible, I suggest two things. One is Psalm 146. The second is the sermons and blog of Dr. Buchanan, “Hold to the Good.”
Psalm 146 reminds me of Rabbi Bernard Bamberger’s The Story of Judaism, which Rabbi Albert S. Goldstein gave me as a gift decades ago. The book concludes with “I, the Lord, perish not. You, the Sons of Jacob, are not consumed.” People are dust and return to earth. I retired from teaching philosophy. In simple terms, all things are, as we philosophers say, generally reducible to physics and chemistry. But the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is eternal. Those believing in God live with the Creator. God is the power having created heaven, earth, seas, and all therein.
This potent psalm is environmentalism before the ecological movement. In that sense, the psalm calls for what I term elsewhere heneotheism, akin to henotheism. Henotheism says worship no other gods before me; heneotheism says God is holy as foundations of and manifest through wholes of creation, earth, humans, and all reality.
God is justice, frees the oppressed, and feeds the hungry. Today God is with the homeless and those escaping persecution. Psalm 146 could well be the spiritual foundations of the civil rights movement. God is more powerful than any state leader, yet more merciful than the most citizen-oriented ruler. Psalm 146 is ergonomics before that field emerged decades ago, designing objects and processes to be safe, merciful, and friendly for people. God designed the Sabbath for humans.
God watches and comforts the widows and fatherless. Yes, this psalm gives us family values.
Those who advocate liberal arts, as do I, will find Psalm 146 their beacon. God gives us interdisciplinary stability amid obsolete specialization, and orientation amid even stable specialties. Liberal arts steers God’s faithful between mere specialization and no specialty. In Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus has to avoid the extremes of Scylla and Charybdis. Psalm 146 shows that God’s mercy is always with us in times of trial. We do not travel or sojourn alone.
But God also punishes the wicked. Human judges might look the other way when perpetrators are brought to them. God does not look the other way.
Prayer
God of Jacob, of Creation, life, knowledge, and liberating arts and sciences, of justice, I thank you for allowing me to seek thy Word, Comfort, and Justice. You are the power and glory, yet love us such that you always keep your hands upon us, even when we question or deny you. Amen.
Written by Michael Kazanjian, Member of Fourth Presbyterian Church
Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church
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