Psalm 146 is a hymn. An overview of Psalm 146 reveals that it is a declaration of intent (v. 2) followed by (a) a warning against false trust (vv. 3-4) and (b) the rationale for the psalmist's declaration (vv. 5-10). The psalm combines elements from Israel's royal theology (v. 10), wisdom schools (v. 5), prophetic tradition (vv. 7-9) and ancient liturgical poems (v. 5b). This combination of discernible elements is one of the indicators of the psalm's late date (probably coming from the Greek period of the 4th century B.C.). Unlike some other late compositions in the psalter, however, the writer harmoniously and sensitively combined elements of Psalm 146 and probably functioned very successfully as part of the temple liturgy. The simplicity of the psalm creates a strong impression. The psalmist draws strength from the religious rituals and beliefs. Judaism used it daily for Morning Prayer. In the canonical Book of Psalms, it is the first of five “Hallelujah” psalms that conclude the Psalter. It celebrates the power and beneficence of God.
Psalm 146: 1-2 are an introduction, where the psalmist encourages himself to praise God. He has whole hearted devotion to God. He begins with an imperative in its plural form, that the community will together 1 Praise the Lord![1]The author turns to an introspective self-address. Praise the Lord, O[2] my soul! The use of the word "soul" to mean "self" does not reflect the full-blown Hellenistic dualism found later in writings such as the New Testament, but it does indicate a kind of psychological interiorization that is not characteristic of the earliest phases of Hebrew biblical literature or thought. It is the sort of reflectivity characteristic of and urged by the sage, one of the several indicators of the influence of the wisdom schools on this psalm. The psalmist makes a vow. 2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God all my life long. The imperative becomes declaration, which is the heart (although not the bulk) of the psalm. The vow is not empty. It reflects both the anthropology of the OT as well as a central theologoumenon of ancient Israelite religion. The human person is a psychosomatic unity who has existence only while biologically alive; that religion (denoted pars pro toto by "praise") is the privilege and ability only of the living (cf. Psalm 88:5, 10); and that there is a permanent and unbridgeable gulf between the living and the dead (I Samuel 28 notwithstanding; cf. Isaiah 8:19). There is an implied "Get on with it!" in the psalmist's declaration to praise while still able to do so (and in the opening plural imperative).
Psalm 146: 3-9 warns against trust in human power, exhorting people to trust God, for God supports the weak.
146: 3-4 are conscious of the limits of human power, so one ought not to trust it. The plural form of the imperative continues.[3] 3 Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help. The congregation would hear this imperative as addressed to them. At this historical distance, we cannot know the specifics of this political admonition. Whether the author warns the political leaders of Israel away from entangling foreign alliances, as prophets often urged (Briggs, 531), or whether he urges the Israelite people to remember the powerlessness of their leaders in the face of conquest, deportation, and exile is not clear. This ambiguity may be deliberate. The overall thought, of course, is very much at home in the Old Testament.
Today, in a democracy, we take a chance when we rely on political leaders to help us because they are as flawed, weak, biased, transitory and limited as any human beings on Earth. Paul McKay wrote that emotion could get away with us as we invest so much faith in a political messiah. We can develop blind spots that do not allow us to see the mistakes and foibles of the ones in whom we have invested so much faith, trust and emotion. Eric Hoffer wrote a little book about this, The True Believer. Such emotional investment is powerful.[4] Inevitably, our political heroes let us down, if we are honest and dispassionate about them. At that point, we might be angry at their human weakness -- and at the same sinful nature we have in common with them all.
4 When their breath departs, they return to the earth; on that very day, their plans perish.[5] Unlike prophetic denunciations of foreign alliances, however, the psalmist's reasoning is more anthropological than political. Princes and mortals are unreliable less because of their national self-interest or poor judgment and more because of their inescapable mortality, an idea much more common in the wisdom tradition than in the prophetic tradition. We can see this difference in Ecclesiastes, where the word "vanity" means "insubstantiality." Psalm 118:8-9 offers simply that one is better off placing trust in the Lord than in mortal human beings or princes. We should note the parallel in Isaiah 31:1-3, where Isaiah warns leaders not to go to Egypt for help or rely on horses. They need to rely on the Holy One of Israel and consult the Lord. They are human and of the flesh, and therefore not as reliable as spirit.
Psalm 146: 5-6 shows that only recognition of human limits prepares a person to accept the limitless power of God. 5 Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, a divine epithet often found in royal psalms[6] with militaristic overtones, whose hope is in the Lord their God.[7] Shifting from the geopolitical to the cosmic, the Lord is the one 6 who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps faith forever, likely referring to the constancy of nature. He shifts from the divine warrior to the divine creator. Israel's fortunes rest not in the hands of one god among many, but rather in the hands of the one Creator of all that is (which would include other gods, were this psalm to acknowledge them). The terms "heaven," "earth" and "sea" encompass the three arenas that made up the totality of creation (with "earth" including the underworld). Yet, heaven and earth are perishable, while only the truth and faithfulness of the Lord will remain.[8] Only God and the word and works of God are fully stable and trustworthy.[9]
Today, we need to remember a truth regarding happiness and politics. Do not expect a candidate to make you happy. With all the energy that goes into a presidential campaign, we can certainly forgive voters for wanting their favorite candidate to bring them joy and satisfaction. However, such an expectation is truly unrealistic and is often a recipe for disappointment. Whether the victor is a Republican or a Democrat, he or she is going to let down large numbers of supporters.
Psalm 146: 7-9 are an affirmation of genuine trust in the Lord, as the psalmist's language shifts again, this time to the realm of human relations, specifically the relations between the powerful and the weak, the rulers and the ruled. However, we might also think of this as a way to do what the psalm exhorts us to do, namely, praise the Lord. Yes, saying the words is a good thing. However, living a life as described here is also a way to praise the Lord. The Lord is one 7who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free. This may refer to imprisoned Israelites, of course. It may refer to Israel who has become prisoner for economic or political reasons. It does not refer to foreigners held in the prisons of Israel. 8The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those whom life has bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous. 9 The Lord watches over the strangers (gerim, resident aliens, sojourners). The Lord upholds the orphan and the widow, those traditionally vulnerable persons whom the spirituality of Israel expected the king to protect. One can find many parallels to this emphasis of the concern the Lord has for these persons. An important part of the notion of justice was to correct specific wrongs. The natural social safety net of kinship ties did not catch everyone. The king was to make sure such persons had his protection. Obviously, as much of the biblical narrative attests, kings fulfilled this fundamental obligation with varying degrees of fidelity and success, with the evidence suggesting that breaches opened often enough for sentiments such as we find in this psalm to become part of Israel's sacred record. As the Lord does all this, the Lord also brings judgment, but the way of the wicked the Lord brings to ruin. The almost certainly deliberate ambiguity in the psalmist's language in these verses allowed the faithful to apply the psalm equally to Israel's internal ordering of its political life, and to describe Israel's relationship with its more powerful neighbors. It was certainly the case that the spirituality of Israel expected Israel's rulers (official as well as unofficial in the persons of the rich and powerful) to uphold justice for individual oppressed Israelites; it was equally true that Israel believed such behavior mirrored the LORD's protection of the nation itself.
These are God's values, according to the psalm. Some people will define how compassionate a government is by how many people receive government help. In contrast, others will take the position that limited government, combined with the lowest possible taxes and regulation, will create a rising tide lifts all boats. For them, the best way to help the poor is to have a growing and expanding economy. These two positions are not mutually exclusive. In fact, which side you fall upon is largely a matter of degree. While good Christians will certainly debate the ways that our society can address these concerns, there should be no disagreement about their priority to God. In every time and place, God lifts up the burdened and loves those who are in a right relationship with him. God has special concern for the strangers in our midst and wants to take care of orphans and widows -- those who have no way to provide for themselves. Once again, there are going to be honest disagreements about how best to meet these needs, but the needs themselves are indisputable.
The conclusion focuses upon the kingship of Yahweh. As the Lord will keep faith forever (verse 6), 10 the Lordwill reign forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Reflection on the eternal kingship of Yahweh, culminating the saving history account in worship, leads to joy and pride. The implied criticism is that it is Israel's God, rather than Israel's sovereign, who ultimately reigns in Zion. Such a thought carried Israel through centuries of historical vicissitudes and proved to be among the most durable of biblical ideas. The Psalm ends as it began. Praise the Lord!
[1] Likely a liturgical gloss added to the body of the psalm (cf. Psalms 103:1; 104:1, 35)
[2] The vocative "O" is not indicated in the Hebrew; it is added for the sake of English poetic meter.
[3] Who is being addressed is not specified; the only vocative in the psalm so far is the psalmist's "soul," and the plural imperative here makes that referent impossible (since Hebrew nephesh is grammatically a feminine singular noun).
[4] "Do not put your trust in princes," Jitterbugging for Jesus, March 6, 2010. http://jitterbuggingforjesus.com.
[5] Scholars do find some aramaisms in this verse, usually a sign of late date for a Psalm.
[6] e.g., Psalms 20:1; 24:6; 46:7, 11; 76:6; 84:8. The expression's use in poetical parallelism with "the LORD (God) of hosts" (e.g., 84:8), as well as its royal context, connotes militaristic imagery (as the "hosts" were the heavenly armies that fought alongside Israel's mortal warriors).
[7] Scholars do find some aramaisms in this verse, usually a sign of late date for a Psalm, although scholarls find some as late as the 700s BC. another of the clues to this psalm's late date is found in the language here, where the Aramaic relative pronominal prefix she- is used to describe the happy. The Hebrew-Aramaic literally says, "Happy [is] the one who..."
[8] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 1, 401.
[9] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 136.
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