Psalms 146

Psalms 146THEME: A hallelujah psalm, praise to God for His goodnessThe five psalms that conclude this great hymnbook are all hallelujah psalms. Notice that they begin with “Praise ye the LORD” and end with “Praise ye the LORD,” which means, of course, “hallelujah.” No longer do they tell anything of persecution or suffering; there are no prayers for help or deliverance from the enemy; there are no imprecatory prayers. The night of sin and suffering is over. Weeping is past and joy has come in the morning of the Millennium (See Psa_30:5).

Psalms 146:1

Not only should we praise God with our lips, but we should genuinely praise Him from the heart.

Psalms 146:3

This verse describes the powerlessness of man. No lasting help can come from any human being whose body will one day return to the dust from which it was made, whether he be a prince or a common man. Dr. A.C. Gaebelein told of a visit he had from an orthodox Jew. I’ll let him tell it in his own words: “He stated that he had read the New Testament and found the title of Jesus of Nazareth so often mentioned as ’the son of man.’ He then declared that there is a warning in the Old Testament not to trust the son of man. As we asked him for the passage he quoted from this Psalm, ‘Trust not …in the son of man in whom is no salvation.’ We explained to him that if our Lord had been only the son of man and nothing else, if He had not been Immanuel, the virgin-born Son of God, if it were not true as Isaiah stated it, that He is the child born and the Son given, there would be no salvation in Him. But He came God’s Son and appeared in the form of man for our redemption.

His argument showed the blindness of the Jew. The statement is given in this psalm, that man is sinful, that there is no hope in man, he is a finite creature and turns to dust. There is but One in whom salvation and all man’s needs is found, the God of Jacob, the loving Jehovah” (The Book of Psalms, p. 500-501). In the closing verses of this psalm, “the LORD,” meaning Jehovah, is mentioned eight times.

Psalms 146:5

God is the One who is in the helping business.

Psalms 146:9

As Jehovah, He is Redeemer. As Creator, He is Elohim. The Psalms make this abundantly clear. “Praise ye the LORD"Hallelujah!