Psalm 146 — Sermon by Drew Ibach

would you pray with

me and now may the words of my mouth and

the meditations of our hearts be always

acceptable in your sight oh Lord our

Rock and Our Redeemer

amen you may you may have heard the

story about Sherlock Holmes and Dr

Watson on a camping

trip they enjoyed a lovely dinner and

decided to go to sleep in their

tent after a few hours Sherlock Holmes

woke up and nudged his faithful friend

saying

Watson look at the sky what do you

see Watson replied I see millions of

stars

what does it tell you Holmes

asked Watson pondered for a minute and

eventually

answered

astronomically it tells me that there

are millions of galaxies and perhaps

billions of

planets astrologically I observe that

Saturn is in Leo chronologically I

deduce that the time is approximately 3

A4 past 3:00

a.m. theologically I can see that God is

all powerful and we are small and

insignificant

meteorologically I suspect that it will

be a beautiful day

tomorrow what does it tell you

Holmes Sherlock Holmes was silent for a

moment and then he

answered oh Watson it means that someone

has stolen our tent

while Watson's

observations may not have been wrong on

the one

hand on the other hand he missed

something of profound and obvious

importance and in the mid of the

busyness of Life of concerns with family

friends and loved ones after an election

season full of Stress and

Anxiety all of which are important and

deserve our attention

mention we must never forget the core of

who we are and what we are called to as

people claimed by the Gospel of Jesus

Christ and our psalm for this morning

Psalm 146 may act as Sherlock

Holmes by inviting us to remember a few

things that are perhaps obvious but

often forgotten

the first is that we are invited to be a

people who praise

God Psalm 146 begins and ends with the

word hallelujah which we translate

praise the Lord and in Hebrew it is not

a word directed towards God as we often

think rather it is an imperative it is a

command an invitation

this invitation to praise God is the

beginning and the end of the psalm

praising the Lord bookin everything in

between every aspect of this Psalm first

passes through and ends with

praise and this is the posture that we

are commanded to

adopt we must begin and end our lives

with the praise of God and all the

details in between must be understood

through the lens of

Hallelujah and while a reminder to

praise the Lord is perhaps obvious for

Christians it is worth

considering in light of our busy lives

with all that we have to get done in

light of legitimate concerns about

family and friends and and in the midst

of the news that we see on a daily

basis praise often feels

secondary an added bonus

perhaps maybe even unnecessary or

forgotten but it is the core of who we

are we are people made to praise

God and as we learn to adopt this

posture of praise we will interact with

all the other details of Our Lives

whether they be good or bad while still

pointing others towards the goodness of

God the second reminder is one of

trust the psalmist tells us put not your

trust in princes nor in any child of

man or as one translation puts it do not

put your confidence in powerful

people for when one breathes his last he

shall re return again to the Earth and

in that day all his thoughts

perish the

psalmist reminds us that it is foolish

to put our trust in those with

power for every man will perish in

return to the Earth

and this is even more pronounced in

Hebrew the word for man

Adam is only one syllable difference for

the word for Earth

Adama poetically the difference between

man Adam and Earth Adama is only a

breath each one of us no matter how

powerful no matter how capable came from

dust and to dust we shall

return

so if you are happy with the results of

the

election remember do not put your trust

in princes nor in any child of man but

blessed is the one who has God of Jacob

for his help and whose hope is in the

Lord his

God and if you are disappointed in the

results of the election

remember do not put your trust in

princes nor in any child of man but

blessed is the one who has the god of

Jacob for his help and whose hope is in

the Lord his

God the words of the psalm do not change

based on who is in

power they do not change based on any

political

situation they ring true no matter who

is president and they will continue to

ring true Until the End of the Age and

we must learn to say them and believe

them no matter the

circumstance the third and final

reminder from

Psalm 146 may be less obvious but it is

no less

important it is one of

obedience we cannot praise God if we do

not obey him we cannot praise God for

caring for those who suffer wrong as

Psalm as the psalmist says in verse 7 if

we ourselves do not care for those who

suffer wrong

we cannot truly praise God for feeding

the hungry if we

ourselves do not feed the

hungry we cannot give God praise for

setting prisoners free for healing for

helping for loving the righteous for

caring for strangers for defending the

fatherless and the Widow and for making

the ways of the ungodly crooked if we

ourselves do not do these things

if we desire to praise and trust God we

must be a people who participate in his

work we cannot praise and trust God if

we do not obey God these things are

indistinguishable they are one in the

same as people who are acclaimed by the

gospel we must learn praise trust in

obedience

we must not lose sight of these things

they are a reminder from Psalm

146 and they are even seen in Our Gospel

passage for this morning in Mark

12 Jesus

warns against the powerful people of

this

world the people who sit in high places

that people who do not participate in

the work of God but Devour the homes of

widows

he warns against them and says they will

receive greater

condemnation and he looks at the gift of

a poor

woman the gift of only a

penny and says truly I say to you this

poor Widow has put in more than all

those who are contributing to the

Box because

only only someone who says in their

heart of Hearts praise the Lord oh my

soul I will praise the Lord as long as I

live only someone who says put not your

trust in princes but in the god of Jacob

can give all they

have even to the last penny to God who

is their

savior

now you may be thinking to

Yourself Praise trust and obedience

sound night but as we chanted the psalm

this morning maybe those words felt a

little foreign a little

forced maybe with all that is going on

in your life whether it be busyness with

family broken relationship or

sickness maybe the words praise the Lord

just don't seem quite

right maybe as Wars rage and elections

are decided you feel that it would be

foolish not to put our trust in those

with

power after all they have the ability to

get things

done and

perhaps you are in a season of doubt and

frustration and obedience feels a long

way

off keep reading the Psalms

let them give you words when you have

none and know there are Psalms of lament

and doubt Psalms for times of anger and

frustration and there are more psalms of

praise lean into them hold on to them

let them change you adopt them as your

own language as your own prayer

know also that there is a great great

cloud of witnesses who have gone before

you who have offered their own prayers

who have struggled and learned who have

mourned and

celebrated there are great many Saints

who have demonstrated what it means to

say praise the Lord oh my

soul learn from

them and know that the church is here

she is here to guide us as we learn to

praise God to trust God and to obey

God and she will be here always inviting

you along with all the saints and angels

to pray blessed is the one whose hope is

in the Lord his

God and

finally the holy spirit is with

you he always will be reminding you what

it means to say hallelujah praise the

Lord in the name of the father son and

holy spirit amen