Psalm 146

Yesterday I read Pslam 146. It's one of my favorites, but I feel like every time I read it something else surprises me. It starts (like a lot of Psalms) with the Psalmist writing praises to God. Then you get to verses 3 and 4:

"Put not your trust in princes,
in a son of man, in whom there is no
salvation.
When his breath departs, he returns to
the earth;
on that very day his plans perish."

But......I do that all the time-I feel like I put a lot of hope in my schooling, job, whatever. This teacher said that, this teacher gave me this assignment that ruined my weekend. Or this teacher said I was awesome which means I'm awesome. Yet that's all temporary. It's not going to be around long. Unfortunately the teacher that thinks I'm awesome will probably be dead in a few years leaving me to search for another teacher to suck up to.

Then, though, there's what is eternal in verses 5-10:

"Blessed is he whose help is the God of
Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his 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 sojourners;
he upholds the widow and the
fatherless,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

The Lord will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the Lord!"

So that's eternal-BUT the two new things that struck me are this: 1. Everything is present tense. The Lord sets....The Lord opens....The Lord loves....God is still doing these things.  If my hope was in a prince, then when he died I'd say "Well, this prince did  this for me, or he did that..." God, just like He was for the Pslamist, is still setting people free, still loving, still doing all these things (Which is another entry in and of itself-just noting what God does do in these verses). The Psalmist isn't even saying "God did this for Israel", he's saying "God did this and is still doing it and will do it forever". Which brings me to the second new thing: 2. That's what's eternal. "The Lord will reign forever." God will always love, always open, always watch over sojourners, always watch after widows and the fatherless-and nothing else can do that. That's why the Psalmist says "Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob." The one who hopes in man isn't blessed because that's temporary.

So I guess that's pretty cool.