Psalm 146:5














These verses are a statement of the solid reasons of that happiness.

I. THE LORD'S INFINITE POWER. (Ver. 6.) He is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, "the sea, and all that therein is." He is the mighty God, and infinite in power.

II. HIS ETERNAL TRUTH. He is faithful to his Word; he "keepeth truth for ever." None ever trusted in him and found his Word to fail. Contrast this with human help.

III. HIS BOUNDLESS COMPASSION. See what an array of poor, helpless, and miserable ones are here enumerated as the special objects of his goodness.

1. The oppressed. (Ver. 7.) For them, when none else can or will, he executeth judgment, and avenges them of their adversaries.

2. The hungry, the starving poor; to them he giveth food.

3. The prisoner; those immured in the tyrant's dungeon, or shut up in rigid captivity.

4. The blind. In all ages, in the lands of the Bible, blindness was a calamity as common as it was terrible; to give them sight was, therefore, one of the chiefest mercies of God, and declared his bounty and goodness as great indeed.

5. The bowed down. What a vast company of these human experience has ever furnished! The burden of care, the weight of responsibility, the crushing power of sorrow, - these are ever at work to recruit the ranks of the bowed down. But it is the Lord's special office - an office to the fulfillment of which not only the psalmist here, but myriads of God's people in all ages, bear their testimony, to raise up them that be bowed down (Luke 13:10-17).

6. The strangers. In our day, in Christian lands, the stranger is not so forlorn a being as he undoubtedly was in the days of the psalmist. Then, to live on the other side of a river flowing between one territory and another, made a man a rival, a foe, as the very etymology of the word "rival" tells, and bound you to treat him as your deadly enemy. Hence, for a man to be a stranger in a strange land was to be exposed to all manner of insult and wrong, and to be in continual peril of life itself. Israel had been such a stranger, and knew all the miseries of such a lot; but he here bears his testimony that "the Lord preserveth the strangers."

7. The desolate by bereavement. The fatherless and the widow are selected as types of the most desolate of all. Remember the parable of the importunate widow as showing the peril of oppression on the part of cruel adversaries, and of neglect and injustice on the part of a corrupt and unscrupulous judge. If God did not interfere for these desolate ones, none other would. But "he relieveth," etc. Such is the compassion of the Lord our God; and when a man knows this, not merely by hearing of it, but by actual experience, how can he keep from rendering praise to the Lord? The very stones would cry out if he were silent.

IV. HIS PERFECT RIGHTEOUSNESS. Hence it is that he executeth judgment for the oppressed, He will not suffer wrong to prevail; but" the way of the wicked he turneth upside down," for "the Lord loveth the righteous." It is delightful to think of the compassion of God; but even that would not so stir our hearts were it not that it is all based on righteousness. Man's great longing is for justice - right between man and man - but as yet he has never fully attained to it; and he never will until the righteous Lord, who loveth the righteous, is recognized and rejoiced in as our Lord and King. But even here and now God gives us to see his righteousness; for have we not read and heard of and seen, and that again and again, "the way of the wicked" turned "upside down"? Here, again, is another full-flowing fountain of praise.

V. HIS PERPETUAL REIGN. (Ver. 10.) Even could we attain, as one day we shall, to the joy of witnessing the Lord's righteous, loving, and holy rule thoroughly and universally established, his kingdom actually come, and his "will done on earth, even as," etc.; yet, if it were but a passing and temporary dominion, destined after a while to come to an end, how that would sadden all our hearts, and silence the praise that would otherwise rise perennially towards God the Lord! But "the Lord shall reign for ever... unto all generations." Well, therefore, may we, and will we, praise the Lord. - S.C.

Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help.
Few of God's names are more suggestive than the one in the verse before us — the God of Jacob. It is very instructive, for example, and very comforting too, to find that God is willing to have His name so closely associated with that of a human being. The vastness of the material universe, with all its myriad hosts of suns and stars, sometimes staggers our faith, and makes us wonder if human life can really be the object of the Almighty care and love. To all such questionings we find an answer in this beautiful name. The God of unfathomable Space and immeasurable time is not unmindful of the life of man, The Lord of all those starry hosts — He also is the God of Jacob. And then this name shows, still further, that God cares not only for human beings, but for individual souls. The God of Jacob must be —

I. ONE WHO LOVES GREAT SINNERS AND PARDONS GREAT TRANSGRESSIONS. Sometimes a man feels as if he were too far gone in trespasses and sins to lift up his head in the presence of God, too full of utter selfishness and worldliness to dream of ever becoming a child of God at all. To such a man I would say, Just look at Jacob. If God became that man's God, surely He may become your God also. And sometimes one who has begun the Christian life, but has been overtaken in a fault, or in some other way has been backsliding in the path on which he started, loses heart and cries, It's useless for me to try to begin afresh; my nature is so weak, and the world around me is so strong. Again I would say, Look at Jacob! Bethel was Jacob's trysting-place with God; but long after Bethel was past Jacob sinned, and sinned again. And yet God did not forsake him or cast him away, but kept His hand upon him and carried him through, until, at last, He set his feet upon a rock and established his goings.

II. ONE WHO HEARS A SINNER'S PRAYER. It is these prayers of Jacob which form the great redeeming feature of his character, and which, eventually, work out the man's salvation. With all his earthliness and selfishness he was a man who believed in God, and who believed also in prayer. The fact that he had a very sinful heart is no proof that his prayers were hypocritical. It teaches us, rather, that we must not wait untill we are saints before we begin to pray, for it is only by praying that we shall ever rise to any kind of sainthood.

III. ONE WHO PURIFIES HIS SONS BY PAINFUL TRIAL. Jacob has been called "a Janus, with two faces, one turned upwards to heaven, the other downwards to hell." But Jacob was more than a Janus, for Janus only had two faces, while Jacob had two hearts. His two names point to his two natures — Jacob and Israel, the natural man and the spiritual man, the supplanter of his brother and the prince of God. Now, here was the problem of Jacob's life: How is the natural man to be spiritualized; how is the sinner to become a saint; how is the Jacob nature to be cast out, and the Israel nature to prevail? And this was the answer which God gave on every page of Jacob's history, It can only be done by sore and bitter trial. As a refiner of silver or gold deals with the impure but precious metal, so did God deal with this wayward child of His love. He sent him sorrow upon sorrow, until all the earthiness and dross was purged out of his heart, and Jacob became, not only in name, but in very nature, Israel, the Prince of God.

(J. C,. Lambert, B. D.)

Homilist.
I. HAPPINESS IN A WORLDLY SENSE IS AN IMPOSSIBLE ATTAINMENT. This is proved —

1. By the wants, calamities, passions, and weaknesses of human nature. Each of these would prevent the attainment of happiness.

2. By the changing, transitory nature of the world and its contents. That pleasure which can be dashed away in a moment cannot be happiness.

3. By the fact that all here are under the dominion of sin. Sin blights all things, sin embitters all things, sin brings a curse on all things.

II. HAPPINESS IN A SPIRITUAL SENSE IS A POSSIBLE AND A BLESSED REALITY. The reasons for this, given in our text, are two-fold — assistance in the present and hope in the future.

1. Assistance in the present. The God of Jacob is his help. Notice that a man may have difficulties and yet be happy. God is his help. Oh, what a help! His power, greatness, goodness, all exercised on the Christian's behalf.

2. Hope for the future — "Whose hope is in the Lord." Hope, even in the present, can give happiness. But this hope will one day be realized and its fruition will be perfect joy. It is in the Lord our God that perfect happiness is only to be found. May we seek Him for our help and make Him our hope.

(Homilist.)

People
Jacob, Psalmist
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Blessed, Happiness, Happy, Hope, Jacob, O
Outline
1. The Psalmist vows perpetual praises to God
3. He exhorts not to trust in man
5. God, for his power, justice, mercy, and kingdom, is only worthy to be trusted

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Psalm 146:5

     5874   happiness
     9612   hope, in God

Psalm 146:3-6

     5890   insecurity

Psalm 146:5-6

     4055   heaven and earth

Library
Concerning Continence Also Itself Hath it not Been Most Openly Said...
43. Concerning continence also itself hath it not been most openly said, "And when I knew that no one can be continent unless God give it, this also itself was a part of wisdom, to know whose gift it was?" [2177] But perhaps continence is the gift of God, but wisdom man bestows upon himself, whereby to understand, that that gift is, not his own, but of God. Yea, "The Lord maketh wise the blind:" [2178] and, "The testimony of the Lord is faithful, it giveth wisdom unto little ones:" [2179] and, "If
St. Augustine—Of Holy Virginity.

Rest for the Weary
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. W hich shall we admire most -- the majesty, or the grace, conspicuous in this invitation? How soon would the greatest earthly monarch be impoverished, and his treasures utterly exhausted, if all, that are poor and miserable, had encouragement to apply freely to him, with a promise of relief, fully answerable to their wants and wishes! But the riches of Christ are unsearchable and inexhaustible. If millions and millions
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1

Appendix xiv. The Law in Messianic Times.
THE question as to the Rabbinic views in regard to the binding character of the Law, and its imposition on the Gentiles, in Messianic times, although, strictly speaking, not forming part of this history, is of such vital importance in connection with recent controversies as to demand special consideration. In the text to which this Appendix refers it has been indicated, that a new legislation was expected in Messianic days. The ultimate basis of this expectancy must be sought in the Old Testament
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

Third Sunday after Trinity Humility, Trust, Watchfulness, Suffering
Text: 1 Peter 5, 5-11. 5 Likewise, ye younger, be subject unto the elder. Yea, all of you gird yourselves with humility, to serve one another: for God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. 6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time; 7 casting all your anxiety upon him, because he careth for you. 8 Be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: 9 whom withstand stedfast
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. III

"The Truth. " Some Generals Proposed.
That what we are to speak to for the clearing and improving this noble piece of truth, that Christ is the Truth, may be the more clearly understood and edifying, we shall first take notice of some generals, and then show particularly how or in what respects Christ is called the Truth; and finally speak to some cases wherein we are to make use of Christ as the Truth. As to the first. There are four general things here to be noticed. 1. This supposeth what our case by nature is, and what we are all
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

Psalms
The piety of the Old Testament Church is reflected with more clearness and variety in the Psalter than in any other book of the Old Testament. It constitutes the response of the Church to the divine demands of prophecy, and, in a less degree, of law; or, rather, it expresses those emotions and aspirations of the universal heart which lie deeper than any formal demand. It is the speech of the soul face to face with God. Its words are as simple and unaffected as human words can be, for it is the genius
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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