The Answer for the World

The Answer for the World

 

Psalm 146 (NIV)

 

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, my soul. I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God. He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them—he remains faithful forever. He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free, the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked. The Lord reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord.

 

The final book of the Psalter finishes with a series of “Hallelu Yah” psalms in which the entire psalm is sandwiched between the expressions of praise, “Praise the Lord.”  Upon returning to their home land after the Babylonian exile, the Israelites celebrated their covenant relationship with this psalm.

 

It declares that their praise belongs to God, praise with everything they have and for as long as they have breath in their being.  All the days of their lives, they will praise the Lord God.  There is no other to place you trust in.  No mortal man regardless of how great can save.  When their last breath is gone, all their hopes and plans, their dreams or schemes, all will come to nothing. 

 

As New Covenant people our hope and help is still in the Lord.  I am afraid however that much of North American Christendom knows very little of the kind of praise that the psalmist wrote about here.  Praise and “worship” is often crammed into a small block of our time that we sacrifice for God, and even at that we watch the clock and can’t wait to get back to our lives.  Real Worship is life and breath and relationship with the Father that cannot help but to overflow with praise.  It is also not limited to Sunday but includes all the days of my life. 

 

Our hope and our help come from God through Jesus Christ, our Savior, our redeemer, our peace, our righteousness, our provider, our healer.  It is in Him and Him alone.

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” A warning and reminder must continuously go out to believers in this country that man cannot save!  The Republican Party cannot save, the Democratic Party cannot save, neither can any other group that comes on the scene regardless of their best attempts.  Our help and hope is to be in Jesus Christ alone for He is the only true foundation and solid rock.  Many Americans are still believing the lie that to be American equates to being Christian; that this is a Christian Nation.  We are blessed no doubt, and I believe it is largely because of the Christian foundations and principles with which it was built but those days are long gone and this Nation is determined that they do not need the God who blessed them.  Now I said we are blessed, I did not say that we are or were a Christian Nation because we are not nor were we ever a Christian Nation.  Now drop your stones and hear me out.  There has only been one Nation chosen and set apart as God’s “peculiar people”, the Nation of Israel.  All the rest are nations, kingdoms and peoples to be blessed through God’s special people. There is however a Spiritual Kingdom to which we belong without geographical and national borders.  A kingdom which will never end.  One can be a citizen of this kingdom regardless of where they live or what nationality they call themselves on this earth. Nations will rise and nations will fall, kingdoms will rise and fall as well but the Kingdom of Christ will endure forever. 

 

I know it is popular to post pictures on facebook of American flags with crosses or red, white and blue eagles and apply Scriptures like 2 Chronicles 7:14 “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”  But that verse was not written for America.  Now don’t hear me wrong, I LOVE MY COUNTY!  I am as patriotic as anyone.  I served in the military and fought in combat.  I am permanently and totally disabled because of it and I WOULD DO IT AGAIN!  So again, drop the stones.  What I am saying is that this was written for the Nation of Israel which is a shadow of the Church (the substance).  So as a Christian, a member of Christ’s Kingdom one can personally and perhaps even collectively as a local body of believers but not to any secular country of kingdom of this world, no matter how good the intentions were of the founders.  Our country has chosen her way and it is determined to serve itself in secular humanism without regard for the Lord.  Our primary citizenship must be to the Kingdom of God, all others will pass away.  No president and no party can save us and their hopes and plans, their dreams or schemes, will all one day come to nothing.    

From verse 5 through verse 9 the writer paints a beautiful picture of the God who is most worthy to be praised.  Blessed is the one whose help and hope is found in the God of Jacob, creator of all things, sustainer of all things and whose faithfulness endures forever.  The God of Jacob is the same God that loves us today and has chosen each one us for a covenant relationship with Him.  The creator of all things loves you and me personally.  Blessed indeed are those who place their hope in Him. All the “hot topics” of the political world could find their answers in Him.  So many cry out that they are discriminated against, that they are treated unfairly.  The Lord upholds the cause of the oppressed.  Social reform, welfare, and world hunger are a mess in man’s hands but God gives food to the hungry (Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? (Matthew 6:26)).  How about justice and social problems like people bound in the chains of addictions of all kinds? The Lord sets the prisoners free.  Healthcare?  The Lord gives sight to the blind.  For those burdened with inequality and hardships who can in no wise lift themselves up, the Lord lifts them up, He is the true mark of justice and righteousness and in Him there is nothing false.  The Lord watches over the alien in ways that border patrols would never do, in love and care.  Again the government passes laws and seeks reforms continuously for welfare programs while the Lord sustains the fatherless and the widow.  There is no corruption in Him and the ways of the wicked are already frustrated. 

 

The Lord reigns forever!  Oh that more would place their trust in the Lord and not in a corrupt and greedy secular institution where the rich and powerful have their own interest at heart.  The Lord loves!  He is love.  He is perfect love and he has man’s salvation as His greatest interest.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but will have eternal life. 

 

My trust is in Him.   

 

Grace to you,

 

Pastor Tony Garcia

Freedom Church, USA