Psalm 146:5-10 - Loving the LORD Who Love!

Again, remember that Psalm 146 is the first of the last five psalms of the book of Psalms that are called the “Hallelujah Psalms”. When we praise the LORD, we are declaring that we have experienced God personally through His Son Jesus Christ and that He is worthy of our adoration, love, and worship. In verse 2, the psalmist declares that as long as he has “his being”, as long as his mind can think, his heart is beating, and he has breath in his body, he is going to praise the LORD! And so should we! Verses 5-6 remind us that we are blessed, we are “happy”, because we have put our trust and hope in the only true God Who made the heavens and the earth! We have experienced the “new birth”, we have been “born again” into His spiritual family through the Cross of Jesus Christ. We have been transformed by His grace into His kingdom and now are His sons and daughters! Our sins have been forgiven and we are now “justified”, “robed in the righteousness” of Jesus Christ. We are a “new creation in Christ Jesus” (2 Corinthians 5:17). That is why we are blessed and happy! Now in verses 7-9, we want to praise the LORD because we have experienced His great love! Notice the list of all the needy people that the LORD helps – the “oppressed”, the “hungry”, the “prisoners” (v. 7), the “blind”, the “bowed down” (v. 8), the “strangers”, the “fatherless and the widows” (v. 9). This list of God's gracious ministries to needy people has at its heart "The LORD loves" (v. 8). He loves the church (Eph. 5:25), a lost world (John 3:16), and His people Israel (Deut. 4:37), and the greatest proof of that love is the cross (Rom. 5:8). Paul wrote, "He loved me and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:20). All of the sins that help to produce these sad conditions were dealt with on the cross, but their existence in society is proof that the law of sin and death is reigning in this world (Rom. 5:12-21). During His ministry on earth, Jesus revealed God's love by helping people who were hungry, sick, crippled, blind, bowed down, and otherwise unable to help themselves (Luke 4:16-21; Isaiah 61:1-3). We love God because He first loved us (1 John 4:19), and if we truly love God, we will love those who need God's help and will do all we can to help them (1 John 3:10-24; James 2:14-26). Living in love means more than enjoying God's love for us (John 14:21-24). It also means sharing God's love with others. We may not be able to perform miracles to heal the afflicted, but we can help them in other ways. Finally in verse 10, we can always praise the LORD because we reign in life with Him! This statement comes from the song of victory that Israel sang at the Exodus: "The Lord shall reign forever and ever" (Ex. 15:18). Think of it: the sovereign Lord of the universe is our loving heavenly Father! Not only does the Lord reign over the nations (Ps. 47:8), but we can "reign in life" through Jesus Christ as we yield to Him and walk in the Spirit (Rom. 5:17). We are now seated with Christ in the heavenlies (Eph. 1:18-23; 2:4-10; Col. 3:1-4), and the throne of the universe is to us a throne of grace (Heb. 4:14-16). We "reign in life" as, by faith, we draw upon our spiritual resources in Christ and together with Him make decisions and exercise ministry. We do not need to wait for the kingdom to come to start reigning with Christ (Matt. 19:28; Rev. 22:5), for God's grace is reigning (Rom. 5:20-21), and we can reign with Christ today (Rom. 5:21). Then we can have a life of praising God, trusting God, and loving God. We will live a life that will glorify God and continuously we “will praise Him while we have our being”. God bless!