600_Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob (Psalm 146) Psalm 146 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul! 2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. 3 Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. 4 When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish. 5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, 6 who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever; 7 who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free; 8 the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous. 9 The Lord watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. 10 The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the Lord! There is a story told about a famous tightrope walker who once stretched a rope across Niagara Falls. Crowds gathered as he walked back and forth with perfect balance, carrying a pole, then a chair, even pushing a wheelbarrow across the roaring waters. Each time he reached the other side, the crowd erupted in applause. At one point he turned to them and asked, “Do you believe I can carry a person across in this wheelbarrow?” The crowd shouted enthusiastically, “Yes!” Then he asked a quieter question: “Who will get in?” The cheering stopped. Belief, it turned out, was easy. Trust was much harder. That moment captures something very close to the heart of Psalm 146. It is one thing to admire God, to speak well of Him, or to agree that He is powerful. It is another thing entirely to place the full weight of our hope, our future, and our security in Him. The psalmist declares that the truly blessed person is the one who does exactly that: “Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God.” Psalm 146 opens the final collection of psalms, often called the Hallelujah Psalms. Each of the last five psalms begins and ends with the same exuberant call: “Praise the Lord.” It is as if the book of Psalms, after wrestling with lament, doubt, confession, and longing, resolves at the end to lift its eyes heavenward and rest in praise. This particular psalm begins not with a command to others, but with a personal resolve. “Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul! I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.” Praise is not presented as a momentary emotional response, but as a lifelong posture. As long as there is breath in his lungs, the psalmist wants praise
