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.
My thoughts -
As we prepare to gather in our congregations and sing songs and hymns of praise to the Lord let us reflect on what we do when we worship. When we worship we do humbly offer thanks and praise but we also tell each other the story of God. We tell of who God is, what God has done, and what God is doing. We also submit to God and humbly offer ourselves as a sacrifice, subverting our own wills and learning how to do God's will.
Who is the Lord this psalmist is telling of? What has the Lord done? What is the Lord doing?
The Lord has made the heavens and the earth. God has given all that live life. God has made everything that is. Not only has God created everything, God also cares for everything. The Lord remains faithful.
So God has created all things and is faithful and cares for creation. That alone is more than worthy of adoration and praise. God is powerful and God is good. Everything has been created and is faithfully tended to. But the psalmist does not stop there. God does not merely care for all of creation. He especially cares for the powerless, the helpless, the poor, and the weak.
God upholds the cause of the oppressed.
God gives food to the hungry.
God sets prisoners free.
God gives sight to the blind.
God lifts up those who are bowed down.
God loves the righteous.
God watches over the foreigner.
God sustains the fatherless and the widow.
God frustrates the way of the wicked.
You can't have much less power than the oppressed, the hungry, the imprisoned, the blind, the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. And God cares for and sustains them. Those who are powerless to provide for themselves are provided for by God.
We call ourselves the hands and feet of Jesus. When God acts God acts through the church and God's people. To be godly then is to do the work of God. When we worship together we affirm this calling. When we worship together we submit ourselves to be used by God, the God who cares for the needy and upholds the cause of the oppressed.
Let us, as we worship God this morning, ask for the ability to honestly say "Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven". And then let us honestly pray for the strength and endurance to do it.
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