Psalm 146
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 all my life long.
Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortals, in whom there is no help.
When their breath departs, they return to the earth;
on that very day their plans perish.
Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them;
who keeps faith for ever;
who executes justice for the oppressed;
who gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets the prisoners free;
the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the strangers;
he upholds the orphan and the widow,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
The Lord will reign for ever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the Lord!
Reflection
Over the last two weeks we’ve thought about the various facets of our fast changing contemporary society with mass movements of people, untrustworthy sources of news, financial upheaval coupled with increasing job insecurity. No wonder that people turn to politicians with easy answers which pit us against each other as a distraction from those who cause the problems in the first place! People vote in all sorts of ways for all sorts of reasons; and the Church has, over the centuries, had to cope with all sorts of governments of all sorts of ideologies.
Our distinctive contribution as Christians, however, is rather more basic. Our Psalmist today warns us not to put our trust in mortal rulers who will, like us, one day head for the grave. Instead, we are told to trust in God. I think this is the basis behind Jesus’ admonition to Pilate that His Kingdom is not of this world; not that we should divorce ourselves from a world heading to Hell but that, as Paul VI once wrote, every political ideology no matter how close it might be portrayed to Christian values, has within itself the seeds of its own destruction unless it is an articulation of Jesus’ good news.
As the Psalmist notes God sets prisoners free, gives sight to the blind, lifts the oppressed, loves the righteous watches over strangers, and upholds the rights of those on the edge. These other worldly values are ones we might wish to see in our politicians and we can rejoice when their policies seem to come close to these things. We always remember, however, not to place our trust in mortals “in whom there is no help” but instead trust only in God, our rock and redeemer.
Such trust is the only sure way to navigate the difficult times in which we live and reject the siren voices that tempt us to despair.
Prayer
God, our guide,
calm our anxieties,
strengthen our resolve,
and increase our trust in You,
that we may no longer put our trust in mortals,
who offer nothing but division and discord,
that we may proclaim and welcome
Your coming Kingdom,
Amen.