Who Can You Really Trust?
Psalm 146 reminds us why our hope and help must rest in the God who is faithful, cares for His people, and reigns forever.
We put our trust in people every day. But Psalm 146 reminds us that our ultimate hope is to be in God, not in people. Even the most powerful and influential people are temporary, and none of them can provide the help and salvation that we need most.
Psalm 146 points us instead to the God who made heaven and earth, keeps His promises forever, cares for His people, and will never surrender His throne. Our hope is secure when it rests in Him. And when we understand who He is and what He has done for us, trusting Him leads naturally to praising Him.
A Life of Praise
Psalm 146 begins and ends with the same command: “Praise the Lord” (Hebrew, "Hallelujah": Hallel - praise; Yah/Jah - God). The psalmist calls the congregation to praise God, but then he turns that command toward his own soul. Worship is something we do together as God’s people, but it must also come from the core of who we are personally. Our whole lives are to be spent praising the Lord who gives us life (Acts 17:25) and gives His people eternal life (Romans 6:23).
Ken described praising God as both our “full-time job” and our “full-time privilege.” We do not clock in when we walk through the church doors and clock out when we leave. There are 15 references to either "God" or "Lord" in this psalm of 10 verses. As this psalm is consumed with God, so our lives should be. He gives us every breath, and our lives are gifts to be used for His glory. The whole of our lives, for the whole of our lives, should be spent praising Him. Even when circumstances make praise difficult, we can resolve with the psalmist, “I will praise the Lord as long as I live.” Our
Don’t Put Your Ultimate Trust in People
The psalmist then gives a warning: do not put your trust in princes or in a son of man. People may have power, influence, resources, and the ability to provide temporary help, but they cannot give us the salvation we ultimately need. Every earthly leader will eventually die, and the plans and promises they make can disappear with them.
That makes putting our ultimate trust in people a poor exchange. We are trusting someone who is dependent upon God instead of trusting God Himself. Earthly leaders cannot even keep themselves from dying, much less give true life and help to anyone else. When we give a person the trust and faith that belong to God alone, we are asking that person to carry a weight they were never able to bear and rob God of the praise He is due. Finite man is not worthy of our trust and praise. Only the infinite God who will forever reign is (see Jeremiah 17:5-8).
Psalm 146 gives us a better place for our hope: “Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God.” The God of Jacob is the covenant-keeping God who remained faithful to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob even when they were not faithful to Him. He is still faithful to His promises today.
The God We Can Trust
The rest of Psalm 146 gives us reason after reason why God deserves our trust. He is the Creator who made heaven, earth, the sea, and everything in them. The God who made everything out of nothing has the power to meet every need of His people. Even the things in this world that seem massive, mysterious, threatening, or beyond our control remain completely under His sovereign authority.
He is also faithful. Unlike finite people whose plans can change or end, God “keeps faith forever.” There is risk in placing ultimate trust in people, but there is no risk in trusting the infinite, covenant-keeping God. He does what He says He will do, and His steadfast love remains upon His people.
Psalm 146 then shows us how that care reaches into the needs of His people. God executes justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry, sets prisoners free, opens blind eyes, lifts up those who are bowed down, watches over the sojourner, and upholds the widow and fatherless. He is our provider, defender, liberator, and help. No child of God should ever conclude that he or she has no one to turn to.
Jesus Is Our Ultimate Hope
Psalm 146 ultimately points us toward Jesus. When Jesus stood in the synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4:16-21), He read Isaiah’s promise of good news for the poor, liberty for captives, sight for the blind, and freedom for the oppressed. He then declared that the Scripture had been fulfilled in their hearing. The things Psalm 146 says God does are seen powerfully in the ministry of Christ.
But what Jesus did for hurting people during His earthly ministry was also a foretaste of something greater. Through His death on the cross and victorious resurrection, Jesus defeated sin, death, and everything sin has brought into this world.
Jesus, in Matthew 26:28: "for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for man for the forgiveness of sins." Everyone who trusts in His atoning blood is in the steadfast, covenant love of God forever and assured of forgiveness of sins and the imputed righteousness of Christ, justified before God, and given eternal life. He brings true, eternal salvation to His people.
One day, those who belong to Christ will experience the fullness of that salvation. There will be no sin, struggle, hunger, oppression, captivity, or need. The God who cares for His people now will care for them forever. That is why our hope does not rest in what another person can do for us but in what Christ has already done and what He has promised still to do.
Nothing Can Separate Us From His Love
There will still be times when life leaves us bowed down. Some struggles may be removed in this life, while others may remain until the day we die. But our confidence does not depend upon our circumstances changing. We can lift our heads because our hope rests in the God who has promised an eternal future to everyone who belongs to Christ.
The Lord loves the righteous (146:8). Those who have been declared righteous in Christ live under His steadfast covenant love, and nothing can separate them from that love (Romans 8:35-39). We are never beyond His care, never outside His love, and never without His help.
Psalm 146 ends where it began—with praise. The Lord will reign forever. He will never lose His throne, and He will forever remain faithful, just, compassionate, and loving toward His people. Ken summed up the message with a simple statement worth remembering: “Whoever you trust, you’re going to praise.”
Our trust belongs to the One who alone can bear it. Our hope belongs to the One who alone can save us. And our praise belongs to the Lord who will reign forever. "Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!"
Questions for Reflection
- Where am I most tempted to place the kind of trust in people that belongs to God alone?
- Which description of God in Psalm 146 do I most need to remember in my present circumstances?
- Is there an area of my life where I feel bowed down, captive, vulnerable, or in need? How does Psalm 146 encourage me to trust God in that situation?
- How does Jesus fulfill the hope and help described in Psalm 146?
- If “whoever you trust, you’re going to praise” is true, what does my praise reveal about where I am placing my trust? Or what does in whom I am placing my trust showing whom I am really praising?
Hallelujah. Praise the Lord!
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