Our Hope, Our Help, Our Salvation

Text: Psalm 146 ESV

Well, good morning! For those of you who don't know me, my name is Don Straka. I'm one of the pastoral candidates here. Perhaps some of you know my wife, Jacque, or would recognize my son, Landin, who delights in running around smiling at everyone. 

Speaking of Landin, I realized this week that he has learned his first Hebrew word, and it is the one that begins this psalm. In fact, it’s one almost all of you know—Hallelujah. “Hallelu” means all of your praise,  and “yah” for Yahweh. “All of your praise Yahweh”. Or as it says in our version. Praise the Lord.

This psalm, Psalm 146, is the beginning of what are called the Hallelujah Psalms. They are the last five songs in this book. They act as a sort of highpoint in the psalter. We've gone through a whole range of emotions so far—groanings and achiness and pleas. But the book ends with man's highest emotion: the call to praise Yahweh. 

This psalm captures that in the first few verses: 

“Praise YAHWEH! Praise YAHWEH, O my soul! I will praise to YAHWEH as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.” (Psalm 146:1–2 ESV)

It is a call to a life full of worship and praise. While we have breath, we are to praise the Lord. And when we enter into eternity, we shall continue our song for all ages. 

But in order to live this life of praise, we are going to need some fuel. This song points us to one, of many reasons, we should join in endless praise to our God. This psalm sings forth that our hope, our help, and our salvation does not come from man, but from God. 

The psalm is broken up into two sections, a warning and a blessing: a warning not to trust man and a blessing to those who trust God. 

A Warning

The first section is a plea to not trust man. Look at verses 3–4:

“Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.” (Psalm 146:3–4 ESV)

The psalm opens this section by saying, “don't trust in princes”. This is not a call that literally focuses on only princes: “don’t trust Prince Charles or Prince Harry, or Prince Edward. This is poetry after all, and it is employing the use of metaphors. 

“Don’t trust in princes” means don't trust in influential people. Don't trust in the people who can make things happen, who can institute change. Don’t trust rich people, gifted people, powerful people, talented people. 

We all have this gut feeling that mankind cannot save us. Marvel has made a dozen bank vault’s worth of money giving viewers the cure to man’s shortcomings. They have realized that inside all of us lies a gut feeling that man will always fall short. Just picture any Marvel comic or movie, and you will see what I mean. A villain arises—like Ultron, Thanos, or Green Goblin—and mankind cannot defeat him on their own. But, have no fear, the heroes are here. Cue Iron Man, Spider Man, the Hulk, etc. 

The key to any Marvel story is that clearly mankind is insufficient to handle the obstacle, but there is some help that comes from outside of man. 

Well, I think Marvel is on to something that actually connects with reality. We all have this gut feeling that mankind cannot save us. When we stop and think about it, we realize that man and his plans will fail us at some point.

Then it explains why. It's because they can't save you. In man, you have no actual hope and the psalmist tells you why this is true. It says, 

“When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.” (Psalm 146:4 ESV)

There's this little play on words—Don't trust an earthling, a man, because he's going to return back to the earth.

In short, this is saying, don't trust man because he's going to die. Man will die, and when he dies, his plans are going to perish with him.

Man can help us in hundreds of ways, but we can’t mistake that help, for something that should have our full trust. Though you should select one son of man out of the many, and should imagine that he differs from the rest and may be safely depended on, you will be mistaken. There is none to be trusted, no, not one. 

“Thus says YAHWEH: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from YAHWEH.” (Jeremiah 17:5 ESV).

What we always need is to put our full trust in God, even if we are going to seek help from man. It is true that God often works through means. It’s okay to go to a doctor for help. The point is not that doctors are bad or that they can’t help you. The point is that doctors make a terrible God. We can’t put our hope there: “If I could find the right doctor, meet the right counselor, get into the right program, have the right army, the right weapon.” None of that will ultimately help. This psalm is a pleading for us to not put our hope in man. 

Ask yourself where you might be trusting in man or some scheme of man. I don’t know if it’s a doctor or a plan of man or something else. It doesn’t matter what it is. Wherever or whatever it is, you are trusting in man. And I want you to hear this morning that it is foolish. 

This works on an individual level and for our entire body of Table rock. 

We can’t slip into thinking: If only we could have a building. If only the sound worked perfectly every week. If only all our staff were full time. . .  All those may be helpful, but we can’t put our trust there. What Table Rock needs—and what we all need individually—is more of our God. We need him.

Part of the role of suffering in our lives is to point out what we are trusting in. Let every sickness, let every hardship, let every trial, point us to the fact that with man there is no hope, but with God there is full hope. 

So that's the warning. Don't trust man. He can't save. And it sets us up for this blessing. And it is a great blessing.  

A Blessing

As we read this, listen for the comparison between man and God. Here's verses 5 through 10:

“Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in YAHWEH his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever; who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. YAHWEH sets the prisoners free; YAHWEH opens the eyes of the blind. YAHWEH lifts up those who are bowed down; YAHWEH loves the righteous. YAHWEH watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. YAHWEH will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise YAHWEH!” (Psalm 146:5–10 ESV)

This song is trying to get us to feel the ridiculousness of trusting in man. And you can see it by following the comparisons: 

1. With man you have princes who reign over their providence. 

2. With God you have the one who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them.

This is who we get to trust. Here's how Jeremiah puts it:

“‘Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.” (Jeremiah 32:17 ESV)

That's what it's trying to get at. Our God reigns over all things, and it doesn't matter what is in front of you, it is not too hard for God.

The picture is something like when you go play a video game where you're going to fight someone—something like Super Smash Brothers. Well, you each get to choose the character you get to fight with. And the picture would be you could choose this character who has zero strength, and zero stamina, and fleeting health, or you could choose the character with the maxed out attributes. He’s as strong as can be. Nothing can penetrate his armor. Every attack he wields lands. And the psalm wants you to feel the foolishness of choosing the first character.

The comparison doesn’t stop there though: 

1. With man there is no salvation or using other words “no deliverance, no help, no rescue.” 

2. With God there is justice for the oppressed, food for the hungry. He sets the prisoners free, opens blind eyes, rescues those who are “bowed down.” He watches over the sojourner, and the widow and fatherless. He delivers. He is our hope and our help. 

3. With man you have someone whose breath departs, he returns to the earth, and his plans fail. 

4. With God you have faith forever, and the Lord who will reign forever—to all generations. 

This song is singing forth the beautiful reality that we get to trust God. Imagine if this wasn't true. If our final hope, if everything, if all that we needed, was dependent on man. 

But the maker of heaven and earth, the God who has opened our eyes, who has set us free, who saved us, we get help from him. That's what this song sings forth. 

The God of Our Salvation

In the next section, we're going to see a list of obstacle after obstacle that seems impossible to overcome. But God answers every one of them. But this verse is the backdrop. He's over everything. He's not just a prince, he's a king. So we trust our God because he's powerful. But then we trust him because he has pity:

“who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. YAHWEH sets the prisoners free; YAHWEH opens the eyes of the blind. YAHWEH lifts up those who are bowed down; YAHWEH loves the righteous. YAHWEH watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. YAHWEH will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise YAHWEH!” (Psalm 146:7–10 ESV)

The point here is that man can talk all day long about overcoming these obstacles, but God actually does. Now if you noticed the title of this sermon: God is our help, our hope, and our salvation. Why the word salvation? God does not just help us with temporal needs, like health, happiness, etc. When we read these phrases—“sets prisoners free,” “causes blind eyes to see,” “lifts up the lowly, the bowed down”—our attention is drawn to Isaiah 61 and then to when Jesus quotes Isaiah 61 in the synagogue. We read this in Luke 4:

“And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:16–21 ESV)

Notice the similarities between this description in our psalm: liberty to the captives, sight to the blind, liberty to the oppressed. 

This song is singing forth the fact that our God saves those who are spiritual prisoners, those who are spiritually blind, those who are bowed down. God lifts them up.

The way that we know that God does this is that Jesus actually fulfilled it. Jesus came, and when he came, literally those who are in bondage to sin whose eyes were blind, they were opened. Those who were low, who were despised in the world, were brought up. 

This song is saying that our salvation, our hope, our help, it's not from man, it's from God. Man cannot do that. Man cannot open blind eyes. Man cannot cause us to see God. Man can't do it. 

The difference between God and man at this point is the difference between a placebo and the actual antibiotic. Man has his schemes for salvation. Some swallow them and feel like they are taking effect. But they really haven’t cured the problem. 

But God comes and says, “I have actually done what needs to be done. I have sent my Son so that literally those who are in bondage to sin whose eyes were blind, they can be opened. Those who were low, who were despised in the world, were brought up.”

Now we see the significance of God loving the righteous and bringing the wicked to ruin. This is why I said this blessing is such good news! “The righteous” is us—those who were blind, in prison to their sin, lowly, but who have come to God and trusted him for salvation. 

And God looks down now and says, “I love you. You’re mine. I care for you.” But he says to the wicked—those who have looked to princes for salvation—he says, “your way will perish.” 

If you haven’t surrendered your life to Christ this morning, please hear that nothing else will save you. You must turn to God through Christ, and if you do, oh it will be a sweet blessing! If you have trusted him, please let this be a sweet reminder that God saved you. Just let that sink in. God saved you! 

Our Help at All Times

Now, this psalm doesn’t stop at saying God only helps set the spiritually bound free, the spiritually blind to see. He is our help at all times, in every way. 

The way that this psalm argues is by saying, if our God would set the prisoners free, open the eyes of the blind, lift up the lowly. If he would save people, if he would do this impossible task by sending his Son, such a great cost to secure our eternal joy,  if he would do that, why would we turn anywhere else for hope? 

Why would we turn to man who's plan failed with salvation, whose plan will fail in every other area? Why would we turn to him?

We turn once again to Romans 8:32: 

“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32 ESV)

This is an argument from the lesser to the greater. 

Here’s what I mean. If you say to your son, “Please run next door and ask Mr. Smith if we can borrow his pliers,” and your child says, “But what if Mr. Smith doesn’t want us to borrow his pliers?” An argument from a greater to a lesser would say, “Yesterday, Mr. Smith was happy to let me borrow his car all day long. If he was happy for me to borrow his car, he’ll be very willing for us to borrow his pliers.”

This is the logic of how to apply this to your life. If God could do something as impossible as saving you, getting you a job is no problem. Sustaining you while you’re single, no problem. Meeting you in depression, no problem. Opening up your eyes in the morning to see beautiful truths from the Scriptures, no problem. 

Let us celebrate this hope, this help, this salvation and praise the Lord!