All our words of thanks, praise, glory and honor belong to God who is in charge, has all authority and power to do what He says, and is the One who saved us from ourselves and our sins. No one but God can do for us what we or any other human could do—He stood in the gap between our sins and our Father in heaven and paid the price to redeem us and set us free to enjoy an intimate, growing relationship with God forever. Our God, who created all that is in the world, creates new life in us. Be still and know that He alone is God. Believe. Rest in the blessed assurance that His love for us never changes, never quits, and never gives up on us. God is always with us and always hears our prayers for help with a way to walk us through our troubles and trials that will always teach us more about living the life we were created to be and live.
THIS is God whom David has been praising in the last few psalms. God is still the same God to us who led His newly freed, oppressed people from the evil Egyptians through the Red Sea—on dry ground! Trust God, He knows what He is doing! And while He is doing it—raise a hallelujah!!
Psalm 146, The Message
1-2 Hallelujah!
O my soul, praise God!
All my life long I’ll praise God,
singing songs to my God as long as I live.
3-9 Don’t put your life in the hands of experts
who know nothing of life, of salvation life.
Mere humans don’t have what it takes;
when they die, their projects die with them.
Instead, get help from the God of Jacob,
put your hope in God and know real blessing!
God made sky and soil,
sea and all the fish in it.
He always does what he says—
he defends the wronged,
he feeds the hungry.
God frees prisoners—
he gives sight to the blind,
he lifts up the fallen.
God loves good people, protects strangers,
takes the side of orphans and widows,
but makes short work of the wicked.
10 God’s in charge—always.
Zion’s God is God for good!
Hallelujah!
WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?
David again uses simple verbiage to tell of the greatness and power of God. He tells us of God’s character who is always in charge and will never let us down. God’s desire for us is not to destroy us but to give humbled hearts committed to Him, HIS BEST! God loves you. God loves me. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17
Everyone who calls and believes Him is saved! Forever!
Praise God for all He has done! Hallelujah! Praise God! The Psalmist began and ended each of the last five psalms with Praise the LORD! The psalmist begins with a personal vow of praise, then urges others to join him in praise to God. All God’s people need to trust God; not mere men and women, the Psalmist teaches. God is the Creator, Way-Maker, Miracle Worker, with all authority and power over His creation. God owns it all, is in all, and above all! There is no one on earth who can be God! Many try but it is not possible to remove God from His throne—And WHO in their right mind would want to try?
Even the noblest humans or our greatest heroes of justice in the world’s view cannot save us, since they have no control over their own destiny, let alone the welfare of others.
So, therefore, we surrender to the One and Only God who has our best interests in His heart because that is the character of God! Surrendering means Life Eternal. Surrender is not bowing our heads to just anyone but instead coming to full knowledge of who God is and what He is “dying” to do for us and through us so others will know His Love and Salvation, too! Surrender to God is our Salvation!
When we grow weary from the oppressive people of the world who think they are in charge; we must turn our eyes to God in the flesh, Jesus. I’m reminded now of what Jesus said in a crowded room of disciples and others as Mary of Bethany broke some expensive perfumed oil and washed Jesus’ feet. John writes;
“Six days before the Passover celebration began, Jesus arrived in Bethany, the home of Lazarus—the man he had raised from the dead. A dinner was prepared in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, and Lazarus was among those who ate with him. Then Mary took a twelve-ounce jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet with it, wiping his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance.
But Judas Iscariot, the disciple who would soon betray him, said, “That perfume was worth a year’s wages. It should have been sold and the money given to the poor.” Not that he cared for the poor—he was a thief, and since he was in charge of the disciples’ money, he often stole some for himself.
Jesus replied, “Leave her alone. She did this in preparation for my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.” John 12:1-8, NLT
Mary gave all she had for the One Who had all she needed. It other places of the gospel, Mary is the one who came as close as she could to Jesus and leaned in and “hung on every word” Jesus said. Mary’s love for Jesus was a surrender to the God who sent Him to save the world— “just as He said”—through the prophets of past centuries. Mary gave up the applause of praise for herself in doing the dishes for Martha to serve Jesus, instead she gave what would please Him most—her.
Paul explains this giving of oneself, daily, as an offering to God in this way;
“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” Romans 12:1-2, MSG
This was Mary’s “well-formed maturity” surrender to Jesus. True surrender is a willing obedience to Jesus Christ that demonstrates our love for God. It is not a downcast, giving up, last resort resignation to life; but a joy filled giving all we have for all we need most—Jesus—who is Eternal Life!
When Martha, Mary’s sister, not fully-formed in faith yet believed what she understood, blamed Jesus for the death of Lazareth because Jesus did come “at the right time”. Remember what Jesus said to her? “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?“ — John 11:25–26
This is the question of each day: Do I really believe what God says to be really real?
Come friends and let us gather at the feet of Jesus and hang on every word He says while embracing who He is and what He calls us to be and do! This Jesus, who stood in the gap between our sin nature and God who could not be where sin resides, took all the sins of the world on His shoulders and nailed them to His cross to pay our debt of sins forever—once and for all! This sacrificial “offering” of Himself was the price He paid to reconcile our relationship with God. We need only to believe that He did it all for us and live redeemed lives in the hope and knowledge that he is the One who sustains us.
FUN FACT: The word hallelujah (also spelled alleluia) means “praise ye Yah” or “praise the Lord,” combining the Hebrew verb hallel (to praise or boast in) with Yah (a shortened form of the name Yahweh/God).
And this is WHY we raise a Hallelujah! Praise the LORD! All because Jesus paid the debt of our sins and set us free to walk humble with God! Believers and doers of God/Jesus/Holy Spirit enjoy singing praises because our God “remains faithful forever.” We see it on each other’s faces whose faith is developing daily as they embrace what God is doing in us to continuously transform us.
LORD, GODThank you, thank you, thank you! There is no one like you! Praise God from Whom all blessings flow forever and ever, Amen
