Psalm 146 (NRSV)
Read Psalm 146 on biblegateway.com
Verse 1Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul!
Verse 2I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God all my life long.
Verse 3Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help.
Verse 4When their breath departs, they return to the earth; on that very day their plans perish.
Verse 5Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God,
Verse 6who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps faith forever;
Verse 7who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free;
Verse 8the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous.
Verse 9The Lord watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
Verse 10The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord!
Devotion
How do we praise? The psalms seem to make it clear that one of the key ways that we praise is through song. Why do we praise? Because God saves us.
Music was alive in my home during my first five years of life. My dad was an exceptional pianist. I sat down beside him frequently on the piano bench. But then my parents divorced, and it could be said that the music died. Decades later, my soul friend and I were doing a Bible study together. In The Song of the Seed by Macrina Wiederkehr we read this: "Help me to learn the art of singing in the midst of my sorrows. Teach me to sing my way out of the tomb. Is that the secret of resurrection? Must we all learn how to come out of the tomb singing?" Psalm 146 seems to sing its way out of tombs of being fatherless and oppressed, imprisoned and hungry.
This phrase—singing our way out of the tomb—inspired me to begin taking voice lessons from a brilliant Christian vocalist. Voice lessons for me are a mix of vocal technique, spiritual direction and therapy. All of this ultimately leads to praise. Perhaps this week you might take a moment to sing your way out of the dark and give thanks that God saves us from the tomb.
Prayer
Dear God, thank you for the spoken word as well as the sung word. May my voice rise in song to give you praise—and may that singing lead to life. Amen.