Change We Can Trust: A Reflection on Psalm 146

If there’s been one constant in the years I’ve been writing this blog it’s me starting a post with some variant of “These are anxious times.” While there has been a different edge to such anxieties in our post-2015 world — both in terms of the anxieties that have given strength to far-right sensibilities and the anxieties those gains have created in the rest of us — to a great degree, it is just par for the course of being human. Empires have always risen and fallen, economies have waxed and waned, pandemics have come and gone. The question then isn’t whether we’re going to be anxious in the world, but what we do with that anxiety, where we turn when things feel like they’re falling apart. Today’s Psalm offers an important reminder that human problems are never going to have human solutions, and to look instead to our trust in God not only to get us through, but also to shape our actions and values in anxious times.

Psalm 146 begins with a general praise:

Hallelujah! Praise the Lord, O my soul!
I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

Such ritual and liturgical praises should not be considered empty or vain. Rather they are helpful reminders that no matter how desperate the situation, God transcends it all. Offering our hearts and minds in praise and thanksgiving does not ignore or bypass our problems, but puts them in a broader perspective, not unlike God’s answer to Job from the whirlwind.

Then it gets to the heart of the matter:

Put not your trust in rulers,
nor in any child of earth, for there is no help in them.
When they breathe their last, they return to earth,
and in that day their thoughts perish.

I often say that Christianity is always political but never partisan. It offers a vision of how community should function, which should certainly guide our social and political beliefs, but not strategies on how to actually live those out. The fact of the matter is, as long as we’re talking about human society, there will be sin, and therefore not only will we have social and political problems, but our answers are always going to be partial at best. For this reason, we can’t put our faith in anyone who claims to have the answers. Leaders, both good and bad, come and go and ultimately their ideas, plans, and policies will turn to dust along with their skin and bones.

This psalm almost certainly dates to the post-Exilic period. It’s interesting that it doesn’t yearn for a return to the idea of divinely-anointed kingship from before the Exile. Rather, it rightly recognizes that, anointed or not, those kings all failed in one way or another (and it wasn’t God’s idea to start with), and concludes that it’s foolish to put our trust in any ruler. They can be good or they can be bad, but they aren’t the answer.

Instead:

Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help!
whose hope is in the LORD their God;
Who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them;
who keeps his promise for ever;
And what does this God do? What are the things this God cares about?
Who gives justice to those who are oppressed, and food to those who hunger.
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 cares for the stranger;
he sustains the orphan and widow,
but frustrates the way of the wicked.

This echoes the spirit of Isaiah’s latter oracles that have come up often recently, in addition to the ethic behind the Sermon on the Mount. If we are followers of this God, these are the things that will drive our social and political beliefs and actions. No matter what specific policy solutions we may come up with, these should be our goals: justice and righteousness, food security, freedom from perpetual incarceration, healing, uplift, concern for migrants, orphans, and widows; and, of course, foiling the plans of those who would oppose such aims. Even saying these things today feels like a partisan comment, but it shouldn’t be. These are simply things the Scriptures tell us are close to God’s heart, and therefore close to ours too. There will be all kinds of strategies for moving the needle on them, some ‘right’ and some ‘left’, but for those who call ourselves Christians, they are as close as we get to a political manifesto or modus operandi. But the critical thing is to act on them, in our day-to-day life as much as in the voting booth (As it is written, “Do not put your trust in rulers…” — we don’t abdicate our responsibility for social action to government, but, trusting in God and God’s ways, act in whatever ways we can.)

The psalm ends with a reminder to God’s ultimate sovereignty:

The LORD shall reign for ever, your God, O Zion, throughout all generations.

No matter what happens, in moments of national success or failure, in times of health or plague, even when the bad guys are winning and when all seems lost for the faithful, God is still God.

During these fraught and anxious times, may we all remember that action is the antidote to anxiety, and, trusting that God’s ways are always greater than the ways of this world and its politics, remember what our duty is. It seems fitting to day to give our Lord the last word:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ … [And] ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12.30-31)