To the Point

Scripture: Psalm 146

In recent years there has been a big rise in people working from home.  This is because it became a necessity during the height of the pandemic, but it has continued because many workers, especially younger ones, have found they prefer it this way.  The results speak for themselves.  One study found that employees that work from home are 47% more productive than those that work in an office.  However, there are some unintended downsides to this, such as a loss in social skills.  One survey of young adults, ages 18-27, found that for those who work or attend school remotely 50% reported feeling like their social skills have decreased.  This is not just a young person issue.  The findings of a 2020 study found that for most people social skills begin to deteriorate in their late 30’s and into their 40’s.   Social skills, like all skills, deteriorate if we do not actively develop and use them regularly.   Even though remote work is not going anywhere, all people still need the ability to interact face to face, which is why a lot of professional focused media has focused on this.  For instance, Harvard Business Review, the job finding website Indeed, a professional educators website, and more have all published articles in the past two years about how to introduce yourself to someone else. 
While these articles have different authors, they essentially all say the same thing.  Introducing yourself, according to these articles, requires three steps.  First, focus on the present, establish who you are and what it is you do.  Second, focus on the past and explain where you have come from and what you have accomplished.  Third, focus on the future and push the conversation forward with what clearly stating future expectations are goals.   All the articles are confident that this is the secret formula to a perfect introduction that is not long and rambling but also not too abrupt and short.  While the order may not be quite right, this morning’s scripture serves as an appropriate introduction to God.  This Psalm gets to the point of who God is as revealed by scripture.   This morning’s scripture should give us a better understanding of who God is, but as God’s people it should also help us see who we can be. 

It is not by random chance that this psalm serves as an introduction to God is.  Psalm 146 through Psalm 150 are a set of psalms that all go together.   Each of these songs begin and end with Hallelujah which means Praise the Lord.  These Psalms are a unit that go together to express all the reasons why God is worthy of all our praise.  It makes sense then that the first psalm in the series would serve as the introduction.  This introduction to God does not follow the recommended past, present, future format recommended by all of the articles.  This is because God does not change life shifting shadows.  God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.   So, what this scripture states about who God is, is just as relevant today as it was when it was first written.  There are four major things that this scripture states about who God is. 
 
First, verse 6 state that God is the maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them.   Understanding God not just as our creator, but the creator of all, is a fundamental way we understand God.  After all, Genesis 1:1 begins with in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  We believe God is the Creator, but I am not sure we always appreciate how remarkable of a creator God is.  This morning’s scripture states that God created the sea and everything in it.  Do you know how much is in the sea?   It is estimated that there are over 30,000 species of fish in the oceans.  It is an estimate, because one thing scientists are sure of is that we have not found them all yet.  That is just fish, that says nothing about all the creatures that God created that live in the ocean, or the creatures that live on land because then there is even greater diversity.  For instance, there are more than 17,000 different types of butterflies on our planet, and it is estimated there are more than 350,000 different species of beetles.   That says nothing of the more than eight billion people alive today, all who have been hand crafted by God and are fearfully and wonderfully made. 
That does not even touch the heavens, whose size and scope is almost beyond our comprehension.  Our galaxy alone, the Milky Way, is believed to have more than 100 billion stars, and the low-end estimates put the number of galaxies in the universe at over 200 billion, each with billions of stars.  If you were to count every single grain of sand on every beach on earth, that number would be less than the number of stars in the universe.   All of it is created by God.   God as a creator is more imaginative, more productive, and more awe-inspiring than we can wrap our mind around.   God is an infinite creator of infinite creativity. 

 The scope and scale of God’s creative nature, can be incredibly intimidating, which is why the next thing this scripture teaches us about God is so encouraging.  Verses 7-9 of Psalm 146 make it clear, that even though God is a creator on a massive scale, God cares about people.  God cares about us.   This morning’s scripture points out that God cares for the righteous; that is those who seek to follow God.  This morning’s scripture also points out that God has great care for more than just those who already love God.  Verse 9 states, “The LORD watches over the foreigner, and sustains the fatherless, and the widow.”
 
In a tightknit and patriarchal culture foreigners were the perpetual outsiders while widows and orphans were the most vulnerable and marginalized members of society.  This morning’s scripture states that God cares for the very people who are easily forgotten, vilified, or taken advantage of.   Throughout the scriptures, from the Torah to the prophet, to the teaching of Jesus, and then the early church we find this is a consistent message.  God is on the side of the powerless and disadvantaged.  This morning’s scripture tells us how God is there to help those who can not help themselves.   It states that God upholds the cause of the oppressed and God frustrates the way of the wicked.  This is because God is a God of justice.   God is a God of love who cares for all the people that God created, because that is an essential part of who God is. 

The final aspect of who God is that this scripture reveals to us is that God is forever.   God is faithful forever and God reigns forever.   This morning’s scripture begins by pointing out the folly of putting our trust in human leaders, who cannot save.   They are fleeting, but God is not.   This morning’s scripture states that God gives sight to the blind, that is to say God meets the needs of those in need.  It also states that God lifts up those who are knocked down.    Because God is forever, those are not fleeting promises.  

This Psalm does a wonderful job at summarizing some of the aspects of who God is that we see in scripture.  It gets right to the point in stating that God is the Creator of all, God cares for the vulnerable, and God is forever.  This scripture seeks to communicate to us who God is, and if we take what it states to heart then this can shape how we interact with God and how we interact with the world.   Keeping in mind that God is forever, can really help ground us and keep us from getting consumed with worry and dread.   We may feel knocked down, we may feel things are not right, but we can trust that the Lord lifts up those who are down.   We can trust that God is never early, God is never late, and that God is going to do exactly what God states because God is forever.   Because God is forever, and because God is the one who saves, then our anxieties can be tempered.   Because no matter what the results of this Tuesday are because The LORD reigns forever; God is God of all generations. 

This morning’s scripture tells us that God is a God of justice. Because this is part of who God, is we can have confidence that in the end good wins out.  I think the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said it best, “the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice.”   If part of who God’s nature is to have special care for those who are vulnerable, then as people who seek to follow God we should too.  God upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food for the hungry, so we should as well.  We care for those in need because God cares for those in need.   We act with love and compassion to those who can not help themselves, because that is the attitude that God has towards them and us.  

Finally, when we consider the vastness of God’s creation and the creative nature of God, when we consider that God created stars beyond number yet still loves us on an individual level, then there is really only one response we can have:  Praise the Lord!   Praise the Lord, O my soul!  I will praise the Lord all my life.  I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.   Friends, how can we not?  

​This morning’s scripture gets right to the point of who God is, and if we take it seriously it also tells us who we should be.  We should be God’s people, whose hope is in the LORD, because God is forever faithful.  We should be God’s people, who seek to love the oppressed, the disadvantaged, the marginalized, and the needy because God loves those people.   We should seek to be God’s people who declare Hallelujah!   This scripture tells us who God is, and by the grace of God may it define who we are.   May we praise the Lord!  Praise the Lord!