HE’S ON OUR SIDE
Opening Prayer
Relax into God’s presence, affirming that he is always for you.
Read Psalm 146
1 Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord, my soul.
2 I will praise the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
3 Do not put your trust in princes,
in human beings, who cannot save.
4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.
5 Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God.
6 He is the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them—
he remains faithful forever.
7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets prisoners free,
8 the Lord gives sight to the blind,
the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down,
the Lord loves the righteous.
9 The Lord watches over the foreigner
and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
10 The Lord reigns forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the Lord.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
“If God is for us, who is against us?” (Rom. 8:31).In times of crisis, to whom do you turn? They may not be the obvious choices, and the people who make themselves available to help may have been in the background of your life until now. But your moment of need resonates with their life story, and sometimes new relationships develop out of difficult times.
This is a psalm about the God who helps, particularly those for whom life has been unjust and unkind. We are told not to trust in the powerful but to look to the God who keeps his promises. And then comes a list of the kinds of help he offers to the oppressed, hungry, prisoners, blind, the crushed, righteous, foreigners, the fatherless and widows. God’s heart is towards the marginalized, those who are on the outside of mainstream society. It is a passion articulated by Jesus in the so-called Nazareth manifesto (Luke 4:18,19), where he says the Spirit of the Lord is on him to bring good news and freedom to those who are normally overlooked. It’s a marvelous truth, that God is biased towards the poor.
Apply
Think back to those mentioned in the Beatitudes. How can you be a blessing to one of those described in the passage?
Closing prayer
Lord, I come before You in my weakness and poverty. I want to know again Your grace over my life.
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