Week 21 Psalm 146
Everybody knows that when you’re in a jam it helps to have an influential helper.
So I paused when I got to where it said: don’t put your confidence in powerful people; there is no help for you there.
I’m tempted to think that – in the normal pattern of things – 146:3 should read: put your confidence in powerful people because that’s where you’ll get help. But it doesn’t and this looks like another case where I’m just reading along and I find out that something I figured was reliably true isn’t.
What’s the writer driving at?
Well for one thing he fast-forwards and says this about Currently Powerful People: when their breathing stops, they return to the earth. And he contrasts that with the Lord: the Lord reigns forever.
If I could pin the writer down I wonder whether he might admit that well, technically-speaking a Powerful Person could give you some brief & temporary assistance.
But I’m really not so sure he’s saying even that. I figure maybe he’s coming at it from the viewpoint that the help of powerful people is roughly equivalent to no help at all. After all he did say: there is no help for you there.
The idea seems to be that when you need any kind of help go to someone who can actually help you.
Note: quotes from Psalm 146:3, 4 & 10 (NLT)