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A Happy Hope in the LORD our God Psalm 146
Are YOU a happy sort of human being?

Where do YOU find your hope in all that is happening?

The Psalmist points you (and me) to the LORD and away from mortals and empty promises for hope that can never satisfy.

Psalm 146:

הַלְלוּ־יָהּ הַלְלִי נַפְשִׁי אֶת־יְהוָה׃

As is the case with so many Psalms — songs of worship (from the original Hebrew) — Psalm 146 begins and ends with praise.

Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD, O my soul!

Psalm 146:1 RSV

The LORD will reign for ever, thy God, O Zion, to all generations.

Praise the LORD!

Psalm 146:13

Who IS the LORD?

Before we get to the text of the Psalm and happiness promised, let’s clarify the focus of Who we worship in the LORD.

יְהֹוָה

יְהֹוָה Yᵉhôvâh, yeh-ho-vaw’; from H1961; (the) self-Existent or Eternal; Jeho-vah, Jewish national name of God:—Jehovah, the Lord. Compare H3050, H3069.

Source: BlueLetterBible.org

Yehovah is used for the LORD from the very beginning of Scripture:

These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created. In the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens..

then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Genesis [בְּרֵאשִׁית] 2:4,7 RSV

LORD: Yehovah Eloheim

AND Yehovah is frequently used in conjunction with ‘אֱלֹהִים
- ʼĕlôhîym, el-o-heem’; plural of H433; gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God
AND (in Psalm 146 and other poetic praise) Ya [יָהּ] – a contraction of LORD, God or Jehovah and meaning the same.

Source: BlueLetterBible.org.

Psalms uses:
- Ya (for LORD) 43x
- Yehovah (for LORD) 687x
- אֱלֹהִים – ʼĕlôhîym (for God) 387x
בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ׃

In the beginning God [ĕlōhîm] created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1

Like other Psalms, even when not expressing human reactions other than happiness and hope, Psalm 146 is written and sung for the express purpose of worshiping the LORD God.

I will sing praises to my God while I have being.

Worship of the LORD as long as you live is a given for EVERY believer — and Psalm 146 opens with our response to the LORD our God:

While I live will I praise the LORD:

I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.

Psalm 146:2 KJV

Then the Psalmist contrasts the futility of those who do NOT praise the LORD our God:

Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save.

When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing.

Psalm 146:3-4 NIV

Can you think of some princes, presidents, premiers, prime ministers, popes, persistent politicians WE have trusted?

AND is it not so?

.. his thoughts and plans perish.

v. 4d- AMP

How blessed..

Blessed are…

Strong’s Definitions אֶשֶׁר ʼesher, – happiness; only in masculine plural construction as interjection, how happy!:—blessed, happy.

Happy are you..

Happy are you, O Israel!
Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD,
The shield of your help
And the sword of your majesty!
Your enemies shall submit to you,
And you shall tread down their high places.”

Deuteronomy 33:29 NKJV – from Moses; blessings to the tribes who were captive in Egypt and before the Hebrews would follow the LORD conquering the promised land.

Now the Psalmist leads us in worship:

Happy is he who has the God [ēl] of Jacob for his help,
Whose hope is in the LORD [Yᵊhōvâ] his God [ĕlōhîm],

Psalm 146:5 NKJV

Why Our Happy Hope?

The Psalmist outlines good reasons for worshipers of the LORD God to be happy. And it all points to CREATION, both in the beginning and in our everyday experience.
- He made heaven and earth,
- (He made) The sea,
- and (God made) all that is in them (the heavens, the earth and the seas);
- [it is He} Who keeps truth forever,
The LORD opens the eyes of the blind;
The LORD raises those who are bowed down;
The LORD loves the righteous.

The LORD watches over the strangers;
He relieves the fatherless and widow;

Psalm 146:8-9b NKJV

Consequence for those NOT blessed

WE don’t like to think about curse — only blessing (as if ALL receive blessing and are happy in the Lord our God).

The Psalmist, however, adds a brief contrast to happiness here — we all see it in many others.. or at times even in our own non-response to the blessings of God.

.. but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
Psalm 146:9c ESV

Do YOU choose to be HAPPY , that is: BLESSED in the LORD God?
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A heading for PSALM 146 in the AUTHORIZED KING JAMES VERSION reads: 
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The blessedness of trusting God

Do YOU trust God?

.. but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.

Surely, you who trust God are not wicked.

Why then, would you not be happy?

The Psalmist closes singing with great joy and praise!

The LORD shall reign for ever, even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations.
Praise ye the LORD.
Psalm 146:10 AKJV

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Why not add YOUR COMMENT and reaction to PSALM 146 or any Psalm for this summer.
July 11, 2025
The Beatitudes and the Multitudes – Part 3
MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Merry Christmas.

Such a joyful greeting from a Christian to another.

Returning our thoughts to the multitudes hearing Jesus’ teaching:

Matthew 5

King James Version (KJV)

Verse 13
- You are the salt of the earth.
Salt is plentiful and worthless, except that it makes our food to last and seasons its flavor to make our food more palatable.
- But if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and trodden under the foot of men.
I am trodden under the foot of man. But of what worth am I to this man (who calls himself the Son of Man)? What does he mean that I am the salt of the earth?
- Ye are the light of the world.
- A city set on an hill cannot be hid.
- Neither do men light a candle, and but it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light to all that are in the house.
What can all this mean? What does it mean to meet God on a hill overlooking the city?

Dearly beloved believer and seeker of the Lord God,

I leave this to your own conviction of the Spirit. Yet I challenge the context of your hearing the blessings or beatitudes of Jesus once more in considering His calling. Jesus speaks to the multitudes. The believing church sits in the crowd as a light on a hill or a candle lifted on a candlestick to light the whole house.

Many will hear the Word and wander off back into the darkness and destruction and death. Many will not see the Lord on the hill again until the call of the trumpet to Judgment, of which Jesus further warns the multitudes (immediately after these verses) of the fulfillment of the Law and Scripture in Him.

To the multitudes, our Lord further speaks of repentance for the sin we have done. He calls us to righteousness exceeding the appearance of the most respected representatives of God’s Law.

He tells us how to exceed the righteousness of rules by the intention of our heart and the thoughtfulness of our actions. Jesus forbids divorce. Jesus forbids anger without cause. He commands reconciliation between brothers (now he speaks to the church), before thinking that our offering to God is acceptable.

Jesus tells the crowd and the church how by our actions Christians are to demonstrate God’s light to the house and to the world. He proceeds to tell us how we, as God’s house and God’s city, and God’s people must do more than the Law, to go the second mile.

Further, He concludes:

^{Matthew 5:44}
- Love your enemy.
- Bless them that curse you.
- Do good to them that hate you.
- Pray for them that despitefully use you.
- And (pray for them that) persecute you.
Is this the church you signed up for? Is this the light on the hill you are among men?

It’s difficult, if not impossible, isn’t it?

Jesus then says (in verse 45) that we have to do it to be children of the Father.

Then he says essentially (in verse 46): If you love only those who love you, even the politicians do that. Ouch!

Then our Lord calls on us to do something that we cannot do:

Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

How?

Repent! Be obedient children of adoption by our Father in Heaven, who did send Christ Jesus to the Cross as perfect redemption for our sins.

‘Go; and sin no more,’ as our Lord has called upon us to do. (John 5:14; John 8:11)

Jesus’ teachings of ‘Blessed are you…” or ‘Happy are you…’ give us, perhaps, a little different than usual perspective on the reason for God to send His only Son to a manger in Bethlehem.

Have you ever thought of the Nativity of Bethlehem with the baby in a manger to be the beginning of His destination of His place for you on the Cross?

Do you think of the Cross when you wish someone (perhaps an unbeliever), “Merry Christmas?”

Do others see Christ’s Light in the salt of your joyful greeting?

To be continued…
December 19, 2013
The Beatitudes and the Multitudes – Part 2
Matthew 5

King James Version (KJV)
- Blessed are the poor in spirit.
NOT the poor in money – not the poor in anything other than a downcast spirit and soul of hopelessness. God has not looked on you with blessing. You live the life of curse and lack of blessing. God’s wrath must have looked on your life as worthy of nothing better than the dust of the earth.
- For theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
How can this be? Cursed. Living as souls paying the price of every sin. How can one so downcast in heart be blessed with the Kingdom of Heaven?
- Blessed are they that mourn.
We all mourn. We mourn the loss of a father, a mother, a husband, a wife, a child, a dear friend, a relative. We mourn their loss by death, by war, by famine, by disease, by abduction, by slavery, by imprisonment, by addictions, by drugs, by alcohol, by divorce, by hatred, by broken relationship, by loss of all hope of making all that is death and evil into desperation of grief. We all wail in the mourning of our hearts, broken again and again until the final grieving as death. I need freed from this!
- For they shall be comforted.
What comfort short of death has any man? What peace may a suffering servant know?
- Blessed are the meek.
The self-made, driven man is the one blessed by his own hand. Do we not aggressively pursue the best God has for our life now? God helps those who help themselves, right? Those who want to expand their kingdom of blessings on earth cannot be gentle, submissive, mild and gentle. The world will take from me every blessing, if I am meek.
- For they will inherit the earth.
How can I end up with nothing, yet inherit the earth?
- Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness.
No, not blessed are the hungry – not blessed are thirsty. Am I not hungry every day? Do some hunger for food in their extreme poverty and even thirst for unpolluted water to drink? Yes, these do suffer more than me and more than you. But here in this place Jesus asks the filled and the hungry both to hunger and thirst after righteousness. Hunger to do the right thing before God at all times and in all ways. Desire to feed your flesh with the food and water of God.
- For they shall be filled.
How can I be filled with the bread and wine of righteousness? How can the Word of Jesus fill the hunger of my soul?
- Blessed are the merciful.
Who would show me mercy? Do the rich and the powerful not enslave us without mercy? Will the conquering nation show mercy on the slaves of their might? Will the poor criminal not pay every penny owed to the rich man, while the influential will bribe the judge?
- For they shall obtain mercy.
Will God please show me some mercy, and the unrighteous justice?
- Blessed are the pure in heart.
I stand before God with a hypocritical heart and a soiled soul.
- For they shall see God.
How will I be cleansed of my impure spirit of the flesh?
- Blessed are the peacemakers.
We live in a place where our conquerors have forced peace. Shall I make peace with the unrighteous? We have peace only when we give in to the rule of our leaders.
- For they shall be called the children of God.
Does God not call on His children to fight for what is right? Can we be instruments of peace in a place of war? Is it the place of children to fight for the Father?
- Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.
Have the righteous and unrighteous both not been persecuted? Why would I do what is right knowing that I will be persecuted?
- For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
And if I do not do what is right? Will heaven have my soul?
- Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.
Is the man also a Prophet? Why does he say that others will speak evil of me for his sake?
- Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
I don’t want to be persecuted for my own sake, let alone for the sake of this Jesus. The Prophets of God were opposed by evil men of their captors and of their own religion.

(Just some possible thoughts of some in the multitude, hearing Jesus teach the Beatitudes.)

To be continued…
December 18, 2013