Psalm 146:1-10 God hears the cries of those who place their hope in Him

 John 4:23–24

But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Jesus is the way, the truth and the only light of the world. In Him and through Him we are saved and brought into right standing with the Father. In Him and through Him we are given Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son and together is worshiped and glorified. There is power in the unity of our One God. God hears the cries of His people, those who place their trust in Him alone. Carla

Psalm 146:1-10

5 Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help,

Whose hope is in the Lord his God,

6 Who made heaven and earth,

The sea, and all that is in them;

Who keeps truth forever,

7 Who executes justice for the oppressed,

Who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord gives freedom to the prisoners.

8 The Lord opens the eyes of the blind;

The Lord raises those who are bowed down;

The Lord loves the righteous.

9 The Lord watches over the strangers;

He relieves the fatherless and widow;

But the way of the wicked He turns upside down.

10 The  Lord shall reign forever—

Your God, O Zion, to all generations.

Praise the Lord!

NKJV

The psalmist opens this praise psalm by exhorting his audience to praise Yahweh; he also describes his intention to praise Yahweh himself. He then exhorts his audience to place trust in Yahweh alone. The psalmist states that the blessed people in the world are those who hope in the God who created everything, helps the oppressed, feeds the hungry, heals the suffering, loves the righteous and protects the vulnerable. He also states that Yahweh opposes the wicked. He concludes by praising Yahweh, who will reign forever!  Faithlife Study Bible

My soul is another way of speaking of one’s inner being and is often used as a substitute for the pronouns “I” or “me.” While I live: The poet makes a strong vow to praise the Lord for the rest of his life.

The point is that even the best of people are not adequate help in times of terrible stress. Even princes are mortal, and are not able even to help themselves (118:9). In contrast is the individual who finds ultimate help in God who lives forever.

Happy indicates a deep and abiding pleasure, a manifest joy. This is the proper description of one whose help and hope is in God. 

Creation themes pervade the hymns of Israel (Psalm 104); here the point is that the Creator of the universe is the One who comes to the aid of the righteous.

In these two verses 8-9 there is a special focus on the gracious actions of God on behalf of the impaired, the helpless, the lonely, and the needy (38:6). 

But the way of the wicked is the contrast in God’s treatment of the righteous and the wicked is as pronounced in this psalm as it is in other psalms (1:4, 6; 147:6).

The Lord shall reign forever. The Bible presents several dimensions of the rule of God: He is King as Creator (Psalm 93); He is King as Savior of His people (Psalm 99); and He is King as the coming One (Psalm 98). This verse speaks of God’s present and eternal reign rather than specifically of His coming rule at the end of time. The use of the Hebrew term hallelujah at the end of the psalm balances its use at the beginning. The NKJV Study Bible

Psalm 103:6

The LORD executes righteousness

And justice for all who are oppressed.

Psalm 104:33

I will sing to the LORD as long as I live;

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

Psalm 63:4

Thus I will bless You while I live;

I will lift up my hands in Your name.

Psalm 107:9–10

For He satisfies the longing soul,

And fills the hungry soul with goodness.

Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death,

Bound in affliction and irons—

Psalm 147:6

The LORD lifts up the humble;

He casts the wicked down to the ground.

I resonated with this, from Maria Shriver, “I read an article about what kids need and how certain teachers are best able to help them when they're having a meltdown. The article said to ask a child, ‘Do you want to be helped, heard, or hugged?’ The writer then went on to say those are actually great questions to ask anybody at this time. I love that. As leaders—be it in our families, our workplaces, or our communities—we will never be able to totally have everyone's back all the time. That said, we can minister in the gap with our hearts and with compassion. We can minister by listening, by sharing practices, by showing tenderness, and by sharing our own experiences that helped us when we felt alone, afraid, and disconnected. We can minister by apologizing as well when it's needed. My friends, see yourself on this day and this week as a minister with a pulpit or platform, because you actually have one. Believe that you have a message worth sharing because you do. Believe that you have a presence that can make another person feel protected in this moment because you do.”

"They serve one another."

Which brings to mind Etty Hillesum’s empowering words, “Ultimately, we have just one moral duty. To reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it towards others. And the more peace there is in us, the more peace there will also be in our troubled world.”

Thank you Etty. Your words bolster and sustain me.

And let us remember, Etty did not write that sentence from a dispassionate distance. Speaking of a world tilting, Etty was a young Jewish woman who lived in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation and who died in Auschwitz, one of the millions of victims of the Holocaust. We didn’t know about her meticulous diary until decades after her death. From the day when Dutch Jews were ordered to wear a yellow star, up to the day she boarded a cattle car bound for Poland, Etty consecrated herself to the wholehearted task of bearing witness to the inviolable power of love. To honor the sacred present with sensitivity to human suffering and gratitude for beauty in the everyday. Sabbath Moments

Acts 4:8-12 Jesus is the ransom for our sins!

 1 Timothy 2:5–6

For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time, 

For God did not send His only begotten Son into the world to condemn the world but that through him the world could be saved. All praise and glory belongs to our Triune Godhead who so loved the world they created that they gave us Jesus, all God and all man, that through Him alone we could be saved. Carla

Acts 4:8-12

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: 9 If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, 10 let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. 11 This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ 12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” 

In Acts, this term filled, seems to denote a special empowering by the Holy Spirit that is in addition to His work of enabling believers to trust God and to live faithfully (Acts 2:4; 4:31; 9:17; 13:9).

This empowering of the Spirit reflects Jesus’ promise of power (1:8) that will allow the apostles to speak in a way that amazes their audience and confirms the truth of their message (verse 13). It also denotes the miracle-working power seen in the ministry of the apostles.

Peter addresses the rulers as those who have been given authority over the Jewish people. The Greek word used here, anakrinō, for examined can denote an official judicial proceeding. Peter points out that trials are convened for crimes, not for acts of mercy and love. He implies that the religious leaders are corrupt. Peter uses the opportunity of the proceedings to publicly proclaim the gospel. Referring to a person’s name was shorthand for their character and reputation. Peter turns the trial back on his judges, accusing them of the real crime. (Luke 22:52, 23). God, the ultimate authority, raised the one whom the council rejected—Jesus. The religious leaders have dramatically misunderstood both the true identity and mission of Jesus and their true standing before God.

Peter quotes from Psalm 118:22 concerning the stone. This metaphor is picked up again by Peter (1 Peter 2:4) and Paul (Romans 9:32–33; Ephesians 2:20). Jesus cites this psalm in Matthew 21:42.

From the perspective of the Jewish leaders Peter addresses, Jesus’ crucifixion is like a stumbling block (1 Corinthians 1:23), because anyone who hung on a tree (or a cross, in their view) was viewed as cursed by God (Deuteronomy 21:22–23). Just as the builders did not perceive the stone’s value in Psalm 118:22, so Israel’s religious leaders did not recognize their Messiah.

There is salvation in no one else. Salvation refers to deliverance from God’s wrath and to enjoyment of His favor. This is only given through faith in Jesus, who grants new life to all who follow him and embrace the message of His death and resurrection for the forgiveness of their sins (Acts 3:19–21). Faithlife Study Bible

This is the second description in the Book of Acts of someone being filled with the Holy Spirit (verse 31; 2:4; 9:17; 13:9). The initial filling accompanied the baptism in the Spirit. This filling brought boldness for God’s work. Jesus had promised His disciples that they would stand before kings and rulers and that the Spirit of God within them would implant in their minds exactly what to say to these leaders (Matthew 10:16–20).

The Old Testament refers to the cornerstone as the foundation of the earth (Job 38:6), the foundation (Isaiah 28:16), the stone for the corner (Jeremiah 51:26), the head cornerstone (Psalm 118:22), or the headstone (Zechariah 4:7). Thus the image of a cornerstone is used as both the chief stone and the stone at the corner of a foundation. In the first century a.d., the expression chief cornerstone was also used to refer to the stone placed on the summit of the Jerusalem temple. Thus Peter used the phrase to point out that when the people rejected Jesus Christ, they rejected the One who completed the plan of God for humankind. The phrase and its significance here would have been well understood in the first century, especially among the Jewish rabbis and people who knew the Scriptures.

Only by placing faith in the historical Jesus—the One who came, died, and was raised again—can a person be saved. The NKJV Study Bible

Psalm 118:22

The stone which the builders rejectedHas become the chief cornerstone.

Acts 2:24

whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it. 

Acts 3:6–8

Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength…

Matthew 1:21

And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”

It my “business”, it is easy to talk about what we believe. Yes, much easier to talk about it. Practice is another thing altogether.

Because we can simply recite a creed. And this I have learned over the years: beliefs are valid as a verbal affirmation, but they only come to life, (they only have bearing and impact), when there is skin—with faces, and names, and skin—attached.

Which takes me to my very favorite story to tell an audience, and to habitually retell myself.

A little boy was having nightmares. The kind that requires a momma's reassurance. (Dads, at least from my own experience, are typically not wired for nightmare duty.) So, to his momma’s room the boy went, "Momma, momma, I'm having nightmares."

"It’s okay honey," she told him, “Here’s what I want you to do. Go back to your room, kneel down by your bed, pray to Jesus, and he'll fix it."

Back to his room, the boy knelt by his bed, prayed to Jesus, hopped back in bed, and… more nightmares. All mommas know this story. Back and forth to momma's room, throughout the night.

On the sixth visit, "Momma, I know, I know the drill. I'm going to go back to my room. I'm going to kneel down by my bed, and pray to Jesus, and he’ll fix it. But before I do that, can I just lay in bed with you, and have you hold me?"

"Sure honey, why?"

"Because sometimes I need Jesus with skin on it."

Yes. And today, more than ever, we can be—and we need to be—Jesus with skin on it. Voices of mercy. And Compassion. And Welcoming. And Healing.

Speaking of names and faces and Jesus with skin, I just read this today in Religion News Service. A story about reporter Aleja Hertzler-McCain’s travel to El Paso, Texas, in March, to shadow two Catholic sisters as they accompanied detained migrants and their families in immigration court.

Part of the Scalabrinian religious community, which focuses on serving migrants, Sisters Leticia Gutiérrez Valderrama and Elisete Signor have built a comprehensive ministry and network of volunteers that has accompanied more than 1,000 people in immigration court since last June — and has continued to work with hundreds more in detention centers, as well as their families.

“I go because he is a human being. He is a migrant who is, at this moment, possibly lonely, depressed, scared,” Signor told Hertzler-McCain in March as they waited to visit a detained Sudanese migrant.

When Signor emerged from the visit, she came back with a task: “He likes crosswords, and I’m going to buy him one tomorrow.”

This ministry “doesn’t only transform the experience of the people we accompany, but we ourselves are transformed,” Gutiérrez Valderrama said at the volunteer information session.

“We are going to encounter sacred people. What they are going to tell us is sacred,” Gutiérrez Valderrama told potential volunteers. “Because who we’re going to encounter is the Lord Jesus there,” she explained, drawing on Christian theology of Christ’s presence with vulnerable people.

Yes, names and faces. Jesus with skin on it.

So, yes and Amen. “They serve one another. They have friends to protect them.” Sabbath Moments

Romans 10:8-13 Our faith is counted as righteousness, not our works.

 Romans 3:29

Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, 

There is no other way to the Father than through faith in Jesus and in Him whom sent Him. We are saved only by faith in the works of salvation in Jesus the Christ who willingly gave up His life to save ours. There is no longer Jew nor Greek, male nor female, slave nor free. We are all one in our faith in Him whom sent freedom to the masses! And who are the Gentiles? All who believe, in every nation, every person who believes in Him. Just believe! Carla

Romans 10:8-13

8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. 13 For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” NKJV

There are two kinds of righteousness, by works or by faith. One is inaccessible, the other is very accessible. Paul uses the words of Deuteronomy 30:11–14 to demonstrate that righteousness by faith is not far off and inaccessible, but is as near as a person’s mouth and heart. All one has to do is repent, believe in Jesus, and confess that belief.

Confess comes before believe in this verse because “mouth” precedes “heart” in Deuteronomy (verse 8). The order is reversed in the next verse. One has to confess with the mouth to be saved. For indicates that this verse explains verse 9. The condition for righteousness, that is for being justified, is internal faith. The condition of salvation, meaning deliverance from wrath and from the power of sin, is external confession, which is calling on the Lord for help (verses 12, 13). The NKJV Study Bible

What is righteousness? Most of us immediately think of a person trying to keep a list of rules, like a little boy or girl who never steps over the line. When Paul speaks of righteousness in Romans, he means far more than this commonsense understanding of the word. He draws on the Old Testament concept of righteousness, which speaks of a proper relationship between God and a person, or between God and His people.

In the Old Testament, righteousness is fundamentally an attribute of God (Psalm 71:15; 119:42). He alone is truly righteous. He is the One who remains faithful, to His promises, His covenant with Israel, and the Law. In turn, the Israelites as God’s people had the responsibility to exemplify God’s righteousness on this earth. Ultimately, this meant they had to love and worship the living God alone. 

The Law of Moses could be summed up in that command and its corollary, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18; Mark 12:31). Tragically, the Israelites did not comply. They proved unfaithful to the covenant, although God proved Himself as faithful. By sending prophets to His people, the Lord warned them again and again of their sinfulness. Finally He had to discipline them, with famine, military defeat, and even exile in Babylon. But God remained faithful, and He restored His people to the land and to Himself when they repented and turned to Him.

After their return from Babylon, the Israelites confused righteousness with a strict adherence to the Law as recorded in the Pentateuch. Indeed, the Jewish religious leaders added numerous amendments to the Law to ensure that no one would inadvertently break it. Zealous obedience to the Law was equated with righteousness. Yet mere external compliance to a set of rules did not please the Lord. What God wanted was repentant, humbled hearts that truly worshiped Him. He wanted to be the God of their hearts and minds, and the center of their devotion.

In his letter to the Romans, Paul clearly states that no one has achieved this standard; no one has completely loved and worshiped the Lord as they should (3:23). All have sinned. No good work or outward appearance of piety can restore a proper relationship with the Holy One. (Isaiah 64:6). 

On the one hand, the Gentiles did not pursue a right relationship with their Creator, so they had been given over to all kinds of evil (1:18–31). On the other hand, the Jews through external obedience to the Law and their traditions were attempting to justify themselves before God (9:31, 32). Both failed. 

Jesus is the only One who can stand before the glorious God; He is the only One who is truly righteous. Remarkably, He has offered us a way out of our slavery to sin. By placing our faith and trust in Him, we can be declared righteous. We can have a righteousness that has nothing to do with our own works but instead relies on Jesus’ sinless life and His sacrificial death for our sins. The Lord forgives us and declares us righteous because of our identification by faith with the righteousness of His So. Through Jesus, we can finally be released from the guilt of our sins. Not only can we approach the Holy One in praise and thankfulness, but we can do God’s will. The NKJV Study Bible

Deuteronomy 30:12–14

It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’…

Joel 2:32

And it shall come to pass

That whoever calls on the name of the LORDS

Shall be saved.

For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance,

As the LORD has said,

Among the remnant whom the LORD calls.

Isaiah 28:16

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD:

“Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation,

A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation;

Whoever believes will not act hastily.

Matthew 10:32

“Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.

We are on this journey together.

That is where we find our bearings for resilience.
That regardless of fear, we can choose hope.
That regardless of uncertainty, we can choose to trust other people.
That regardless of ugliness, we can choose to give and receive grace.
That regardless of discord, we can choose to seek harmony.
That regardless of animosity, we can choose kindness.
That regardless of intolerance, we can choose inclusion.

Or John Pavlovitz’s reminder today for the child in every one of us. “And I’ll remind them that even when bad people are rewarded, doing the right thing is still the thing most worth doing.I’ll teach them that when hatred seems the most treasured currency, love is still worth more than gold.”

Rev. Cameron Trimble’s reflections were good for my heart today. “Howard Thurman wrote about the ‘growing edge’ of a society, the place where new life is possible because people refuse to accept what diminishes human dignity. That edge is not held by those in power alone. It is held by communities, by individuals, by those who choose to remain grounded when the systems around them begin to lose their balance.”

We cannot control the interior life of those who hold high office. We can decide how we will live in response.

We can refuse to mirror instability with instability. We can resist the pull toward fear-driven thinking. We can stay rooted in relationships that hold us accountable and keep us connected to reality.

This is the work of disciplined, mature leadership. It is the work of remaining human in a moment when power itself seems to forget what that means. The biblical witness does not promise that such moments resolve quickly. It does insist that they do not have the final word, because power that loses its mind eventually collapses under its own weight.

What remains, and what rebuilds, are the communities that learned how to live with clarity, courage, and care in the midst of it.” Sabbath Moments