Pray and Watch – Psalm 146

A text – Psalm 146:5-10

⁵ Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God,
⁶ who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps faith forever;
⁷ who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free;
⁸ the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous.
⁹ The Lord watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. ¹⁰ The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord!

A reflection:

Advent is a time of year when we in the far north experience (or dread the oncoming experience of) winter. It’s not as though we are surprised. It comes every year, and we prepare for it. But there is something about the cold that 1) makes us aware that we are alive and 2) reminds us that if we stay out too long, we might not be. It can demoralize people, especially people without resources like a car or a warm house or relief from the conditions the cold can bring on. At the onset of a season when we have to be more careful walking, traveling, or just getting to and fro, it is good to be reminded about how big and good God really is.

God creates heaven and earth and everything in them. God keeps faith forever. God brings justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry, sets prisoners free, heals the blind, uplifts the bowed down, loves the righteous, watches over strangers, and upholds the widow and orphan. And ruins the wicked.

We maybe don’t think about these attributes of God, these action verbs God is busy with every day. That’s why we have the psalms and other art that reminds us of what we might be quick to forget. Also, the arc of God’s justice is long, so sometimes we have to wait to see these good things come to pass, and sometimes we just get demoralized, like Fargoans sighing as we winterize our cars and plan longer commute times than in summer.

But know this: This is our God. Our God is the accomplisher of all these things and cares how it continues to go every day. And this God loves you and me and wants us to talk about where we are in all these things every day in prayer, trusting the Lord to see to what we are miserable about and long for help with. God has the means to accomplish that, even though we might doubt it.  So praise our God for these wonderful deeds and count on God to keep doing them. Pray and watch for it.

A prayer:

Lord God, thank you for loving us. Thank you for doing the great deeds of creation and justice and feeding and uplifting. Help us to remember that it is exactly in your nature to provide what we need because you love us. Amen.