It is claimed there are just three words expressible in every language on earth: Amen, Hallelujah and Coca Cola. Tomorrow's set reading of Psalm 146 introduces us to the first of the last five psalms in the Book of Psalms, and all five are wrapped around with "Praise the Lord!" - or, as it is in Hebrew, "Hallelujah!"
In Old Testament days the word was used constantly as a liturgical response in worship and those who are familiar with the Anglican Book of Common Prayer will often have answered "The Lord's Name be praised!" when the minister has exclaimed "Praise ye the Lord!"
In the Jewish temple this kind of exchange went on between priest and people and was formalised in their hymn-book, which we know as the Book of Psalms. However, the psalmist is not at all happy that a congregation should simply repeat this great ascription of praise to God, Hallelujah, as a jingle or mantra to be chanted to work up some kind of spiritual ecstasy. The repetition of the praise-word encloses songs which are full of truth about God, a necessary reminder that praising him isn't something we can do in a state of mindless euphoria. Indeed, we need to be wide awake, with all of our faculties engaged in the business of praising the Lord.
Psalm 146 is full of disappointment at the failure of human institutions and leaders to meet the needs and aspirations of people who put their trust in them:
Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortal men who cannot save.
When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing. (vs.3-4)
The tribunals wending their increasingly weary way through the morass of duplicity, track-covering, greed and brass-faced disdain of the Irish nation and people might well have the psalmist's words written on the cover of their final reports. And whichever prince of the 21st century we put our hope in for a better tomorrow, be it Ahern, Bush, Gore, Putin or Blair, a mix of disillusion and cynicism may be the end result, for they are all mortal creatures. We need to heed the undiluted relevance of the psalmist's counsel that there is only one person in this world worthy of unconditional trust:
Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, the maker of heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them - the Lord who remains faithful for ever. (vs.56)
The psalm goes on to advise the weak and vulnerable of the earth to seek a true champion and protector. The Lord is the only one who can be relied on, for "He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry." It is the Lord who will emancipate those who are held in bondage, for "The Lord sets prisoners free, the Lord gives sight to the blind." It is the Lord who stands with those who have been crushed by injustice, for "The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous." It is the Lord to whom refugees and one-parent families can turn, for "The Lord watches over the aliens and sustains the fatherless and the widow."
In the final analysis, as we are presently observing with our own eyes, the Lord deals with those who abuse power and exploit those they were appointed to represent and nurture, for "he frustrates the way of the wicked."
The big question is, of course, are these merely timeless platitudes trotted out in church by way of drip-feed to the gullible? Answer no, if you believe with the psalmist that this world is in the hands of a God "who remains faithful for ever" (v.6). Answer yes, if you don't have a world view which has the living God as its focus and rationale. The repetition of the personal pronouns in Psalm 146 tell us the writer is not simply parroting a creed, nor are his opening and closing Hallelujahs second-hand ritual. This man's worship comes from personal commitment to the Lord God, his Saviour and King, and it is out of that kind of heart engagement that true worship and praise flow. The only meaningful Hallelujahs come from the lips of those who can also say, "I know this God remains faithful for ever, and I trust him." (v.10).
G.F.