“Praise for God’s Justice” Adult Sunday School Lesson

International Sunday School Lesson

For Sunday August 5, 2012

Purpose: To remind ourselves that God alone the source of unfailing love

Scripture Text: Psalm 146: 1-10

Psalm 146: 1-10 (NRSV)
(1) Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul! (2) I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God all my life long. (3) Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help. (4) When their breath departs, they return to the earth; on that very day their plans perish. (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!

My Thoughts by Burgess Walter

The Hebrew word that is translated “Praise the LORD” is a very familiar word for most of us, “hallelujah.”
This Psalm was a hymn sung by the congregation; today many of us praise God through hymns, and many of them are inspired words. However, there is one major difference this hymn is part of God’s Holy Word.

The theme of this psalm is that God and His Incarnate Son are the only ones worthy of our praise and worship. Everyone else and everything else has a limited lifetime. A man’s promise can only last as long as the individual that made it, but God is eternal. A promise from God is good for all of eternity.

Trust and faith are interchangeable; they basically mean the same thing. The reason we can trust God is twofold, God is the creator of everything, and He has always kept his promises.

The other part of this psalm speaks of God’s justice. God is always seeking what is best for us. There are times when we may not see God’s justice and compassion at work, but it is God’s primary concern for all of His creation. Once we sing this psalm our lives should be changed, our concern should become the same concern as God’s. If we are not concerned for the hungry, the imprisoned, the widows, the orphans, the strangers, (aliens) then we are not doing our part in carrying out God’s work.

Even today the threat of the continued existence of Zion (Jerusalem) appears to be a real possibility, but I am confident in God’s promises and Zion will continue to exist for all generations to come, Hallelujah.