Put not your trust in princes,
In a son of man, in whom there is no salvation…
Blessed is the one whose help is the God of Jacob,
Whose hope is in the Lord their God…
The Lord sets the prisoners free
The Lord opens the eyes of the blind
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down
The Lord loves the righteous
The Lord watches over the refugee
He upholds the widow and the fatherless
Psalm 146 (excerpts)
This is a clear call to not put our trust in human political leaders, the people in ruling power (princes).
It is easy to look at this Psalm and say, of course, we don’t put our trust in President Donald Trump or the Republican party. Many have been saying that, not just these past few weeks, but for four years. Yet, it should be equally true of President-Elect Joe Biden and the Democratic party. We are not to put our trust in them, either. We are not to lift them up as the ones to bring salvation.
The word salvation is important here. When we talk about salvation, we are not talking about political solutions. It is about our hearts, our spirits, our lives. It is about coming from death into life. It is about rescue from the rule of darkness. And that rule of darkness is still very operative on the earth and in our political system. When it comes to the deep, transforming work of salvation that God is about, there isn’t a political solution for this.
And we are not to put our trust in them.
To trust something or someone for salvation means to put our full weight on them to hold us. It means that we are looking to them as solid ground, an unshakeable foundation to stand on, to build on; the bedrock that will hold the weight of our lives, our loves, our passions, our fears and concerns, our cries for justice and salvation.
The truth is that no one who has been in power, no person or party, can do this. And when it comes to the things that are God’s priorities in this Psalm, no one has truly served or benefitted, let along saved, those who are the most vulnerable, the marginalized, those from the Struggle who live with their backs to the wall. Some people and parties do better than others, but even with a change in leadership, there is a lot of work to be done because all the oppressive systems are still in place, and because of the sin and brokenness of human hearts in a country that is split down the middle regarding what is good and right and true and important. And we are also a Church that is split down the middle on what they believe is at the heart of God.
One of the reasons why we are not to put our trust in princes is that they are a human and their plans don’t last; they come to nothing. Verse 4 tells us that human plans perish along with humans, whereas the Lord “remains faithful forever,” (v.6) and “will reign forever, to all generations.” (v.10)
Human plans, political platforms declaring what they will be about, don’t last, according to this. We saw that in 2016. After President Obama spent eight years putting his plans in place, President Trump came in and has sought to overturn and undo everything that President Obama did. Chances are good, once President-Elect Biden comes into office, that he will seek to undo much of what President Trump has put in place. Human plans perish. Say it with me – human plans perish.
This isn’t a new thing. It’s not an American thing or even a modern thing. Israel had a long history of having really bad kings who oppressed the poor, sacrificed their children and worshipped other gods, and then good kings who repented and sought to follow God and reform all that the bad kings had done. The psalm doesn’t say to put our trust in the good kings but not the bad ones. It tells us to not put our trust in either of them.
Why? Because they can’t compare to God. They can’t bring salvation. And God is our King. Their political platforms and promises and plans can’t compare with God’s. While human leaders may have some good plans, they are not all God’s plans.
In the American system, we see this. Because there are two parties, we feel we must choose between goods and evils, and then argue that our choice is, somehow, God’s choice. The truth is that while it is important for us to vote, no vote is clean. Both sides have problems.
No matter who is in power, we’ve got to be consistent with our critique of the empire, of capitalism, of oppressive systems that serve only those in power on both sides. People in power (princes) will always be about staying in power, but God’s platform is not about power. God’s platform is always about the powerless.
Let’s look at it.
God executes justice for the oppressed
God gives food to the hungry
The Lord sets the prisoners free
The Lord opens the eyes of the blind
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down
The Lord watches over the sojourner
He takes care of the widow and the orphan
This is a list of the most vulnerable in our society, those who are the most dependent on others for survival and help. Completely at the mercy of the systems. These are the ones who are often victimized rather than saved by those in power.
Who are the oppressed?
If it wasn’t clear to us before George Floyd, our black and brown brothers and sisters have been under the boot of oppression since this country was founded. While some progress has been made, we are not that far from the failed efforts at reconstruction of the South following the Civil War.
The light is being shone upon unjust systems that continually crush the poor. What we call our ‘justice system’ is actually unjust in that it is biased toward people with power, with money, and when you look at the sentencing in the “war on drugs,” biased against African-Americans. The injustice of that system includes outrageous court debt and bail systems that victimize the poor, and keep them under the oppression of debt all their days.
He lifts up those who are bowed down. What bows you down? What bends you over because of the weight you carry with you all day long? Debt. Fear. Anxiety and depression. Trauma. Mental illness. All these things weigh us down. And we see here that God is about protecting and lifting up these vulnerable, pressed down people who live in the Struggle.
The psalmist goes on to say, in verse 9, that the Lord watches over the stranger/sojourner. Who are the sojourners? The Hebrew word is also translated as foreigner or alien. It couldn’t be more clear that it is talking about refugees and immigrants, people who are often called “illegal aliens.”
Because the foreigner would be at a natural disadvantage through not being a citizen, and vulnerable to exploitation and deportation, he becomes one of the favorites of God’s laws that gives special protection to the weak and helpless.
In Leviticus, as God is setting up laws for the establishment of the nation of Israel, God declares: "And if a foreigner comes to live with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. The foreigner that lives among you shall be to you as the home-born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were a foreigner in the land of Egypt" (Lev. 19:33).
In other words, the foreigner among us shall be treated as a natural-born citizen!
Verse 9 continues to highlight those vulnerable who are close to God’s heart. “He upholds the widow and the fatherless.” God has a special fondness for orphans and widows simply because they are among the most vulnerable among us. In a time when provision and protection for a family were connected to a husband and a father, being without made you especially vulnerable to oppression and set up for exploitation, because you would do anything to survive - sex trafficking and slavery. From the beginning, God called His people to take care of them.
Isaiah 1:17 “Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.”
Psalm 82:3 “Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.”
James 1:27 "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
We see this in the ministry of Jesus. In Luke 7:11-15, we see Jesus raise a man from death back to life. We are told that this man is the only son of his mother, who is a widow. This means that this woman is without a husband to provide and protect, and her only son, who would have taken care of her, is now gone, as well. She is left exposed and vulnerable by his death.
Jesus’ miracle of raising anyone to life is astounding – life triumphs over death! Yet here we see the compassionate heart of God that is throughout the scriptures, caring for the widow and the vulnerable.
God loves everyone with a love beyond our comprehension, but we see throughout the bible – from the laws put in place, to the challenges of the prophets to the life and ministry of Jesus that God has a priority for the poor, the weak and the vulnerable; those from the Struggle who live with their backs against the wall.
This is the heart of God, and what followers of Jesus are called to be about. This is God’s platform. This is why we do not put our trust in princes, but our hope is in the Lord our God.