Eight Substantial Promises from Psalm 145 and 146 for Hurting People

By: Matthew Robert Payne
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:25:28
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Most of us in times of trouble turn to friends and other people for help, comfort and advice. The word of God in the beginning of Psalm 146 tells us not to. The psalmist warns us:

Psalm 146:3-4 (The Message)

3-9 Don't put your life in the hands of experts

who know nothing of life, of salvation life.

Mere humans don't have what it takes;

when they die, their projects die with them.

Instead, get help from the God of Jacob,

put your hope in God and know real blessing!

God made sky and soil,

sea and all the fish in it.

Psalm 146:3-4 (New King James Version)

3 Do not put your trust in princes,

Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help.

4 His spirit departs, he returns to his earth;

In that very day his plans perish.

That being said, we should turn to the promises of God and look and claim the promises in hard times. Let us look at eight promises in the two psalms.

For the interest of clarity I am going to quote from the NKJV and the Message in each case.

Promise 1 He’ll give you a hand up when you are down.

Psalm 145:14 (The Message)

14 God gives a hand to those down on their luck,

gives a fresh start to those ready to quit.

Psalm 145:14 (New King James Version)

14 The LORD upholds all who fall,

And raises up all who are bowed down.

I have to say there has been many times when I have been ready to quit and the LORD in His wisdom and His mercy has sent someone or something along to give me the grace to get up and have another go. I have a preacher friend that tells me that we fall when we transgress the laws of God in other words we fall every time we sin. And isn’t this verse right. The LORD is always there to lift us up and forgive us every time we fall.

I am confounded, astounded and surprised at how much grace the LORD of heaven has for us. I have transgressed the law so many times in a twenty year sex addiction and I am just blown away by how much and how willingly he forgave me through all those years. I am eternally grateful that He sent a teacher of the Word across my path to show me that my sexual addiction was not going to be tolerated forever and the need that I find true repentance.

Promise 2 Everything God does is right

Psalm 145:17 (The Message)

17 Everything God does is right—

the trademark on all his works is love.

Psalm 145:17 (New King James Version)

17 The LORD is righteous in all His ways,

Gracious in all His works.

Everything God does is right. That is such a profound statement in the midst of a suffering and dying world we live upon. Every single thing God does is right. And God abounds in love and His love is gracious and we are sometimes so undeserving of that love. Oh if we could only be more like Jesus and walk in the grace and mercy and compassion of Jesus, this world we live upon would be a different place. Promise 3 God promises to listen to your prayers

Psalm 145:18 (The Message)

18 God's there, listening for all who pray,

for all who pray and mean it.

Psalm 145:18 (New King James Version)

18 The LORD is near to all who call upon Him,

To all who call upon Him in truth.

Ever felt like your prayers are bouncing off the roof of your house and never getting to heaven? I have. Then I started to walk in Truth toward God and started to seek Him out in my life and to obey Him. It’s encouraging that the LORD would listen to all those who pray with faith that He is listening and who pray like they really mean it and it’s not some obligation or some ritual that they need to do as part of an empty religion. I find the promise in Jeremiah 29 encouraging.

Jeremiah 29:12-14 (New King James Version)

12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity;

You notice that the LORD said to Israel here that they need to search for Him with all their heart. Again in the Psalms he says He will be near to all that pray to Him in truth, with all of their heart.

This year I was seeking the LORD for healing and restoration in my life and now I have a counsellor that is doing some wonderful work with me, helping me in my spiritual life and unshackling the enemy’s hold on my life through curses I have spoken over my life and curses my family have had.

It’s encouraging that the LORD of heaven and earth will be near to all that seek Him and cry out to Him. Promise 4 He will grant your desires if you delight in Him

Psalm 145:19 (The Message)

19 He does what's best for those who fear him—

hears them call out, and saves them.

Psalm 145:19 (New King James Version)

19 He will fulfil the desire of those who fear Him;

He also will hear their cry and save them.

The LORD is there for the helpless and will save those that are in need. It is His promise for all who need His help. It’s like sometimes when we are in trouble God is leaning down with one ear waiting for us to cry out for help.

He so loves to answer our prayers and move heaven and earth to answer them and prove to us that He loves us and is still a sovereign saving God.

Few of us fear the LORD like we should. If we all feared the LORD we would cease sinning. The person who loves the LORD and has a reverent fear of the LORD will have Godly desires and these will come true.

Psalm 37 shows that those that delight in the LORD will have their promises fulfilled.

Psalm 37:4 (New King James Version)

4 Delight yourself also in the LORD,

And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Many people have desires but they want for things of the world not for things of God, but when one delights themselves in the LORD and treats the LORD like their own spouse then the LORD will see that their desires come true as they are His desires.

Promise 5 He will preserve you through good and bad times

Psalm 145:20 (The Message)

20 God sticks by all who love him,

but it's all over for those who don't.

Psalm 145:20 (New King James Version)

20 The LORD preserves all who love Him,

But all the wicked He will destroy.

It’s good to see that God can be on our side when it comes to temptations and trials, and this verse applies to all of us that love Him and put Him first in our life. I get the picture of jams and pickles that get bottled and preserved for years by mothers and grandmothers and how delightful they are to taste in due season. The LORD promises that He will look out for us and help us through the days and the years of our sojourn on earth. I find tremendous comfort in this verse, and so should every person who has sinned a lot like me.

Promise 6 He will execute justice on your behalf

Psalm 146:7 (The Message)

He always does what he says—

he defends the wronged,

Psalm 146:7 (New King James Version)

7 Who executes justice for the oppressed,

Who gives food to the hungry.

The LORD gives freedom to the prisoners.

The LORD goes to battle for the oppressed and the people that are wronged by others. He gives prisoners of sin a life of freedom through His Son and is able to set free people in prison also.

He feeds the hungry.

Who gives food to the hungry?

He feeds the hungry. Even in the starving nations He raises up people in the West to plead for money and resources to feed the hungry. So many times I have been out of food and the LORD has used a friend to provide for me. So many times has the LORD fed me through putting it on another’s heart to send me money or for a person to buy me something to eat. So too, I am often used by the LORD to feed a person who is down on their luck and this greatly blesses them.

God is wonderful and too good for all of us and yet because He is so good to us we need to reach out to others and share that love around and bring others to the truth.

Promise 7 He will give you light where you are spiritually blind

Psalm 146:8 (The Message) He gives sight to the blind,

he lifts up the fallen.

Psalm 146:8 (New King James Version)

8 The LORD opens the eyes of the blind;

The LORD raises those who are bowed down;

The LORD loves the righteous.

What a generous God we have! Not only does He heal people that are blind, still today these healings are being done in Jesus’ name, but He is busy taking the scales of miss teaching and wrong doctrines from the eyes of the church. It is great mercy indeed that the LORD can speak clearly against a false teaching and dismantle it with a good teacher and His Holy Spirit’s anointing. The LORD does not even need a good teacher as in 1 John the Teacher is identified as the Holy Spirit and even through a prayerful reading of the Word of God a blind person’s eyes can still be opened.

The Bible is still effective in bringing people to conviction of Sin, repentance and drawing them into a life of holiness. The Bible lives and breathes and will open the eyes of the spiritually blind and correct and student of the Word who wants to be corrected and led by the Holy Spirit. The Word of God promises it right here!

And in most cases the blind are caught in a sin and have fallen short and when the eyes are opened they can find repentance and start to walk in grace and live in a new life where this hindrance or sin does not keep them in bondage any more

Promise 8 He will look out for the single mothers, the orphans and the widows

Psalm 146:9 (The Message)

GOD loves good people, protects strangers,

takes the side of orphans and widows,

but makes short work of the wicked.

Psalm 146:9 (New King James Version)

9 The LORD watches over the strangers;

He relieves the fatherless and widow;

But the way of the wicked He turns upside down.

A contemporary rendering of this promise might be that the LORD will look after the single mother whose child does not see his/her father. Divorce seems to make a lot of women single and these women are precious to the LORD. Single Christian female mothers should take great comfort in this verse and not rush too easily into the arms of another man to provide when the LORD promises here to provide. He relieves the fatherless and widow means He is going to be there to be their relief. The LORD knows your struggles and He knows your heart. You only need to seek Him and lay your case before Him.

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