Years ago, I met an enthusiastic young Christian who would call out all the time, “Praise the Lord.” He’d say, “It’s a beautiful day. Praise the Lord.” “I have a cheese sandwich for lunch. Praise the Lord.” Even, “I’ve just stubbed my toe. Praise the Lord.” He seemed to praise the Lord about 50 times an hour. I admit it became irritating. I felt like saying, “You don’t have to ‘praise the Lord’ all the time.” But I admired his passion for God. The final songs in Psalms sound like that young man. The book ends in a symphony of praise to God, except this time I don’t find it at all irritating.

Psalm 146 begins with the psalmist promising to praise God “as long as I live” (v. 2). Later in the psalm he will describe the sufferings and hardships of the people in his congregation. In other words, his commitment to a life of praise will not be conditional on how peaceful and easy his life may be. Whether he faces prosperity or adversity, he will daily praise God.

The psalmist contrasts the passing power of earthly rulers with God’s eternal power (vv. 3–5). Rulers rise with their plans to change their country and their world, but when they die or are removed from office, often their policies die with them. Of course, leaders and governments do pass laws that make a difference in people’s lives. The point the psalmist is making is that ultimately, we can’t rely on such people, because nothing in this world is permanent. The one who never changes, whose plans are always fulfilled, and who can always be relied on to help is the Lord God.

The psalm then uses a series of pictures to describe God’s weak and needy people (vv. 7–9). They are oppressed, hungry, imprisoned, bowed down, a foreigner, fatherless, and widowed. Certainly, these images reflect actual lives of heartache and sorrow. But they’re also pictures of our spiritual state as God’s faithful people, as we can tell from the reference to the “righteous” (v. 8) in the middle of these descriptions.

Throughout the psalter, we’ve read many times that these afflicted ones are God’s faithful people who love, trust, and obey Him, and suffer at the hands of the wicked. As these saints reach out to God, He will uphold, feed, free, give sight, lift up, love, watch over, and sustain. As for the wicked, all their plans will be frustrated in the end (v. 9).

It’s easy to praise God when the sun is shining, when there’s lots of tasty food on our plates, when we’re surrounded by loving family and friends. But the psalmist is committed to praising and trusting God even in the dark times, when we have few resources and feel alone. These are the times we test our own faith and receive God’s proof that “the Lord reigns for ever” (v. 10).