Reveal | Day 34- April 1 | Psalm 146

Hitting the snooze button just one more time. Having just one more piece of pie. I think we can all resonate with facing temptation. Sometimes temptation shows up in these little and insignificant ways. After all, that extra piece of candy probably isn’t going to hurt too much. But other times temptation is far bigger than the little temptations we face every day. If we are honest with ourselves, we can likely name the areas in our lives where we are most vulnerable to temptation, whether significant or not.

When we think of temptation, we might think of getting tangled up in sin. Psalm 146, however, helps us confront the temptation of self-sufficiency. Think of the places in your life where you put trust in someone or something other than God to sustain you. Psalm 146:3 plainly states, “Don’t put your confidence in powerful people; there is no help for you there.” Maybe we could imagine the psalmist saying that we shouldn’t yield to the temptation of sufficiency apart from God. No leader will lead like God.

Instead, the psalmist calls to mind God’s faithfulness from years past. Psalm 146:5 reminds, “The person whose help is the God of Jacob—the person whose hope rests on the Lord their God—is truly happy!” Harkening back to the God of creation—the God who created the heavens and earth, the God who has been faithful to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the psalmist invites us to put our hope in God over anyone or anything else. When we are tempted to put our hope in anyone other than God, Psalm 146 reminds us that we can hope in the Lord who has been faithfully sustaining the people of God since creation.

Can you recall the times in your life when God has been your sustainer? When the temptation toward sufficiency apart from God creeps up, these stories of God’s faithfulness help us remember that God is our hope and move us to praise. Even amid temptation, God’s faithfulness invites us to praise.