Psalm 146
July 5, 2026
preached by Pastor Doug Cooper
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Time of Reflection Quotations

“What are you really living for? It’s crucial to realize that you either glorify God, or you glorify something or someone else. You’re always making something look big.”

~ Ken Sande, Contemporary engineer, lawyer and minister

“Be not lax in celebrating. Be not lazy in the festive service of God. Be ablaze with enthusiasm. Let us be an alive, burning offering before the altar of God.”

~ Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), German Benedictine abbess, writer, composer and philosopher

“The world rings with praise — lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game — praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars…praise almost seems to be inner health made audible…I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses, but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation…Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.”

~ C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), British writer, professor

“Misplaced affection is the root problem behind all conflict. Preoccupied with the streams, we are blind to the fountain of joy. We will not seek the presence of God. Blind to God’s beauty and to his pleasures, we seek to satisfy ourselves with pleasures of the flesh that are too trivial to sustain hungry souls.”

~ Tony Reinke, contemporary author and journalist

“O think, that he who was master of all heaven’s majesty came down to be the victim of all man’s misery!”

~ C.H. Spurgeon (1834-1892), English minister and writer

Sermon Passage

Psalm 146 (ESV) 

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 while I have my being.

³ Put not your trust in princes,
in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
⁴ When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;
on that very day his plans perish.

⁵ Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD his 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 sojourners;
he upholds the widow and the fatherless,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

¹⁰ The LORD will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the LORD!