Lent Devotional March 3, 2026

Scripture

Psalm 146

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 all my life long.

3 Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help.4 When their breath departs, they return to the earth; on that very day their plans perish.

5 Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their 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 strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

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

Devotion

Lynn Cox ’14

Verse three of this joyous and profound song of praise speaks to me in Lent. “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help.” What a word for our time! On my first reading, I’m confident that this is an admonition to those whose politics and values I abhor. I further suspect the “princes” and “mortals” I have in mind are also those whose way God will bring to ruin in verse nine. Perhaps, but Psalm 146 praises God’s eternal authority and character, not my moral judgment.

In Lent, the Spirit asks, “Who are the mortals you are trusting for help, for salvation?” Now there is a question. Am I following or searching for a political savior, an individual or group I can trust to reverse the wrongs I perceive? Am I banking on a medical savior, the physician who will make sense of my husband’s debilitating symptoms and quickly restore him to health? In how many circumstances does my confidence in finding the “right” person exceed my faith in God to be present to feed, free, heal, uphold, do justice—to love?

Psalm 146 begins and ends with “Hallelujah!” Acknowledging our true source of help and hope, we join our voices with the psalmist in verses 5-10, as well as with Hannah (1 Sam 2:1-10) and Mary (Luke 1:46-55). Together we proclaim by faith God’s plan to do so much more than we can imagine for our lives or our world. Present among his people, God creates a new, upside-down reality in which his power works on behalf of the weak, the innocent, and the righteous. The psalmist praises God for messianic signs of a future reality; we have seen these fulfilled in the life and ministry of Jesus, God made visible. All the more reason to offer our life-long hallelujahs.

Prayer

Lord, You keep faith forever and are our one true help and hope. Make us attentive to Your loving presence and direction in all circumstances. Give us faith to entrust to You every cause and person we hold dear. Secure our hearts to follow no prince, no savior before You.