Happy are They Who Hope in God

I've been reading a Bible verse quite often lately. In fact, I've probably written about this already, so if this is on repeat, I apologize. But, I suppose, it's important enough to repeat, I mean, It's been important enough for me to read multiple times as of late.

And it's this verse here:

"How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God," - Psalm 146:5

There's a lot to unpack here.

Blessed, well, it's easy for our minds to go to the Beatitudes. Blessed means happy, more or less. They who find their help and hope in God are of all people blessed; they have good reason to have joy.

And notice what God this is. This is not some small god, not one of the plethora of so-called deities out there. This is the God of Jacob, that is, the God of the Bible, the one true God. This harkens back to Moses' encounter with God at the burning bush. When asked what to call Him, God responds by calling Himself "I AM WHO I AM."

But He goes on to say that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

To Moses and the Israelites who were separated multiple centuries from these patriarchs, this would serve as a reminder that this is the same God that called Abraham, and who worked in the lives of Isaac and Jacob. In other words, He is the eternal God. This is the God in whom we can find hope and help.

It's interesting if we backtrack a couple verses in Psalm 146.

"Do not trust in princes, in mortal man, in whom there is no salvation. His spirit departs, he returns to the earth; In that very day his thoughts perish." - Psalm 146:3-4

We're so apt to trust in man. This can be in what the secular world has to say in areas of science or history, psychology, philosophy, religion, politics. This can be trusting in the government or celebrities. This can be trusting in our own selves to solve everything in life.

But this verse shows us that this is a faulty idea. Man is transient, like a mist.

Instead, may we find our hope and our help in God, the God of Jacob, the God who would save His people.