"The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous:"
Psalms 146:8
Our verse for today comes from the heart of Psalm 146, a psalm that warns us not to trust in princes or in man but only in Jehovah. Nearly half of this psalm is one sentence, verses five through nine. For the sake of time and space, please allow me to break into the thought of the sentence and look at only verse eight for today. Take a moment and read the psalm and see for yourself how our verse fits into the context. Note how great and powerful Jehovah is.
“The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind:”
The word “blind” is only found twenty-six times in the Old Testament. Most of the time the word is describing people in general who are physically blind, but I can find no time when a person born blind is healed of his blindness. Isaiah speaks of the Lord opening the eyes of the blind in the future, see chapter 42. But those physically blind in the OT all seem to have died without having their eyesight. After the 400 “silent years” Jesus arrived in Bethlehem! In His ministry, He opened many blind eyes. Never had this reality even been imagined as a possibility before Jesus came. Surely, Jehovah “opens the eyes of the blind!”
“Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped,” (Isaiah 35:5).
“The LORD raiseth them that are bowed down:”
Those who are battered by their sin, or by life in a sinful world, for whatever the reason, He is there to pick them up.
“It is that those who are crushed and bowed down under the weight of care, trouble, and calamity, are raised up by him, or are sustained and comforted,”1 (Barnes).
“The LORD upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down,” (Psalm 145:14).
This sounds so much like Jesus’ way of helping those in His world. When the man whose son was demonized came to Jesus for help, Jesus cast out the demons, and the people thought the boy was dead. What a picture of someone who was crushed by evil,
“But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose,” (Mark 9:27).
And so it is, Jesus picks up the “bowed down,” and He saves them and changes their lives. Many of us can testify to how He has done this in our lives.
“The LORD loveth the righteous:”
Jehovah is righteous, and He loves those who are like Him and are upright. It is not that believers are perfectly holy in themselves, but the believer’s righteousness is from Jesus. He is the righteous One, and when He saves us, we are clothed in His righteousness.
In a broader sense,
“It [righteousness] is a characteristic of God, and a foundation for praise, that he loves those who obey law; who do that which is right,”2 (Clarke).
The LORD loves His child and explains what He expects of him.
“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (Micah 6:8).
Living the “righteous” life by “living justly” is what the LORD wants for His child. When God saved you, He saved you “from your sins” that you might live a life for His glory.
Isn’t it amazing how each of the characteristics of the LORD in Psalm 146, mirror the spirit and actions of Jesus while He was ministering on earth?
We who love the Lord Jesus, need to be living for Him.
1. Albert Barnes, Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible, the electronic version in eSword.
2. Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible, the electronic version in eSword.