Put no trust in rulers, in mortals in whom there is no help

This morning, as I awoke, I turned on the radio and heard an incredulous Amul Rajan reading a letter from Mr Trump to the Norwegian Prime Minister.  The American president has linked threats to seize Greenland to his failure to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.  I’ve spent the rest of the day with Classic FM as it’s better for my blood pressure. 
 
Elections this year in Scotland, Wales, and England –  coupled with defections from and to UK-wide political parties – grab our attention alongside opinion polls indicating the possible end of politics as normal.  Mr Trump’s imperial designs on Greenland, and Venezuela, will affect our own domestic politics as well as our pension funds.
 
The craft of politicians is as old as settled civilization.  The Psalmists often sound rather weary of the political promises of their age and Psalm 146’s “put no trust in mortals in whom there is no help” sounds alarmingly relevant to the days when we turn away from news and towards soothing music.   The Psalmist reminds us that our leaders, like us, are mortals who take their breath then return to the clay from which they, and we, were formed.  The Psalmist compares and contrasts mortal rulers in whom there is no help and God who made heaven and earth, the seas and all they contain.  There’s a comfort in realising that God is sovereign, that one day our rulers will have to give an account (and a sobering reminder that so will we!) 
 
There’s comfort and a challenge in the URC’s Statement concerning our Nature, Faith, and Order which reminds us of the duties of State and Church:
 
We believe that Christ gives his Church a government distinct from the government of the state. In things that affect obedience to God the Church is not subordinate to the state, but must serve the Lord Jesus Christ, its only Ruler and Head. Civil authorities are called to serve God’s will of justice and peace for all humankind, and to respect the rights of conscience and belief. While we ourselves are servants in the world as citizens of God’s eternal kingdom.
 
The task of telling the powers that this is what we expect of them is increasingly complex and contested; soon it is likely to be dangerous too as one American Episcopalian bishop has reminded his clergy.  Our recognition that the Church is not subordinate to the State but is called to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, our only Ruler and Head, springs from the struggles between Church and State going back to, at least, the Reformation but was powerfully seen in the relationship between Church and State in Germany in the 1930s.  These struggles, however, appear in every age. 
 
The Psalmist believed that God keeps faith with us, is just to the oppressed, feeds the hungry, frees prisoners, gives sight to the blind, raises up those who are bowed down, protects the stranger and upholds the widow and orphan.  Our faithful God loves the just but thwarts the wicked.  In our current political climate attempts to balance the books, and allay fears about security, mean that the oppressed, the hungry, the stranger, the widow, the orphan and even larger families become easy targets.  Our task is to pray and protest as we serve, not the whims of mortal leaders, but the Lord Jesus. 
 
So as we listen to soothing music remember to pray for the people of Greenland bewildered by Mr Trump’s ever more puzzling pronouncements, for leaders around the world who have to try and work out how best to respond, for the American people who have to learn again how to deal with this particular mortal ruler.  Pray too for those who yearn for a different world where justice flows, hunger is banished, and oppression is but a distant memory.  As you pray remember that authentic prayer always leads to action.
 

Andy Braunston
Minister for Digital Worship
19^th January 2026