Three fulfillments.
There are three ways in which these verses (or most of them) have been or are fulfilled.
I. IN DIVINE PROVIDENCE. In God's dealing with his people Israel.
1. Israel found, again and again, that it was not in human alliances, but in the living God, that its true help was found (Psalms 146:3-5). Princes and powers proved to be but broken reeds; but while Jehovah was sought and served, everything was secure.
2. Israel in captivity found its true hope and help in the living God. Though they were strangers in Babylon, yet they were not unkindly treated, and some of them rose to high places in the kingdom (Psalms 146:9). Afflicted with "judicial blindness," they gained enlightenment in the land of exile, and learned truth there (respecting the Divine unity) which they never lost (Psalms 146:8). God's word of promise was fulfilled, and he proved himself to be the Lord of truth and faithfulness, and the Lord of all power and might (Psalms 146:6). God "lifted up" their hearts when "bowed down;" he gave them the precious hope of restoration; he opened the prison door and set the captives free (Psalms 146:7). Thus he executed judgment for the oppressed (Psalms 146:7), as he had done more strikingly when Israel groaned under the bondage and hardships of Egypt.
II. IN THE LIFE AND WORK OF JESUS CHRIST. In the course of his ministry our Lord wrought these wonders, conferred these very blessings with a kind and bountiful hand. He fed the hungry in their need (Matthew 14:1-36; Matthew 15:1-39.). He set free the poor lepers who were bound fast by stern prohibitions, and let them return to their own home, and released those who were enslaved still more sadly by demoniac possession. He opened the eyes of those who had lost their sight, or were actually born blind. He raised up the prostrate paralytic, and straightened with gentle hand the woman that was so "bowed down that she could in no wise lift herself up" (Matthew 9:1-38.; Luke 13:1-35.). He showed kindness to "the stranger," to the Samaritan leper, to the Syro-phoenician woman. He was most gracious to those who were "bowed down" under the weight of social hatred and contempt; he "raised" the publican and sinner, and gave them a place by his side in his kingdom.
III. IN OUR OWN SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE. The Lord Jesus Christ now, by the means of his sacred truth and by the power of his Divine Spirit, does "greater things than these" at which men marveled when he lived on earth.
1. He satisfies the hungry and thirsty souls with heavenly wisdom. We earnestly, perhaps intensely, crave the truth which, try how we may, we cannot discover by our own efforts—the truth about our God and ourselves, and the way to life eternal. He who is himself "the Way, the Truth, and the Life" can and does minister to our hungering hearts, and gives us the bread of which he that eats never hungers more.
2. He breaks the bonds of those who have been bound down; he looseth the prisoners—those enslaved by vice and sin, held fast in the cords of their own iniquity, needing a Divine hand to release them (John 8:36).
3. He enlightens our understanding, he illumines our soul, so that we see that to which we had been blind before—our own sinfulness, the freedom and fullness of the grace of God, the blessedness of his salvation, the liberty of loving service.
4. He gives rest and peace to the burdened spirit. We have been "bowed down" under the weight of conscious guilt; but in Jesus Christ we have peace—deep, true, lasting; the peace of God—Christ's own peace (Romans 5:1; Philippians 4:7; John 14:27).
5. He offers his friendship to the obedient; he "loveth the righteous." We are his friends if we keep his commandments; he "will love us and manifest himself to us if we keep his Word,"
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY