Psalm 146
10 verses · BSBPsalms book hub →
Speaks with:Psalms 103×3Psalms 104×2Psalms 71×2Jeremiah 17×2Psalms 68×2Psalms 63×1
Summary
Chapter summary
The final Hallel begins (146–150, each opening and closing 'Praise ye Jehovah'). 'While I live will I praise Jehovah.' Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help, his breath goeth forth, his thoughts perish. 'Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in Jehovah his God': who made heaven and earth, who keepeth truth for ever, who executeth justice for the oppressed, giveth food to the hungry, looseth the prisoners, openeth the eyes of the blind, raiseth up them that are bowed down, preserveth the sojourner, upholdeth the fatherless and widow. 'Jehovah will reign for ever.'
Context
Poetry · David, Asaph, Sons of Korah, others — Psalms overview
The world behind this chapter
Psalms 146The history
The last five psalms all open and close with the same shout — praise the LORD — and they were sung as a set to finish the book.
The warning about princes is blunt and it is about death. When a ruler dies his breath goes out, he goes back to his own dirt, and on that very day his plans die with him. Every ancient kingdom ran on one man's projects; when a pharaoh or a king died, half-finished temples stopped, appointments were cancelled, and the next man erased the last man's name off the monuments.
Against that the psalm lists what God does, and every item on the list is a legal category from the Law of Moses. Justice for the oppressed, food for the hungry, prisoners released, the blind given sight, the bent lifted up, the resident foreigner watched over, the orphan and the widow upheld. Those last three — foreigner, orphan, widow — were the people with no man to speak for them in court, and Israel's Law named them again and again.
The maker of heaven and earth who keeps faith forever is put right next to the prince whose thoughts perish the day he dies. That contrast is the whole psalm.
What it meant to them
People under Persian and then Greek administration were tempted to pin everything on the next official. The song tells them not to.
It also tells them where to look for evidence of God — not in a palace, but in whether the widow down the street is upheld.
Sources cited
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- Walton, Matthews and Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Psalms 146. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.