Psalms 146:9
in Psalms 146The LORD protects foreigners; He sustains the fatherless and the widow, but the ways of the wicked He frustrates.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Jehovah preserveth the sojourners; He upholdeth the fatherless and widow; But the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.
KJV
The Lord preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.
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This verse in Psalms 146
Commentary
13 notes on this verseThe Lord keepeth the strangers: he will take up the orphan and the widow. And according to the letter it is profitable. He will take up the orphan and the widow. O martyr, you who are held fast to shed your blood for me, do not be anxious about your children, do not be anxious about your wife: they have me in your place. Let us speak also according to the spirit. He will take up the orphan and the widow. He will take up the orphan, who had lost God his father through sins.
This site's exposition
The LORD protects foreigners
The three, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, are the three with no family standing to protect them. Deuteronomy 10:18 names the three: the LORD does justice for the fatherless, keeps the widow, and loves the foreigner with food and clothing. The LORD frustrates the ways of the wicked.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers4 voices
But what excuse for despondency will we have left if we take to heart God's own promises and the hopes of Christians: the resurrection, I mean, eternal life, continuance in the kingdom, and all that "eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered …
For it is not free will but the Lord who "looses those who are bound." It is not our strength, but the Lord who "raises those who have fallen." It is not our diligence in reading, but "the Lord who enlightens the blind" where the Greek says kyrios sophoi typhlous, that is, "the Lord makes wise the blind." It is not our care, but "the Lord who cares for the stranger." It is not our courage, but "the Lord who assists (or supports) all those who are down."
For as long as that blessed husband of thine was with thee, thou didst enjoy honour, and care and zealous attention; in fact you enjoyed such as you might expect to enjoy from a husband; but since God took him to Himself He has supplied his place to thee. And this is not my saying but that of the blessed prophet David for he says "He will take up the fatherless and the widow," and elsewhere he calls Him "father of the fatherless and judge of the widow;" thus in many passages thou wilt see that He earnestly considereth the cause of this class of mankind.
Just as you have; "the Lord, guards proselytes" [Psalm 146:9]. "Proselytes" are strangers. Every Church of the Gentiles is a stranger. For it comes in to the Fathers, not sprung of their flesh, but their daughter by imitating them. Yet the Lord, not any man, guards them. "The orphan and widow He will take up." Let none think that He takes up the orphan for his inheritance, or the widow for any business of hers. True, God does help them; and in all the duties of the human race, he does a good work, who takes care of an orphan, who abandons not a widow: but in a certain way we are all orphans, not because our Father is dead, but because He is absent.
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
The Lord preserveth the strangers,....
6 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century6 voices
The Lord preserveth the strangers. Many monarchs hunted aliens down, or transported them from place to place, or left them as outlaws unworthy of the rights of man; but Jehovah made special laws for their shelter within his domain. In this country the stranger was, a little while ago, looked upon as a vagabond, —a kind of wild beast to be avoided if not to be assaulted; and even to this day there are prejudices against foreigners which are contrary to our holy religion.
The Lord preserveth the strangers. Many monarchs hunted aliens down, or transported them from place to place, or left them as outlaws unworthy of the rights of man; but Jehovah made special laws for their shelter within his domain. In this country the stranger was, a little while ago, looked upon as a vagabond, —a kind of wild beast to be avoided if not to be assaulted; and even to this day there are prejudices against foreigners which are contrary to our holy religion. Our God and King is never strange to any of his creatures, and if any are left in a solitary and forlorn condition he has a special eye to their preservation. He relieveth the fatherless and widow. These excite his compassion, and he shows it in a practical way by upraising them from their forlorn condition. The Mosaic law made provision for these destitute persons. When the secondary fatherhood is gone the child falls back upon the primary fatherhood of the Creator; when the husband of earth is removed the godly widow casts herself upon the care of her Maker. But the way of the wicked he turneth upside down. He fills it with crooked places; he reverses it, sets it down, or upsets it. That which the man aimed at he misses, and he secures that for himself which he would gladly have avoided. The wicked man's way is in itself a turning of things upside down morally, and the Lord makes it so to him providentially: everything goes wrong with him who goes wrong.
A commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2347: “The Lord's Famous Titles” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · Written before 1892.
proposed
This morning as well as I could, looking to God for help, I tried, in Christ's place, to persuade men to be reconciled to God. I showed that there was a great spiritual drought and neither dew nor rain to be had except as God should send it. And I tried to press my hearers to go to God, to wait upon Him, to look to Him and, through the mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ, to seek and find in God all that would be necessary for their eternal blessedness.
A commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2347: “The Lord's Famous Titles” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · Written before 1892.
proposed
This morning as well as I could, looking to God for help, I tried, in Christ's place, to persuade men to be reconciled to God. I showed that there was a great spiritual drought and neither dew nor rain to be had except as God should send it. And I tried to press my hearers to go to God, to wait upon Him, to look to Him and, through the mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ, to seek and find in God all that would be necessary for their eternal blessedness. [Sermon #2115, Volume 35-The Drought Of Nature, the Rain Of Grace and the Lesson Thereof] I pressed hard and some yielded, not to my pressure, but to a Divine impulse that went with my pleading! But there were some who did not yield, this morning, so I am going to make another attempt to win them, now, calling in our August Ally, even the Divine Spirit, without whom we can do nothing! May He bring many to God in penitence tonight! You know that it helps men to come to a person when they know who he is, how good he is and how likely it is that they will find benefit by coming to him. My text tells us something about God, the Lord Jehovah. Five times the word occurs at the head of a sentence, Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah. Sometimes, when a great king or prince has a high day, a herald proclaims the titles of His Majesty. He is prince of this, and lord of that, and emperor of the other—too often a lot of empty sounds. But when we come to speak of God, every title of His falls short of what is His real Glory and honor! Tonight we have five of His titles put together, five wonderful achievements of God, five things for which the Lord would have Himself noted.
Preserveth the strangers - He has preserved you strangers in a strange land, where you have been in captivity for seventy years; and though in an enemy’s country, he has provided for the widows and orphans as amply as if he had been in the promised land. The way of the wicked he turneth upside down - He subverts, turns aside. They shall not do all the wickedness they wish; they shall not do all that is in their power. In their career he will either stop them, turn them aside, or overturn them.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
The Lord preserveth the strangers - He regards them with interest; he defends and guides them. This is the ninth reason why those who trust in the Lord are happy. The stranger - away from home and friends; with no one to feel an interest in him or sympathy for him; with the feeling that he is forsaken; with no one on whom he can call for sympathy in distress - may find in God one who will regard his condition; who will sympathize with him; who is able to protect and befriend him. Compare Exo 12:49; Exo 22:21; Exo 23:9; Lev 19:33; Deu 1:16; Deu 10:18-19; Isa 56:3, Isa 56:6. He relieveth the fatherless and widow - He is their friend. This is the tenth reason why those who put their trust in the Lord are happy. It is that God is the Friend of those who have no earthly protector. See the notes at Psa 68:5: “A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.” But the way of the wicked he turneth upside down - He overturns their plans; defeats their schemes; makes their purposes accomplish what they did not intend they should accomplish. The Hebrew word here means to bend, to curve, to make crooked, to distort; then, to overturn, to turn upside down. The same word is applied to the conduct of the wicked, in Psa 119:78: “They dealt perversely with me.” The idea here is, that their path is not a straight path; that God makes it a crooked way; that they are diverted from their design; that through them he accomplishes purposes which they did not intend; that he prevents their accomplishing their own designs; and that he will make their plans subservient to a higher and better purpose than their own. This is the eleventh reason why those who put their trust in God are happy. It is that God is worthy of confidence and love, because he has all the plans of wicked men entirely under his control.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
The Lord will reign forever He will perpetuate His kingdom with the redemption of His children.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
10 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| יְהוָ֤ה׀ | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| שֹׁ֘מֵ֤ר | shomer | [is] watching over | H8104 → | 468 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| גֵּרִ֗ים | gerim | sojourners | H1616 → | 92 times |
| יָת֣וֹם | yatom | [the] fatherless | H3490 → | 42 times |
| וְאַלְמָנָ֣ה | vealmanah | and widow[s] | H490 → | 56 times |
| יְעוֹדֵ֑ד | yeoded | he helps up | H5749 → | 44 times |
| וְדֶ֖רֶךְ | vederekh | and [the] way of | H1870 → | 707 times |
| רְשָׁעִ֣ים | reshaim | wicked [people] | H7563 → | 263 times |
| יְעַוֵּֽת׃ | yeavet | he makes crooked | H5791 → |
יְהוָ֤ה׀Yahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
שֹׁ֘מֵ֤ר[is] watching over
shomerH8104 →468 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
גֵּרִ֗יםsojourners
gerimH1616 →92 times
יָת֣וֹם[the] fatherless
yatomH3490 →42 times
וְאַלְמָנָ֣הand widow[s]
vealmanahH490 →56 times
יְעוֹדֵ֑דhe helps up
yeodedH5749 →44 times
וְדֶ֖רֶךְand [the] way of
vederekhH1870 →707 times
רְשָׁעִ֣יםwicked [people]
reshaimH7563 →263 times
יְעַוֵּֽת׃he makes crooked
yeavetH5791 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Malachi 3:5“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud…
it leads to
- James 5:8–9
You, too, be patient and strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near.
- Hebrews 13:4
Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.
- Deuteronomy 5:11
You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave anyone unpunished who takes His name in vain.
- James 5:4
Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.
- James 5:8–9
Through
Psalms 68:5A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows, is God in His holy habitation.
it leads to
- Psalms 10:14
But You have regarded trouble and grief; You see to repay it by Your hand. The victim entrusts himself to You; You are the helper of the fatherless.
- Jeremiah 49:11
Abandon your orphans; I will preserve their lives. Let your widows trust in Me.”
- Deuteronomy 10:18
He executes justice for the fatherless and widow, and He loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing.
- Psalms 82:3–4
Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; uphold the rights of the afflicted and oppressed.
- Psalms 10:14
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Psalms
This page draws on 12 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 146; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 7; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2347: “The Lord's Famous Titles” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Jerome, Homily 55, on Psalm 145; John Cassian, CONFERENCE 3:15; John Chrysostom, LETTER TO A YOUNG WIDOW 1; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Theodoret of Cyrus, LETTER 14.