Old Testament
Psalms 146
Overview
The first of the five closing Hallelujah psalms, a vow to praise the LORD as long as life lasts. It warns against trusting in princes — mere mortals whose plans perish with their last breath — and contrasts them with the God of Jacob who made heaven and earth and keeps faith forever. He executes justice for the oppressed, feeds the hungry, frees prisoners, opens blind eyes, lifts the bowed down, and watches over the stranger, the orphan, and the widow.
1Praise Yah! Praise Yahweh, my soul.
2While I live, I will praise Yahweh. I will sing praises to my God as long as I exist.
3Don’t put your trust in princes, in a son of man in whom there is no help.
4His spirit departs, and he returns to the earth. In that very day, his thoughts perish.
5Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in Yahweh, his God,
6who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps truth forever;
7who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. Yahweh frees the prisoners.
8Yahweh opens the eyes of the blind. Yahweh raises up those who are bowed down. Yahweh loves the righteous.
9Yahweh preserves the foreigners. He upholds the fatherless and widow, but he turns the way of the wicked upside down.
10Yahweh will reign forever; your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise Yah!