146:1 Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
146:2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live!
I will sing praises to my God as long as I exist!
146:3 Do not trust in princes,
or in human beings, who cannot deliver! 2
146:4 Their life’s breath departs, they return to the ground;
on that day their plans die. 3
146:5 How blessed is the one whose helper is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
146:6 the one who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who remains forever faithful, 4
146:7 vindicates the oppressed, 5
and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord releases the imprisoned.
146:8 The Lord gives sight to the blind.
The Lord lifts up all who are bent over. 6
The Lord loves the godly.
146:9 The Lord protects those residing outside their native land;
he lifts up the fatherless and the widow, 7
but he opposes the wicked. 8
146:10 The Lord rules forever,
your God, O Zion, throughout the generations to come! 9
Praise the Lord!
1 sn Psalm 146. The psalmist urges his audience not to trust in men, but in the
2 tn Heb “in a son of man, to whom there is no deliverance.”
3 tn Heb “his spirit goes out, it returns to his ground; in that day his plans die.” The singular refers to the representative man mentioned in v. 3b.
4 tn Heb “the one who guards faithfulness forever.”
5 tn Heb “executes justice for the oppressed.”
6 tn Perhaps “discouraged” (see Ps 57:6).
7 sn God is depicted here as a just ruler. In the ancient Near Eastern world a king was responsible for promoting justice, including caring for the weak and vulnerable, epitomized by resident aliens, the fatherless, and widows.
8 tn Heb “he makes the way of the wicked twisted.” The “way of the wicked” probably refers to their course of life (see Prov 4:19; Jer 12:1). God makes their path tortuous in the sense that he makes them pay the harmful consequences of their actions.
9 tn Heb “for a generation and a generation.”