Psalms 145:14

¹ The Lord supports all who fall, and lifts up all who are bent over. ² 

The LORD upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.

The LORD sustains all who fall And raises up all who are bowed down.

The LORD helps the fallen and lifts up those bent beneath their loads.

GOD gives a hand to those down on their luck, gives a fresh start to those ready to quit.

The Lord is the support of all who are crushed, and the lifter up of all who are bent down.

The LORD upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down.

The LORD upholds all who fall, And raises up all who are bowed down.

¹ The Lord supports all who fall, and lifts up all who are bent over. ² 

¹ tc Psalm 145 is an acrostic psalm, with each successive verse beginning with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. However, in the traditional Hebrew (Masoretic) text of Psalm 145 there is no verse beginning with the letter nun. One would expect such a verse to appear as the fourteenth verse, between the mem (מ) and samek (ס) verses. Several ancient witnesses, including one medieval Hebrew manuscript, the Qumran scroll from cave 11, the LXX, and the Syriac, supply the missing nun (נ) verse, which reads as follows: “The Lord is reliable in all his words, and faithful in all his deeds.” One might paraphrase this as follows: “The Lord’s words are always reliable; his actions are always faithful.” Scholars are divided as to the originality of this verse. L. C. Allen argues for its inclusion on the basis of structural considerations (Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 294-95), but there is no apparent explanation for why, if original, it would have been accidentally omitted. The psalm may be a partial acrostic, as in Pss 25 and 34 (see M. Dahood, Psalms [AB], 3:335). The glaring omission of the nun line would have invited a later redactor to add such a line.

² tn Perhaps “discouraged” (see Ps 57:6).