Psalms 146

Psalms 146:1-10

Psalms 146THIS psalm may be divided into two equal parts, the first of which describes the happiness of those who trust in God and not in man, Psalms 146:1-5, while the second gives the reason, drawn from the divine perfections, Psalms 146:6-10. The psalm is distinguished from the Davidic series which precedes it (Psalms 138— 145) by its whole internal character. At the same time its coincidences of expression with the one immediately before it shew that it was meant to be used in connection with it, and may therefore be regarded as the closing psalm of the whole series beginning with Psalms 135, and belonging to the time of Haggai and Zechariah, to which the psalm before us is expressly referred in the Septuagint Version.

1. (Psalms 146:1) Hallelujah! Praise, 0 my soul, Jehovah! See above, Psalms 103:1; Psalms 103:22; Psalms 104:1; Psalms 104:35. The Hallelujah never appears in any psalm which bears the name of David, and is, indeed, as characteristic of the later psalms as the Selah is of the more ancient.

2. (Psalms 146:2) I will praise Jehovah while I live; I will make music to my God while I still (exist). For the literal meaning of these words, see above, on Psalms 104:33, from which they are borrowed, with the unimportant change of sing to praise.

3. (Psalms 146:3) Trust ye not in princes, in the son of man, to whom there is no salvation, who cannot save either himself or others, but is wholly dependent upon God. Compare Psalms 40:4; Psalms 75:6-7; Psalms 108:13; Psalms 116:11; Psalms 144:10. This may be regarded as an exhortation to men in general from Israel, an exhortation founded on his own experience

4. (Psalms 146:4) Forth goes his spirit, he returns to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. For the meaning of the first clause, see above, on Psalms 104:29. The primary idea of breath and the secondary one of spirit run into each other in the usage of the Hebrew word, so that either may be expressed in the translation, without entirely excluding the other. His thoughts, his vain notions or ambitious schemes.

5. (Psalms 146:5) Happy lie whose help is the God of Jacob, (and) his reliance on Jehovah his God. Whose help, literally in whose help, i.e. engaged, employed in it, or more probably among whose helpers. Compare Psalms 45:9; Psalms 54:4; Psalms 99:6; Psalms 118:7. The divine name here used suggests the idea of almighty power, as opposed to that of human weakness. Reliance, literally expectation, hope; but the first idea is necessarily suggested by the preposition on.

6. (Psalms 146:6) Who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that (is) in them— the (one) keeping truth for ever. Two reasons are here given for thus relying upon God; his almighty power, as exercised and proved in the creation of the world, and his unchangeable fidelity. See above, Psalms 25:5. Who made, literally making, with the usual reference to God’s creative power as still exerted in the sustentation of the universe. See above, on Psalms 65:6; Psalms 121:2; Psalms 144:2.

7. (Psalms 146:7) Doing justice to the oppressed— giving bread to the hungry— Jehovah, freeing (or the liberator of) the bound. He is not only able but accustomed to relieve those in distress, of whom several distinct classes are here specified as samples. Compare Psalms 37:19; Psalms 68:5-6; Psalms 107:5; Psalms 107:9-10; Psalms 145:14. Hunger and captivity are both familiar figures for spiritual evils, as well as literal designations of external ones, both which may here be considered as included.

8. (Psalms 146:8) Jehovah opens (the eyes of) the blind; Jehovah raises up the bowed down; Jehovah loves the righteous. The ellipsis in the first clause is not so harsh in Hebrew as in English, because the verb is almost confined, in usage, to the eyes, and would at once suggest them to a Hebrew reader. All the verbs are of the participial form, opening, raising, loving, i. e. continually doing so. The first clause is applicable both to bodily and mental blindness. Compare Deuteronomy 28:29, Isaiah 59:10, Job 12:25. The second clause is borrowed from Psalms 145:14.

9. (Psalms 146:9) Jehovah preserves strangers; orphan and widow he relieves; and the way of wicked men makes crooked. The stranger, the orphan, and the widow are constantly presented in the Law as objects of compassion and beneficence. See above, on Psalms 68:5-6. Relieves, restores, raises up from their low condition. As a straight path is an emblem of prosperity, to render one’s path crooked is to involve him in calamity. The same verb is applied, in a moral sense, to the perverse conduct of the wicked, Psalms 119:78.

10. (Psalms 146:1) Jehovah (reigns and) shall reign to eternity; thy God, 0 Zion, to generation and generation. Hallelujah (praise ye Jah)! The psalm closes with a grand sentence from the song of Moses, Exodus 15:18, to which a parallel clause is added, and a concluding Hallelujah, winding up the whole series of psalms, supposed to have been sung at the completion of the second temple.