Psalm 146:4-10

4 When ¹his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.

5 ²Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose ³hope is in the Lord his God,

6 ⁴who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, ⁵who keeps faith forever;

7 ⁶who executes justice for the oppressed, ⁷who gives food to the hungry. ⁸The Lord sets the prisoners free;

8 ⁹the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. ¹⁰The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; ¹¹the Lord loves the righteous.

9 ¹²The Lord watches over the sojourners; ¹³he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but ¹⁴the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

10 ¹⁵The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations. ¹⁶Praise the Lord!

Psalm 146:4-10 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 146

This psalm is entitled by the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Ethiopic, and Arabic versions, "hallelujah", of Haggai and Zechariah; and by Apollinarius, the common hymn of them: and the Syriac inscription is still more expressive,

``it was said by Haggai and Zechariah, prophets, who came up with the captivity out of Babylon.''

Theodoret says this title was in some Greek copies in his time; but was not in the Septuagint, in the Hexapla: nor is it in any other Greek interpreters, nor in the Hebrew text, nor in the Targum; though some Jewish commentators, as R. Obadiah, take it to be an exhortation to the captives in Babylon to praise the Lord: and Kimchi interprets it of their present captivity and deliverance from it; and observes, that the psalmist seeing, by the Holy Spirit, the gathering of the captives, said this with respect to Israel; and so refers it to the times of the Messiah, as does also Jarchi, especially the Ps 146:10; and which, though they make it to serve an hypothesis of their own, concerning their vainly expected Messiah; yet it is most true, that the psalm is concerning the Messiah and his kingdom, to whom all the characters and descriptions given agree.

Cross References

• 1. 146:4 Ps. 104:29; [Eccles. 12:7]; See Job 10:9; 34:14, 15
• 2. 146:5 [Ps. 144:15]
• 3. 146:5 Ps. 119:116; See Ps. 2:12
• 4. 146:6 See Ps. 115:15
• 5. 146:6 [Ps. 100:5; 117:2]
• 6. 146:7 Ps. 103:6
• 7. 146:7 Ps. 107:9; 145:15
• 8. 146:7 Ps. 105:20; Isa. 61:1; [Ps. 68:6]
• 9. 146:8 Matt. 9:30; John 9:7
• 10. 146:8 Ps. 145:14; [Ps. 147:6]
• 11. 146:8 Ps. 11:7
• 12. 146:9 [Ex. 22:21]
• 13. 146:9 Deut. 10:18; [Ex. 22:22]; See Ps. 10:14
• 14. 146:9 [Ps. 147:6]
• 15. 146:10 See Ps. 10:16
• 16. 146:10 [See ver. 1 above]