Psalm 146:3-10

3 Don't put your trust in human leaders; no human being can save you.

4 When they die, they return to the dust; on that day all their plans come to an end.

5 Happy are those who have the God of Jacob to help them and who depend on the Lord their God,

6 the Creator of heaven, earth, and sea, ¹ and all that is in them. He always keeps his promises;

7 he judges in favor of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free

8 and gives sight to the blind. He lifts those who have fallen; he loves his righteous people.

9 He protects the strangers who live in our land; he helps widows and orphans, but takes the wicked to their ruin.

10 The Lord is king forever. Your God, O Zion, will reign for all time. Praise the Lord!

Psalm 146:3-10 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. 146.6Acts 4.24; 14.15.