Psalms 145:8-18

8 The Lord is a merciful doer and merciful in will (The Lord is a giver of mercy, or of love, and merciful in will); patient, and much merciful.
9 The Lord is sweet in all things; and his merciful doings be above all his works. (The Lord is good to all; and his merciful doings be over, or upon, all his creatures.)
10 Lord, all thy works acknowledge to thee; and thy saints bless thee. (Lord, all thy creatures shall praise thee; and thy saints shall bless thee.)
11 They shall say [of] the glory of thy realm; and they shall speak (of) thy power. (They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom; and they shall tell of thy power.)
12 That they make thy power known to the sons of men (So that they make known thy power to all the people); and the glory of the magnificence of thy realm.
13 Thy realm is the realm of all worlds; and thy lordship is in all generation and into generation (Thy kingdom is a kingdom forever; and thy lordship, or thy rule, is for all generations). The Lord is faithful in all his words; and holy in all his works.
14 The Lord lifteth up all that fall down; and raiseth up all men hurtled down. (The Lord lifteth up all who fall down; and raiseth up all who be hurtled down.)
15 Lord, the eyes of all beasts hope in thee; and thou givest the meat of them in covenable time. (Lord, the eyes of all look with hope to thee; and thou givest them their food at the proper time.)
16 Thou openest thine hand; and thou [ful]fillest each beast with blessing. (Thou openest thy hand; and thou fulfillest each living creature with blessing/with what they need, or desire.)
17 The Lord is just in all his ways; and holy in all his works.
18 The Lord is nigh to all that inwardly call him; to all that inwardly call him in truth. (The Lord is near, or close, to all who call to him; to all who call to him in truth, or with sincerity.)

Psalms 145:8-18 Meaning and Commentary

David's [Psalm] of praise. This psalm is rendered by Ainsworth "a hymn of David"; and the whole book of Psalms is from hence called "the Book of Hymns"; see Ephesians 5:19; It seems to have been a psalm David took great delight in, and it may be that he often repeated and sung it, as it was made by him with great care and contrivance, in a very curious manner, as well as he was assisted in it by divine inspiration; for it is wrote in an alphabetical order, each verse: beginning with the letter of the alphabet in course, and goes through the whole, excepting one letter; and very probably it was composed in this form that it might be the more easily committed to memory, and retained in it. The Jews have a very high opinion of it; their Rabbins say, that whoever says this psalm thrice every day may be sure of being a child of the world to come. This is mentioned by Arama and Kimchi; and which the latter explains thus, not he that says it any way, but with his mouth, and with his heart, and with his tongue. It seems to have been written by David after the Lord had granted him all his requests put up in the preceding psalms, and had given him rest from all his enemies; and when he turned his prayers into praises; for this psalm is wholly praise from one end to the other; and so are all the five following ones; they begin and end with "hallelujah": nor is there a single petition in them, as I remember; so that it may in some sense be said, "here the prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended." It no doubt, as Cocceius observes, belongs to the Messiah and his kingdom, which is everlasting, Psalm 145:13.

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Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.