Psalms 145
What Happens in This Chapter
This psalm is a song of praise addressed to God as king. The singer promises to bless God's name every day and forever, and says that each generation will pass on the story of God's mighty acts to the next. It describes God as gracious, slow to anger, good to all he has made, near to all who call on him truly, and the one who feeds every living thing; it also says he preserves all who love him and destroys all the wicked. It closes by calling every creature to bless God's holy name forever.
I will praise you highly, my God and King. I will bless your name forever and ever.
1I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever.
The KJV's "my God, O king" can be misread as addressing a human king; in the Hebrew there is one addressee throughout, God, titled "the King." This psalm is also an acrostic: in Hebrew each verse opens with the next letter of the alphabet, which is why it reads as a series of parallel statements rather than a developing argument.
2Every day I will bless you, and I will praise your name forever and ever.
2Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.
3The LORD is great, and he deserves great praise. No one can measure how great he is.
3Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.
4One generation will praise your works to the next, and will tell about your mighty acts.
4One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.
5I will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty, and of the wonderful things you do.
5I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works.
The KJV stacks nouns ("the glorious honour of thy majesty") because Hebrew intensifies by chaining related words rather than by piling on adjectives. The verb behind "I will speak" covers both talking about something and turning it over silently in the mind, which is why some translations read "I will meditate."
6People will speak of the power of your awesome deeds, and I will tell how great you are.
6And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts: and I will declare thy greatness.
In 1611 "terrible" meant awe-inspiring, something that makes people tremble, not "very bad." The Hebrew word describes deeds that provoke fear and wonder at once.
7They will pour out the memory of your great goodness, and will sing about how right and fair you are.
7They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness.
"Memory" translates a Hebrew word meaning the fame or renown by which something is remembered, not a private recollection. "Abundantly utter" renders a verb meaning to gush or bubble over, the way a spring does.
8The LORD is kind and full of pity. He is slow to get angry, and his faithful love is great.
8The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.
This line quotes a fixed formula about God's character used repeatedly in the Hebrew Bible (Exodus 34:6). "Mercy" here translates *hesed*, meaning committed, dependable loyalty inside a relationship, closer to "faithful love" than to pity.
9The LORD is good to everyone, and his tender care rests on everything he has made.
9The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.
"Tender mercies" translates a Hebrew word built on the word for womb; it describes gut-level compassion, the feeling a parent has for a child.
10Everything you have made will praise you, LORD, and your faithful people will bless you.
10All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee.
"Saints" translates *hasidim*, from the same root as the "mercy" of verse 8: people bound to God by loyal love. It does not mean morally perfect people, and it carries none of the later church sense of a canonized saint.
11They will speak of the glory of your kingdom and talk about your power,
11They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power;
12so that people everywhere will know his mighty acts and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.
12To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.
"Sons of men" is a Hebrew idiom meaning simply human beings, everyone.
13Your kingdom is a kingdom that lasts forever, and your rule continues through all generations.
13Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.
The acrostic skips a letter here: the verse beginning with the Hebrew letter *nun* is absent from the traditional Hebrew text, but a Dead Sea Scrolls copy and the ancient Greek and Syriac versions carry an extra line at this point, "The LORD is faithful in all his words and gracious in all his deeds." That is why some modern Bibles print a longer verse 13.
14The LORD holds up all who are falling, and he lifts up all who are bent down low.
14The LORD upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.
15The eyes of all living things look to you, and you give them their food at the right time.
15The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season.
"Meat" in 1611 English meant food of any kind, not flesh specifically.
16You open your hand and satisfy what every living thing longs for.
16Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.
The Hebrew is compressed and can be read two ways: that God satisfies every living thing with what it desires, or that he satisfies it out of his own favor and good pleasure.
17The LORD does what is right in everything he does, and he is faithful and kind in all his works.
17The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.
The KJV's "holy" here renders *hasid*, the same word behind "saints" in verse 10. It means loyal, faithful, kind, not "set apart" or ritually pure.
18The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him honestly.
18The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.
"In truth" means sincerely and reliably; the Hebrew word covers both truthfulness and dependability, so the phrase points to people who mean what they say.
19He gives those who fear him what they long for. He also hears their cry and saves them.
19He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.
"Fear" here means reverent awe, taking God seriously enough to order one's life around him, rather than being frightened of him.
20The LORD keeps safe all who love him, but he will destroy all the wicked.
20The LORD preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy.
21My mouth will speak the praise of the LORD. Let every living creature bless his holy name forever and ever.
21My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.
"All flesh" is a Hebrew idiom for every living creature, sometimes all humanity and sometimes everything that breathes.
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