Psalms
Chapter 146
This psalm opens and closes with a call to praise the LORD. The singer promises to praise God for a whole lifetime, then warns against trusting human rulers, who die and whose plans die with them. The rest of the psalm lists what God does instead: He made everything, keeps His word, feeds the hungry, frees prisoners, and cares for foreigners, orphans, and widows. It ends by saying God's rule never ends.
Plain reading written for preteens. Clear and complete, at about a fifth grade reading level.
Praise ye the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul.
1Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD, my soul.
2While I live will I praise the LORD: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.
2I will praise the LORD as long as I live. I will sing to my God as long as I exist.
3Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.
3Do not put your trust in rulers, or in any human being. They cannot save you.
"The son of man" in the KJV here simply means a human being, any ordinary person who is born and dies.
4His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.
4When a person stops breathing, he goes back to the ground. That same day, all his plans die with him.
5Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God:
5Happy is the person who gets help from the God of Jacob. Happy is the one who puts his hope in the LORD his God.
6Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever:
6God made the sky, the earth, the sea, and everything in them. He keeps His promises forever.
7Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The LORD looseth the prisoners:
7He gives justice to people who are treated unfairly. He gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets prisoners free.
8The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous:
8The LORD opens the eyes of blind people. The LORD lifts up those who are bent low. The LORD loves people who do right.
9The LORD preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.
9The LORD watches over foreigners. He takes care of children with no father, and of widows. But He ruins the plans of wicked people.
"Strangers" in the KJV means foreigners: people living in a land that is not their own, who had no family there to protect them.
10The LORD shall reign for ever, even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the LORD.
10The LORD will rule forever. Zion, your God will rule for all time to come. Praise the LORD!
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