Tap any verse number for what that verse means.
1Praise ye the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul.
2While I live will I praise the LORD: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.
3Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.
4His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.
5Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God:
6Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever:
7Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The LORD looseth the prisoners:
8The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous:
9The LORD preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.
10The LORD shall reign for ever, even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the LORD.
Understand This
Psalm 146, explained
What Psalm 146 is saying
Psalm 146 opens the final Hallel sequence (146–150), each beginning and ending with Hallelujah. The psalm contrasts trust in human rulers ('princes, in whom there is no salvation') with trust in the God of Jacob, who made heaven and earth and executes justice for the oppressed. The catalog of divine actions—feeding the hungry, freeing prisoners, opening blind eyes, lifting the bowed down—is cited by Jesus in Luke 4:18–19 and 7:22.
The background behind it
The psalm's emphasis on God rather than human leaders may reflect post-exilic disillusionment with political power. The catalog of divine mercies draws on Isaiah 61 and anticipates the messianic manifesto that Jesus reads in the Nazareth synagogue.
Themes running underneath
The psalm establishes a clear hierarchy of trust: human power is transient ('his breath departs, he returns to the ground, on that very day his plans perish'), while divine power is eternal and directed toward the marginalized. The God described here is the God of reversals—the one who inverts social hierarchies.
Why it still matters
This psalm provides a corrective to political messianism in any era. It directs hope away from human institutions and toward the God whose character is consistently demonstrated through care for the most vulnerable.
Scripture text: King James Version — public domain.