Every verse here opens — tap a number for what that one means.
1Hallelujah! Praise the LORD, O my soul.
2I will praise the LORD all my life; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
3Put not your trust in princes, in mortal man, who cannot save.
4When his spirit departs, he returns to the ground; on that very day his plans perish.
5Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God,
6the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them. He remains faithful forever.
7He executes justice for the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free,
8the LORD opens the eyes of the blind, the LORD lifts those who are weighed down, the LORD loves the righteous.
9The LORD protects foreigners; He sustains the fatherless and the widow, but the ways of the wicked He frustrates.
10The LORD reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Hallelujah!
Commentary
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: Berean Standard Bible — used by permission, Bible Hub.