Passage Resources Hebrew/Greek Your Content
Previous Next
Add parallel Print Page Options

Psalm 146-147
New English Translation

Psalm 146[a]

146 Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord, O my soul.
2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live.
I will sing praises to my God as long as I exist.
3 Do not trust in princes,
or in human beings, who cannot deliver.[b]
4 Their life’s breath departs, they return to the ground.
On that day their plans die.[c]
5 How blessed is the one whose helper is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
6 the one who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who remains forever faithful,[d]
7 vindicates the oppressed,[e]
and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord releases the imprisoned.
8 The Lord gives sight to the blind.
The Lord lifts up all who are bent over.[f]
The Lord loves the godly.
9 The Lord protects the resident foreigner.
He lifts up the fatherless and the widow,[g]
but he opposes the wicked.[h]
10 The Lord rules forever,
your God, O Zion, throughout the generations to come.[i]
Praise the Lord!

Psalm 147[j]

147 Praise the Lord,
for it is good to sing praises to our God.
Yes,[k] praise is pleasant and appropriate.
2 The Lord rebuilds Jerusalem,
and gathers the exiles of Israel.
3 He heals[l] the brokenhearted,
and bandages their wounds.
4 He counts the number of the stars;
he names all of them.
5 Our Lord is great and has awesome power;[m]
there is no limit to his wisdom.[n]
6 The Lord lifts up the oppressed,
but knocks[o] the wicked to the ground.
7 Offer to the Lord a song of thanks.[p]
Sing praises to our God to the accompaniment of a harp.
8 He covers[q] the sky with clouds,
provides the earth with rain,
and causes grass to grow on the hillsides.[r]
9 He gives food to the animals,
and to the young ravens when they chirp.[s]
10 He is not enamored with the strength of a horse,
nor is he impressed by the warrior’s strong legs.[t]
11 The Lord takes delight in his faithful followers,[u]
and in those who wait for his loyal love.
12 Extol the Lord, O Jerusalem.
Praise your God, O Zion.
13 For he makes the bars of your gates strong.
He blesses your children[v] within you.
14 He[w] brings peace to your territory.[x]
He abundantly provides for you[y] the best grain.
15 He[z] sends his command through the earth;[aa]
swiftly his order reaches its destination.[ab]
16 He sends the snow that is white like wool;
he spreads the frost that is white like ashes.[ac]
17 He throws his hailstones[ad] like crumbs.
Who can withstand the cold wind he sends?[ae]
18 He then orders it all to melt;[af]
he breathes on it,[ag] and the water flows.
19 He proclaims his word to Jacob,
his statutes and regulations to Israel.
20 He has not done so with any other nation;
they are not aware of his regulations.
Praise the Lord!

Footnotes

  1. Psalm 146:1 sn Psalm 146. The psalmist urges his audience not to trust in men, but in the Lord, the just king of the world who cares for the needy.
  2. Psalm 146:3 tn Heb “in a son of man, to whom there is no deliverance.”
  3. Psalm 146:4 tn Heb “his spirit goes out, it returns to his ground; in that day his plans die.” The singular refers to the representative man mentioned in v. 3b.
  4. Psalm 146:6 tn Heb “the one who guards faithfulness forever.”
  5. Psalm 146:7 tn Heb “executes justice for the oppressed.”
  6. Psalm 146:8 tn Perhaps “discouraged” (see Ps 57:6).
  7. Psalm 146:9 sn God is depicted here as a just ruler. In the ancient Near Eastern world a king was responsible for promoting justice, including caring for the weak and vulnerable, epitomized by resident foreigners, the fatherless, and widows. Cf. Exod 22:21; Lev 19:33-34; Deut 10:18-19; 24:14, 17; 27:19; Jer 22:3; Zech 7:10; Mal 3:5.
  8. Psalm 146:9 tn Heb “he makes the way of the wicked twisted.” The “way of the wicked” probably refers to their course of life (see Prov 4:19; Jer 12:1). God makes their path tortuous in the sense that he makes them pay the harmful consequences of their actions.
  9. Psalm 146:10 tn Heb “for a generation and a generation.”
  10. Psalm 147:1 sn Psalm 147. The psalmist praises the Lord for he is the sovereign ruler of the world who cares for the needs of his covenant people.
  11. Psalm 147:1 tn Or “for.”
  12. Psalm 147:3 tn Heb “the one who heals.”
  13. Psalm 147:5 tn Heb “and great of strength.”
  14. Psalm 147:5 tn Heb “to his wisdom there is no counting.”
  15. Psalm 147:6 tn Heb “brings down.”
  16. Psalm 147:7 tn Heb “sing to the Lord with thanksgiving.”
  17. Psalm 147:8 tn Heb “the one who covers.”
  18. Psalm 147:8 tn Heb “hills.”
  19. Psalm 147:9 tn Heb “which cry out.”
  20. Psalm 147:10 tn Heb “he does not desire the strength of the horse, he does not take delight in the legs of the man.” Here “the horse” refers to the war horse used by ancient Near Eastern chariot forces, and “the man” refers to the warrior whose muscular legs epitomize his strength.
  21. Psalm 147:11 tn Heb “those who fear him.”
  22. Psalm 147:13 tn Heb “your sons.”
  23. Psalm 147:14 tn Heb “the one who.”
  24. Psalm 147:14 tn Heb “he makes your boundary peace.”
  25. Psalm 147:14 tn Heb “satisfies you with.”
  26. Psalm 147:15 tn Heb “the one who.”
  27. Psalm 147:15 tn Heb “the one who sends his word, the earth.” The Hebrew term אֶרֶץ (ʾerets, “earth”) is an adverbial accusative; one must supply a preposition before it (such as “through” or “to”) in the English translation.
  28. Psalm 147:15 tn Heb “swiftly his word runs.”
  29. Psalm 147:16 tn Heb “the one who gives snow like wool, frost like ashes he scatters.”
  30. Psalm 147:17 tn Heb “his ice.”
  31. Psalm 147:17 tn Heb “Before his cold, who can stand?”
  32. Psalm 147:18 tn Heb “he sends his word and melts them.”
  33. Psalm 147:18 tn Heb “he blows his breath.”
Next
Psalm 145
Psalm 148
Next
dropdown
New English Translation (NET)

NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.