Chapter One Hundred Forty-Six

To this psalm, which in the Hebrew Bible is considered 147, is attached the one which in the LXX is designated with the numeral 147, so that the numbering of psalms in the Hebrew Bible no longer advances by one and becomes, beginning from psalm 148 until the end of the Psalter, the same as in both the Hebrew and Greek Bibles. The connection of psalms 146 and 147 (by the numbering of the Greek Bible) is clearly seen in the Vulgate, where although psalm 147 (by the Greek numbering) stands under a separate number, the verse numbering is peculiar: psalm 146 ends with verse 11; in the LXX, psalm 147 begins with verse 1, but in the Vulgate not with 1, but with 12, thus being a direct continuation of the verse numbering of psalm 146.

Praise the Lord who builds Jerusalem, gathering the exiles and healing their sorrows (1–3). All the starry world is subject to Him; He produces all plants and sends His special mercies only to those who fear Him (4–11).

Psalm 146:1. Praise the Lord, for it is good to sing to our God, for it is sweet – a praise that is fitting. The praise of the Lord in hymns and songs from the Hebrew people is “fitting praise,” that which is owed. It is called forth by manifestations of Divine favor, which abundantly pour out upon the Hebrew people, beginning from the fact of their return from captivity. This “praise” is not, however, cold or merely external thanksgiving rendered to God; it fills the entirety of the writer’s being, is warmed by feeling and is the expression of a deeply stirred heart, for which it is “good” and “sweet” to pour forth in these hymns of thanksgiving.

Psalm 146:2. The Lord builds Jerusalem, He gathers the exiles of Israel. Psalm 146:3. He heals the broken in heart and binds up their sorrows. The reason for praising the Lord – the return of the Hebrew people from captivity and the restoration of Jerusalem. These events, being the beginning of a new, nationally distinctive era of life, heal those sorrows in the Hebrews which were the consequence of knowing that in captivity they were slaves, having lost the political and civic independence for which they lamented and which they ardently desired. Now these lamentations are ended and the desires of the Hebrews are fulfilled.

Psalm 146:4. He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by their names. Psalm 146:5. Great is our Lord and great is His strength, and His understanding is infinite. The heaven is studded with an uncountable number of luminaries. It is impossible for a person to recount them. With God, however, they are all numbered, which points to the immeasurability and all-encompassing nature of Divine knowledge. “To call by names” – to give a specific purpose. God not only knows how many stars are in heaven, but each one of them carries out and fulfills its specific function according to His will, and therefore “His understanding is infinite,” His deeds in the world a person will never come to know or comprehend with his limited mind.

Psalm 146:6. The Lord lifts up the humble and casts the wicked down to the earth. The “humble” are the Hebrews, raised up by their return from captivity both in the eyes of the ancient nations, in relation to whom they again appeared as an independent political power, and in the eyes of the Lord, Who has now drawn them close to Himself. The “wicked” are the pagan nations, whose political might is unstable and fleeting: former rulers become slaves – the Babylonians are enslaved by the Medes, who fall under the dominion of the Persians (the succession of Eastern world monarchies was happening before the eyes of the Hebrews).

Psalm 146:7. Sing a responsive hymn of praise to the Lord; sing to our God on the harp. “Sing responsively” – or in separate groups of choirs, or by classes and ranks of the people.

Psalm 146:10. He does not look to the strength of the horse; He does not delight in the speed of human feet, Psalm 146:11. The Lord delights in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His mercy. The greatness of a person and of an entire people depends not on the abundance of his military strength (“horse” – a symbol of military power, as the number of chariots and horses in ancient times on the East measured the strength of an enemy), physical dexterity and endurance of a warrior (“speed of human feet,” i.e., the ability to run quickly, long, and forcefully, which is very important in war), but on the degree of faith in God. The latter was borne out on the Hebrews. They – a people not military and not warlike – were in captivity slaves without honor or rights among powerful pagans, but they obtained freedom and independence not through successful external struggle with their enemies, but through the mercy of the Lord, on Whom alone they relied.