Why read Psalm 145?
Read Psalm 145 to renew your trust in God and your concern for vulnerable people. It warns against relying entirely on powerful people and recalls God's care for orphans, widows and strangers.
You can read this psalm when its themes speak to your circumstances, or as part of your regular reading of the Psalter. This explanation draws on the text itself; the psalm is not reserved for one particular need.
Psalm 145 — “Praise the Lord, my soul...” — is the prayer through which the Psalmist places the experience of an entire hour of life before God. It belongs to the 20th Kathisma and has 10 verses, which you will find in full below.
The text of Psalm 145
1. Praise the Lord, my soul.
2. I shall praise the Lord in my life, I shall sing to my God as long as I live.
3. Do not trust in the powerful, in the sons of men, in whom there is no deliverance.
4. Their spirit will depart, and they will return to the earth. On that day all their thoughts will perish.
5. Blessed is the one who has the God of Jacob as his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God.
6. He who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them; He who keeps truth for ever;
7. He who gives judgement to the oppressed, He who gives food to the hungry. The Lord releases those bound in fetters;
8. The Lord straightens the bent, the Lord gives wisdom to the blind, the Lord loves the righteous;
9. The Lord guards the strangers; He will support the orphans and the widow, and destroy the way of sinners.
10. The Lord will reign for ever, your God, Zion, from generation to generation.
When Psalm 145 is read
- It belongs to the 20th Kathisma and is recited in personal prayer, especially for peace and understanding.
- At the end of each psalm, tradition adds: «Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.».
Adjacent psalms
Read also
The numbering follows the Orthodox Psalter (Septuagint). The same psalm may have a different number in other Bible editions.
