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PSALM 146

1. hallelujah! O my soul, praise jehovah.
2. I will praise jehovah while I live, I will sing praises to my god while I have my being.
3. Place not your trust in princes, in the son of man, with whom there is no salvation.
4. His breath goes forth, he returns to his earth; in that very day his devices perish.
5. Happy is he who has the god of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in jehovah his god.
6. Who has made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is therein; who keeps truth for ever.
7. Who executes judgement for the oppressed; who gives bread to the hungry; jehovah looses the prisoners.
8. jehovah opens the eyes of the blind; jehovah raises them that are bowed down; jehovah loves the just.
9. jehovah preserves the strangers; he supports the orphan and the widow; but makes crooked the way of the wicked.
10. jehovah shall reign for ever! Your god, O Zion, through all generations! hallelujah!

Verse 3. Place not your trust in princes, in the son of man, with whom there is no salvation. As most expressions in the Word have also an opposite sense, so likewise is the signification of the son of man, which in that sense, denotes the false opposite to truths, as in Isaiah, "What are you, that you are afraid of man, he dies, and of the son of man, to whom grass is given," Isaiah 51:12; where grass given to the son of man, denotes the scientific principle, productive of what is false; and in David, "Place not your trust in princes, in the son of man, with whom there is no salvation," Psalm 146:3; princes denote primary truths, AC 2085, 5044; thus in the opposite sense, primary falses, and the son of man is the false itself. AC 9807.

Verse 4. He returns to his earth, [or ground.] That by returning to the ground from whence he was taken, is signified that the church should return to the external man, such as it was before regeneration, is evident from this circumstance, that the ground signifies the external man, as was said above; and that dust signifies what is damned and infernal, is plain also from what was said of the serpent, who in consequence of being cursed, is warned that he should eat dust. To what was there said of the signification of dust, may be added the following passages from David: "All they that go down to the dust shall bow before jehovah, and they whose souls he has not quickened," Psalm 22:29; and in another place, "You hide your face, they are troubled; you take away their breath, they die, and return to their dust," Psalm 104:29; as is the case when men turn themselves from the face of the lord, they then expire or die, and thus return to dust, that is, become damned and infernal. AC 278.

Verse 7. Who executes judgement for the oppressed; who gives bread to the hungry; jehovah looses the prisoners. By the oppressed are here understood those who are in falses from ignorance, the oppression which they suffer is from spirits who are in falses, wherefore it is said, jehovah executes judgement for them, which is to vindicate them from those that oppress; by the hungry are understood those who desire goods, and inasmuch as the lord nourishes them, it is said, jehovah gives bread to the hungry, to give bread denotes to nourish, and spiritual nourishment is science, intelligence, and wisdom; by the prisoners, or bound, are understood those who desire truths, but are detained from them by the falses of doctrine, or by ignorance, in consequence of not having the Word, wherefore to loose denotes to liberate them; that such are called bound may be seen, AC 5037. AE 386.

Verses 7, 8. jehovah looses the prisoners, or bound; jehovah opens the eyes of the blind. They are called bound who are in falses, and desire to be loosed from them; the blind are they who thence are not in the understanding of truth, to open their eyes is to make them understand. AE 239.

Verse 8. jehovah loves the just; see Psalm 145:20, Exposition.

Verse 9. He supports the orphan and the widow; see Psalm 10:14, 18, Exposition.