Psalm 145: I Will Extol You, My God and King

"I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever. Every day will I bless thee… Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts… The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works."

"All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom… Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. The LORD upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down. The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing."

"The LORD is righteous in all his ways… The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him… He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him… The LORD preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy. My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever."

The missing nun

Each verse begins with the next letter of the alphabet. In the library's Hebrew, v. 13 begins with mem and v. 14 with samekh: there is no nun verse. The Greek and Latin have an extra line after v. 13: "The Lord is faithful in all his words, and holy in all his works" (Vulgate "Fidelis Dominus in omnibus verbis suis, et sanctus in omnibus operibus suis"). The Qumran Psalms Scroll from Cave 11 (11QPs-a) is reported to include a Hebrew nun line, "God is faithful (ne'eman) in his words and gracious in all his deeds," beginning with nun. See the passage page.

"All"

The word kol ("all, every") appears again and again: "good to all," "over all his works," "upholdeth all that fall," "the eyes of all," "every living thing," "all flesh." The kingship of God is universal and his care is for every creature.

Ashrei

Psalm 145, introduced by 84:4 and 144:15 ("Happy are they…", ashre) and followed by 115:18, is the Ashrei, recited three times daily in Jewish prayer. The Babylonian Talmud (Berakhot 4b) says that whoever says it three times a day is assured of the world to come, and explains the missing nun by Amos 5:2, "fallen (nafelah) is the virgin of Israel," a verse of judgment beginning with nun; the psalm then supports the fallen in v. 14. Christians often say vv. 15–16 as a grace before meals. It is the only psalm headed tehillah, "praise," the word that gives the Hebrew book its name, Tehillim.