Psalms 146 - Introduction

This Psalm is "the praise of Jehovah as the one true Helper." Israel is warned against putting its trust in men, however powerful they may seem for the moment to be a warning demanded perhaps by the particular circumstances and tendencies of the time and reminded of the privileges it enjoys in the guardianship of Jehovah, the celebration of Whose power, beneficence, and eternal dominion forms the main subject of the Psalm.

It is the first of the five -Hallelujah Psalms" with which the Psalter ends, and it has several points of contact with Psalms 145 [88].

[88] Cp. Psalms 146:2 with Psalms 145:2; Psalms 145:5; Psalms 145:7 with Psalms 145:15; Psalms 146:8 with Psalms 145:14; Psalms 146:10 with Psalms 145:13.

To this and the three following Psalms (145 148 of LXX = 146 148 of Heb., 147 being divided), the LXX prefixes the title of Haggai and Zechariah, as it does to Psalms 138. Whether this title represents some tradition, or was simply a conjecture from the use of these Psalms in the services of the Second Temple, is quite uncertain. They can however hardly be earlier than the time of Nehemiah, to the circumstances of which Psalms 147, vv3, 4 of this Psalm may refer.

The use of Psalms 146-150 in the daily Morning Service of the Synagogue is of great antiquity, though not, according to Dr Schiller-Szinessy, so ancient as that of Psalms 145.