146 1-2 Hallelujah!
    O my soul, praise God!
All my life long I’ll praise God,
    singing songs to my God as long as I live.

3-9 Don’t put your life in the hands of experts
    who know nothing of life, of salvation life.
Mere humans don’t have what it takes;
    when they die, their projects die with them.
Instead, get help from the God of Jacob,
    put your hope in God and know real blessing!
God made sky and soil,
    sea and all the fish in it.
He always does what he says—
    he defends the wronged,
    he feeds the hungry.
God frees prisoners—
    he gives sight to the blind,
    he lifts up the fallen.
God loves good people, protects strangers,
    takes the side of orphans and widows,
    but makes short work of the wicked.

10 God’s in charge—always.
    Zion’s God is God for good!
    Hallelujah!

Psalm 146

Praise for God’s Help

Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!(A)
I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
    I will sing praises to my God all my life long.(B)

Do not put your trust in princes,
    in mortals, in whom there is no help.(C)
When their breath departs, they return to the earth;
    on that very day their plans perish.(D)

Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
    whose hope is in the Lord their God,(E)
who made heaven and earth,
    the sea, and all that is in them;
who keeps faith forever;(F)
    who executes justice for the oppressed;
    who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoners free;(G)
    the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
    the Lord loves the righteous.(H)
The Lord watches over the strangers;
    he upholds the orphan and the widow,
    but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.(I)

10 The Lord will reign forever,
    your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the Lord!(J)