Psalm 145:16

Psalm 145 is titled “David’s Psalm of praise”, and it is the only psalm in the Psalter given that title. It is an acrostic, with each verse beginning with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet, an orderly way of praising God for all that he is. One letter, Nun, is missing from the Masoretic Text, though a verse for it is found in the Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

David opens with his own vow of praise (verses 1–3) and then declares God’s mighty acts and his everlasting kingdom (verses 4–13). From verse 14 the psalm shows that King at work for the weak, the hungry and those who pray. The care in these verses is the goodness David has already announced: God’s great goodness, his compassion, and the confession that “The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works” (Psalm 145:7–9).

“The LORD upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.” The name here is Yᵉhôvâh, the covenant name of God, which the KJV prints as “the LORD”. It names him as the self-existent and eternal One, the faithful God of Israel, and it is this God who stoops to the fallen.

To uphold, çâmak, is to prop up, to bear up and sustain, and the same verb is used for leaning on something or resting on it. God is the support his people lean on when their footing goes. To fall, nâphal, takes in a stumble of the feet, the collapse of a person’s fortunes and a moral failure, and the verse leaves room for all of them.

The second line turns to people who are already low. To be bowed down, kâphaph, is to be bent over, the posture of grief, sickness or a heavy burden. To raise up, zâqaph, is to lift, and figuratively to comfort, like straightening what has been bent. So God steadies people as they fall and lifts those who have been pressed down. The word “all” stands in both lines, and his help reaches every one of them.

Scripture often speaks of God’s support in this way. Moses blessed Israel with the words, “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27). God promised through Isaiah, “I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness” (Isaiah 41:10), and another psalm says that “The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed” (Psalm 103:6). In a world that is quick to abandon the weak, God holds out his hand to support them and restore them.

“The eyes of all wait upon thee” pictures every creature, from the smallest to the greatest, looking up to God for what it needs. The eye, ʻayin, often stands for attention, expectation and longing, as a person looks to a master for direction or to a provider for food. The verb for waiting, sâbar, means to inspect or examine, to look intently, and by implication to wait with hope and patience. The creatures watch God’s hand in confident expectation, because his character as a giver is already known.

“And thou givest them their meat in due season.” Nâthan is the everyday Hebrew word for giving, used very widely, for putting, setting and making as well. The KJV’s “meat” means food of every kind, ʼôkel, whatever keeps a creature alive. “In due season”, bəʿittō, is the right time, so God’s provision arrives when it is needed. For a people who lived by the rain, the crops and the health of their flocks, that meant the seasons coming round in their order. Israel had already seen it in the wilderness, when God fed the people with manna and quail (Exodus 16). Another psalm praises God as the sustainer of every creature in nearly the same words: “These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season” (Psalm 104:27–28).

Between the promises of food and the promises to those who pray, David says who the giver is: “The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.” Everything God does for the creatures in verses 14–16 and for those who call on him in verses 18–20 rests on this.

Tsaddîyq, righteous, means just and upright, in keeping with a perfect standard, so that his judgments, laws and acts are all fair. His ways, derek, are his paths, his manner of acting and the whole course of his dealings with people and with creation. His works, maʻăseh, are his deeds and the things he has made.

The word the KJV renders “holy” here is châçîyd, which is often translated “pious” or “merciful”. In this verse it speaks of God’s kindness, faithfulness and steadfast love in all he does. So the two lines set God’s justice and his kindness side by side, and each of his deeds shows both. The “holy” of verse 21 translates a different Hebrew word, qôdesh.

Moses sang of the same God: “He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he” (Deuteronomy 32:4). Isaiah says that “God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness” (Isaiah 5:16), and the victors in Revelation sing, “just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints” (Revelation 15:3). The double “all” carries his justice and kindness into every decision and every deed, and he is the same in each: “For I am the LORD, I change not” (Malachi 3:6).

“The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him”. Qârôwb means near, close at hand, in place, in time or in kinship. Here it is the LORD himself who is near, and near to those who call on him. To call, qârâʼ, is to call out to someone, to address him by name, to cry out or to invite. To call on the LORD is to pray to him, to appeal to him for help and to invoke his name in worship. In Israel it was the basic act of worship, at the gatherings of the people and in personal distress.

Israel knew this nearness as a mark of their God. Moses asked, “For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for?” (Deuteronomy 4:7). Isaiah calls everyone to come: “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near” (Isaiah 55:6). The promise is for “all”, whoever they are.

Verse 19 says what God’s nearness brings. “Them that fear him” uses yârêʼ, “fearing”, said of one who reveres God. In Israel the fear of God was reverence, awe and willing obedience to what he had made known, and “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7).

“He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him.” “Desire” is râtsôwn again, the same word as in verse 16. God satisfies the desire of every living thing, and he fulfils the desire of those who fear him. Their desire is shaped by their reverence for him, so it is a longing in keeping with his will and good pleasure, and God delights to bring it about. David says the same in another psalm: “Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart” (Psalm 37:4). John writes that when we ask anything according to his will, he hears us (1 John 5:14–15).

“He also will hear their cry.” The cry, shavʻâh, is the urgent prayer of someone in distress who depends wholly on God’s help, and God listens to it. “And will save them” uses yâshaʻ, from a root meaning to be open, wide or free, and so to set free, to help, to rescue and to bring to safety.

Verses 18, 19 and 20 describe the same people in three ways: they call upon him in truth, they fear him, and they love him.

“The LORD preserveth all them that love him”. Shâmar means to hedge about, as with thorns, and so to guard, protect and attend to. It is the watchful keeping of a shepherd over his flock or a watchman over a city. Proverbs says of God, “He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints” (Proverbs 2:8). Those he keeps are those who love him, and the verb for love, ʼâhab, means to love, to have affection for. Their affection is set on God himself.

“But all the wicked will he destroy.” The wicked, râshâʻ, are those who are actively bad, guilty and ungodly, people whose whole way of life is set against God. Shâmad means to destroy or exterminate, and it is often used of God’s judgment. This line stands at the end of a passage full of mercy, and it comes from the same righteousness as verse 17. Paul writes that God “will render to every man according to his deeds” (Romans 2:6–8), and that when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven, “them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel” shall be “punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power” (2 Thessalonians 1:7–9).

The psalm ends as it began, with David’s own praise. “My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD”. The mouth, peh, is the organ of speech, so this praise is spoken aloud. Dâbar is the ordinary verb to speak, to tell. The word for praise, tᵉhillâh, means praise or a hymn, and it is the word in the psalm’s title, “David’s Psalm of praise”. Another psalm prays, “Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day” (Psalm 71:8), and in Psalm 63 David says, “my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips” (Psalm 63:3–5).

Then David calls on everyone else: “let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.” Bâsâr means flesh, body, kin or mortal creature, and it can set people before God as frail and erring. “All flesh” means all humanity, and by extension every living creature. The frail creatures that God upholds and feeds in verses 14–16 are the ones called to bless him. To bless, bârak, is to kneel, and when people bless God it is an act of adoration that honours his worth.

His name, shêm, is his mark and memorial, his honour, authority and character, so to bless his name is to praise him for all he has shown himself to be. When God revealed himself to Moses he said, “this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations” (Exodus 3:14–15). His name is holy, qôdesh, set apart and sacred, as the seraphim cry, “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:3).

“For ever and ever” joins two words. ʻôwlâm is time out of mind, eternity, and ʻad is perpetuity, unending time. Together they promise praise without end, as in heaven, where the living creatures “rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come” (Revelation 4:8).

The call to all flesh will be answered. God swears through Isaiah, “unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear” (Isaiah 45:23), and Paul quotes that oath in Romans 14:11. John sees a great multitude “of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues” crying, “Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9–10).

Every promise in these verses is kept in Jesus Christ. He went about lifting those who were falling and bowed down, healing the sick, casting out devils and forgiving sinners, and he called, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). All things were made by him, “and by him all things consist” (Colossians 1:16–17), so the One who upholds the falling also holds the whole creation together. He is a High Priest who knows our weakness, and through him we come boldly to the throne of grace to “find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:15–16).

He is God’s open hand. He fed five thousand with a few loaves and fishes (Matthew 14:13–21), and he said, “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). He is the living bread which came down from heaven (John 6:51), the giver of living water (John 4:10–14), and the Good Shepherd who leads his sheep to green pastures and still waters (Psalm 23:2). Even his coming was God’s due season: “when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son” (Galatians 4:4). God commends his love toward us in that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8), and in him we receive every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3).

He showed the righteousness of verse 17 in a life without fault, and he said, “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). At the cross sin was justly condemned and sinners were forgiven, so that God is “just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Romans 3:26).

He is God’s nearness in person, Emmanuel, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). He is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), so to call on God in truth is to come through him, and the Spirit he sends gives us to cry, “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15). He feared the Father perfectly and was obedient unto death (Philippians 2:8). He prayed in agony in Gethsemane (Luke 22:44) and cried out from the cross (Matthew 27:46), and God heard him and raised him up (Acts 2:24). He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

He loved the Father and did as the Father commanded (John 14:31). For those who are his, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1–2), and he says of his sheep, “neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” (John 10:27–29). He is also the one ordained by God to be the judge of the living and the dead (Acts 10:42). He has declared the Father to us (John 1:18), through him we have access by one Spirit to the Father (Ephesians 2:18), and the redeemed out of every kindred, tongue, people and nation sing a new song to the Lamb (Revelation 5:9–10). At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that he is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10–11).

These verses show a King whose greatness is spent on the weak. The LORD bends to the falling and the bowed down, opens his hand to every creature, stays near to everyone who calls on him in truth, hears the cry of those who fear him, and keeps those who love him. His care rests on his character, righteous and kind in all his ways, so it holds in every season and every trouble.

The promise of verse 18 is as wide as “all”, and what it asks for is an honest heart. Anyone who is falling or bowed down is the very person verse 14 speaks of, and the God who made that promise is the God who keeps it.

Those whom God has lifted and fed have hands of their own to open. His care for the falling is seen again whenever his people hold up those around them who are stumbling and share what he has given them with those in need. And all of it ends in praise. David’s mouth speaks the praise of the LORD, and all flesh will one day bless his holy name. Every prayer heard and every meal given is a reason for that praise, which will go on for ever and ever.