Psalms 145:1–21, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Psalms 145:1–21
An alphabetic praise of the compassionate king
Within Psalms 145:1–21, the individual voice carries the movement “An alphabetic praise of the compassionate king” as part of “An alphabetic praise of the compassionate king.” Its acrostic-hymn form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied.
Why this sits here
Psalms 145:1–21 opens Psalm 145 with “I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever” and establishes the individual voice and “An alphabetic praise of the compassionate king” movement before later lines develop or answer it.
What helps us understand it
How this passage works
Psalms 145:1–21Psalms 145:1–21 is the complete poetic movement “An alphabetic praise of the compassionate king”; its individual voice, parallel lines, images, and rhetorical turn control any use of an individual verse.
The unit opens “I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever” and closes “My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD: and let all flesh bless his holy name for….”
Later material that clarifies it
Psalms 146:1–10Psalm 145's alphabetic praise of the compassionate king opens into the five-psalm hallelujah finale.
Psalms 146:1 in Psalms 146:1–10 is the reviewed hinge that connects the two units.
Place in the book
Psalms as a wholePsalms 145:1–21 belongs to Book V. Thanksgiving, Torah, pilgrimage, Davidic prayer, and universal praise bring the Psalter from gathered distress toward a many-voiced hallelujah. This unit contributes the movement “An alphabetic praise of the compassionate king” within Psalm 145.
The received sequence places Psalms 145:1–21 inside Psalms 107–150; this unit opens “I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever” and closes “My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD: and let all flesh bless his holy name for….” The unit's reviewed main point is: Within Psalms 145:1–21, the individual voice carries the movement “An alphabetic praise of the compassionate king” as part of “An alphabetic praise of the compassionate king.” Its acrostic-hymn form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied.
Psalms 145:1–21 opens with “I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever” and closes with “My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD: and let all flesh bless his holy name for….” Those endpoints show how the individual voice carries “An alphabetic praise of the compassionate king.”
How the passage moves
Identify the individual voice, address, and parallel lines in Psalms 145:1–21; do not make every “I”, “we,” king, enemy, or worshiper interchangeable.
This reading does not authorize the following misuse: The missing nun line in the Masoretic form and its presence in other traditions are a real textual issue; universal provision remains praise, not denial of hunger.
A phrase that matters
“gracious, and full of compassion”
The confession gathers mercy, patience, and covenant love as the basis for widening praise; it does not trivialize judgment or present suffering as evidence that compassion is absent.
What remains true
Wisdom is formed through sustained attention to the LORD's instruction and embodied choices, not through a formula that guarantees ease or status.
How this should shape us
What response preserves the text's voice and the neighbor's safety?
Within “An alphabetic praise of the compassionate king,” The opening line begins the movement “An alphabetic praise of the compassionate king.” A proportionate response is this: Read “I will extol thee, my God, O king” inside ancient kingship, then assess every present leader by justice and care for vulnerable people without granting divine status to a ruler or nation.
Teach it back
Explain Psalms 145:1–21 in your own words. Name the poetic voice and movement, trace its place in Psalm 145 and Book V, identify one exact source control or uncertainty, and reject one use the passage does not authorize.
Your explanation stays in this browser. It is not sent or saved.
Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Read it sentence by sentenceEach line inside the larger movement
Voice, image, and parallel movement
Within Psalms 145:1–21, the individual voice carries the movement “An alphabetic praise of the compassionate king” as part of “An alphabetic praise of the compassionate king.” Its acrostic-hymn form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied. The opening clause “I will extol thee, my God, O king” belongs to this complete movement.
Placement in Book V
Psalms 145:1–21 opens Psalm 145 with “I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever” and establishes the individual voice and “An alphabetic praise of the compassionate king” movement before later lines develop or answer it.
Uncertainty and responsible limit
This reading does not authorize the following misuse: The missing nun line in the Masoretic form and its presence in other traditions are a real textual issue; universal provision remains praise, not denial of hunger.
Original-language wording and grammarTechnical detail appears only where it helps
gracious, and full of compassion
The confession gathers mercy, patience, and covenant love as the basis for widening praise; it does not trivialize judgment or present suffering as evidence that compassion is absent.
How certain? probableWhat the first readers would have understoodRelevant history and culture
Recoverable setting and limits
Psalms 145:1–21 belongs to Israel's received Psalter and Book V. Its acrostic-hymn form may preserve individual, communal, royal, sanctuary, wisdom, historical, or later liturgical voices. A heading or vivid scene can guide reception without proving one author, date, event, performance setting, or editorial stage.
How certain? probableWhy translations sometimes differMaterial translation choices
KJV language note — “gracious, and full of compassion”
The confession gathers mercy, patience, and covenant love as the basis for widening praise; it does not trivialize judgment or present suffering as evidence that compassion is absent. The pinned KJV remains displayed exactly while MorphHB, exact NET notes, and NETS Psalm 145 control material alternatives.
How certain? probableEarlier Scripture and inherited backgroundSupported quotations, allusions, and inherited ideas
The psalm within Jewish Scripture and worship
Psalms 145:1–21 belongs first to the Jewish Psalter's Hebrew poetry, five-book arrangement, prayer, instruction, memory, and worship. Jewish use and interpretation are not a preliminary stage to be erased by later Christian reception.
How certain? strongHow this connects with the rest of ScriptureThe passage's own meaning remains primary
Canonical relationships after the first horizon
praise, king, compassion, provision connect this movement with other psalms and wider biblical traditions only after Psalms 145:1–21's own voice and poetic work are established. Similar wording does not make every speaker, enemy, city, nation, king, or promise identical.
How certain? probableTextual variantsManuscript differences only when they affect meaning
Material textual, heading, or numbering issue
This reading does not authorize the following misuse: The missing nun line in the Masoretic form and its presence in other traditions are a real textual issue; universal provision remains praise, not denial of hunger.
How certain? probableWhere careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do responsible readings differ?
Best judgment: The missing nun line in the Masoretic form and its presence in other traditions are a real textual issue; universal provision remains praise, not denial of hunger.
How certain? probableTheology that emerges from this passageConclusions drawn after reading the complete section
Theological contribution
Psalms 145:1–21 gives individual prayer and poetry a real place before the LORD while the five-book Psalter holds lament, praise, Torah, kingship, Zion, creation, history, and communal memory in conversation.
How certain? strongTheological contribution
Wisdom is formed through sustained attention to the LORD's instruction and embodied choices, not through a formula that guarantees ease or status.
How certain? probableCommon ways this passage gets misusedFair explanation, context check, and stronger reading
This reading does not authorize the following misuse: The missing nun line in the Masoretic form and its presence in other traditions are a real textual issue; universal provision remains praise, not denial of hunger.
A vivid line from Psalm 145 can be detached from poetic parallelism, voice, genre, the whole psalm, Book V, and later reception history.
Within Psalms 145:1–21, the individual voice carries the movement “An alphabetic praise of the compassionate king” as part of “An alphabetic praise of the compassionate king.” Its acrostic-hymn form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied.
Wisdom is formed through sustained attention to the LORD's instruction and embodied choices, not through a formula that guarantees ease or status.
An alphabetic praise of the compassionate king remains meaningful without the rejected overreach.
Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Psalms 145:1–21, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ps.xml, OSIS 145:1–21
Supports: Verse-level controls for poetic syntax, imagery, older KJV language, textual issues, headings, and alternatives in Psalms 145:1–21.
Official NET Bible Psalm 145 HTML, translator, textual, and study notes attached to Psalms 145:1–21
Supports: Five-book, genre, poetic, historical, theological, liturgical, communal, and reception synthesis with visible limits.
Enter the Bible Psalms course, Introductory Issues: genres and psalm pairs; Theological Themes: kingship, Zion, and covenant; applied to Psalms 145:1–21
Supports: Ancient Greek wording, numbering, division, and superscription evidence where it materially clarifies translation or reception.
NETS Psalms, Pietersma introduction pp. 542–543 and exact Greek translation headed Ps 145 for Psalms 145:1–21
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Psalms 145:1–21, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Psalms
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ps.xml, OSIS 145:1–21
Open the fixed Hebrew Psalms file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Notes: Psalms 1-150
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, current official online edition
Supports: Verse-level controls for poetic syntax, imagery, older KJV language, textual issues, headings, and alternatives in Psalms 145:1–21.
Exact location: Official NET Bible Psalm 145 HTML, translator, textual, and study notes attached to Psalms 145:1–21
Open the official NET Psalms notes ↗modern scholarly book course
Psalms course: summary, outline, background, introductory issues, theological themes, and Bible in the world
Fred Gaiser; revised by Nicholas Schaser
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, revised May 2024
Supports: Five-book, genre, poetic, historical, theological, liturgical, communal, and reception synthesis with visible limits.
Exact location: Enter the Bible Psalms course, Introductory Issues: genres and psalm pairs; Theological Themes: kingship, Zion, and covenant; applied to Psalms 145:1–21
Open the Enter the Bible Psalms course ↗ancient greek text translation and introduction
A New English Translation of the Septuagint: Psalms
Albert Pietersma
International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies; Oxford University Press, 2009
Supports: Ancient Greek wording, numbering, division, and superscription evidence where it materially clarifies translation or reception.
Exact location: NETS Psalms, Pietersma introduction pp. 542–543 and exact Greek translation headed Ps 145 for Psalms 145:1–21
Open NETS Psalms ↗