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Psalm 146

1  Alleluia.
      Praise the Lord, O my soul:
      while I live will I praise the Lord; ♦︎
   as long as I have any being,
      I will sing praises to my God.
2  Put not your trust in princes,
      nor in any human power, ♦︎
   for there is no help in them.
3  When their breath goes forth, they return to the earth; ♦︎
   on that day all their thoughts perish.
4  Happy are those who have the God of Jacob for their help, ♦︎
   whose hope is in the Lord their God;
5  Who made heaven and earth,
      the sea and all that is in them; ♦︎
   who keeps his promise for ever;
6  Who gives justice to those that suffer wrong ♦︎
   and bread to those who hunger.
7  The Lord looses those that are bound; ♦︎
   the Lord opens the eyes of the blind;
8  The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; ♦︎
   the Lord loves the righteous;
9  The Lord watches over the stranger in the land;
      he upholds the orphan and widow; ♦︎
   but the way of the wicked he turns upside down.
10  The Lord shall reign for ever, ♦︎
   your God, O Zion, throughout all generations.
      Alleluia.

Government with Justice Predicted

32See, a king will reign in righteousness,
   and princes will rule with justice.
² Each will be like a hiding-place from the wind,
   a covert from the tempest,
like streams of water in a dry place,
   like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.
³ Then the eyes of those who have sight will not be closed,
   and the ears of those who have hearing will listen.
⁴ The minds of the rash will have good judgement,
   and the tongues of stammerers will speak readily and distinctly.
⁵ A fool will no longer be called noble,
   nor a villain be said to be honourable.
⁶ For fools speak folly,
   and their minds plot iniquity:
to practise ungodliness,
   to utter error concerning the Lord,
to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied,
   and to deprive the thirsty of drink.
⁷ The villainies of villains are evil;
   they devise wicked devices
to ruin the poor with lying words,
   even when the plea of the needy is right.
⁸ But those who are noble plan noble things,
   and by noble things they stand.

12 All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. ¹³For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but the doers of the law who will be justified. ¹⁴When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. ¹⁵They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them ¹⁶on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all.