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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.

² The rich and the poor have this in common:
   the Lord is the maker of them all.
³ The clever see danger and hide;
   but the simple go on, and suffer for it.
⁴ The reward for humility and fear of the Lord
   is riches and honour and life.
⁵ Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse;
   the cautious will keep far from them.
⁶ Train children in the right way,
   and when old, they will not stray.
⁷ The rich rules over the poor,
   and the borrower is the slave of the lender.
⁸ Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity,
   and the rod of anger will fail.
⁹ Those who are generous are blessed,
   for they share their bread with the poor.
¹⁰ Drive out a scoffer, and strife goes out;
   quarrelling and abuse will cease.
¹¹ Those who love a pure heart and are gracious in speech
   will have the king as a friend.
¹² The eyes of the Lord keep watch over knowledge,
   but he overthrows the words of the faithless.
¹³ The lazy person says, ‘There is a lion outside!
   I shall be killed in the streets!’
¹⁴ The mouth of a loose^* woman is a deep pit;
   he with whom the Lord is angry falls into it.
¹⁵ Folly is bound up in the heart of a boy,
   but the rod of discipline drives it far away.
¹⁶ Oppressing the poor in order to enrich oneself,
   and giving to the rich, will lead only to loss.

8 I do not say this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love against the earnestness of others. ⁹For you know the generous act^* of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. ¹⁰And in this matter I am giving my advice: it is appropriate for you who began last year not only to do something but even to desire to do something— ¹¹now finish doing it, so that your eagerness may be matched by completing it according to your means. ¹²For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has—not according to what one does not have. ¹³I do not mean that there should be relief for others and pressure on you, but it is a question of a fair balance between ¹⁴your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance. ¹⁵As it is written,
‘The one who had much did not have too much,
   and the one who had little did not have too little.’