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Advent · Third Sunday in Advent · Year A

Psalm 146

Trust Not in Princes

December 14, 2025

The Seven Works of Mercy, Caravaggio
The Seven Works of Mercy, Caravaggio, 1607Pio Monte della Misericordia, Naples
All seven works happen at once in a Neapolitan alley: a man is buried, a prisoner is fed at the breast by his own daughter, a corpse's feet stick out at the left. The painting has never left the building it was made for.The Lord … executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free; the Lord opens the eyes of the blind … The Lord watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow.CaravaggioThe painter who put street models and raking light into altarpieces, killed a man in a brawl, and changed European painting in under twenty years.Pio Monte della Misericordia, NaplesA charitable confraternity founded in 1602 and still operating, which commissioned the Caravaggio above its altar and has never let it leave.Pio Monte della Misericordia, Naples
LSB Three-Year Lectionary
GospelMatt. 11:2-15Mt 11:2-15
EpistleJas. 5:7-11Jas 5:7-11
Old TestamentIsa. 35:1-10Is 35:1-10
PsalterPs. 146Ps 146

Overview & Insights

“The LORD sets the prisoners free; the LORD opens the eyes of the blind.” (Psalm 146:7-8)

Psalm 146 begins the five Hallelujah psalms that close the Psalter (146 to 150), each of which opens and ends with “Praise the LORD”. It argues by contrast: princes are breath and their plans perish with them (vv. 3-4), while the God of Jacob keeps faith forever (vv. 5-6), and the evidence offered is a list of actions rather than a list of attributes. Justice for the oppressed, food for the hungry, prisoners released, blind eyes opened, the bowed-down raised, the sojourner and widow and orphan upheld (vv. 7-9): the catalogue overlaps closely with what Jesus reads at Nazareth from Isaiah (Luke 4:18) and with what he sends word of to John (Matthew 11:5). Paired with Isaiah 35 in Advent, the psalm holds all of it in the present tense. These are things the Lord does, not only things he has promised to do.

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Commentary

Commentary on Psalm 146Commentary on Ps 146 Working Preacher

The one Lutheran-tradition voice on this closing Hallelujah psalm.

Psalm 146 CommentaryPs 146 Commentary Enduring Word · David Guzik

Walks through the psalm's praise of God's faithful justice verse by verse.

Psalm 146:1 CommentariesPs 146:1 Commentaries BibleHub

Lines up multiple historic commentaries on the opening verse.

Psalm 146 (Gill's Exposition)Ps 146 (Gill's Exposition) StudyLight

Gives John Gill's full exposition of the psalm.

Background & Word Study

Psalm 146:1 InterlinearPs 146:1 Interlinear BibleHub

Shows the underlying Hebrew word by word.

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