1 PRAISE THE Lord! (Hallelujah!) Praise the Lord, O my soul! 2 While I live will I praise the Lord; I will sing praises to my God while I have any being.
3 Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no help. 4 When his breath leaves him, he returns to his earth; in that very day his [previous] thoughts, plans, and purposes perish.
5 Happy (blessed, fortunate, enviable) is he who has the God of [special revelation to] Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God, 6 Who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, Who keeps truth and is faithful forever,
7 Who executes justice for the oppressed, Who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets free the prisoners, 8 The Lord opens the eyes of the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the [uncompromisingly] righteous (those upright in heart and in right standing with Him). 9 The Lord protects and preserves the strangers and temporary residents, He upholds the fatherless and the widow and sets them upright, but the way of the wicked He makes crooked (turns upside down and brings to ruin).
10 The Lord shall reign forever, even Your God, O Zion, from generation to generation. Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)