An Alphabet Of *Praise
Psalm 145
An EasyEnglish Translation with Notes (about 1200 word vocabulary) on Psalm 145
Words in boxes are from the Bible. Words in brackets, ( ), are not in the *Hebrew Bible.
The notes explain some of the words with a *star by them. A word list at the end explains the other words that have a *star by them.
The translated Bible text has yet to go through Advanced Checking.
Jesus said, "Yours is the *kingdom, the power and the *glory, for always, *Amen" (Matthew 6:13). (This is the end of the *prayer that Jesus taught us to say to God. A *kingdom is the country that a king rules. "Amen" is a Hebrew word that means "we agree".)
(This is) a psalm of David.
v1 Always I will *praise you, my God and my king, and I will *bless your name!
v2 "*Bless you" I will say every day and I will always *praise your name.
v3 Clearly the *LORD is great and we can never
*praise him enough.
We will never know how great he really is!
v4 Down from father to son people will say
what *wonderful things you have done.
They will tell each other how powerful you are.
v5 Everyone is talking about your *glory and
your *beauty.
I will keep thinking about the *wonderful things that
you do.
v6 Famous are the things that you have done.
People talk about them.
I also will say what great things you do.
v7 Good things are what everybody remembers
about you.
They all sing about how kind you are.
v8 How full of *grace and *mercy is the *LORD.
He is slow to become angry and is full of kind love.
v9 It is the *LORD that is kind to everybody.
He shows his *mercy to everything that he has made.
v10 Joining together, everything that you have made will *praise
you, *LORD.
Your *saints will *bless you!
v11 "*Kingdom of *Glory" is where you rule.
People talk about it and about how powerful you are.
v12 Let everybody know the powerful things that you have done;
and the *glory and *beauty of your
*kingdom.
v13 Many years, even for always, will your *kingdom remain.
You will always rule over it.
Now the *LORD will do as he has promised.
All that he does shows his *mercy.
v14 Out of trouble the *LORD will bring everybody.
He will give help to everyone that has fallen down.
v15 People and other living things look to you.
You give them food when they need it.
v16 Really, you open your hand.
And you give every living thing what it wants.
v17 So the *LORD is fair in all his ways.
Everything that he does shows us his *mercy.
v18 The *LORD is near to all that pray to him.
He is near to all that are honest when they pray to
him.
v19 Very soon he will give what they need to those that love
him.
He will hear what they say and save them.
v20 *Wicked people will the *LORD destroy.
But he will save the people that love him.
v21 You will hear me speak the *praises of the *LORD.
All that he has made will *bless his *holy name.
We do not know when David wrote this psalm. Some Bible students think that Nehemiah wrote it 500 years after David died, using David’s notes. It is an acrostic. This means that verse 1 begins with A, verse 2 with B, and so on. We have used English letters. As there are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, we have left out 4 English letters.
Because it is an acrostic, some of the verses are difficult to understand. It may give help if you change the words round like this in these verses:
1. I will always *praise you
2. I will say "*bless you" every day
4. From father down to son
6. The things that you have done are famous
7. Everybody remembers your good things
8. The *LORD is full of *grace and *mercy (leave out "how")
9. The *LORD is kind to everybody (leave out "it is" and "that is")
10. Everything that you have made will *praise you (leave out "joining together")
11. You rule the "*kingdom of *glory" (leave out "is where")
14. The *LORD will bring everybody out of trouble
16. Leave out "really"
17. Leave out "so"
19. Leave out "very"
20. The *LORD will destroy *wicked people
You can see from this that some words are there just to make the acrostic! They are not very important. They help in this special use of words that we call "poetry".
Other notes are:
Verse 1: "*Bless" here is another word for "*praise". "*Praise you" means "tell you that you are great".
Verse 3: "*LORD" is the *covenant name for God. A *covenant is when two people, or groups of people, agree. God agreed to love and give help to his people. His people agreed to love and obey God. "Clearly" means "in a clear way".
Verse 5: "*Glory" is a word that tells us how much God shines. He shines more than the sun!
Verse 8: *Grace and *mercy nearly mean the same. "*Grace" is being kind to someone. And "*mercy" is not hurting someone when you should.
Verse 10: "*Saints" is a word meaning "God’s people". In the *New Testament it means Christians. Here it translates a Hebrew word that means "people who have accepted God’s kind love". David wrote Psalm 145 in Hebrew.
Verse 13a: (The first part of verse 13) Christians believe that God’s *kingdom will never have an end.
Verse 13b: This part is not in old Hebrew Bibles. This means letter N is not in their acrostic! It is in the old Greek Bible, and a Hebrew one found in 1947 at Qumran near Jerusalem. If you see an old King James Bible, it is not there.
Verse 20: "*Wicked" means "very, very bad".
Verse 21: "*Holy" means "very, very good". Only God is really *holy.
Learn to say verses 15 and 16. Here they are not as part of an acrostic:
Every living thing looks to you. And you give them food when they need it. You open your hand. And you give them everything that they want.
Then say these words before you eat a meal.
Amen ~ we agree!
beauty ~ lovely to look at.
bless ~ say good things, or do good things, to someone.
covenant ~ two people have agreed what each should do (here, God and his people). Look in Psalm 120 about the covenant.
glory ~ something that shines very much. God has glory because his *righteousness shines from inside him.
grace ~ when someone (here God) is kind. And he *forgives when he does not have to.
holy ~ all good with no bad in it; separate from *sin; very, very good; only God is really holy. The land where he lives with his people is also holy. This is because he is there.
kingdom ~ the country that has a king.
LORD ~ the *covenant name for God (in a *covenant you agree with someone).
mercy ~ being kind when you do not have to be kind.
New Testament ~ the last part of the Bible, which the writers wrote after the life of Jesus. It is about the things that Jesus did and taught. It is also about what Christians believe and do.
praise ~ to say how great someone is; or, words that say how great someone is.
prayer ~ you say a *prayer when you speak to God.
saints ~ people that have received God’s love; his people.
wicked ~ very, very bad.
wonderful ~ great and surprising.
© 1999-2002, Wycliffe Associates (UK)
This publication is written in EasyEnglish Level A (1200 words).
December 2002
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