Psalm 146 begins with a section praising God, so I have taken this theme for the refrain, which is a simple Alleluia. We then join the psalm at verse 4 (in the Common Worship and Coverdale psalters, it is verse 5 in other translations).
In the first stanza, I have changed the pronouns from ‘he/his’ to ‘they/their’ to make it more relevant to the whole congregation. In verse two I have chosen to use ‘sky’ rather than ‘heaven’ (the Hebrew word could be either and also translates as air) and re-ordered the nouns to start on earth moving to sea and sky as this both flows better in English and moves from more to less familiar for the congregation.
4Blessed are they whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God.
5For God made earth, sea and sky, and all that is in them
and keeps faith forever.
The second stanza starts by restating making the subject of verse 1 – God – explicit, rather than using ‘he’ or ‘who’. I have used ‘gives sight to the blind’ rather than ‘opens the eyes’ as this is the more idiomatic phrasing in English. In the last line I have chosen to avoid the word ‘righteous’ as I think it has unhelpful connotations in English. As ‘self-righteous’ is a common phrase, whereas ‘righteous’ is not, there is a risk that some may understand that God loves those who are self-righteous. To avoid this, I have used the word ‘just’, which also clearly refers back to verse 6.
6God upholds justice for the oppressed and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets prisoners free.
7The Lord gives sight to the blind and raises up those who are bowed down.
The Lord loves those who are just.
In verse 8, the word I have translated as ‘foreigner’ is translated in a variety of ways in English. The original Hebrew is more literally a ‘guest’ and refers to a foreigner living among the Jewish people – a more provocative translation might be ‘the immigrant’ and many translations seem to gloss over this by using translations such as ‘stranger’ or the uncommon and slightly archaic ‘sojourner’ (a temporary visitor). There are a few notable exceptions that try to convey the meaning more accurately, such as the New English Translation’s ‘those residing outside their native land’ (too wordy for our purposes) and the Christian Standard Bible’s ‘resident aliens’ (too disconcerting). As Robert Alter notes, these people, along with orphans and widows, are ‘the exemplary instances of the vulnerable and the disenfranchised in society who are in need of special protection’[1]. In the final verse I have chosen to use ‘Jerusalem’ rather than ‘Zion’ and to move the reference to the beginning of the verse so that the sense flows more naturally in English.
8The Lord protects the foreigner, and supports the orphan and widow,
but subverts the way of the wicked.
9O Jerusalem, the Lord your God shall reign forever,
from generation to generation. Praise the Lord!
The translation with music for cantor, organist and congregation is available for download here: https://psalteryandharp.uk/b/DeWhz
[1] Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible: Volume 3 The Writings, p.331