Psalms — Chapter 145

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1 I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever.
2 Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.
3 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.
4 One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.
5 I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works.
6 And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts: and I will declare thy greatness.
7 They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness.
8 The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.
9 The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.
10 All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee.
11 They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power;
12 To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.
13 Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.
14 The LORD upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.
15 The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season.
16 Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.
17 The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.
18 The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.
19 He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.
20 The LORD preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy.
21 My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.
Abrahamic Catechism
Bible Study
Psalms — Chapter 145
◈ Zohar

• The Zohar (II, 132a) identifies this as the supreme alphabetical praise-psalm, recited three times daily in Jewish liturgy because each recitation activates the 22 Hebrew letters as creative forces that sustain creation against the Sitra Achra's entropy. The missing letter Nun (in the Hebrew acrostic) corresponds, according to the Zohar, to the concealed Sefirah of Da'at — hidden because the enemy must not be allowed to target it.

• "Great is Hashem, and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable" — the Zohar (III, 257a) teaches that the unsearchability (Ein Cheker) of divine greatness is itself a weapon. The Sitra Achra's strategy requires understanding its opponent, but God's greatness cannot be comprehended. Fighting an incomprehensible God is like fighting the ocean — the Klipot cannot develop a counter-strategy against what they cannot measure.

• "Hashem is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love" — the Zohar (I, 177a) invokes the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy (abbreviated form). Each attribute is a counter-measure against a specific Sitra Achra weapon: grace counters accusation, mercy counters judgment, patience counters provocation, and Chesed counters the Klipot's economy of scarcity.

• "Hashem upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down" — the Zohar (II, 162a) promises that the Sefirah of Chesed catches every falling Tzaddik and the Sefirah of Gevurah lifts every bowed Tzaddik. Falling (Noflim) and bowing (Kefufim) are the two positions the Sitra Achra forces upon its victims: collapse and submission. God reverses both.

• "Hashem is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth" — the Zohar (III, 55a) specifies that the qualification "in truth" (BeEmet) distinguishes sincere prayer from the Sitra Achra's counterfeit prayers. Emet (truth) is the seal of God — the quality the Klipot cannot replicate. Any prayer sealed with truth reaches God directly, bypassing all Sitra Achra interference.

✦ Talmud

• Berakhot 4b records that this psalm is the only one attributed to David as "A Psalm of Praise" (tehillah) — the Talmud declares that "whoever recites this psalm three times daily is assured of a place in the World to Come," because it is the complete praise-structure that systematically names every divine attribute the Sitra Achra seeks to obscure.

• Sanhedrin 100a notes that every letter of the alphabet is deployed (this is the acrostic psalm per excellence) except nun — the Talmud explains this omission as David's deliberate avoidance of the verse "The virgin of Israel has fallen" (Amos 5:2), demonstrating that even systematic praise is shaped by covenant sensitivity and spiritual strategy.

• Shabbat 55a connects "The Lord is near to all who call on Him in truth" (verse 18) to the Talmudic teaching on the accessibility of God — the covenant warrior's greatest advantage over the Sitra Achra is the directness of divine access; no chain of demonic hierarchy, no gatekeeping, no delay.

• Megillah 17b links "You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing" (verse 16) to the grace after meals — the Talmud treats acknowledgment of God's provision as itself a spiritual act that severs the adversary's ability to exploit appetite and scarcity-consciousness as entry points.

• Yoma 86b closes with "He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him" (verse 19) — the Talmud reads this as the complete resolution of the covenant warrior's campaign: the one who has aligned their desires with God's will finds those desires fulfilled, because the adversary has nothing left to offer that is not already possessed.