Isaac Watts
(1674-1748)
Psalm 146
The Words of the King James Bible and Isaac Watts
Presented in Parallel
Praise the Lord, O my soul.
And when my voice is lost in death,
Praise shall employ my nobler powers;
My days of praise shall ne’er be past,
While life, and thought, and being last,
Or immortality endures.
I will sing praises unto my God
while I have any being.
nor in the son of man,
in whom there is no help.
Princes must die and turn to dust;
Vain is the help of flesh and blood:
Their breath departs,
their pomp, and power,
And thoughts, all vanish in an hour,
Nor can they make their promise good.
he returneth to his earth;
in that very day his thoughts perish.
the God of Jacob for his help,
whose hope is in the Lord his God:
On Israel’s God: He made the sky,
And earth, and seas, with all their train:
His truth for ever stands secure;
He saves th’oppressed,
He feeds the poor,
And none shall find His promise vain.
the sea, and all that therein is:
which keepeth truth for ever:
for the oppressed:
which giveth food to the hungry.
The Lord looseth the prisoners:
the Lord raiseth them
that are bowed down:
the Lord loveth the righteous:
The Lord supports the sinking mind;
He sends the labr’ing conscience peace;
He helps the stranger in distress,
The widow, and the fatherless,
And grants the pris’ner sweet release.
He loves His saints,
He knows them well,
But turns the wicked down to hell;
He relieveth the fatherless and widow:
but the way of the wicked
He turneth upside down.
even thy God, O Zion,
unto all generations.
Praise ye the Lord.
Let every tongue, let every age,
In this exalted work engage;
Praise Him in everlasting strains.I’ll praise Him
while He lends me breath,
And when my voice is lost in death,
Praise shall employ my nobler powers;
My days of praise shall ne’er be past,
While life, and thought, and being last,
Or immortality endures.
View the standalone version of the hymn
(without the parallel verses from Psalm 146).[Note: This hymn was originally #102 in Book I of Watts’
Hymns and Spiritual Songs in Three Books.
I have taken the words from my personal copy
of an 1826 edition printed in Concord, New Hampshire, USA.]