I’ll Praise My Maker While I’ve Breath
A summary in rhyming verse of Psalm 146, one of two psalms sung at every communion service in the East.
A summary in rhyming verse of Psalm 146, one of two psalms sung at every communion service in the East.
Psalm 146[145] is sung as the second of two psalms to open every communion service in the Russian church. The psalmist calls on us to put our trust in God, acknowledging that it is he who turns our hearts to care for the poor and needy, and to praise him until our latest breath.
Praise ye the Lord
Psalm 146
I’LL praise my Maker while I’ve 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.
Happy the man whose hopes rely
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’ opprest, he feeds the poor,
And none shall find his promise vain.
The Lord pours eye-sight on the blind
The Lord supports the fainting mind;
He sends the labouring conscience peace;
He helps the stranger in distress,
The widow, and the fatherless,
And grants the prisoner sweet release.
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.*
* For another verse translation, see Psalm 146 in the Psalter of Nahum Tate and Nicholas Brady.