Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 145:13
Thy kingdom [is] an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion [endureth] throughout all generations.
13. This verse is found also, in Aramaic, in Dan 4:3, cp. 34 (Aram. Dan. 3:33, Dan 4:31).
an everlasting kingdom ] Lit. a kingdom of all the ages, past alike and future. With the LXX , cp. 1Ti 1:17 , ‘unto the king of the ages.’ See also Psa 10:16; Psa 29:10; Exo 15:18; Jer 10:10.
throughout all generations ] In (or over) generation and generation, each successive generation.
The verse beginning with Nn, which is missing in the Hebrew text, is thus supplied in the LXX and Versions dependent on it, and in the Syr.;
Faithful Is the Lord in [all] his words,
And holy in all his works [86] .
[86] [ , c.a RT] , .
The Heb. found in the lower margin of one late Heb. MS is probably only a re-translation from the LXX.
If this verse is genuine, it must have been lost at an early date, for it is not found in any of the later versions [87] . Against its genuineness it is argued that the first line is suggested by the occurrence of the word for ‘faithful’ ( n’emn) in the same position in Psa 111:7 b, and by the language of Deu 7:9, and that the second line is simply taken from Psa 145:17. It may however be genuine. It is not likely that the Nn verse was originally omitted: it was not necessary for the LXX to supply it: and the Psalm contains many imitations and is not free from repetitions.
[87] The verse is given in Lagarde’s ed. of Jerome’s Version; but it is not found in some good MSS and is obelised in others, and is probably an interpolation from the Vulg. with which it agrees exactly.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom … – See Psa 10:16, note; Dan 4:34, note. The meaning is, that the reign of God will continue forever and ever. It will never pass away as other dominions do; it will not change as dynasties do among people; it will not be overthrown as they are; its great principles will stand firm forever and ever. Compare the notes at Psa 72:17.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 145:13-14
Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.
The greatness and condescension of God
What we admire in these verses is their combining the magnificence of unlimited power with the assiduity of unlimited tenderness. It is of great importance that men be taught to view in God this combination of properties. It is certain that the greatness of God is often turned into an argument by which men would bring doubt on the truths of Redemption and Providence. The unmeasured inferiority of man to his Maker is used in proof that so costly a work as that of Redemption can never have been executed on our behalf; and that so unwearied a watchfulness as that of Providence can never be engaged in our service. Whereas, no reason whatever can be derived from our confessed insignificance, against our being the objects whether of Redemption or of Providence–seeing it is equally characteristic of Deity to attend to the inconsiderable and to the great to extend His dominion throughout all generations, and to lift up those that be bowed down. No one can survey the works of ,Nature and not perceive that God has some regard for the children of men, however fallen and polluted they may be. And if God manifest a regard for us in temporal things, it must be far from incredible that He would do the same in spiritual. There can be nothing fairer than the expectation that He would provide for our well-being as moral and accountable creatures with a care at least equal to that exhibited towards us in our natural capacity. So that it is perfectly credible that God would do something on behalf of the fallen; and then the question is, whether anything less than redemption through Christ would be of worth and of efficacy? But it is in regard to the doctrine of a universal Providence that men are most ready to raise objections, from the greatness of God as contrasted with their own insignificance. They cannot believe that He who is so mighty as to rule the Heavenly Hosts can condescend to notice the wants of the meanest of His creatures; and thus they deny to Him the combination of properties asserted in our text, that, whilst possessed of unlimited empire, He sustains the feeble and raises the prostrate. What would be thought of that mans estimate of greatness who should reckon it derogatory to the statesman that he thus combined attention to the inconsiderable with attention to the stupendous; and who should count it inconsistent with the loftiness of his station that, amid duties as arduous as faithfully discharged, he had an ear for the prattle of his children, and an eye for the interests of the friendless, and a heart for the sufferings of the destitute? Would there not be a feeling mounting almost to veneration towards the ruler who should prove himself equal to the superintending every concern of an empire, and who could yet give a personal attention to the wants of many of the poorest of its families; and who, whilst gathering within the compass of an ample intelligence every question of foreign and home policy, protecting the commerce, maintaining the honour, and fostering the institutions of the State, could minister tenderly at the bedside of sickness, and hearken patiently to the tale of calamity, and be as active for the widow and the orphan as though his whole business were to lighten the pressure of domestic affliction? And if we should rise in our admiration and applause of a statesman in proportion as he showed himself capable of attending to things comparatively petty and insignificant without neglecting the grand and momentous, certainly we are bound to apply the same principle to our Maker–to own it, that is, essential to His greatness that, whilst marshalling planets and ordering the motions of all worlds throughout the sweep of immensity, He should yet feed the young ravens that call upon Him, and number the very hairs of our heads: essential, in short, that, whilst His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion endureth throughout all generations, He should uphold all that fall, and raise up those that are bowed down. We would add to this, that objections against the doctrine of Gods providence are virtually objections against the great truths of creation. Are we to suppose that this or that ephemeral thing, the tiny tenant of a leaf or a bubble, is too insignificant to be observed by God; and that it is absurd to think that the animated point, whose existence is a second, occupies any portion of those inspections which have to spread themselves over the revolutions of planets and the movements of angels? Then to what authorship are we to refer this ephemeral thing? What it was not unworthy of God to form, it cannot be unworthy of God to preserve. But up to this point we have been rather engaged with removing objections against the doctrine of Gods providence than with examining that doctrine as it may be derived from our text. In regard to the doctrine itself, it is evident that nothing can happen in any spot of the universe which is not known to Him who is emphatically the Omniscient. But it is far more than the inspection of an ever vigilant observer which God throws over the concerns of creation. It is not merely that nothing can occur without the knowledge of our Maker; it is that nothing can occur but by either His appointment or permission. We say either His appointment or permission–for we know that, whilst He ordereth all things, both in heaven and earth, there is much which He allows to be done, but which cannot be referred directly to His authorship. It is in this sense that His providence has to do with what is evil, overruling it so that it becomes subservient to the march of His purposes. Oh! it were to take from God all that is most encouraging in His attributes and prerogatives if you could throw doubt on this doctrine of His universal providence. It is an august contemplation, that of the Almighty as the Architect of creation, filling the vast void with magnificent structures. We are presently confounded when bidden to meditate on the eternity of the Most High: for it is an overwhelming truth that He who gave beginning to all besides could have had no beginning Himself. And there are other characteristics and properties of Deity whose very mention excites awe, and on which the best eloquence is silence. But whilst She universal providence of God is to the full as incomprehensible as aught else which appertains to Divinity, there is nothing in it but what commends itself to the warmest feeling of our nature. And we seem to have drawn a picture which is calculated equally to raise astonishment and delight, to produce the deepest reverence and yet fullest confidence when we have represented God as superintending whatever occurs in His infinite domain–guiding the roll of every planet, and the rush of every cataract, and the gathering of every cloud, and the motion of every will–and when, in order that the delineation may have all that exquisiteness which is only to be obtained from those home touches which assure us that we have ourselves an interest in what is so splendid and surprising, we add that He is with the sick man on his pallet, and with the seaman in his danger, and with the widow in her agony. And what, after all, is this combination but that presented by our text? If I would exhibit God as so attending to what is mighty as not to overlook what is mean, what better can I do than declare Him mustering around Him the vast army of suns and constellations, and all the while hearkening to every cry which goes up from an afflicted creation–and is not this the very picture sketched by the psalmist when, after the sublime ascription, Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Thy dominion endureth throughout all generations, he adds the comforting words, the Lord upholdeth all that fall, and lifteth up all those that be bowed down? (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Christs kingdom everlasting
Bishop Galloway, in his book on Missions, gives this significant illustration: In the published accounts of the burning of the famous mosque at Damascus a few years ago, there was a suggestive coincidence, if not a striking prophecy. It was built on the sacred spot where once stood the old Byzantine church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist. In building this Moslem temple one of the Roman arches was blended in the superstructure, on which was a Greek inscription from the Holy Scriptures. After the great fire the arch was found in place, bending over the ruins, bearing these words: Thy kingdom, O Christ, and Thy dominion endureth throughout all ages. (The Advertiser.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 13. Thy dominion endureth] There is neither age nor people in and over which God does not manifest his benignly ruling power. As the above verse begins with the letter mem, the next in the order of the alphabet should begin with nun: but that verse is totally wanting. To say it never was in, is false, because the alphabet is not complete without it; and it is an unanswerable argument to prove the careless manner in which the Jews have preserved the Divine records. Though the Syriac, Septuagint, Vulgate, AEthiopic, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon, have a verse, not in the Hebrew text, that answers to the nun, which is found in no printed copy of the Hebrew Bible; yet one MS., now in Trinity College, Dublin, has it thus, I suppose by correction, in the bottom of the page:-
Neeman Yehovah bechol debaraiv; vechasid bechol maasaiv.
“The Lord is faithful in all his words; and merciful in all his works.”
. – SEPTUAGINT.
Fidelis Dominus in omnibus verbis suis: et sanctus in omnibus operibus suis. – VULGATE.
These two Versions, the Septuagint and Vulgate, are the same with the Hebrew given above. The Anglo-Saxon is the same:-
[Anglo-Saxon]. “True Lord in all words his, and holy in all works his.”
The Latin text in my old Psalter is the same with the present printed Vulgate: “Fidelis Dominus in omnibus verbis suis, et sanctus in omnibus operibus suis.” Thus translated in the same MSS.: Lorde true in all his words: and holy in al his workes.
It is remarkable that the whole verse is wanting in the Vulgate, as published in the Complutensian Polyglot, as also the Antwerp and Paris Polyglots, which were taken from it. It is wanting also in the Polyglot Psalter of Porus, because he did not find it in the Hebrew text.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
13. (Compare Dan 4:3;Dan 4:34).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Thy kingdom [is] an everlasting kingdom,…. So it is opposed to all other kingdoms and monarchies, which have had or will have an end; as the Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman; with all other states which will be on the spot when this kingdom is set up in its glory, and will continue for ever, Da 2:44; and the King of it is opposed to all other kings, who die, and their kingdoms are no more to them; but he never dies, he lives for evermore; he is the living God, and so an everlasting King: nor will his kingdom cease at the end of the thousand years, nor when delivered to the Father; only it shall be in a different place and form, and shall remain for ever; for his saints will reign for ever and ever, and he with them. Or it may be rendered, “a kingdom of all worlds” e, or “ages”; Christ’s kingdom reaching to all worlds; heaven, earth, and hell: or which, according to Arama, takes in the world above, below, and middle; and regards all times past, present, and to come:
and thy dominion [endureth] throughout all generations: in this world, and that to come; there is no end of it, Isa 9:7. This psalm is written alphabetically, as is observed on the title of it; but the letter “nun” is here wanting, the reason of which Kimchi professes his ignorance of: but Jarchi gives a reason for it, such an one as it is, which he has from the Talmud f; because David, by a spirit of prophecy, foresaw the grievous fall of the people of Israel, the prophecy of which begins with this letter, Am 5:2. Nor is the order always strictly observed in alphabetical psalms; in the thirty-seventh psalm the letter “ain” is wanting, and three in the twenty-fifth psalm. The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, supply this defect here, by inserting these words, “the Lord is faithful in all his words, and holy in all his works”, as if they were begun with the word , but they seem to be taken from
Ps 145:17, with a little alteration.
e “reguum omnium seculorum”, V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Musculus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius. f T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 4. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(13) See margin, and comp. Dan. 4:3; Dan. 4:34. But it is not necessary to see any dependence between the passages because of the recurrence of phrases which must have been of daily use in the theocracy.
The nun stanza, which should come after Psa. 145:13, has most probably dropped away. The LXX. and Vulg., Syriac, and Ethiopic have here a variation of Psa. 145:17, which would, in Hebrew, give a verse beginning with the required letter; but it is unknown to the other ancient versions, is rejected by the Jewish writers, and, though found in one Hebrew MS., is apparently suspicious there. But these arguments can hardly weigh against the improbability that, in an artificial composition, one letter (and that an easy one for the purpose) should have been either purposely or accidentally omitted in the original draft, especially when we reflect how extremely unlikely it was that the LXX. should trouble themselves to supply a verse in order to keep up an arrangement of which they took no other notice, perhaps even hardly observed it.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
13. Everlasting kingdom “Kingdom” might better be kingly office, or majesty. David’s tenure of kingship now ceases; Solomon’s soon will cease; the monarchs of old have passed away; but the divine majesty neither fails nor changes. Twelve hundred years ago a Christian church at Damascus was changed into a Mohammedan mosque, but on its outside wall is still inscribed, in Greek letters, “Thy kingdom, O Christ, is a kingdom of all ages;” which shows in what sense the earlier Christians applied this verse.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 145:13 Thy kingdom [is] an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion [endureth] throughout all generations.
Ver. 13. Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom ] It cannot be overturned (that is comfortable to all Christ’s subjects), as other flourishing kingdoms are, which have their times and their turns, their rise and their ruin. Alexander’s kingdom continued but twelve years only, and fell with him; so did Tamerlane’s greatness.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
an everlasting kingdom = a kingdom for all ages. Looking backward (eternal, Psa 77:5) as well as forward (everlasting, Psa 77:7). These words, “Thy kingdom [O Christ] is an everlasting kingdom”, were (up to 1893) to be seen on the wall of one of the largest Mosques in Damascus. Formerly it was a Temple of Rimmon. It was turned into the (Christian) Church of St. John the Baptist by Arcadius, later it was made into a Mosque by Caliph Walid I (705-717). It was destroyed by fire on Oct 14, 1893, and subsequently rebuilt. (Enc. Brit vol. 7, p. 785, Camb. (11th) edition.)
generations. Following this verse (13) the Primitive Text read: “Faithful is Jehovah in all His words And holy in all His works”, the verse beginning with the missing letter (Nun) = Neeman (= faithful). It is found in some codices, with Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, Arabic, and Ethiopic Versions. The Structure (13-20, above) thus confirms the Ancient Versions.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
kingdom: Psa 146:10, Isa 9:7, Dan 2:44, Dan 7:14, Dan 7:27, 1Ti 1:17, Rev 11:15
everlasting kingdom: Heb. kingdom of all ages, 1Co 15:21-28
Reciprocal: 1Ch 29:11 – thine is the Est 1:4 – the riches Psa 10:16 – The Lord Psa 45:6 – throne Psa 93:1 – Lord Psa 93:2 – Thy Jer 10:10 – everlasting king Lam 5:19 – thy throne Dan 4:3 – his kingdom Dan 4:34 – whose Dan 6:26 – and his kingdom Heb 1:8 – for 1Pe 4:11 – dominion Rev 14:6 – everlasting
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
The NASB translators did not translate the last portion of Psa 145:13. It reads, "The LORD is faithful to all His promises and loving toward all He has made" (NIV). The Septuagint translators supplied this verse to fill out the acrostic, the line beginning with the Hebrew letter nun being absent in the Hebrew text.
God consistently sustains the fallen, uplifts the oppressed, and provides for all. Therefore, every person looks to God for His provision of his or her needs. Since God’s dominion is everlasting, He cares for His creatures faithfully and lovingly all the time.