Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 146:3
Put not your trust in princes, [nor] in the son of man, in whom [there is] no help.
3. Cp. Psa 118:8-9, and see notes there for illustration of the kind of circumstances which may have suggested the warning. Cp. also Jer 17:5 ff. Heathen princes doubtless are meant. It is possible that a party in Jerusalem was advocating a foreign alliance.
in whom there is no help ] Or, salvation. Cp. Psa 33:16; Psa 60:11 (= Psa 108:12) and note.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
3, 4. The central thought of the Ps., expressed in Psa 146:5 ff., is prefaced by a warning against the temptation to rely upon the favour and protection of men, however powerful. Princes to-day, they may be I dust to-morrow; and their loftiest schemes crumble into dust with them.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Put not your trust in princes – Rely on God rather than on man, however exalted he may be. There is a work of protection and salvation which no man, however exalted he may be, can perform for you; a work which God alone, who is the Maker of all things, and who never dies, can accomplish. See the notes at Psa 118:8-9. Compare also the notes at Isa 2:22 : Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted of?
Nor in the son of man – Any son of man; any human being, no matter what his rank or power. The phrase is often used to denote man. See the notes at Psa 8:4. The appellation Son of man was often applied by the Saviour to himself to express emphatically the idea that he was a man – that he had a human nature; that he was identified with the race; that he was a brother, a fellow-sufferer, a friend of man: that he was not a cold and abstract being so exalted that he could not feel or weep over the sins and woes of a fallen and suffering world. The language here, however, it is scarcely necessary to say, does not refer to him. It is right to put our trust in him; we have no other trust.
In whom there is no help – Margin, salvation. So the Hebrew. The idea is, that man cannot save us. He cannot save himself; he cannot save others.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 146:3-4
Put not your trust in princes.
Dependence on man forbidden
I. Mankind are naturally disposed to do this. The young depend upon the old, and the old upon the young. The poor depend upon the rich, and the rich upon the poor. The servant depends upon his master, and the master upon the servant. The subject depends upon the ruler, and the ruler upon the subject. The child depends upon its parents, and the parent on the child. Is it strange, therefore, that such creatures as we are, in our present state, should depend too much upon each other? We early form this habit, which is constantly strengthening through all the changes and periods of life, and which God originally intended we should form and cultivate. But He never meant that our dependence upon each other should be a just ground of our renouncing our supreme dependence upon Himself.
II. God has forbidden them to do this.
1. He has required them to place their own supreme dependence upon Himself.
2. He has forbidden them to trust in themselves.
III. Why He has forbidden it.
1. Because mankind are so very unfit objects upon which to place supreme dependence.
(1) Mortal.
(2) Frail;
(3) Fickle.
(4) Absolutely dependent on God.
2. To preserve them from the numerous dangers and disappointments to which such undue confidence exposes them.
3. Because it tends to alienate them from Himself, and fix them down in ease and security, upon a false and fallible foundation.
4. To prevent their ruining themselves for ever. (N. Emmons, D. D.)
The forbidding of carnal confidence
1. What a man doth most trust in, that he esteemeth most of, and praiseth in his heart most; therefore doth the psalmist set us upon God, as on the right object of trust, and diverteth us from the wrong, that he may teach us to make God the only object of praise.
2. Because the main object of our carnal confidence naturally is man in power, who seemeth able to do for us, able to promote us to dignity and riches, and to keep us up in some state in the world; therefore must we throw down this idol in particular, that we may place our confidence in God the better.
3. To cut off carnal confidence in man, that neither mean men may trust in great men, nor great men may trust in the multitude of mean men, we must remember that no man is naturally better than his progenitors, but such as his fathers were, such is he–that is, a sinful, weak, and unconstant creature.
4. The reason why we should not put trust in man is because he can neither help himself nor the man that trusteth in him when there is most need.
5. He that cannot deliver himself from death is not to be trusted in, because it is uncertain how soon death shall seize upon him.
6. Whatsoever the good will, or purpose, or promise of any man can give assurance of, all doth vanish when the man dieth. (D. Dickson.)
Man too frail for our support
We may lean on the creature without falling for a time, even as one doth against a crazy fence; but eventually the prop giveth way, and injury if not death ensues. God alone is safely to be trusted. (Anon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 3. Put not your trust in princes] This may refer, as has been stated above, to Cyrus, who had revoked his edict for the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Perhaps they had begun to suppose that they were about to owe their deliverance to the Persian king. God permitted this change in the disposition of the king, to teach them the vanity of confidence in men, and the necessity of trusting in himself.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
In princes; in men of greatest wealth and power, in whose favour men are very prone to trust.
In whom there is no help; who are utterly unable frequently to give you that help which they promise, and you expect.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Put not your trust in princes,…. Not in foreign princes, in alliances and confederacies with them; nor in any at home. David did not desire his people to put their trust in him, nor in his nobles and courtiers; but in the Lord Christ, who, as he is the object of praise, is also the proper object of trust. Princes, though ever so liberal and bountiful, as their name signifies, and therefore called benefactors,
Lu 22:25 or ever so mighty and powerful, wise and prudent, yet are not to be depended upon; they are changeable, fickle, and inconstant; and oftentimes not faithful to their word, but fallacious and deceitful; “men of high degree are a lie”, Ps 62:9; wherefore it is better to trust in the Lord Jehovah, in whom is everlasting strength; who gives all things richly to enjoy; who is unchangeable, and ever abides faithful; see Ps 118:8;
[nor] in the son of man, in whom [there is] no help; or “salvation” m: not in any mere man born of a woman; not in Abraham, the father of the faithful, of whom the Jews boasted, as the Midrash; nor in Moses, as Arama; nor in Cyrus, as R. Obadiah; no, nor in David himself, nor in any of the princes; for how great soever they look, or in whatsoever honour and esteem they may be, they are but sons of men; are frail mortal men, and die like men, though they may be called gods, as they are by office: but no man or son of man, let him be what he will, is to be trusted in; there is a curse on him that does it, Jer 17:5. There is indeed a Son of man that is to be trusted in, the Lord Jesus Christ; but then he is God as well as man, the true God, the great God, God over all, blessed for ever; were he not, he would not be the proper object of trust, for there is no “help” or “salvation” in a mere creature; even kings and princes cannot help and save themselves oftentimes, and much less their people; their salvation is of God, and not from themselves, or from their armies, Ps 33:16. There is help in Christ, on whom it is laid, and where it is found; there is salvation in him, but in no other; he is the author and giver of it, and therefore he, and not another, is to be trusted in.
m “salus”, V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, &c.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
3. Trust not in princes This admonition is appropriately inserted, for one means by which men blind themselves is that of involving their minds through a number of inventions, and being thus prevented from engaging in the praises of God. That God may have the whole praise due to him, David exposes and overthrows those false stays on which we would otherwise be too much disposed to trust. His meaning is, that we should withdraw ourselves from man in general, but he names princes, from whom more is to be feared than common men. For what promise could poor people hold out, or such as need the help of others? The great and wealthy, again, have a dangerous attraction through the splendor attaching to them, suggesting to us the step of taking shelter under their patronage. As the simple are fascinated by looking to their grandeur, he adds, that the most powerful of the world’s princes is but a son of man This should be enough to rebuke our folly in worshipping them as a kind of demigods, as Isaiah says, (Isa 31:3,) “The Egyptian is man, and not God; flesh, and not spirit.” Although princes then are furnished with power, money, troops of men, and other resources, David reminds us, that it is wrong to place our trust in frail mortal man, and vain to seek safety where it cannot be found.
This he explains more fully in the verse, which follows, where he tells us how short and fleeting the life of man is. Though God throw loose the reins, and suffer princes even to invade heaven in the wildest enterprises, the passing of the spirit, like a breath, suddenly overthrows all their counsels and plans. The body being the dwelling-place of the soul, what is here said may very well be so understood; for at death God recalls the spirit. We may understand it more simply, however, of the vital breath; and this will answer better with the context — that as soon as man has ceased to breathe, his corpse is subject to putrefaction. It follows, that those who put their trust in men, depend upon a fleeting breath. When he says that in that day all his thoughts perish, or flow away, perhaps under this expression he censures the madness of princes in setting no bounds to their hopes and desires, and scaling the very heavens in their ambition, like the insane Alexander of Macedon, who, upon hearing that there were other worlds, wept that he had not yet conquered one, although soon after the funeral urn sufficed him. Observation itself proves that the schemes of princes are deep and complicated. That we may not fall, therefore, into the error of connecting our hopes with them, David says that the life of princes also passes away swiftly and in a moment, and that with it all their plans vanish.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(3, 4) PrincesThe thought of Psa. 118:8-9 is here elaborated, with distinct allusion to Gen. 2:7; Gen. 3:19 (Comp. 1Ma. 2:63.) The verse, no doubt, was in Shakespeares mind when he made Wolsey say:
Oh, how wretched
Is that poor man that hangs on princes favours!
as it was quoted by Strafford when the news reached him that Charles I. had given the royal assent to the bill of attainder against him. But in the psalm it is not the caprice of princes, as in these notable instances, but their frailty as men that is declared untrustworthy.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. Put not trust in princes A prince, (Cyrus, Ezr 1:1-4,) and then another, (Darius Hystaspes, Ezra 6,) had helped Israel in rebuilding the temple. Yet they were but the servants of a Higher; they were but sons of men, weak and changeful.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 146:3 Put not your trust in princes, [nor] in the son of man, in whom [there is] no help.
Ver. 3. Put not your trust in princes ] But in God alone; this being a principal piece of his praise; it is a kind of setting the crown on his head. See Jdg 9:15 . The word rendered princes signifieth liberal, bountiful ones, , so princes would be accounted; but there is no trusting to them without God, or against him.
Nor in the son of man
In whom there is no help
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
trust = confidence. Hebrew. batah. App-69.
man. Hebrew. ‘adam. App-14.
no help = no salvation, or saving help. Compare Psa 33:16; Psa 60:11.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 146:3-4
Psa 146:3-4
NEGATIVE COUNSEL
“Put not your trust in princes,
Nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.
His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth;
In that very day his thoughts perish.”
“Put not your trust in princes” (Psa 146:3). “`Princes’ is from a word that means conspicuous or influential ones. The idea is that men, even though they are princes, cannot be trusted for “help.” This does not mean that men cannot be trusted for ordinary assistance. Rhodes assures us that the word “help” here is “literally salvation. In this light, the negative counsel of this verse becomes one of the most important imperatives in the whole Bible. It simply means, “Do not trust human beings, no matter how powerful or well-known, to instruct you in matters of salvation.” Let God be true, and every man a liar.
What a shame it is that so many of earth’s fine religious souls are trusting “the words of men” instead of the Word of God regarding matters of faith.
“Nor in the son of man” (Psa 146:3). This is not a reference to the Son of Man, who is Christ. “The Prayer-book paraphrase, `nor in any child of man,’ brings out the sense. McCaw cautioned us that, “These verses should not be understood as a cynical command never to trust anyone. The prohibition is against trusting any human being as an authority in matters of faith and salvation. McCaw gave three reasons why men should not be trusted in such matters: (1) their lack of ability; (2) their ephemeral nature; “here today, and gone tomorrow”; and (3) their unreliability.
A current fad in religious matters is the Lutheran doctrine of “salvation by faith alone,” a contradiction of Jas 2:24, and an invention of “a man” more than a millennium after the Christian religion began. Concerning such man-originated doctrines, Baigent has this: “Any man, or group of men, are transitory, and so are their philosophies and panaceas.
“He returneth to his earth” (Psa 146:4). This is a grim reminder of the words so often heard among the dying members of the race of Adam, “Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” The pitiful mortality of our dying race thunders in our ears; and we should never allow the attractiveness, popularity, power, wealth, position, or any other earthly endowment of any man to silence that thunder, enabling us to trust his theories of salvation. He and his doctrine alike are certain to perish.
Barnes has this comment on the phrase, “his earth”:
The earth is man’s: (a) It is his in that he was made from the earth and to the earth shall return (Gen 3:19). (b) the earth (grave) is his. There he shall abide. (c) It is “his” in the sense that it is the only property that he shall ever possess. All that a man – prince, noble, pauper, billionaire, monarch or slave – will soon have is his grave, his few feet of earth. That will be “his” by right of possession; by the fact that for the time being, he shall occupy it, and not another man.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 146:3. Nothing permanent or spiritually helpful can be obtained from man, even though he be a prince or leader among the people.
Psa 146:4. This verse is considering the earthly part of man which lives by breathing air. When the breath ceases to come into the body it results in the death of the body and it goes back to dust. Some people try to make the last clause of the verse mean that when a man dies no part of him is conscious since at that instant his thoughts perish. It is true that all of the plans or purposes that a man meditated over while in the flesh will come to an end at death. But that does not even touch the subject of his mental condition afterward.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
trust
(See Scofield “Psa 2:12”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Put: Psa 62:9, Psa 118:8, Psa 118:9, Isa 2:22, Isa 31:3, Isa 37:6, Jer 17:5, Jer 17:6
help: or, salvation
Reciprocal: Gen 12:13 – and Gen 48:21 – Behold Deu 31:3 – thy God 1Sa 16:21 – loved him 2Ki 6:27 – whence 2Ki 16:7 – and save 2Ch 16:7 – Because Job 4:21 – excellency Job 12:10 – the breath Psa 2:12 – Blessed Psa 7:1 – in Psa 8:4 – son Psa 52:7 – made Psa 60:11 – vain Psa 108:12 – for vain Psa 144:3 – or the son Pro 3:5 – Trust Ecc 9:6 – their love Isa 22:25 – the burden Isa 32:2 – a man Isa 39:2 – was glad Jer 2:13 – broken cisterns Jer 39:18 – because Eze 29:7 – thou didst Dan 6:9 – signed Dan 6:23 – because Hos 14:3 – Asshur Mic 1:14 – houses Joh 5:23 – all men 1Co 4:6 – that ye Eph 1:12 – who Heb 2:6 – the son Heb 13:6 – The Lord 1Pe 1:21 – your
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 146:3-6. Put not your trust in princes However great their wealth or power may be; nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help Earthly princes, if they have the will, often want the power, even to protect their friends. And should they want neither will nor power to advance them, yet still all depends upon the breath in their nostrils, which perhaps, at the very critical moment, goeth forth; they return to the earth; their thoughts, and all the thoughts of those who hoped to rise by their means, fall into the same grave, and are buried with them for ever. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help That has an interest in his attributes and promises, and has them engaged for him; whose hope is in the Lord his God Who relies on him for help and support in all circumstances and situations, having made him his friend, so that he can call him his God and Father. Which made heaven and earth, &c. And, therefore, has all power in himself, and the command of the powers of all the creatures, which, being derived from him, depend upon him; which keepeth truth for ever Because he liveth for ever to fulfil his promises, and because he is eternally and unchangeably faithful.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
146:3 Put not your trust in {b} princes, [nor] in the son of man, in whom [there is] no help.
(b) That God may have the whole praise: in which he forbids all vain confidence showing that by nature we are more inclined to put our trust in creatures, than in God the Creator.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
He then warned against placing trust in human officials. They will die and their plans will perish with them. At death the spirit separates from the body, which returns to dust. Therefore it is foolish to put too much hope in what people can do.