Psalm 145:17

The context

Psalm 145 is an acrostic praise psalm attributed to David, celebrating God's kingship and his care for creation. This line sits in the second half, after the declaration that the Lord is near to all who call on him and lifts up those who are bowed down, and it gathers the psalm's claims into one summary.

What it establishes

The psalm makes a claim about consistency of character: God's acts match his announced goodness. It is doxology that treats providence as morally coherent, and it states the point in parallel form for emphasis.

What it does not establish

It is not a theodicy. The verse asserts the coherence of God's rule rather than demonstrating it, and it offers no account of why particular suffering occurs under that rule; the objection that experience often seems to contradict the claim is left standing.

Short note, first pass, October 2026. Corrections welcome.

Cited in these answers

• The God of the Old Testament a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser, and a homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.

Part of Scripture, Opened — the exegetical layer behind every citation on this site. Scripture quotations are from the ESV.