The parallelism throughout Psalm 145 tends to be static, that is, without significant heightening from line a to line b. However, in spite of this there is, as Alter says, “a progression from the general praise of God to an affirmation of his compassion, his kingship, his daily providing for those who truly call unto him” (Alter, The Art of Biblical Poetry,* page 23).
In the first two verses the psalmist declares his readiness to praise God, to proclaim his greatness, and to thank him forever and ever. For extol see 30.1; “exalt” in 34.3b; for bless see 16.7. In verses 1b, 2b “you” translates thy name (see 5.11). Due to the double address form, my God and King, it may be necessary in some languages to adjust verse 1 to say, for example, “You are the God I worship and the king I serve; I will tell everyone how great you are.”
For verse 3a see similar statement in 48.1; 96.4; and in verse 3b the Hebrew “there is no searching his greatness” means that God’s greatness cannot be fully understood by a human being. Greatly to be praised must often be shifted to the active voice by translating “everyone should praise the LORD very much” or “everyone should say that the LORD is very great.”
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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