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Selected Verse: Psalms 146:9 - King James

Verse         Translation Text
Ps 146:9 King James The LORD preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.

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Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
The Lord preserveth the strangers - He regards them with interest; he defends and guides them. This is the ninth reason why those who trust in the Lord are happy. The stranger - away from home and friends; with no one to feel an interest in him or sympathy for him; with the feeling that he is forsaken; with no one on whom he can call for sympathy in distress - may find in God one who will regard his condition; who will sympathize with him; who is able to protect and befriend him. Compare Exo 12:49; Exo 22:21; Exo 23:9; Lev 19:33; Deu 1:16; Deu 10:18-19; Isa 56:3, Isa 56:6.

He relieveth the fatherless and widow - He is their friend. This is the tenth reason why those who put their trust in the Lord are happy. It is that God is the Friend of those who have no earthly protector. See the notes at Psa 68:5 : "A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation."

But the way of the wicked he turneth upside down - He overturns their plans; defeats their schemes; makes their purposes accomplish what they did not intend they should accomplish. The Hebrew word here means to bend, to curve, to make crooked, to distort; then, to overturn, to turn upside down. The same word is applied to the conduct of the wicked, in Psa 119:78 : "They dealt perversely with me." The idea here is, that their path is not a straight path; that God makes it a crooked way; that they are diverted from their design; that through them he accomplishes purposes which they did not intend; that he prevents their accomplishing their own designs; and that he will make their plans subservient to a higher and better purpose than their own. This is the eleventh reason why those who put their trust in God are happy. It is that God is worthy of confidence and love, because he has all the plans of wicked men entirely under his control.
 
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78 Let the proud be ashamed; for they dealt perversely with me without a cause: but I will meditate in thy precepts.
5 A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.
6 Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant;
3 Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying, The LORD hath utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.
18 He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.
19 Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.
16 And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him.
33 And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him.
9 Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.
21 Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.
49 One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.