Psalm 145:5 (ESV)

5 On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.

In Psalm 145:5a, there is a difference between older (English) translations and newer translations. The newer translations see the generation as the subject of the sentence, one generation shall commend. The older translations use I as the subject of the sentence, I shall declare. The reason why the new translations choose for they (as continuation of the generations in Psalm 145:4) is the way this verse was found to be translated in one of the Dead Sea scrolls. We are of the opinion that it makes sense to translate the subject in Psalm 145:5a with they, and to translate the subject in Psalm 145:5b with I. For then, Psalm 145:5 runs parallel with Psalm 145:6, for that verse, too, has they as subject in the first line, and in the second line the subject is I, and about Psalm 145:6 there is no misunderstanding regarding this. Psalm 145:7 is then solely about the generation(s) again, and therefore runs parallel with Psalm 145:4—the opening verse about the generations. The rhyming scheme can then be presented as follows:

4a        A

4b        A

5a        A

5b        B

6a        A

6b        B

7a        A

7b        A

Content-wise, Psalm 145:5a repeats the previous verse. In Psalm 145:5b, the author says that he joins the younger generations. That is logical, as he called them to make known God’s great deeds.