# A psalm inside the revolutionary's warning

Commentary on Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton.

On [CH07.P026](https://glosses.org/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH07.P026/#char=405,462): "not to put their trust in princes nor in any child of man"

The warning incorporates Psalm 146, with wording closer to the Prayer Book Psalter than to the King James Bible. The KJV (first published 1611), inspected in Project Gutenberg's electronic transcription, has ‘the son of man’ at 146:3; the Prayer Book wording, inspected here in the American 1928 edition, has ‘any child of man’ at its verse 2. That later witness establishes the verbal match, though it cannot itself be Chesterton's source. Compare [Psalm 146 in the 1928 Psalter](https://www.episcopalnet.org/1928bcp/Psalter/Ps146.html) with [KJV Psalm 146](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10), verses 3–9.

The surrounding psalm makes the allusion more pointed. It contrasts mortal rulers, whose projects perish with them, with God, who secures justice for the oppressed and cares for prisoners, strangers and the vulnerable. Chesterton transfers the warning from reliance upon mortal help to the political necessity of continually testing institutions. ‘Any child of man’ includes the popular liberator as well as the hereditary prince: changing the ruler's social origin does not remove human fallibility. The psalm therefore quietly prepares the paragraph's final reversal into orthodoxy. Its original argument, however, concerns mortality and divine reliability; the stronger claim that successful institutions tend to become oppressive is Chesterton's application, not a proposition expressly stated in the verse.

## Sources

- [Psalm 146, American Book of Common Prayer (1928), electronic transcription](https://www.episcopalnet.org/1928bcp/Psalter/Ps146.html), verses 2–10, especially 2–4 and 6–9
- [King James Bible (1611), Project Gutenberg electronic text](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10), Psalm 146:3–9

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