Psalms 147

Praise for Jerusalem's Restoration and Prosperity.

1 Praise the LORD! For ¹it is good to sing praises to our God; For it is pleasant and praise is ²becoming.

2 The LORD ³builds up Jerusalem; He ⁴gathers the outcasts of Israel.

3 He heals the ⁵brokenhearted * And ⁶binds up their wounds.

4 He ⁷counts the number of the stars; He ⁸gives names to all of them.

5 ⁹Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His ¹⁰understanding is infinite *.

6 The LORD ¹¹supports the afflicted; He brings down the wicked to the ground.

7 ¹²Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; Sing praises to our God on the lyre,

8 Who ¹³covers the heavens with clouds, Who ¹⁴provides rain for the earth, Who ¹⁵makes grass to grow on the mountains.

9 He ¹⁶gives to the beast its food, And to the ¹⁷young ravens which cry.

10 He does not delight in the strength of the ¹⁸horse; He ¹⁹does not take pleasure in the legs of a man.

11 The LORD ²⁰favors those who fear Him, ²¹Those who wait for His lovingkindness.

12 Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion!

13 For He has strengthened the ²²bars of your gates; He has ²³blessed your sons within you.

14 He ²⁴makes peace in your borders; He ²⁵satisfies you with ²⁶the finest of the wheat.

15 He sends forth His ²⁷command to the earth; His ²⁸word runs very swiftly.

16 He gives ²⁹snow like wool; He scatters the ³⁰frost like ashes.

17 He casts forth His ³¹ice as fragments; Who can stand before His ³²cold?

18 He ³³sends forth His word and melts them; He ³⁴causes His wind to blow and the waters to flow.

19 He ³⁵declares His words to Jacob, His ³⁶statutes and His ordinances to Israel.

20 He ³⁷has not dealt thus with any nation; And as for His ordinances, they have ³⁸not known them. Praise the LORD!

Psalms 147 Commentary

Chapter 147

The people of God are exhorted to praise him for his mercies and care. (1-11) For the salvation and prosperity of the church. (12-20)

Verses 1-11 Praising God is work that is its own wages. It is comely; it becomes us as reasonable creatures, much more as people in covenant with God. He gathers outcast sinners by his grace, and will bring them into his holy habitation. To those whom God heals with the consolations of his Spirit, he speaks peace, assures them their sins are pardoned. And for this, let others praise him also. Man's knowledge is soon ended; but God's knowledge is a dept that can never be fathomed. And while he telleth the number of the stars, he condescends to hear the broken-hearted sinner. While he feeds the young ravens, he will not leave his praying people destitute. Clouds look dull and melancholy, yet without them we could have no rain, therefore no fruit. Thus afflictions look black and unpleasant; but from clouds of affliction come showers that make the soul to yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness. The psalmist delights not in things wherein sinners trust and glory; but a serious and suitable regard to God is, in his sight, of very great price. We are not to be in doubt between hope and fear, but to act under the gracious influences of hope and fear united.

Verses 12-20 The church, like Jerusalem of old, built up and preserved by the wisdom, power, and goodness of God, is exhorted to praise him for all the benefits and blessings vouchsafed to her; and these are represented by his favours in the course of nature. The thawing word may represent the gospel of Christ, and the thawing wind the Spirit of Christ; for the Spirit is compared to the wind, ( John 3:8 ) . Converting grace softens the heart that was hard frozen, and melts it into tears of repentance, and makes good reflections to flow, which before were chilled and stopped up. The change which the thaw makes is very evident, yet how it is done no one can say. Such is the change wrought in the conversion of a soul, when God's word and Spirit are sent to melt it and restore it to itself.

Cross References

• 1. Psalms 92:1; Psalms 135:3
• 2. Psalms 33:1
• 3. Psalms 51:18; Psalms 102:16
• 4. Deuteronomy 30:3; Psalms 106:47; Isaiah 11:12; Isaiah 56:8; Ezekiel 39:28
• 5. Psalms 34:18; Psalms 51:17; Isaiah 61:1
• 6. Job 5:18; Isaiah 30:26; Ezekiel 34:16
• 7. Genesis 15:5
• 8. Isaiah 40:26
• 9. Psalms 48:1; Psalms 145:3
• 10. Isaiah 40:28
• 11. Psalms 37:24; Psalms 146:8, 9
• 12. Psalms 33:2; Psalms 95:1, 2
• 13. Job 26:8
• 14. Job 5:10; Job 38:26; Psalms 104:13
• 15. Job 38:27; Psalms 104:14
• 16. Psalms 104:27, 28; Psalms 145:15
• 17. Job 38:41; Matthew 6:26
• 18. Psalms 33:17
• 19. 1 Samuel 16:7
• 20. Psalms 149:4
• 21. Psalms 33:18
• 22. Nehemiah 3:3; Nehemiah 7:3
• 23. Psalms 37:26
• 24. Psalms 29:11; Isaiah 54:13; Isaiah 60:17, 18
• 25. Psalms 132:15
• 26. Deuteronomy 32:14; Psalms 81:16
• 27. Job 37:12; Psalms 148:5
• 28. Psalms 104:4
• 29. Job 37:6; Psalms 148:8
• 30. Job 38:29
• 31. Job 37:10
• 32. Job 37:9
• 33. Psalms 33:9; Psalms 107:20; Psalms 147:15
• 34. Psalms 107:25
• 35. Deuteronomy 33:3, 4
• 36. Malachi 4:4
• 37. Deut 4:7, 8, 32-34; Romans 3:1, 2
• 38. Psalms 79:6; Jeremiah 10:25

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "Hallelujah!"
• [b]. Heb YAH
• [c]. Or "He is gracious"
• [d]. Lit "sorrows"
• [e]. Or "calls them all by" their "names"
• [f]. Lit "innumerable"
• [g]. Or "relieves"
• [h]. Lit "spring forth"
• [i]. Lit "your borders peace"
• [j]. Lit "fat"
• [k]. Or "Hallelujah!"
• [l]. Heb YAH

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 147

This psalm is thought to be written by David, and according to Theodoret predicts the return of the Jews from Babylon, and the rebuilding of Jerusalem by Zerubbabel, which seems to be grounded on Ps 147:2; though the words there agree well enough with the times of David; hence the title in the Septuagint, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Syriac versions, and Apollinarius, is as the preceding; the Syriac adds,

``concerning Zerubbabel and Joshua the priest, and Ezra, who were solicitous and diligent in building Jerusalem.''

Aben Ezra and other Jewish writers think it foretells the future rebuilding of Jerusalem, and the restoration of the Jews from their present captivity, and refer it to the times of the Messiah; and so far it may be right, that it respects Christ and the praise of him, on account of his nature and works; and may take in the conversion of the Jews. It seems to be written by the same person, and on the same account, as the preceding psalm.