Psalms 147

Praise to Yahweh for His Providence

1 Praise Yah. For [it is] good to sing praises [to] our God; for [it is] pleasant; praise is fitting.

2 Yahweh [is] building Jerusalem; he gathers [the] scattered ones of Israel.

3 [He is] the one who heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds.

4 [He] counts [the] number of the stars; he gives names to all of them.

5 Great [is] our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is unlimited.

6 Yahweh helps the afflicted up; [he] brings [the] wicked down to [the] ground.

7 Sing to Yahweh with thanksgiving; sing praises to our God with lyre,

8 who covers [the] heavens with clouds, who provides rain for the earth, who causes grass to grow on the mountains.

9 [He] gives to [the] animal its food, [and] to [the] young ravens that cry.

10 He does not delight in the strength of the horse; he takes no pleasure in the legs of the man.

11 Yahweh takes pleasure in those who fear him, the ones who hope for his loyal love.

12 Laud Yahweh, O Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion,

13 for he strengthens the bars of your gates. He blesses your children within you;

14 [he] makes your border peaceful; he satisfies you with [the] {finest of wheat}.

15 [He] sends out his command to [the] earth; his word runs swiftly.

16 [He] gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes;

17 [he] throws his hail like crumbs. Who can stand before his cold?

18 He sends out his word and melts them; he blows his breath, the water flows.

19 [He] declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and his ordinances to Israel.

20 He has not done so for any nation, and they do not know [his] ordinances. Praise Yah.

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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew hallelujah; here and v. 20
• [b]. That is, "wait expectantly"
• [c]. Literally "[the] fat of the wheat"
• [d]. Or "utterance"
• [e]. With slight alteration of the Hebrew, the line might read "before his cold water stands"
• [f]. Hebrew hallelujah

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.