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Psalm 147


Alleluia!

Praise the Lord for he is good;
sing to our God for he is loving:
to him our praise is due.

The Lord builds up Jerusalem
and brings back Israel’s exiles,
he heals the broken-hearted,
he binds up all their wounds.
He fixes the number of the stars;
he calls each one by its name.

Our Lord is great and almighty;
his wisdom can never be measured.
The Lord raises the lowly;
he humbles the wicked to the dust.
Sing to the Lord, giving thanks;
sing psalms to the Lord with the harp.

He covers the heavens with clouds;
he prepares the rain for the earth,
making mountains sprout with grass
and with plants to serve man’s needs.
He provides the beasts with their food
and young ravens that call upon him.

His delight is not in horses
nor his pleasure in warriors’ strength.
The Lord delights in those who revere him,
in those who hope in his love.

O praise the Lord, Jerusalem!
Sion, praise your God.

He has strengthened the bars of your gates,
he has blessed the children within you.
He established peace on your borders,
he feeds you with the finest wheat.

He sends out his word to the earth
and swiftly runs his command.
He showers down snow white as wool,
he scatters hoar-frost like ashes.

He hurls down hailstones like crumbs.
The waters are frozen at his touch;
he sends forth his word and it melts them:
at the breath of his mouth the waters flow.

He makes his word known to Jacob,
to Israel his laws and decrees.
He has not dealt thus with other nations;
he has not taught them his decrees.

Alleluia!

Commentary

The Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate both divide this psalm into two parts, calling verses 1-11 Psalm 146, and verses 12-20 Psalm 147, but we are following the Hebrew Bible which treats it as one psalm with two parts. The first part, comprising verses 1-6, praises God as the lord of history for His redeemed people. Verses 7-11 praise Him as the creator and provider in nature; while verses 12-20 praise Him for His creative and life-giving Word.

Alleluia!

Praise the Lord for he is good;
sing to our God for he is loving:
to him our praise is due.

The Lord builds up Jerusalem
and brings back Israel’s exiles,
he heals the broken-hearted,
he binds up all their wounds.
He fixes the number of the stars;
he calls each one by its name.

Our Lord is great and almighty;
his wisdom can never be measured.
The Lord raises the lowly;
he humbles the wicked to the dust.
Sing to the Lord, giving thanks;
sing psalms to the Lord with the harp.
                                         (vv. 1-7).

The psalm begins by praising God for His goodness in bringing back Israel’s exiles, and for healing their broken hearts by gathering them once again in His Temple in Jerusalem. Presumably we are dealing with the post-exilic era, and close to the return of the exiles and the rebuilding of the Temple. He whose power is limitless – who alone fixes the stars in their places, and governs their course in the heavens – is big enough to deal with the remaining problems of the restoration of His afflicted people, and to deal with the wickedness of evil men.

His wisdom is shown in His dealings with His children, first in the chastening of exile, and then in the return of a humbled people to their ancestral home, and cannot be comprehended. It is hard to grasp that the hand that chastened is also the hand that heals. The Lord loves His people so much that He will allow them to be chastened when that is the only way to true life, but as soon as they are ready for real surrender to His will, which contains all life for them, He is ready to heal the wounds that His love inflicted (see Hosea 6:1-3).

He covers the heavens with clouds;
he prepares the rain for the earth,
making mountains sprout with grass
and with plants to serve man’s needs.
He provides the beasts with their food
and young ravens that call upon him.

His delight is not in horses
nor his pleasure in warriors’ strength.
The Lord delights in those who revere him,
in those who hope in his love.
                                          (vv. 8-11).

From this second part one would gather that this psalm was used for the autumn feast, perhaps for the Feast of Tabernacles which was held in October, at the end of the dry season, when Israel prayed for rain and prepared for the winter months ahead. Here the poet looks with joy at God’s provision for His chosen people in the giving of rain for the coming harvest, but also in His generous provision for all His creatures, down to the young ravens who cry to Him for food. The immense range of God’s operations are just as marvellous in their vastness as in their attention to detail. God is so great that He provides everything that the earth needs, yet He is so loving that He hears the least cry of one of His creatures.

Jesus went even further than this in Matthew 6:25-34 where the flowers of the field are clothed in greater splendour than Solomon, and in Luke 12:4-12, where the little sparrows are cared for by a Father who is so detailed in His provision that it can be expressed thus: “Why, every hair on your head has been counted”! The even more amazing reality is that this great Father of the world delights in those who love Him just as any “Daddy” would; Jesus instructed us to call Him Abba, Daddy. This acknowledges His life-giving role as well as His role as our provider; the motive in each case is infinite love. Such a Father is to be trusted and praised with adoration.

O praise the Lord, Jerusalem!
Sion, praise your God.

He has strengthened the bars of your gates,
he has blessed the children within you.
He established peace on your borders,
he feeds you with the finest wheat.

He sends out his word to the earth
and swiftly runs his command.
He showers down snow white as wool,
he scatters hoar-frost like ashes.

He hurls down hailstones like crumbs.
The waters are frozen at his touch;
he sends forth his word and it melts them:
at the breath of his mouth the waters flow.

He makes his word known to Jacob,
to Israel his laws and decrees.
He has not dealt thus with other nations;
he has not taught them his decrees.

Alleluia!
                                   (vv. 12-20).

This final section of the psalm weaves together the life-giving power and nourishment of God’s Word, and of water. Water is the life force that enables growth to take place; it must be supplied by the good God at the proper time and for the right seasons of the year. Without it drought and famine would ensue, with death by starvation for everyone in its wake. It is God’s creative Word that supplies this life-giving water for us, and it is not only a heavenly gift; it also originates in the heavens. It comes down to us by the command of the Lord. Its power is to soften the earth and prepare it for life, but it nourishes that life too, for the growing thing will not develop without water, which forms part of its substance. This water comes in varied forms – rain, snow, hailstones, ice, and hoar-frost that bejewels the morning.

Water, in its functions, resembles the Word of God itself, which comes down from God to us, softening our hearts to prepare us for spiritual growth. Isaiah expressed these thoughts fully in chapter 55:11: “As the rain and the snow come down from the heavens and do not return without watering the earth, making it yield and giving growth to provide seed for the sower and bread for the eating, so the word that goes forth from my mouth does not return to me empty, without carrying out my will and succeeding in what it was sent to do” (J.B.). This life-giving Word of God was entrusted to Israel, but it was meant to fertilize the whole earth. 

The same cycle is seen again, but in its fullness, when Jesus, who is the Word of God incarnate, came down from Heaven to dwell among us. He is both the living water who nourishes our life, and which must become part of us if we are to become the Children of God, but He is also the full expression of God and manifests to us God’s will in its fullness. He came down from God and did not return to Him empty. Instead He accomplished everything the Father wanted for the redemption of the world (see John 1:1-14, 4:10-14, 14:6). Jesus not only came down from Heaven, but showed us the pathway back to the bosom of the Father where we will praise Him for ever in eternal glory.

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