Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 147:1
Praise ye the LORD: for [it is] good to sing praises unto our God; for [it is] pleasant; [and] praise is comely.
1. The text of this verse seems to be in some confusion. The Hallelujah, which ought, as in the other Psalms of this group, to stand by itself as the summons of the precentor to the congregation (see on Psa 104:35), here forms part of Psa 147:1, the construction of which is otherwise awkward and anomalous. The LXX reads both Alleluia and Praise ye the Lord, as in Psa 148:1; and it is probable that the verse should read thus:
Hallelujah.
Praise ye Jehovah, for it is good;
Make melody to our God, for it la pleasant;
Praise is comely,
or, for he is good he is gracious (lit. pleasant, cp. Psa 27:4). Cp. Psa 135:3, on which this verse is based: line 3 is from Psa 33:1.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1 6. Praise Jehovah, the restorer of Israel, the sovereign ruler of the world.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Praise ye the Lord – Hallelu-jah. See Psa 146:1.
For it is good to sing praises unto our God – See the notes at Psa 92:1 : It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord.
For it is pleasant – See the notes at Psa 135:3 : Sing praises unto his name, for it is pleasant. The Hebrew word is the same.
And praise is comely – Becoming; proper. See the notes at Psa 33:1 : praise is comely for the upright. The Hebrew word is the same. If these psalms were composed for the rededication of the temple, it would not be unnatural that much of the language employed should be borrowed from earlier psalms with which the people were familiar.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 147:1-11
Praise ye the Lord.
Genuine worship: –
I. The transcendent excellence of true worship (verse 1).
1. It is good.
(1) It accords with the constitution of the human soul.
(2) It accords with the Divine command.
(3) It agrees with the genius of the universe.
2. It is pleasant. It is the grand end of our being, the paradise of our nature; worship is not a means to an end, it is the grandest end, there is nothing higher, it is heaven.
3. It is comely. Is it not a fitting and a beautiful thing that the greatest Being in the universe should be the most earnestly thanked, that the best Being should be the most profoundly reverenced, that the kindest Being should be the most enthusiastically adored?
II. The supreme object of true worship.
1. What He is in Himself. Great.
2. In relation to His creatures.
(1) To the human family.
(a) Building up useful institutions (verse 2). Schools for the ignorant, hospitals for the diseased, asylums for the poor, etc.
(b) Uniting scattered peoples (verse 2). By the promotion of one language, by the extension of free trade, by the abolition of political and religious difficulties, and by the advancement of one creed–Christ, and one code-His example.
(c) Healing broken hearts (verse 3).
(d) Rectifying human conditions (verse 6).
(e) Disregarding martial force (verse 10).
(f) Interested in saintly men (verse 11).
(2) In relation to inanimate nature. He is at work–
(a) In the stellar universe (verse 4).
(b) In the atmosphere (verse 8).
(3) In relation to mundane life (verses 8, 9). (David Thomas, D. D.)
Master motives to praise
The psalms of David, like Christian experience, begin with the blessing of the separated life, and they end with a torrent of praise. The final four psalms each commence and finish with Hallelujah! We may all share in Christs coronation; none are too weak to bring their praises, none so mighty but He is mightier. The motives I would urge upon you are very simple.
I. Because of what God is.
1. His character is seen in His works. His understanding is infinite, there is no limit to His power. He is in all things that He has created. The same power made a world and moulds a raindrop. The same wisdom names the stars and knows each blade of grass on the mountain-side. If our spirit be not warped we shall never lack cause for praise. A friend of mine tells me that the way to be always thankful for the weather is to keep a garden; if it is fine you can enjoy the flowers; if it is wet you can stay indoors and say how good the rain is for the garden. If our soul be like a watered garden and we recognize that the Lord cares for us, trial and sunshine will alike bring praise, and we shall ever be able to say, as an old man I know always begins his public prayers, Lord, we thank Thee for our being and for our well-being.
2. The motive of all His works God finds in Himself. Learn more of Him. Live more with Him and you will praise Him more, until perhaps you will find language, even the language of the Psalms, too unworthy of what He has taught you of Himself, and you will sometimes just be silent and adore.
II. Because of what praise is.
1. It is good.
(1) If we praise God as we ought we shall be kept from praising ourselves. Surely that is good. I have heard that most self-made men are very apt to praise their maker; indeed we are all liable to sing the praises of self. The sure way of escaping this danger is to fill your heart and mouth with praise to God.
(2) Praise leads us to value truly what we receive. The goodness becomes great when the memory of it is abundantly uttered. Praise is the plural of pray.
2. It is pleasant. A Puritan writer says there are some things good and not pleasant, and there are some things pleasant and not good, but there is one thing both good and pleasant, and that is for brethren to dwell together in unity. To which I would only add they should unite in praise. Praise is the instinct of the regenerate soul. What is natural is always pleasant. If your joys abound, praise God. It will shed a glow on the mountain, put a bloom on the grape, add moss to your rose. If sorrow is your portion, praise; however ill your lot you can find something to evoke thanksgiving.
3. It is comely. What can we do but praise? Gifts are bountifully given to us, and we have nothing to offer in return but thanks. We can only give Christ our sins and our praises, if He take the one shall we withhold the other? Nay, let Him have all. We shall see that praise on our part is comely if we lay hold of the marvellous truth that by and by God will praise us (1Co 4:5). (W. T. Fullerton.)
Praise
I. What is praising? As applied to men, it has a limited use, differing in degree, rather than in kind, from that which is employed in devotion. It is the expression of pleasure, of approval, of gratification in an action, in a course of action, or in the contemplation of ones disposition. All men are limited by manifold imperfections, and therefore it is that praise, as applied to men, must always be partial, and must be but occasional. Applied to God, praise is the experience and the utterance of the souls admiration and joy in view of the Divine character, or its exhibitions in His moral government, in His providence, and in His grace. Praise always implies admiration and joy, and a disposition to make them known. What dispositions are implied, then, in the act of praising God? It implies, first, a knowledge of Divine manifestations. That is, praise is not merely the utterance of a feeling of pleasure or of gladness that wells up in the heart. Praise is something that is excited in our mind by the knowledge, or the supposed knowledge, of God. The act of praising implies, also, a moral taste that feels and enjoys the noble attributes of God, and the development of them. That is, it implies a moral sensibility to Divine element. It implies, likewise, gratitude, love, joy in the Lord. It is not an act of mere reason, nor of mere will, although both reason and wilt may be implicated in it. It is an overflow of feeling. It may take place consciously. It may take place with preparation through thought and instruction. But the highest forms of praise are spontaneous, irresistible, full of interjections. Such is the praise of the heavenly host. It is that utterance of the soul in its rarer moments, when before it passes, in sublime order, the Divine character, the Divine nature, the Divine government, and the soul is kindled with the prospect, and it gives forth, in language, or with feeling manifested, its own gladness and admiration. The Christian exercise of praising implies a degree of continuity. It is a disposition. It springs from a soul that is always seeing, more or less, the admirableness of Gods nature and government, in grace and in providence. Moreover, the act of praising implies faith. That is, those who come to God with praise, as with prayer, must believe that He is. It is impossible to kindle the soul and to pour it forth toward a shadow; toward any being that stands in doubt in our convictions. Besides, the act of praising implies enthusiasm, soul-glow. But it is lyrical. It may dwell in the thoughts, but it is very apt to overflow the rim of thought, and to spill out in words and expressions.
II. In what is it to be distinguished from prayer? Why sometimes it is prayer. Prayer is the generic of which praise is only a specific element. Every address made consciously to God, whether of supplication, of confession, of simple communion, or of ecstatic praise, is prayer. Prayer, comprehensively, is the souls communion with God. Praising, then, as one of the elements of prayer, and as distinguished from the other forms of prayer, is not supplication: it is asking nothing. It is not confession: it is not pouring out what we are. It is the souls expression of admiration in view of the Divine excellence. It is gladness expressed; it is gratitude expressed; it is joy expressed–and all with reference to the manifestations of God Himself. (Henry Ward Beecher.)
A praiseful spirit
It is related that Beethoven had his piano carried to the middle of a beautiful field, and there, sunbeams and cloud shadows playing together on the grass, and birds performing their impromptu oratorios, he composed some of his great pieces. We are to come beneath the broad canopy of Gods love, and, encompassed by innumerable mercies, we are to make music–the music of thankfulness for tokens of Divine goodness abounding in our lives.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
PSALM CXLVII
The psalmist praises God for his goodness to Jerusalem, 1-3;
shows his great mercy to them that trust in him, 4-6;
he extols him for his mercies, and providential kindness, 7-11;
for his defence of Jerusalem, 12-15;
For his wonders in the seasons, 16-18;
and his word unto Jacob, 19, 20.
NOTES ON PSALM CXLVII
This Psalm, which is without title in the Hebrew, Chaldee, and Vulgate, is attributed by the other Versions to Haggai and Zechariah. It was probably penned after the captivity, when the Jews were busily employed in rebuilding Jerusalem, as may be gathered from the second and thirteenth verses. It may be necessary to remark that all the Versions, except the Chaldee, divide this Psalm at the end of the eleventh verse, and begin a new Psalm at the twelfth. By this division the numbers of the Psalms agree in the Versions with the Hebrew; the former having been, till now, one behind.
Verse 1. Praise is comely.] It is decent, befitting, and proper that every intelligent creature should acknowledge the Supreme Being: and as he does nothing but good to the children of men, so they should speak good of his name.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
It is good; it is acceptable to God, and greatly comfortable and beneficial to ourselves.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. (Compare Psa 92:1;Psa 135:3).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Praise ye the Lord,…. When he shall reign, as Kimchi connects this psalm with the preceding; the arguments used to engage men to this work are taken partly from the nature of it, as in the next clauses; and partly from what the Lord is and does, as in the following verses;
for [it is] good to sing praises unto our God; it being agreeably to his revealed will, what he enjoins, approves of, and accepts, and is profitable to his people, as well as makes his glory; see Ps 92:1. Some render it, “because [he is] good”, as in Ps 106:1; but the accents, and what follows, will not admit of this sense;
for it [is] pleasant; to our God; with which the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Ethiopic, and Arabic versions, join this clause; the sacrifice of praise is more pleasing to the Lord than any ceremonial sacrifice, especially when offered from a grateful heart in the name of Christ, and with a view to his glory; and it is pleasant to saints themselves, when grace is in exercise, and they make melody in their hearts to the Lord;
[and] praise is comely: is due to the Lord, and becomes his people to give it to him; it is but their reasonable service, and a beautiful and lovely sight it is to see the chosen, redeemed, and called of the Lamb, harping with their harps, and singing the song of redeeming love.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Hallelujah, as in Psa 135:3, is based upon the fact, that to sing of our God, or to celebrate our God in song ( with an accusative of the object, as in Ps 30:13, and frequently), is a discharge of duty that reacts healthfully and beneficially upon ourselves: “comely is a hymn of praise” (taken from Psa 33:1), both in respect of the worthiness of God to be praised, and of the gratitude that is due to Him. Instead of or , Psa 92:2, the expression is , a form of the infin. Piel, which at least can still be proved to be possible by in Lev 26:18. The two are co-ordinate, and no more refers to God here than in Psa 135:3, as Hitzig supposes when he alters Psa 147:1 so that it reads: “Praise ye Jah because He is good, play unto our God because He is lovely.” Psa 92:2 shows that can refer to God; but said of God is contrary to the custom and spirit of the Old Testament, whereas and are also in Psa 133:1 neuter predicates of a subject that is set forth in the infinitive form. In Psa 147:2 the praise begins, and at the same time the confirmation of the delightful duty. Jahve is the builder up of Jerusalem, He brings together ( as in Ezekiel, the later wozd for and ) the outcasts of Israel (as in Isa 11:12; Isa 56:8); the building of Jerusalem is therefore intended of the rebuilding up, and to the dispersion of Israel corresponds the holy city laid in ruins. Jahve healeth the heart-broken, as He has shown in the case of the exiles, and bindeth up their pains (Psa 16:4), i.e., smarting wounds; , which is here followed by , also takes to itself a dative object in other instances, both in an active and (Isa 6:10) an impersonal application; but for the older language says , Psa 34:19, Isa 61:1. The connection of the thoughts, which the poet now brings to the stars, becomes clear from the primary passage, Isa 40:26, cf. Isa 40:27. To be acquainted with human woe and to relieve it is an easy and small matter to Him who allots a number to the stars, that are to man innumerable (Gen 15:5), i.e., who has called them into being by His creative power in whatever number He has pleased, and yet a number known to Him ( , the part. praes., which occurs frequently in descriptions of the Creator), and calls to them all names, i.e., names them all by names which are the expression of their true nature, which is well known to Him, the Creator. What Isaiah says (Isa 40:26) with the words, “because of the greatness of might, and as being strong in power,” and (Isa 40:28) “His understanding is unsearchable,” is here asserted in Psa 147:5 (cf. Psa 145:3): great is our Lord, and capable of much (as in Job 37:23, ), and to His understanding there is no number, i.e., in its depth and fulness it cannot be defined by any number. What a comfort for the church as it traverses its ways, that are often so labyrinthine and entangled! Its Lord is the Omniscient as well as the Almighty One. Its history, like the universe, is a work of God’s infinitely profound and rich understanding. It is a mirror of gracious love and righteous anger. The patient sufferers ( ) He strengthens ( as in Psa 146:9); malevolent sinners ( ), on the other hand, He casts down to the earth ( , cf. Isa 26:5), casting deep down to the ground those who exalt themselves to the skies.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| A Call to Praise God; Reasons for Praise. | |
1 Praise ye the LORD: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely. 2 The LORD doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. 3 He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. 4 He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names. 5 Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite. 6 The LORD lifteth up the meek: he casteth the wicked down to the ground. 7 Sing unto the LORD with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God: 8 Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains. 9 He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry. 10 He delighteth not in the strength of the horse: he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man. 11 The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.
Here, I. The duty of praise is recommended to us. It is not without reason that we are thus called to it again and again: Praise you the Lord (v. 1), and again (v. 7), Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving, sing praise upon the harp to our God (let all our praises be directed to him and centre in him), for it is good to do so; it is our duty, and therefore good in itself; it is our interest, and therefore good for us. It is acceptable to our Creator and it answers the end of our creation. The law for it is holy, just, and good; the practice of it will turn to a good account. It is good, for 1. It is pleasant. Holy joy or delight are required as the principle of it, and that is pleasant to us as men; giving glory to God is the design and business of it, and that is pleasant to us as saints that are devoted to his honour. Praising God is work that is its own wages; it is heaven upon earth; it is what we should be in as in our element. 2. It is comely; it is that which becomes us as reasonable creatures, much more as people in covenant with God. In giving honour to God we really do ourselves a great deal of honour.
II. God is recommended to us as the proper object of our most exalted and enlarged praises, upon several accounts.
1. The care he takes of his chosen people, v. 2. Is Jerusalem to be raised out of small beginnings? Is it to be recovered out of its ruins? In both cases, The Lord builds up Jerusalem. The gospel-church, the Jerusalem that is from above, is of this building. He framed the model of it in his own counsels; he founded it by the preaching of his gospel; he adds to it daily such as shall be saved, and so increases it. He will build it up unto perfection, build it up as high as heaven. Are any of his people outcasts? Have they made themselves so by their own folly? He gathers them by giving them repentance and bringing them again into the communion of saints. Have they been forced out by war, famine, or persecution? He opens a door for their return; many that were missing, and thought to be lost, are brought back, and those that were scattered in the cloudy and dark day are gathered together again.
2. The comforts he has laid up for true penitents, v. 3. They are broken in heart, and wounded, humbled, and troubled, for sin, inwardly pained at the remembrance of it, as a man is that is sorely wounded. Their very hearts are not only pricked, but rent, under the sense of the dishonour they have done to God and the injury they have done to themselves by sin. To those whom God heals with the consolations of his Spirit he speaks peace, assures them that their sins are pardoned and that he is reconciled to them, and so makes them easy, pours the balm of Gilead into the bleeding wounds, and then binds them up, and makes them to rejoice. Those who have had experience of this need not be called upon to praise the Lord; for when he brought them out of the horrible pit, and set their feet upon a rock, he put a new song into their mouths,Psa 40:2; Psa 40:3. And for this let others praise him also.
3. The sovereign dominion he has over the lights of heaven, Psa 147:4; Psa 147:5. The stars are innumerable, many of them being scarcely discernible with the naked eye, and yet he counts them, and knows the exact number of them, for they are all the work of his hands and the instruments of his providence. Their bulk and power are very great; but he calleth them all by their names, which shows his dominion over them and the command he has them at, to make what use of them he pleases. They are his servants, his soldiers; he musters them, he marshals them; they come and go at his bidding, and all their motions are under his direction. He mentions this as one instance of many, to show that great is our Lord and of great power (he can do what he pleases), and of his understanding there is no computation, so that he can contrive every thing for the best. Man’s knowledge is soon drained, and you have his utmost length; hitherto his wisdom can reach and no further. But God’s knowledge is a depth that can never be fathomed.
4. The pleasure he takes in humbling the proud and exalting those of low degree (v. 6): The Lord lifts up the meek, who abase themselves before him, and whom men trample on; but the wicked, who conduct themselves insolently towards God and scornfully towards all mankind, who lift up themselves in pride and folly, he casteth down to the ground, sometimes by very humbling providences in this world, at furthest in the day when their faces shall be filled with everlasting shame. God proves himself to be God by looking on the proud and abasing them, Job xl. 12.
5. The provision he makes for the inferior creatures. Though he is so great as to command the stars, he is so good as not to forget even the fowls, Psa 147:8; Psa 147:9. Observe in what method he feeds man and beast. (1.) He covereth the heaven with clouds, which darken the air and intercept the beams of the sun, and yet in them he prepareth that rain for the earth which is necessary to its fruitfulness. Clouds look melancholy, and yet without them we could have no rain and consequently no fruit. Thus afflictions, for the present, look black, and dark, and unpleasant, and we are in heaviness because of them, as sometimes when the sky is overcast it makes us dull; but they are necessary, for from these clouds of affliction come those showers that make the harvest to yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness (Heb. xii. 11), which should help to reconcile us to them. Observe the necessary dependence which the earth has upon the heavens, which directs us on earth to depend on God in heaven. All the rain with which the earth is watered is of God’s preparing. (2.) By the rain which distils on the earth he makes grass to grow upon the mountains, even the high mountains, which man neither takes care of nor reaps the benefit of. The mountains, which are not watered with the springs and rivers, as the valleys are, are yet watered so that they are not barren. (3.) This grass he gives to the beast for his food, the beast of the mountains which runs wild, which man makes no provision for. And even the young ravens, which, being forsaken by their old ones, cry, are heard by him, and ways are found to feed them, so that they are kept from perishing in the nest.
6. The complacency he takes in his people, Psa 147:10; Psa 147:11. In times when great things are doing, and there are great expectations of the success of them, it concerns us to know (since the issue proceeds from the Lord) whom, and what, God will delight to honour and crown with victory. It is not the strength of armies, but the strength of grace, that God is pleased to own. (1.) Not the strength of armies–not in the cavalry, for he delighteth not in the strength of the horse, the war-horse, noted for his courage (Job xxxix. 19, c.)–nor in the infantry, for he taketh no pleasure in the legs of a man he does not mean the swiftness of them for flight, to quit the field, but the steadiness of them for charging, to stand the ground. If one king, making war with another king, goes to God to pray for success, it will not avail him to plead, “Lord, I have a gallant army, the horse and foot in good order; it is a pity that they should suffer any disgrace;” for that is no argument with God, Ps. xx. 7. Jehoshaphat’s was much better: Lord, we have no might, 2 Chron. xx. 12. But, (2.) God is pleased to own the strength of grace. A serious and suitable regard to God is that which is, in the sight of God, of great price in such a case. The Lord accepts and takes pleasure in those that fear him and that hope in his mercy. Observe, [1.] A holy fear of God and hope in God not only may consist, but must concur. In the same heart, at the same time, there must be both a reverence of his majesty and a complacency in his goodness, both a believing dread of his wrath and a believing expectation of his favour; not that we must hang in suspense between hope and fear, but we must act under the gracious influences of hope and fear. Our fear must save our hope from swelling into presumption, and our hope must save our fear from sinking into despair; thus must we take our work before us. [2.] We must hope in God’s mercy, his general mercy, even when we cannot find a particular promise to stay ourselves upon. A humble confidence in the goodness of God’s nature is very pleasing to him, as that which turns to the glory of that attribute in which he most glories. Every man of honour loves to be trusted.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Psalms 147
Just Praise the Lord
Scripture v. 1-20:
The following four Psalms all begin and end with “Hallelujah,” translated, “Praise ye (you all praise) the Lord.” Each calls for joyous praise and thanksgiving, void of any note of lamentation or grief, found in previous psalms. They were perhaps used for dedication of the walls of Jerusalem under Nehemiah, for the same instruments are used in praise (mentioned here and there) Psa 147:7; Psa 150:3-5; Neh 12:27; Neh 12:35; Neh 12:41.
Verse 1 calls for all people and nature to praise the Lord for three reasons: 1) He is good, 2) it is pleasant, and 3) it is comely or becoming to do so, Psa 92:1; Psa 135:3; Psa 33:1.
Verse 2 declares, “the Lord doth build up Jerusalem;” It was done by Nehemiah, first, the city, Neh 2:5. Then, later, the walls, v.13; Neh 3:6; Neh 3:15. It is added, “He gathereth together, in unity, the outcast of Israel,” those abandoned to captivity, for a time, in keeping with His promise, Deu 30:3; Isa 11:12; Isa 56:8. The full and final gathering is yet to come, Psa 107:3; Eze 36:24; Eze 38:8.
Verses 3, 4 recount that this mighty God has and does: 1) Heal the broken in heart, and bind up their grief-wounds, Isa 61:1; Luk 4:18. This regarded both those wounds of Israel nationally and the miracle-working ministry of our Lord, Psa 34:18; Psa 103:3; Isa 57:18-19; Isaiah 2) Telleth of determines the number of stars in the sky and galaxies, Gen 15:5; Isa 40:26; Isaiah , 3) Calleth them all by their names, as His own, knowing the character of each even as he calls His own people by name as peculiar possessions to Him, Exo 33:12; Joh 10:3; Rev 2:17; Rev 3:12; Isa 40:26-27.
Verse 5 asserts, “Great is our Lord, and of great power,” as also declared 1Ch 16:25; Nah 1:3. It is added that, “His understanding (comprehension) is infinite,” meaning unlimited; There is no way of measuring or enumerating His understanding, Isa 40:28; From such emanates His wisdom for saving, preserving, or delivering His people from harm, Rom 11:26-36.
Verse 5 adds, ‘The Lord lifteth up the meek,” the humble, the lowly, continually, Psa 22:26; Psa 146:8-9. While “He casteth the wicked down to the ground,” in judgment Psa 149:4; Psa 75:7; Mar 10:31; Pro 11:5.
Verse 7 exhorts, “Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving; Sing praises upon the harp unto our God;” Literally, “respond” to the Lord in thanksgiving or gratitude for His exaltation of the meek and His judgment of the wicked Psa 81:1; Psa 119:172; See also Exo 15:21; Eph 5:20; 1Ch 16:8; Gen 4:21.
Verses 8, 9 declare that God covers the heavens with clouds, prepares and sends the rain for the earth, and continually causes the grass to grow upon the mountains, as shelter and food for man, bird, and beast, Job 38:26; Psa 104:13; Gen 24:35.
Verse. 9 adds, “He giveth (doles out, makes available) to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry” Job 38:41; Gen 8:7; Pro 30:17. See also Psa 104:14; Psa 104:21; Psa 104:27-28; Psa 145:15; Luk 12:24; Mat 6:26.
Verses 10, 11 certify that God .does not delight, “in the strength of the horse,” animal strength of chariots and cavalry, as the heathen do, Psa 20:7; Psa 33:16-18; Hos 1:7; Nor does he, “take pleasure in the legs of a man,” to run in battle, but “in them that fear Him,” and “hope (trust) in his mercy,” rather than their own confidence in the flesh, Isa 40:29; 1Sa 16:7; Pro 1:7; Psa 31:24.
Verses 12, 13 call for Jerusalem and Zion, their people, to praise the Lord their God with “Hallelujah joy;” Because He had strengthened the “bars of their gates,” and blessed their children with the gates of the city, Psa 9:11; God had given them security again within their rebuilt walls, Nehemiah ch. 3; and Neh 12:27; 2Ch 16:9.
Verses 14, 15 declare that their God was continually causing peace at their borders, or frontiers, shielding them from invading armies, Isa 60:17; and filling them with the finest of wheat, causing it to grow to full and rich production and maturity, Deu 32:14; as promised, Lev 26:5; Exo 9:32.
Verse 15 adds He continually sends forth (mandates) his word and it moves swiftly to fulfillment, Job 37:12; as the Centurion witnessed, of our Lord, Mat 8:9; Mat 8:13; Psa 107:20; Heb 4:12.
Verse 16-18 describe His control over the elements as: 1) He gives “snow like wool,” 2) Scatters the “hoarfrost like ashes,” 2Sa 23:30; Psa 148:8; Psalms 3) He casts forth ice like morsels of bread, inquiring “who can stand before His cold?” to defy it, or turn it back … the inferred answer is, “no one,” Job 6:16; Job 37:9; Pro 20:4; Proverbs Verse18 explains that it is this same living God of mercy who sends out his word, Jer 5:14. It is concluded, “He causeth (continually) the soft warm wind to blow and waters to flow,” Psa 148:8.
Verse 19 asserts that, “He showeth, (continually shows) his word unto Jacob,” or the house of Israel, “His statutes and his judgments unto Israel,” through His law and the prophets, Deu 33:24; Mal 4:4; Rom 3:2; 2Ti 3:15-17.
Verse 20 concludes, “He hath not dealt so with any nation,” so graciously as with the house of Jacob; as related Deu 4:32; It is added “And as for his judgments, they (other nations) have not known them, Neh 9:13-14; Neh 10:29; See also Act 14:16; Act 26:17-18; Rom 3:1-2; Eph 2:12; 1Pe 2:8. He adds, “Praise ye (you all praise) the Lord, or shout out Hallelujah, a joyful victory sound.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Praise ye God, etc. Though the benefits he speaks of are such as God extends to all men indiscriminately, it is plain that he addresses more especially God’s people, who alone behold his works in an enlightened manner, whereas stupidity and blindness of mind deprive others of their understanding. Nor is his subject confined to the common benefits of God, but the main thing which he celebrates is his mercy, as shown to his chosen people. That the Church may address itself to the praises of God with more alacrity, he states that this kind of exercise is good, delightful, and pleasant, by which he indirectly censures a sin which is all but universal of becoming wearied at the very mention of God, and counting it our highest pleasure to forget both God and ourselves, that we may give way to unrestrained indulgence. To teach men to take a delight in this religious exercise, the Psalmist reminds them that praise is comely, or desirable. For the term נאוה, navah, may be rendered either way.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE OCCASIONS OF THANKSGIVING
Psalms 147
Sermon preached on Thanksgiving Day.
THANKSGIVING is one of the most ancient of customs. In fact, it is altogether probable that Adam and Eve were not unmindful of the favor of God, nor silent in the autumn season when the fruits of the earth so eloquently proclaimed His grace. Americans may imagine that the custom of Thanksgiving Day originated with the Plymouth Pilgrims in 1621; that it was made official when George Washington proclaimed Thursday, November 26th, 1789, as a day of national thanksgiving, and perennial when Abraham Lincoln, in 1863, established the last Thursday in November as the date on which the people should assemble in their churches and acknowledge the grace of God as manifested in the abundant fruits of field and forest.
But all this is modern enough! We know that an oriental custom of Thanksgiving existed even back of Israels day and throughout the Old Testament. This custom is referred to again and again and the feast of tabernacles became its official and annual recognition. It is not improbable that some of these later psalms were written by David as the songs of praise expressing the thankfulness of the people in these annual occasions. If so, they were certainly well adapted, and combined in one production all that now belongs to both sermon and anthem, characterizing the same occasion. The almost infinite variety revealed in the grace of God is shown in the various objects treated in these anthem of praise.
There is a similarity between all the Psalms 145-150 inclusive, but there is also extensive variety, due to the fact that no one of them was sufficient in length to voice the multiplied favors from above. In this 147th, David does what the energetic director of music often voices. He calls, as if to a choir, once, twice, thrice, Sing! sing! sing! He sings of Gods great power! He sings of Gods abundant provision! He sings of Gods universal providence!
GODS GREAT POWER
Praise ye the Lord: for it is good to sing praises unto our God. It certainly is! He is worthy! Few things give greater joy than praise when it comes from a heart happy in the Lord, and deserved praise is comely. The first portion of the hymn is based on what follows in Psa 147:3-6.
His power is revealed in His exceeding grace.
The Lord doth build up Jerusalem: He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.
The first favor from the Lord is not material prosperity. Men often so imagine. Due to mens shortsightedness and selfishness, they often so imagine, but experience proves the contrary. Grace is better than gifts. Mercy exceeds favor. Healing is above riches, and the binding of the broken heart is more to be desired than big harvests.
In fact, it is doubtful if any man or woman has ever come into the truest favor from the Lord, who falls short of experiencing a sense of His care, the deep consciousness of His grace. The poet put first things first when he wrote:
What can it mean? Is it ought to Him
That the nights are long and the days are dim?
Can He be touched by the griefs I bear,
Which sadden the heart and whiten the hair?
Around His throne are eternal calms,
And strong, glad music of happy psalms,
And bliss unruffled by any strife,
How can He care for my life?
Oh, wonderful story of deathless love!
Each child is dear to that heart above;
He fights for me when I cannot fight,
He comforts me in the gloom of night.
He lifts the burden, for He is strong,
He stills the sigh and awakens the song;
The sorrow that bowed me down He bears,
And loves and pardons because He cares.
Let all who are sad take heart again,
We are not alone in our hour of pain;
Our Father stoops from His throne above
To soothe and quiet us with His love:
He leaves us not when the storm is high,
And we have safety, for He is nigh.
Can it be trouble which He doth share?
Oh, rest in peace, for the Lord does care.
His power is also shown in His matchless wisdom. The study of astronomy is adding to the significance of the sentence, He telleth the number of the stars; He calleth them all by their names. Great is our Lord, and of great power; His understanding is infinite (Psa 147:4-5). Once we imagined that they amounted to a few hundred. Now we know that the sidereal systems exceed the million, and that when the separate stars are counted, they amount to millions on millions, and we have little reason to doubt that beyond the possible reach of the mightiest instrument yet conceived by man, infinite additional sidereal systems swing through endless space. Truly did the Psalmist speak, The heavens declare the glory of God.
He calleth them by their names. How interesting it would be to know what Gods names for these stars are; how surely they would exceed in suggestiveness the appellations of men! We marvel at the wisdom of Adam when it is written that The Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field.
Some years since, I inquired who gave names to all the pullman cars that moved by the thousands across our mighty country, and was told that an individual was paid a very high salary to do nothing else. The number and variety of them, and the necessity of no repetition, requires real ingenuity; but Adams task and that of the pullman car employee is trivial beside the wisdom that called the stars by name. No wonder it is followed by the phrase, Great is our Lord, and of great power: His understanding is infinite.
Before passing from these verses, it is well to remark the juxtaposition of the grace of God and the power of God,grace revealed in gathering together the outcasts of Israel, healing the broken-hearted, and binding up their wounds, and the power exhibited in telling the number of the stars, calling them all by their names, which is truly interpreted as commanding their courses. In God, gentleness and greatness perfectly combined! How marvelous that He who framed the worlds by His Word, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear (Heb 11:3), is the very same who sittcth beside every sparrow, that falls to the street and flutters in dying, resting the same in the hollow of His hand till breath goes from the tiny and seemingly worthless body. That is God, and therein is His greatness!
It is further revealed in His judgments. The Lord lifteth up the meek; He casteth the wicked down to the ground. There are those who would object to this because there are those who hate judgment. There are those who want no discernment between righteousness and wickedness; who would have no favor shown, to the first, and who would certainly have no adjudication exercised against the second. But if God did not do both, He would not be God, and the very world in which we live would shortly become a moral chaos.
Illinois once had a governor who set free hundreds and thousands of her criminals. Texas had a woman governor who did the same. At first, this unmerited favor is popular. It commonly results in a reelection of such governors, but they seldom get beyond two short terms when the reeking state of society demands reform. On the contrary, God who lifts up the meek; and casts the wicked down to the ground justifies himself in that righteous judgment, and gives men everywhere to know that the right will triumph and the wrong will go to defeat.
George Lorimer once said, As we look backward and comprehensively grasp all that has fallen out, both of good and bad, and observe their bearing and results, we are constrained to recognize a guiding intelligence that is not of earth, and a benevolence that has never failed to bring light out of darkness. Why then should we, who have been thus taught, falter in our faith or yield to the dismay of doubt? Though we see Him not, we have sufficient reason for trust; and though error may for the time being seem to prevail against truth, and the hearts of His children fail them for fear, unless the centuries have lied to us, He will yet remember the kingdom of His dear Son, will enlarge its borders, establish its authority, and bring forth its righteousness as the noonday. Careless seems the Great Avenger: Historys pages but record One death-struggle in the darkness twixt false systems and the Word; Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne; But that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own.
But we come to our second appeal for a further burst of praise, and the occasion is
AN ABUNDANT PROVISION
Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God:
Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.
He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.
He delighteth not in the strength of the horse; He taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man.
The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that hope in His mercy (Psa 147:7-11)
Let us return to the study of these verses and see what they suggest.
God regards and provides Natures real necessities. There are those who imagine that clouds are independent of God, and that rains are subject only to natural laws, and that grass on the mountains to give to the beast his food, and by his carcass in turn to silence the cry of young ravens, is all by fixed and eternal laws of unconscious nature. But, our Bible does not so teach, and true believers do not so hold. They entertain rather the conviction that, as the stars in their courses execute the Divine command, so the clouds come at the Divine will, and the rain pours on earth to express the Divine pleasure, and that no grass ever grew apart from the active will of God. Robertson Nicoll has well said, The yearly miracle which brings from some invisible storehouse the clouds to fill the sky and drop down fatness, the answer of the brown earth which mysteriously shoots forth the tender green spikelets away up on the mountain flanks, where no man has sown and no man will reap, the loving care which thereby provides food for the wild creatures, owned by no one, and answers the hoarse croak of the callow fledglings in the ravens neststhese are manifestations of Gods power and revelations of His character worthy to be woven into a hymn which celebrates His restoring grace, and to be set beside the apocalypse of His greatness in the nightly heavens.
California, in America, with a climate close akin to that of Palestine, profoundly impresses these truths, and in its long, hot summer season, vegetation perishes from wide fields. The forests themselves grow brown, and the grass on the mountainsides dries up and dies, and the inhabitants of the mountainsides grow lean and long for the rainy season, and lo, when it comes, what instant change. I have seen brown fields and even mountainsides change to green over-night and one could readily imagine the famished hart feeling a sense of gratitude to the God who thus gives the tender, luscious grass to fatten the very food on which young ravens, in a later season, shall feed.
The verses that follow sound like an abrupt and illogical change, but not so. They only teach a converse truth.
God delights in human affection vs. animal strength.
He delighteth not in the strength of the horse; He taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man. The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that hope in His mercy (Psa 147:10-11).
The time was when the strength of the horse was consummate, when the legs of a man were a synonym for swiftness. But, alas, for miracle inventions! They have both lost their meaning. That may be why God never took delight in them. He knew how puny and poor they were, as compared with the multiplied forces at His command yet to be discovered by men. God never rests in the ephemeral thing, but rather in the eternal. That is why He taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that hope in His mercy. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Hope in God is the prophecy of its consummation.
Lot and Abraham were perfect illustrations of these converse truths. Lot believed in temporal power expressed by the strength in the horse. Lot trusted in his business sagacity, voiced by the swiftness of mans feet. Consequently, he lifted up his eyes and made choice of the rich plains of Esdraelon, and counted himself a far-seeing man, as all conscienceless business men so suppose themselves.
Abraham waited for the Word of the Lord, and when it was spoken, it was this, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it. The truth is, then, that what Lot had chosen was finally to fall out as belonging also to Abraham, and to his seed after him. Even so, and it is commonly so, the man who chooses Gods will, fearing Him and hoping in His mercy, that man will know Gods pleasure and enjoy a prosperity of Divine appointment.
God is not like Nature, indifferent to moral values. Henry Van Dyke writes, If we regarded Nature as impersonal, and the universe as a material mechanism, we should find no difficulty in it. For then this shining of the sun and falling of the rain upon the evil and the good, this procession of the seasons, this interflow of forces and influences which work together in productiveness, this germinating of the seed and unfolding of the blade and forming of the ear and ripening of the full corn in the ear,the same for every child of man who toils and waits,all this would be to us only the proof and illustration of what we should call the large indifference of Nature. * * * * But the moment we see God behind the face of Nature,the moment we believe that this vast and marvellous procession of seasons and causes and changes, this array of interworking forces, is directed and controlled by a Supreme, Omniscient, Holy Spirit, whose will is manifest in the springing of the seed, the ripening of the fruit, the fading of the leaf, the shining of the sun, and the falling of the rain, this indifference becomes incomprehensible and impossible. * * * *You tell me that Nature is indifferent. I say, Not if God is behind Nature.
You tell me that it matters not whether the hand that guides the plow be pure and clean, or wicked and defiled. Nature feels alike and will do alike for both. I say, Not if God is behind Nature; not if Nature is the expression of His will. He may do alike, but He does not feel alike. As well say that He who made light and darkness cannot distinguish between them, as that He whose will is the moral law ever forgets it, ignores it, casts it aside, in any sphere or mode of his action. Evermore He loves the good, the true, the noble. Evermore He hates the base, the false, the evil. Evermore iniquity is an abomination unto Him, and righteousness is His delight.
But we come to the third appeal of this choir director. Once more, he calls upon the singers to unite their voices in loudest paeans.
Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion.
For He hath strengthened the bars of thy gates; He hath blessed thy children within thee.
He maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat.
He sendeth forth His commandment upon earth: His Word runneth very swiftly.
He giveth snow like wool: He scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes.
He casteth forth His ice like morsels: who can stand before His cold?
He sendeth out His word, and melteth them: He causeth His wind to blow, and the waters flow.
He sheweth His word unto Jacob, His statutes and His judgments unto Israel.
He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for His judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the Lord (Psa 147:12-20).
What does it mean? Several things! First, Gods providence is peculiar over His own people.
Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion. For He hath strengthened the bars of thy gates; He hath blessed thy children within thee.
There are comely leaders among singers. A great soprano, noble alto, a high tenor, a mighty bass. They sound the note loudest and clearest. Other voices unite to swell the praise.
Why should not Jerusalem lead? Why should not Zion be first in song? These are Gods own! They know Him! They love Him! They can sing from grateful hearts. Their voices express conscious favor. Such are the first singers always! To review the Divine favors is to find the lips filled with song. God is ever revealing a special grace toward His own. This single fact gave birth to more of the psalms than all other influences combined. Take the 106th psalm, with its forty-eight verses, and the 107th psalm, with its forty-three verses, and they are a review of Gods favor to Israel, and voice the Psalmists earnest plea for upraise unto the Lord for His godness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men.
But the descendants of Jacob are not the lone children of God. Through all the centuries, His favor has been upon them that feared Him, His blessing upon believers. Read the Book of the Acts. Regard the Divine inference and rejoice that God careth for His own. Look into so-called secular history! See it made doubly sacred by the defeat of the Duke of Alvas intention against the Christians in Holland through a tide that refused to turn in twelve long hours. Look into the history of England, and recall how the fierce wind scattered the Armada of Spain over the north and spared the people of God. Or do what David is constantly doing,reduce it to individual preservation.
Remember how John Knox felt strangely moved to give up his seat in front of a window and take another. You see that impulse proven to have been of God when, a little later, a musket-ball crashed past the very place where he sat and buried itself in an opposite wall. No wonder the psalmist concludes a great psalm, written in review of such incidents, by saying,
Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord (Psa 107:43).
In the providence of God is both peace and prosperity. He maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat. These two commonly walk hand in hand, just as war and want were almost always co-workers. People seldom appreciate the prosperity that belongs to a time of peace until lands are war-swept and impoverished. Germany, Russia, Austria, Romania, Poland, Italy, Belgium, France, England,these all now appreciate the days back of 1914 when peace was in their borders, and when their garners were filled with the finest wheat When will the nations learn that war and want walk together, and turning with believing hearts to the Prince of Peace, implore His presence and His administration of life,personal, national, international!
Poverty of nations and poverty of individuals will end only when God is taken into partnership, or rather is accepted in leadership. Campbell Morgan, in one of his books, tells the story of the Scotch lord, who called his faithful servant into his presence and said, Donald, I have decided to give you that farm that you may work it for yourself, own it, and spend the rest of your days on your own property. But Donald, with all the canniness that characterized his nationality, looked up into the face of his lord and said, It is nae gude to gie me the farm; I have nae capital to stock it. His lordship was touched, and so he answered, Oh, Donald, I think I can manage to stock it also. Whereupon, Donald replied, Oh, well, if it is you and me for it, I think we will manage. And then Morgan applied his story, Jesus, Master, if it be Thee and me for it, we can manage. God with us, who can be against us!
His providence is over all the earth. He giveth snow like wool: He scattereth the hoarfrost tike ashes. He casteth forth His ice like morsels: who can stand before His cold?
A strange expression of providence, you say! These are curses! Pardon me; not at all! Snow, frost, ice,these are as absolutely essential to the seasons success as is spring or summer themselves.
Is it not written, As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater?
Certainly! The winter season is not a time of fruitfulness in itself, but it is an essential preparation of the earth for the same. God is not cursing man with cold! God is blessing him! By the cold, he is resting nature, refreshing her to make her more fruitful; and by the cold, He is toning up the blood, enlarging the veins, quickening the arteries, adding zest to life. These are the inheritance of all men!
Natures pageant in the recurring seasons is only an expression of Gods care for all His creatures. In fact, winter is perhaps Gods own appointment for bringing men to appreciate the spring and summer and autumn. But for the very contrast, spiritual carelessness and spiritual ingratitude of a deeper and baser sort, might characterize men. It was some such thought that Robert Louis Stevenson voiced in verse:
If I have faltered more or less In my great track of happiness;If I have moved among my race,And shown no glorious morning face;If beams from happy human eyesHave moved me not; if morning skies,Books, and my food, and summer rain,Knocked on my sullen heart in vain,Lord, Thy most pointed pleasure take,And stab my spirit broad awake.
And it was this same thought that David himself evidently had, for he concludes his anthem of praise with this expression, He sendeth out His Word, and melteth them; He caused His wind to blow, and the waters flow. He sheweth His Word unto Jacob, His Statutes and His Judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for His Judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the Lord!
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
INTRODUCTION
Like the last Psalm, and like those which follow it, this is evidently an anthem intended for the service of the Second Temple. It celebrates Gods almighty and gracious rule over His people and over the world of nature, but mingles with this a special commemoration of His goodness in bringing back His people from their captivity and rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. In the allusions to these events in Psa. 147:2-3, and Psa. 147:13-14, we shall probably be justified in seeing the occasion of the Psalm. It may have been written for the dedication of the wall at Jerusalem, which, as we learn from Neh. 12:27, was kept with gladness, both with thanksgivings and with singing, with cymbals, psalteries, and with harps. It is indeed not improbable, as Hengstenberg suggests, that not this Psalm only, but the rest of the Psalms to the end of the Book, are all anthems originally composed for the same occasion. The wall had been built under circumstances of no ordinary difficulty and discouragement (Neh. 2:17; Neh. 4:23); its completion was celebrated with no common joy and thankfulness; for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the wives also and the children had rejoiced: so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off. (See Neh. 12:27-43.)
The Psalm cannot be said to have any regular strophical arrangement, but the renewed exhortations to praise, in Psa. 147:7; Psa. 147:12, suggest a natural division of the Psalm. It is a Trifolium of praise.Perowne.
THE EXCELLENCE OF PRAISE TO GOD
(Psa. 147:1-6)
The Psalm opens with the summons to praise Jehovah, and proceeds to adduce motives for praising Him. We may arrange these under two heads:
I. The praise of God is excellent in itself.
Praise ye the Lord, for
1. It is good to sing praises unto our God. The adjective here used is a very comprehensive one pulcher, beautiful; or, bonus, good; or, useful, profitable, beneficent. The same word is applied to the praise of God in Psa. 92:1. (See our remarks on that verse, vol. ii. pp. 63, 64.)
2. It is pleasant. To the godly soul praising God is a delightful thing; a thing affording purest satisfaction, and real joy to the heart. This truth is expressed also in Psa. 135:3 : Sing praises unto His name, for it is pleasant.
3. It is comely. This clause is probably taken from Psa. 33:1. Praise is comely for the upright. To praise God is a most seemly thing. Nothing can be more appropriate than that man, who owes to God so much, and is to some extent capable of appreciating the perfections and glories of His character, should pay to Him humble and hearty worship. It is a becoming thing in man; an honour and an ornament to him.
II. The praise of God is excellent in its reasons.
Jehovah doth build up Jerusalem, &c. (Psa. 147:2-6). God is here praised because of
1. His relation to His Church. Jehovah doth build up Jerusalem; He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. There are references here to the rebuilding of the walls and the city of Jerusalem after the Captivity, and to the restoration of the exiled people to their own land. (Comp. Isa. 11:12; Isa. 56:8.) The Lord is the builder of His Church. Upon this rock will I build My Church. Ye are Gods building. He hews the stones out of the quarries of nature, cuts them into shape, works them into the glorious edifice, and carves them into grace and beauty. The Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved. He will carry onward the building to splendid completeness. And when His people have been scattered by persecution, or famine, or strife, He brings them together again. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered, so will I seek out My sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.
2. His relation to troubled souls. He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. There is much sorrow of heart in the world. It is probable that broken hearts are more frequent amongst men than is generally supposed. Broken hearts are not paraded; they are rather carefully concealed. Hearts are broken by sorrow for sin, by painful disappointments, by wicked calumnies, by distressing bereavements, by severe afflictions, by heavy losses. The Lord is the comforter and healer of such suffering souls. He heals the troubled penitent with His gracious forgiveness of sin; to the disappointed He presents new and brighter and well-assured hopes; to the calumniated He gives the assurance of a splendid vindication (Psa. 37:5-6); before the bereaved He holds out the prospect of everlasting and joyful reunion with the beloved departed in our Fathers house; He transforms afflictions into angels laden with blessings; and out of temporal losses He evolves eternal gains. He heals the broken in heart, &c. It is His to comfort all that mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, &c. (Isa. 61:2-3). As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you, &c.
3. His relation to heavenly hosts. He telleth the number of the stars; He calleth them all by their names, &c. (Psa. 147:4; Psa. 147:6). This is adduced, says Perowne, as a proof of the omniscience and omnipotence of God, and hence as a ground of consolation to His people, however they may have been scattered, and however they may have been oppressed. Surely He must know, He must be able to succour, human woe, to whom it is an easy thing to count those stars which are beyond mans arithmetic (Gen. 15:5). The argument is precisely the same as in Isa. 40:26-29 : Lift up your eyes, &c. Evidently the words of the prophet were in the mind of the Psalmist. It is stated that in our sky there are one hundred millions of stars visible by the aid of a telescope, each of which is the centre of a cluster of tributary stars, making altogether a great multitude which no man can number. If we ask, says Dr. Chalmers, the number of suns and of systems, the unassisted eye of man can take in a thousand, and the best telescope which the genius of man has constructed can take in eighty millions.[3] But why subject the dominions of the universe to the eye of man, or to the powers of his genius? Fancy may take its flight far beyond the ken of eye or of telescope. It may expatiate in the outer regions of all that is visibleand shall we have the boldness to say, that there is nothing there? that the wonders of the Almighty are at an end, because we can no longer trace His footsteps? that His omnipotence is exhausted, because human art can no longer follow Him? that the creative energy of God has sunk into repose, because the imagination is enfeebled by the magnitude of its efforts, and can keep no longer on the wing through those mighty tracts, which shoot far beyond what eye hath seen, or the heart of man hath conceivedwhich sweep endlessly along, and merge into an awful and mysterious infinity?
[3] The number is now said to be one hundred millions or more.
Yet God counts all these stars; marshals all these stars. What an illustration we have in this of
(1.) His unlimited might! What power is involved in marshalling the countless hosts of stars, in guiding and keeping them in their spheres! Great is our Lord, and of great power.
(2.) His infinite knowledge. He calleth them all by their names. Perowne: He giveth names unto them all. The expression indicates the most intimate knowledge and the most watchful care, as that of a shepherd for his flock (Joh. 10:3). Or the figure has been interpreted thus: He calleth them all by their namesas if each one had a name, and God could call them forth one by one by their names, like the muster-roll of an army. His understanding is infinite. Margin: Of His understanding there is no number. In the Hebrew there is a play upon the word which is translated number in Psa. 147:4. Unlimited is the number both of His understanding and of the stars. The limit of human knowledge is soon reached, but there is no searching of His understanding. Now this infinite intelligence and almighty power of God should prove an encouragement and an inspiration to all who trust in Him. The idea has been well expressed by Dr. Chalmers: The God who sitteth above, and presides in high authority over all worlds, is mindful of man; and though at this moment His energy is felt in the remotest provinces of creation, we may feel the same security in His Providence as if we were the objects of His undivided care. It is not for us to bring our minds up to this mysterious agency. But such is the incomprehensible fact, that the same Being, whose eye is abroad over the whole universe, gives vegetation to every blade of grass, and motion to every particle of blood which circulates through the veins of the minutest animal; that, though His mind takes into its comprehensive grasp immensity and all its wonders, I am as much known to Him as if I were the single object of His attentionthat He marks all my thoughtsthat He gives birth to every feeling and every movement within meand that with an exercise of power which I can neither describe nor comprehend: the same God who sits in the highest heaven, and reigns over the glories of the firmament, is at my right hand to give me every breath which I draw, and every comfort which I enjoy.
4. His retributive relation to men. Jehovah lifteth up the meek; He casteth the wicked down to the ground. He who rules the stars in their courses, rules also the world of man.
(1.) He exalts the humble and the oppressed. Jehovah lifteth up the meek, or the afflicted. (See our remarks on Psa. 145:14; Psa. 146:8.)
(2.) He abases the wicked. (See our remarks on Psa. 146:9.) His rule and His order are a correction of mans anarchy and disorder.
Praise ye the Lord; for it is good, &c.
THE GREATNESS AND GENTLENESS OF GOD
(Psa. 147:2-5)
The text reveals the constructive side of the Divine government.
I. As shown in the building of the Church.
The Lord doth build up Jerusalem, &c. That He should do so shows
(1) that the Church is self-demolished;
(2) that it is selfhelpless; and
(3) that God is the Gatherer, the Redeemer, and the Builder of the Church.
It is not Gods purpose to destroy. It is His very nature to preserve, extend, complete, and glorify. He does destroy, but never willingly. His arm does not become terrible until His heart has been grieved, until His patience has been exhausted, and until the vital interests of the universe have been put in peril.
II. As seen in the gentle care of human hearts.
He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. Still, you see how constructive and preservative is God. His work is edification, not destruction. Who cares for broken-hearted men? Who has patience with the weak and faint? The greater the nature, the greater the compassion. It is better to fall into the hands of God than into the hands of men. Learn from this gentle care of human hearts
1. The personality of Gods knowledge. He knows every bruised reed. Hearts suffer in secret; there is nothing hidden from God!
2. The infinite adaptations of Divine grace. Every heart, whatever its grief, may be healed? There is a sovereign balm for every wound. Are we wounded on account of sin? Are we writhing under the agonies of penitence? Are we tortured by circumstances over which we have no controlthe waywardness of children, physical prostration, the opposition of bad men, and the like? For every wound there is healing in the grace of God.
3. The perfectness of Divine healing. Other healers say, Peace, peace, when there is no peace. Others, Heal the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly. We are not healed until God heals us. God offers to heal us; our disease and our sorrow are challenges to prove His grace. What of the responsibility of refusal?
III. As seen in the order, the regularity, and the stability of creation.
He telleth the number of the stars; He calleth them all by their names. Creation is a volume open to all eyes. Read it, and see the might and gentleness, the wisdom and patience, of God. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: He calleth them all by names by the greatness of His might, for that He is strong in power; not one faileth. Jesus Christ taught us to reason from the natural to the spiritual: Consider the lilies, &c.; Behold the fowls of the air, &c.
(1.) God takes care of the great universe, may I not trust Him with my life?
(2.) Where Gods will is unquestioned, the result is light, beauty, music: why should I oppose myself to its gracious dominion?
Let the Church be of good courage. When the Lord shall build up Zion, He shall appear in His glory. The gates of hell shall not prevail.
Are we truly broken in heart? Hear, then, the Saviour: He hath sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted,sent His Son to heal us.
Are we contrite, humble, penitent! Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Our brokenness attracts Him. The cry of our sorrows brings Him down from heaven.Joseph Parker, D.D.
THE SUPREMELY GREAT
(Psa. 147:5)
Here are three aspects of the Divine greatness:
I. God is great in His essence.
Great is the Lord. He is great by reason of
1. His spirituality. God is a Spirit. Spiritual substances are more excellent than material. The more perfect anything is in the rank of creatures, the more spiritual and simple it is, as gold is the more pure and perfect that hath least mixture of other metals. So God is a pure and perfect Spirit: He is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. In Him there is spirituality without any matter, perfection without any shadow or taint of imperfection.
2. His self-existence. His Being is underived and independent. With Him life is essential. He is the I AM. His name is Jehovah, the Self-Existent One.
3. His infinity.
(1.) He is infinite as regards duration. From everlasting to everlasting Thou art God. He is eternal in the largest sense of that word. He endures always. He inhabiteth eternity.
(2.) He is infinite as regards space. He is present everywhere, from infinity to infinity. There is no part of the universe, no portion of space, uninhabited by God, none wherein this Being of perfect power, wisdom, and benevolence is not essentially present. Could we with the swiftness of a sunbeam dart ourselves beyond the limits of the creation, and for ages continue our progress in infinite space, we should still be surrounded with the Divine presence, nor ever be able to reach that space where God is not. (Comp. Psa. 139:7-12; Jer. 23:23-24.)
4. His unity. There is but one God. The Lord our God is one Lord. If God be an infinitely-perfect Being, says Bishop Wilkins, it is impossible to imagine two such beings at the same time, because they must have several perfections or the same. If the former, neither of them can be God, because neither of them has all possible perfections. If they have both equal perfections, neither of them can be absolutely perfect, because it is not so great to have the same equal perfections in common with another as to be superior to all others. Well did Masillon exclaim, God alone is great!
II. God is great in power.
And of great power. The power of God is that ability and strength whereby He can bring to pass whatsoever He please; whatsoever His infinite wisdom can direct, and whatsoever the infinite purity of His will can resolve. This power is manifested
1. In the creation and sustentation of the universe. He spake, and it was done, &c. He is mighty in strength, &c. (Job. 9:4-10). He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, &c. (Job. 26:7-14). By Him all things consist.
2. In the government of the universe. He rules over holy angels. He maketh His angels spirits, &c. He presides over human governments. He bringeth the princes to nothing, &c. (Isa. 40:23-24). He putteth down one, and setteth up another. He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, &c. He rules even over His enemies. Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee, &c. The angels which kept not their first estate, &c. (Jud. 1:6).
3. In the redemption of mankind. We see here the power of infinite wisdom and truth and love overcoming the antagonism of rebellious wills, the alienation of estranged hearts, &c. This is the grandest, sublimest display of the power of God. He is mighty to save.
The consideration of the almightiness of God should
(1.) prove a warning to the wicked. He has power to fulfil His threatenings. Hast thou an arm like God?
(2.) Awaken awe in all men. We should reverently fear so great a Being.
(3.) Encourage faith in His people. Omnipotence is pledged for their help and keeping. The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? If God be for us, who can be against us?
III. God is great in knowledge.
His understanding is infinite.
1. He knows Himself. The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God, &c. (1Co. 2:10-11).
2. He knows all creatures. Angels, men, and even the meanest creatures. (Comp. Job. 38:41; Psa. 50:11; Luk. 12:6-7.) And He knows them clearly and completely. Thus He is perfectly acquainted with mans thoughts (Psa. 139:2; Eze. 11:5), and secret sins (Psa. 90:8), and necessities (Mat. 6:32), and circumstances, and works, and ways (Psa. 139:1-6).
3. He knows all events.
(1.) All past events. He never forgets anything. This knowledge is clearly implied in Ecc. 12:14; Rev. 20:12.
(2.) All present events. Nothing escapes the vigilance of His eye (Heb. 4:12-13).
(3.) All future events (Isa. 41:21-26; Act. 15:18).
(4.) All possible events. All the possibilities of all things, and beings, and worlds must be present to Him whose understanding is infinite.
The consideration of this infinite knowledge of the holy God should (i.) Check sin both in thought and in deed. You cannot sin in secret. There is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves. (ii.) Humble all pride of intellect. As compared with God, what does even the most intelligent man know? We are but of yesterday, and know nothing, &c. (iii.) Destroy all notions of our self-righteousness. In the presence of this holy and heart-searching Being, Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin? (iv.) Inspire confidence in the triumph of His cause. His enemies cannot outwit Him. His designs are formed in infinite knowledge and wisdom. The gates of hell shall not prevail against His Church, (v.) Inspire confidence in His providential dealings with us. His infinite knowledge is pledged to all who trust in Him. He knows their trials and dangers and sorrows, their wants and ways; and He will guide and support them, &c. He knoweth our frame, &c.
THE PROVIDENCE AND PLEASURE OF GOD A REASON FOR PRAISING HIM
(Psa. 147:7-11)
Let us consider
I. The providence of God. The Psalmist exhibits the providential agency of God in
1. Presiding over the elements. He covereth the heaven with clouds, He prepareth rain for the earth. (Comp. Job. 5:10; Job. 28:25-26; Job. 36:27-28; Psa. 104:13.) The clouds do not cover the heavens, neither does the rain descend upon the earth by chance; both are governed by fixed laws; and these laws were appointed and are controlled by God. He is sovereign over all the arrangements and forces of nature.
2. Creating vegetation. He maketh grass to grow upon the mountains. The mountains are mentioned because Palestine was a mountain-land. A land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven (Deu. 11:11). And these, which are not watered by the rivers, God clothes with verdure and beauty. (Comp. Psa. 104:14; Act. 14:17.)
3. Providing for the wants of His creatures. He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry. (See our remarks on Psa. 104:21; Psa. 104:27-28; Psa. 145:15-16.) The ravens are mentioned here rather than other birds probably because they are offensive birds, in order to show that no creature, however regarded by man, is uncared for by God. Seeing that He supplies the needs of the ravens, is not the conclusion irresistible that He will provide for His children? (Comp. Mat. 6:26; Luk. 12:6-7.)
II. The pleasure of God.
1. It is not in those who trust in their own resources. He delighteth not in the strength of the horse; He taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man. Horse and foot soldiers are here meant; the cavalry and infantry of an army God has no delight in armies great and strong, or in those who trust in them. Perowne expresses his idea of the meaning of the verse thus: His delight is not in those who trust in their own strength and swiftness. It is one thing to trust in great and mighty armies and skilful generals; it is another, and in the sight of God a far nobler thing, to say with Jehoshaphat, O our God, we have no might against this great company, &c. (2Ch. 20:12).
2. It is in those who reverence and trust in Him. The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that hope in His mercy. A holy fear of God, says Matthew Henry, and hope in God, not only may consist, but must concur. In the same heart, at the same time, there must be both a reverence of His majesty and a complacency in His goodness, both a believing dread of His wrath and a believing expectation of His favour; not that we must hang in suspense between hope and fear, but we must act under the gracious influences of hope and fear. Our fear must save our hope from swelling into presumption, and our hope must save our fear from sinking into despair. God delights in the man who looks to Him for all good, who reverences Him in all things, and who leans upon Him at all times and in all circumstances. Mans confidence in God is a pleasure to Him. He loves to be trusted by His creatures.
III. The praise of God.
Sing unto Jehovah with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God. The praise which man offers unto God is here represented as
1. A response for Divine favours. Sing unto the Lord. The fundamental signification of the word here translated sing is to reply, to answer; and, according to Frst, as used here it means always to sing in reply, not to sing merely. Conant translates: Answer Jehovah with thanksgiving. And Moll: Answer to Jehovah. There is no allusion here to an antiphonal choral song, as in Exo. 15:21, but a song of praise is called for as the answer of grateful men, to the honour of the Divine Giver (Exo. 32:18; Num. 21:17; Isa. 27:2). The idea seems to be, that we are to make a suitable response or answer to the manifold favours which we have received at the hand of God. God blesses man by the bestowal of His gifts, and man responds to God by the presentation of praise to Him.
2. An expression of gratitude for Divine favours. Answer unto Jehovah with thanksgiving, &c. A grateful recollection of the goodness of God to us should find expression in our songs to Him. In our hymns of praise His blessings to us should be thankfully acknowledged, and the glory of them should be given to Him alone.
In the spirit of such worship let us endeavour to live.
GRASS, AND ITS MORAL ANALOGIES
(Psa. 147:8)
He maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.
Mr. Ruskin in his Modern Painters (III. Pt.
4. ch. 14. 51, 52) says some beautiful and suggestive things concerning grass.
Gather a single blade of grass, and examine for a minute, quietly, its narrow sword-shaped strip of fluted green. Nothing, as it seems there, of notable goodness or beauty. A very little strength, and a very little tallness, and a few delicate long lines meeting in a pointnot a perfect point neither, but blunt and unfinished, by no means a creditable or apparently much-cared-for example of Natures workmanship; made, as it seems, only to be trodden on to-day, and to-morrow to be cast into the oven; and a little pale and hollow stalk, feeble and flaccid, leading down to the dull brown fibres of roots. And yet, think of it well, and judge whether of all the gorgeous flowers that beam in summer air, and of all strong and goodly trees, pleasant to the eyes or good for foodstately palm and pine, strong ash and oak, scented citron, burdened vinethere be any by man so deeply loved, by God so highly graced, as that narrow point of feeble green. Consider what we owe merely to the meadow grass, to the covering of the dark ground by that glorious enamel, by the companies of those soft, and countless, and peaceful spears. The fields! Follow but forth for a little time the thoughts of all that we ought to recognise in those words. All spring and summer is in themthe walks by silent, scented pathsthe rests in noonday neatthe joy of herds and flocksthe power of all shepherd life and meditationthe life of sunlight upon the world, falling in emerald streaks, and failing in soft blue shadows, where else it would have struck upon the dark mould, or scorching dustpastures beside the pacing brookssoft banks and knolls of lowly hillsthymy slopes of down overlooked by the blue line of lifted seacrisp lawns all dim with early dew, or smooth in evening warmth of barred sunshine, dinted by happy feet, and softening in their fall the sound of loving voices: all these are summed in those simple words; and these are not all. We may not measure to the full the depth of this heavenly gift, in our own land; though still, as we think of it longer, the infinite of that meadow sweetness, Shakespeares peculiar joy, would open on us more and more, yet we have it but in part. Go out in the spring time, among the meadows that slope from the shores of the Swiss lakes to the roots of their lower mountains. There, mingled with the taller gentians and the white narcissus, the grass grows deep and free; and as you follow the winding mountain paths, beneath arching boughs all veiled and dim with blossom,paths that for ever droop and rise over the green banks and mounds sweeping down in scented undulation, steep to the blue water, studded here and there with new-mown heaps, filling all the air with fainter sweetness,look up towards the higher hills, where the waves of everlasting green roll silently into their long inlets among the shadows of the pines; and we may, perhaps, at last know the meaning of those quiet words of the147th Psalm, He maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.
There are also several lessons symbolically connected with this subject, which we must not allow to escape us. Observe, the peculiar characters of the grass, which adapt it especially for the service of man, are its apparent humility and cheerfulness.
We discover in the grass an illustration of
I. Christian humility.
It illustrates
1. The usefulness of humble service. Grass seems created only for lowest service,appointed to be trodden on and fed upon. Yet of what great use and value it is! In like manner the lowly services of humble souls are indispensably necessary and unspeakably precious.
2. The beauty of humble service. To a person of pure and refined taste grass is very beautiful. To gaze upon it is in the highest degree restful and grateful to the tired eye. How beautiful is a life of humble service! Our Lord came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. He said, I am among you as He that serveth. He made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, &c.
3. The divine acceptance of humble service. Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water, &c. The Most High has declared His special regard for the humble. (See Pro. 16:19; Pro. 18:12; Pro. 22:4; Pro. 29:23; Isa. 57:15; 1Pe. 5:5.)
Let us cultivate lowly thoughts of ourselves; for
(1.) They are most likely to be true.
(2.) They will promote our usefulness.
(3.) They attract the Divine regard.
II. Christian cheerfulness.
Grass illustrates
1. Cheerfulness in the prosperity of others. When spring comes the grass rejoices with all the earth,glowing with variegated flame of flowers,waving in soft depth of fruitful strength. The Christian rejoices with them that rejoice; he looks not on his own things, but also on the things of others; he is animated by the charity which seeketh not her own.
2. Cheerfulness in the midst of adversity. When winter comes, the grass, though it will not mock its fellow-plants by growing then, it will not pine and mourn, and turn colourless or leafless as they. It is always green, and is only the brighter and gayer for the hoar frost. In like manner the Christian glories in tribulation, &c. (Rom. 5:3-5). He reckons that the sufferings of this present, &c. (Rom. 8:18). Thus the truly pious are cheerful in the midst of adversity.
3. Cheerfulness increased by adversity. Grass seems to exult under all kinds of violence and suffering. You roll it, and it is stronger the next day; you mow it, and it multiplies its shoots, as if it were grateful; you tread upon it, and it only sends up richer perfume. Thus afflictions increase the serenity and cheerfulness and strength of humble souls. The proud are hardened and embittered by them; the humble are enriched and blessed. Their chastening yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness. (Comp. Jas. 1:2-3; 1Pe. 1:6-9.)
Let us learn the lessons which the grass may teach us (Mat. 6:28-30).
Let us cultivate humility of spirit.
PRAISE FROM EXCELLENT SOCIETY AND FOR EXCELLENT REASONS
(Psa. 147:12-20)
We have here another paragraph in this hymn of praise, in which the poet appeals especially to Jerusalem to celebrate the praise of Jehovah; and mentions the special reasons which its inhabitants had for doing so. Here are two main lines of thought
I. Praise from excellent society.
Praise Jehovah, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion. By Jerusalem and Zion the Psalmist means the chosen people of God, the ancient Church. The people of God are under special obligations to praise Him.
1. They have a clearer knowledge of Him than others. They have His revealed mind and will. He manifests Himself unto them as He does not unto the world. He bestows upon them His Holy Spirit for their instruction and sanctification.
2. They have a closer relation to Him than others. Thy God (Psa. 147:12). Jehovah was in covenant relation with Israel. He speaks of them as My people Israel. I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be My people. Say unto Zion, Thou art My people. Christians, in like manner, are now spoken of as the people of God. (See Act. 15:14; Tit. 2:14; Heb. 8:10; 1Pe. 2:9-10.) Into this relationship they were called with a view to the praise of God, as Peter distinctly states (1Pe. 2:9).
3. They receive richer blessings from Him than others. This is a result of their closer relation to Him. It was so in the case of Israel (Lev. 26:1-13). It is so in the case of Christians. They are guided by Him (Rom. 8:14); heirs of Him (Rom. 8:17); interceded for by His Spirit (Rom. 8:26); have all good guaranteed by Him (Rom. 8:32); have communion with Him (1Jn. 1:3); are called and kept by Him unto a glorious inheritance (1Pe. 1:3-6). Therefore they are under special obligation to praise Him.
II. Praise for excellent reasons.
1. For the blessings of His providence. He hath blessed thy children within thee. Three of these blessings are specified by the poet.
(1.) Protection. He hath strengthened the bars of thy gates. The reference is to the restoration of the walls of Jerusalem and the setting up of the gates by Nehemiah (Neh. 7:1-3). God had enabled them to succeed in this, notwithstanding crafty and determined opposition. Gods almighty protection is the true defence of a country; without it all other defences can neither help or endure. God is the guardian of His people and of His Church.
(2.) Peace. He maketh peace in thy borders. The Margin is correct: Who maketh thy border peace. (Comp. Isa. 60:17-18 : I will also make thy officers peace, &c.) If there be trouble anywhere, says Matthew Henry, it is in the borders, the marches of a country; the frontier towns lie most exposed, so that, if there be peace in the borders, there is a universal peace, a mercy we can never be sufficiently thankful for. Peace in the soul, in society, and in the world is the gift of God. The universal supremacy of the spirit and principles of Christ would result in universal peace.
(3.) Plenty. He filleth thee with the finest of the wheat. The literal rendering is, He satisfieth thee with the fat of wheat. (Comp. Psa. 81:16.) God gave them abundance of provisions, and those of the best kind. Here, then, we have reasons for praising God.
2. For His agency in nature. He sendeth forth His commandment upon earth, &c. (Psa. 147:15-18). He is here represented as
(1.) The controller of Nature. All its changes are ordered and effected by Him. And they are effected with ease. He sendeth forth His commandment, and it is at once fulfilled. He spake, and it was done, &c. (Psa. 33:9). They are effected also with rapidity. His word runneth very swiftly. Snow, frost, ice, cold, warmth, wind, all obey Him without reluctance and without delay.
(2.) The proprietor of Nature. It is His ice, His cold, His wind. God is still the sovereign Proprietor of His universe.
(3.) The instructor of man by means of Nature. () His sovereignty over the changes of Nature illustrates His control over the changes of the life of His people. Hengstenberg: In Psa. 147:15-18 there is probably not only an allusion to the omnipotence of God as manifested in Nature not less than in the government of His people, but at the same time an allegorical representation of this government, so that the Psalmist perceived in the operations of God in Nature the image of His administration in Gracein the snow, hoar-frost, and frost, an image of the now no longer existing time of trouble; in the spring (Psa. 147:18) an image of the returning salvation. (Comp. the similar figurative representations in Psalms 107) He regulates the vicissitudes of their life, and causes them to work together for good to them that love God. () His agency in nature shows the futility of opposing Him. Who can stand before His cold? If we cannot stand before the cold of His frosts, how can we stand before the heat of His wrath? () The ready obedience of Nature to Him is both a rebuke and an example to man. The immediate and universal obedience of Nature is a reproach to disobedient man. He alone is rebellious, &c. He may profitably imitate winds and stars, heat and cold, in their prompt fulfilment of the Creators will.
3. For the blessings of His revelation. He showeth His word unto Jacob, &c. (Psa. 147:19-20). Gods works in Nature, says Perowne, are for all men; He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust (Mat. 5:45); but there is a special privilege belonging to His chosen people. They, and they alone in the world, have received the lively oracles of His mouth. (Comp. Rom. 3:1-2.) Delitzsch: The joyful Hallelujah is not sounded because these other nations do not possess such a positive knowledge of Gods judgments, but because Israel does possess it. It is declared abundantly in other places that this knowledge of Israel shall be the means of making salvation the common property of the whole world of nations. And Barnes: There is no nation now so favoured as the nation that has the revealed will of Godthe Bible. The possession of that Book gives a nation a vast superiority in all respects over all others. In laws, customs, morals, intelligence, social life, purity, charity, prosperity, that Book elevates a nation at once, and scatters blessings which can be derived from nothing else. The highest benevolence that could be showed to any nation would be to put it in possession of the Word of God in the language of the people.
Here, then, we have abundant and excellent reasons for uniting in the praise of God. Let us praise Him not only occasionally with our voice, but constantly by the loyal obedience of our life.
WINTER, AND ITS MORAL SUGGESTIONS
(Psa. 147:16-17)
The Psalmist believed in Gods supremacy over Nature. He saw His hand in all its various changes. The more we discover of law and order in Nature the more should we be impressed with the wisdom and power of God; and so we should render to Him a more intelligent worship, and exercise in Him a firmer trust.
The Psalmist also believed in the moral significance of Nature. So also did David: The heavens declare the glory of God, &c. Our great dramatist speaks of finding
Tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.
And the Supreme Teacher read and pointed out the significance of Nature: Consider the lilies of the field, &c.
The seasons of the year are full of instruction. Spring is a manifestation of the beauty and tenderness and love of God; summer, with its light and heat, speaks of His glory; autumn proclaims His bountifulness; and winter indicates the stern aspects of His character. Let us consider some of the suggestions of winter.
I. Winter indicates the severity of God.
It hints that there is wrath as well as love in God. Nor is it alone in its testimony in this respect. Earthquakes, floods, storms, also testify to a terrible power in Nature, and to something answering to it in the God of Nature. (Comp. Rom. 11:22; Rev. 6:16-17.)
II. Winter suggests the retributiveness of the Divine arrangements.
Many of those who during the preceding seasons have been guilty of indolence, intemperance, or extravagance, will find the bitter result now. It is in winter that the defective garment is painfully felt, and the dreary home seems utterly intolerable. Whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him. These retributive laws are at work in the spiritual realm also.
III. Some of the things which are peculiar to this season have special instruction for us.
1. Snow illustrates the wisdom and tastefulness of God. Snow is congealed vapour formed in the air by the vapour being frozen there before it is collected into drops large enough to form hail. In the descent of the vapour to the earth it is frozen, and descends in the numerous variety of crystallised forms in which the flakes appear. Perhaps there is nothing more fitted to excite pleasing conceptions of the wisdom of Godnot even the variety of beauty in flowersthan the various forms of crystals in which snow appears. These crystals present an almost endless variety of forms. Captain Scoresby, who gave much attention to the subject and to other Arctic phenomena, says that, The extreme beauty and the endless variety of the microscopic objects perceived in the animal and vegetable kingdoms are perhaps fully equalled, if not surpassed, in both particulars of beauty and variety, by the crystals of snow. Some of the general varieties in the figures of the crystals may be referred to the temperature of the air; but the particular and endless modification of the same classes of crystals can only be referred to the will and pleasure of the First Great Cause, whose works, even the most minute and evanescent, and in regions the most remote from human observation, are altogether admirable. The Divine wisdom and love of beauty are everywhere manifest.
2. Snow illustrates the power of God. Not the thunder itself speaks Gods power more than the snow. It bears His omnipotence, soft and beautiful as it seems. While it is yet in the air, it is lord of the ocean and the prairies. Ships are blinded by it. It is a white darkness. All harbours are silent under this plashy embargo. The traveller hides. The prairies are given up to its behest, and woe to him that dares to venture against the omnipotence of soft-falling snow upon those trackless wastes! But when flake is joined to flake, and the frosts within the soil join their forces to the frosts descended from the clouds, who shall unlock their clasped hands? Who shall disannul their agreement? or who shall dispossess them of their place? Gathered in the mountains, banked and piled till they touched the very clouds again in which once they were born and rocked, how terrible is their cold, and more terrible their stroke when, slipping, some avalanche comes down the mountain-side, the roar and the snow-stroke loud as thunder and terrible as lightning! God gives to the silent snow a voice, and clothes its innocence and weakness with a power like His own.
3. Snow also illustrates the power of littles. Small, insignificant, and feeble in the extreme is the snow-flake when alone; but when multitudes of them are united and firmly frozen, their power is dreadfulsometimes irresistible and terribly destructive.
IV. Winter is an emblem of old age.
Poets and artists in personifying winter have generally pictured it as an aged man or woman. Spring is an emblem of youth; summer of young manhood; autumn of mature manhood; and then our life passes into the winter of old age. How frequently does old age seem like wintercold, cheerless, barren! But as spring is being prepared in winter, and winter shall pass into spring, so the aged Christian is preparing for eternal youth, and the winter of his age shall pass into the everlasting spring of heaven.
V. Winter is an emblem of the present state of the bodies of the departed.
In winter Nature is not dead; it only seems so. It is full of life and activities; and the result will be manifest in spring. So also with the bodies sown in Gods acre. God shall awake them from their deep wintry slumbers. All that are in the graves shall hear His voice, &c.
VI. Winter is an emblem of the present moral state of the world as it often appears to us.
We see much of evil and suffering, much of darkness and mystery, much of madness and more of sin amongst men. But it will not be so always. God is at work; and out of the darkness He will educe light, &c.
Ye noble few who here unbending stand
Beneath lifes pressure, yet bear up awhile,
And what your bounded view, which only saw
A little part, deemed evil is no more;
The storms of wintry time will quickly pass,
And one unbounded spring encircle all.
Thomson.
THE DIVINE GOODNESS IN NATURE, PROVIDENCE, AND GRACE
(Psa. 147:18)
We owe much to Divine revelation for the more exalted views we entertain of the character, the perfections, and the grace of God. It was the distinction of the Jews that they possessed the lively oracles. Hence the superiority of their faith and worship over those of neighbouring nations.
Men mould their idols in their own shape and image: and the worshipper soon reflects the character of the idols he adores. God condemns this. The controversy between Him and man has been,Thou thoughtest that I was altogether as thyself.
I. We see much of the Divine goodness in the vast economy of Nature and Providence.
He sendeth out His word, and melteth them, &c. God changes the times and seasons
1. In an unexpected moment. When the frost was at its height.
The wintry season was sometimes very severe in Judea and Palestine; usually lasted about six weeks; though sometimes intermingled with casual mitigations. Severe about Jerusalemhaving both hail and snow. But when the sky is agitated by those tempestuous winds called Levanters, the cold is so piercing, the conflict so great of hail, ice, snow, and rain, that many of the poor people and their cattle perish. And it is dreadful to be at the mercy of armed bands at those times. An Oriental describing a defeated army near Ascalon says: In haste they threw away their armour and clothes, but soon sunk under the cold, together with want of food, slippery and rugged roads, which were everywhere furrowed and broken up by torrents, that they were taken captives in the woods and on the mountains, and threw themselves into the hands of their enemies rather than perish. How welcome, then, the sudden and unexpected change in the text! He causeth His wind, &c.
2. By very simple means. The south wind particularly;for then the waters, before still and motionless, flow abundantly. So it is by very slight means that God in His Providence relieves trial and restores peace. (Comp. Psa. 126:1; Psa. 126:4.) A word of advice from a friend may change our plansa letteror an accidental interview with a stranger, &c.
II. We owe much to God in the economy of Grace.
God has His softening dispensations.
1. In the conversion of the sinner it is not all terror, but much mildness. The Lord opened the heart of Lydia. By nature the heart of man is hard and impenetrable, like the earth beneath the frost; cold and stubborn; without any wermth of love to God and Christ and spiritual things. But when God sends His word, accompanied with Divine power, it melts them. When the south wind of His blessed Spirit penetrates the heart, they are convinced of sin and righteousness and judgment.
2. In the edification of believers it is not all terror. They owe much to Barnabas the son of Consolation, as well as to Boanerges the son of Thunder. The strong wind, earthquake, and fire were succeeded by the still small voice. When the Sun of Righteousness arises on them, it is with healing in His wings. Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south to show that every wind may blow kindly to the Christian.
3. In the descent of the Dark Valley it is not all terror. Death comes with gentle step. We tread on velvet. Stephen pleading, ha. (Act. 7:59-60.)
III. We shall owe much to God in a future world.
The curse banished. A more favouring constitution of things. Long nights and darkness dwell below.Samuel Thodey.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Psalms 147
DESCRIPTIVE TITLE
Praise for the Restoration of Jerusalem and for Israels Preeminence: with Grateful Recognition of Rain and of Spring.
ANALYSIS
After the Repetition and Expansion of the Public Readers Invitation (Psa. 147:1), Jehovah is Praised as the Builder, Healer and Restorer of Jerusalem (Psa. 147:2-6); as the Sender of Rain (Psa. 147:7-11), of Security, Peace and Plenty, and of Winter and Spring (Psa. 147:12-18); and as the Author of Israels Pre-eminence (Psa. 147:19-20).
(P.R.I.) Praise ye Yah.
1
Praise ye Yah[879] for it is good,[880]
[879] Prob. a choirs repetition of P.R.I.see Exposition.
[880] Cp. Psa. 92:1.
make melody[881] to our God for it is full of delight:
[881] So Gt. [i.e. imper. pl.] as in Psa. 135:3.
Comely is praise!
2
Builder of Jerusalem is Jehovah,
the outcasts of Israel he gathereth:
3
He who granteth healing to the broken in heart
and a binding up to their wounds:
4
who counteth out a number to the stars,
to all of them names he calleth:
5
Great is our Sovereign Lord and of abounding strength,
and to his understanding there is no calculation.[882]
[882] Or: reckoning, ml. number.
6
Restorer of the humble is Jehovah,
abasing lawless ones down to the ground.
7
Respond ye to Jehovah with a song of thanksgiving,
make melody to our God with the lyre:
8
who covereth the heavens with clouds,
who prepareth for the earth rain;
who causeth mountains to sprout grass;
9
Who giveth to cattle their food,
to young ravens when they call:
10
Not in the heroic strength of the horse doth he delight,
nor in the legs of a man hath he pleasure;
11
Pleased is Jehovah with them who revere him,
with them who wait for his kindness.
12
Laud O Jerusalem Jehovah,
Praise thou thy God O Zion,
13
For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates,
hath blessed thy children within thee:
14
Who placeth as thy boundary peace,
with the marrow of wheat doth satisfy thee.
15
Who sendeth his saying to the earth,
very swiftly runneth his word;
16
Who giveth snow like wool,
hoar frost like ashes he scattereth;
17
Who casteth down his ice[883] like morsels,
[883] As hailstones or as sleetDel.
Before his cold who can stand?
18
He sendeth forth his word and melteth them,
he causeth a blowing of his wind theres a trickling of waters.
19
Who declareth his word to Jacob,
his statutes and his decisions to Israel.
20
He hath not done thus to any nation,
and decisions[884] he maketh not known to them.[885]
[884] Cp. 119, Table.
[885] So it shd. be (w. Sep., Syr., Vul.)Gn.
(Nm.)[886]
[886] See 148 (beginning).
PARAPHRASE
Psalms 147
Hallelujah! Yes, praise the Lord! How good it is to sing His praises! How delightful, and how right!
2 He is rebuilding Jerusalem and bringing back the exiles.
3 He heals the broken-hearted, binding up their wounds.
4 He counts the stars and calls them all by name.
5 How great He is! His power is absolute! His understanding is unlimited.
6 The Lord supports the humble, but brings the wicked into the dust.
7 Sing out your thanks to Him; sing praises to our God, accompanied by harps.
8 He covers the heavens with clouds, sends down the showers and makes the green grass grow in mountain pastures.
9 He feeds the wild animals and the young ravens cry to Him for food.
10 The speed of a horse is nothing to Him. How puny in His sight is the strength of a man.
11 But his joy is in those who reverenced Him; those who expect Him to be loving and kind.
12 Praise Him, O Jerusalem! Praise Your God, O Zion!
13 For He has fortified your gates against all enemies, and blessed your children.
14 He sends peace across your nation, and fills your barns with plenty of the finest wheat.
15 He sends His orders to the world. How swiftly His word flies.
16 He sends the snow in all its lovely whiteness, and scatters the frost upon the ground,
17 And hurls the hail upon the earth. Who can stand before His freezing cold?
18 But then He calls for warmer weather, and the spring winds blow and all the river ice is broken.
19 He has made known His laws and ceremonies of worship to Israel
20 Something He has not done with any other nation; they have not known His commands.
*
*
*
*
*
Hallelujah! Yes, praise the Lord!
EXPOSITION
Notwithstanding its almost certain post-exilic date and its evidently composite character, this is a beautiful and useful psalm. It would seem disingenuous not to admit that in all probability it received its present form and some of its strains in the post-exilic period, and was provided to celebrate the great Restoration under Ezra and Nehemiah. It is almost equally certain that it was constructed, in part, of pre-existing materials: at least, this hypothesis would best account for the incorporation in it of what appear to be two fragmentsone by way of thanksgiving for rain after drought, and the other in grateful recognition of the return of spring after a severe winter: both of which are not likely to have appeared side by side in one and the same original psalm.
The opening lines are unusually suggestive as to the remarkable repetition of the compound wordor rather the phrasehallelujah (properly hallelu Yah) in connection with these late Hallel psalms. Some critics simply treat them as double hallelujah psalms, each one beginning and ending with that word. As soon, however, as we accept Dr. Ginsburgs opinion, as an expert, in favour of treating the word as a phrase, and the phrase as constituting the Public Readers Invitation to join in the responses, we seem to be driven to form some other conclusion as to the reduplicationfor as such it appears in Dr. Ginsburgs Hebrew Bible. In the present instance, the simplest theory would appear to be this: the first hallelujah may be regarded as the original invitation proper, to be said rather than sung by the prelector; and the second as a choirs taking up and repeating of the invitationpassing it on to the people, so to speakat the same time expanding it into a small introductory stanza ending with Comely is Praise. The reason which supports this suggestion is, the unlikelihood that a psalm should begin with the word For (as Del., Per. and Dr. begin this psalm).
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1.
This is one of the latest psalms. At what time was it composed? How composed?
2.
Why does Rotherham spend so much time and space on the use of the word hallelujah?
3.
What shall we say of the present practice of attributing to nature the snow-frost-rain, etc.?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) Psa. 135:3 is plainly before the poet in this verse; and yet, since Psalms 33 is in other respects his model, it is extremely doubtful whether we ought to change the reading, so as to make a complete correspondence between the verses, or suppose that the alteration was intentional, in accordance with praise is comely for the upright in Psa. 33:1. (See Notes on both the passages; comp. also Psa. 92:1.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. The change of one letter, , to , makes it is pleasant become he is pleasant, and some critics have so rendered it.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psalms 147
Psa 147:4 He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.
Psa 147:4
Comments A number of modern English versions translate this to mean that God counts, or numbers all of the stars in heaven. Russell Humphreys explains how this statement implies that the number of stars in the universe is “finite,” meaning there are a limited number of stars. This means that the universe itself is finite. In contrast, Humphreys notes that the next verse tells us that God’s “understanding is infinite.” (Psa 147:5) [130]
[130] Russell Humphreys, Starlight and Time, in Creation Library: Answers in Genesis, prod. Forever Productions of NW, Mark DeSpain [CD-ROM], (answersingenesis.org, Hebron, Kentucky, c2001, 2005).
RSV, “He determines the number of the stars, he gives to all of them their names.”
YLT, “He counteth the number of the stars; He calleth them all by their names.”
Psa 147:4 Comments – We are told in Psa 147:4 that God has given a name to every star in the universe. This is stated again in Isa 40:26.
Isa 40:26, “Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might , for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.”
In the creation of the earth, God named Adam, but He gave him the job of naming all of the animals inhabiting the earth (Gen 2:19-20). This was because everything on the earth had been put under his dominion. In contrast, the heavens remained under God’s domain. Therefore, it was his job to name the heavenly bodies.
One thing that is important to note by this statement is that we have the names of some of these stars as well as constellations recorded in Scriptures. In the books of Job, Amos, and Acts we find the names of the constellations Pleiades, Orion, Arcturus and Castor and Pollux (Job 9:9; Job 38:31-32, Amo 5:8). Although these are Latinized names, the Hebrew text hands down to us a more ancient name for these constellations than the modern English names used today. The book of Job also makes a reference to the twelve constellations of the Zodiac called by the Hebrew name Mazzaroth (Job 38:32).
Job 9:9, “Which maketh Arcturus , Orion , and Pleiades , and the chambers of the south.”
Job 38:31-32, “Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades , or loose the bands of Orion ? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?”
Amo 5:8, “Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion , and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name:”
Act 28:11, “And after three months we departed in a ship of Alexandria, which had wintered in the isle, whose sign was Castor and Pollux .”
The phrase “the crooked serpent” found in Job 26:13 is a possible reference to a number of constellations with which the shape of the serpent is identified.
Job 26:13, “By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent .”
Psa 147:11 The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.
Psa 147:11
Num 14:8, “ If the LORD delight in us , then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.”
Deu 28:63, “And it shall come to pass, that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good , and to multiply you; so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.”
Deu 30:9, “And the LORD thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good: for the LORD will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers:”
2Sa 22:20, “He brought me forth also into a large place: he delivered me, because he delighted in me .”
1Ch 29:17 ” “I know also, my God, that thou triest the heart, and hast pleasure in uprightness . As for me, in the uprightness of mine heart I have willingly offered all these things: and now have I seen with joy thy people, which are present here, to offer willingly unto thee.”
Psa 149:4, “For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people : he will beautify the meek with salvation.”
Pro 11:20, “They that are of a froward heart are abomination to the LORD: but such as are upright in their way are his delight .”
Pro 15:8, “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright is his delight .”
1Ki 10:9, “Blessed be the LORD thy God, which delighted in thee , to set thee on the throne of Israel: because the LORD loved Israel for ever, therefore made he thee king, to do judgment and justice.”
Isa 62:5, “For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee .”
Isa 65:19, “And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people : and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.”
Jer 32:41, “Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good , and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.”
Luk 15:23-24, “And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry : For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry .”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Hallelujah to the God of Zion.
v. 1. Praise ye the Lord, v. 2. The Lord doth build up Jerusalem; v. 3. He healeth the broken in heart, v. 4. He telleth the number of the stars; He calleth them all by their names, v. 5. Great is our Lord and of great power, v. 6. The Lord lifteth up the meek, v. 7. Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving, v. 8. who covereth the heaven with clouds, v. 9. He giveth, v. 10. He delighteth not in the strength of the horse, v. 11. The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, v. 12. Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion, v. 13. For He hath strengthened the bars of thy gates, v. 14. He maketh peace in thy borders, v. 15. He sendeth forth His commandment upon earth, v. 16. He giveth snow like wool, v. 17. He casteth forth His ice like morsels, v. 18. He sendeth out His word, v. 19. He showeth His Word unto Jacob, v. 20. He hath not dealt so with any nation,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
This psalm is generally assigned to the time of the dedication of the city wall (Neh 12:27-43), when the gate-towers had been set up, and the gates and bars put in their places (see Psa 147:13; and comp. Neh 7:1-3). It is, more manifestly than any of the others, a Return joy-song (Psa 147:2, Psa 147:12-14). Its delicate appreciation of the grandeur and beauty of nature, and of God’s closeness to nature (Psa 147:4, Psa 147:8, Psa 147:9, Psa 147:14, Psa 147:16-18), is almost peculiar to it. Metrically, it seems to divide into three stanzas or strophesone of six (Psa 147:1-6), one of five (Psa 147:7-11), and one of nine verses (Psa 147:12-20).
Psa 147:1
Praise ye the Lord: for it is good to sing praises unto our God (comp. Psa 92:1). For it is pleasant (see Psa 135:3). And praise is comely; rather, becoming, or seemlysuitable, that is, to such a Being as we know God to be.
Psa 147:2
The Lord doth build up Jerusalem. The rebuilding of Jerusalem after the return from the Babylonish captivity covered a space of above ninety years, from B.C. 538 till B.C. 445. First the temple was built; then the city; finally, the walls and the gates. It was in connection with this last portion of the building that the present psalm seems to have been written. He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. The exiles returned graduallysome with Zerubbabel; some with Ezra, in B.C. 457; others, doubtless, with Nehemiah, in B.C. 445; and again in B.C. 434.
Psa 147:3
He healeth the broken in heart (comp. Psa 51:17; Isa 57:15). Israel in exile was broken-hearted, wretched, miserable (see Psa 137:1-4; Isa 64:6-12). Their restoration to their own land “healed” them. And bindeth up their wounds (comp. Isa 61:1, “He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted”).
Psa 147:4
He telleth the number of the stars. Nothing escapes God’s knowledge. He knew the number of the exiles, and the place and name of each, just as he knows the number of the stars and their names (comp. Isa 40:26). He calleth them all by their names (see Job 9:9; Isaiah l.s.c.).
Psa 147:5
Great is our Lord, and of great power; or, “mighty in strength” (comp. Nah 1:3). His understanding is infinite. He is at once omnipotent and omniscient.
Psa 147:6
The Lord lifteth up the meek (comp. Psa 145:14; Psa 146:8). He casteth the wicked down to the ground (comp. Psa 146:9, and the comment ad loc.).
Psa 147:7
Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving. God is not only to be praised for his greatness (Psa 147:5), but also to be thanked for his loving-kindness (Psa 147:2, Psa 147:3, Psa 147:8, Psa 147:9). Sing praise upon the harp unto our God. The glad sound of the harp should accompany his praises.
Psa 147:8
Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth. In the parched and sultry East “clouds” and “rain” are a boon that we of the temperate West can scarcely appreciate. The cruel heat of the solar rays in a clear sky for weeks or months together causes a longing of the intensest kind for shade and moisture. Man and beast alike rejoice when the time of the autumn rains draws near, and the cloudless blue of the summer heaven gives place (of a sky that is gray and overcast (comp. Job 38:25-41; Psa 104:13). Who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains. The “mountains,” and even the plains of Palestine, are, with rare exceptions, completely burnt up at the close of summer, and show no verdure, but merely an arid sapless, brown or buff vegetation. When the” former rain” begins, a great change begins. Tender green blades of grass at once sprout up, and in a little time the whole country shows a tinge of verdure.
Psa 147:9
He giveth to the beast his food (comp. Psa 104:27; Psa 145:15, Psa 145:16). The constant supplies of their own proper food to all classes of animals are among the principal proofs of God’s power anti goodness. And to the young ravens which cry. Even the unclean raven, with his harsh croak and inelegant form, is not neglected (comp. Luk 12:24, “God feedeth them”).
Psa 147:10
He delighteth not in the strength of the horse. In a certain sense, God no doubt “delights” in the glory and excellency of all his creatures; but their physical endowments do not give him the sensible pleasure which he derives from the moral qualities of his rational creation (see Psa 147:11). The negation is not absolute, but relative (compare “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice”). He taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man; i.e. in his strength and swiftness.
Psa 147:11
The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him (comp. Psa 149:4). The “fear” intended is, of course, that which includes trust and love (see the next clause). In those that hope in his mercy; or, “that wait for his loving-kindness.”
Psa 147:12
Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem. The other exhortations to praise in the psalm are general (Psa 147:1, Psa 147:7); now a special call is made on Jerusalem to give him praise, since Jerusalem has lately experienced special mercies (Psa 147:13, Psa 147:14). Praise thy God, O Zion (comp. Psa 146:10).
Psa 147:13
For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates. The strength of gates in the ancient world depended wholly upon their bars, which were generally strong beams of wood passed across from side to side of the gateway, about midway up the gate, having their ends inserted into strong iron hooks or clamps, which were let into the stonework of the walls. The “bars” of the gates of Jerusalem are mentioned in Nehemiah repeatedly (Psa 3:3, Psa 3:6, 13, 14, 15; Psa 7:3). He hath blessed thy children within thee. Under Nehemiah’s govern-meet, when he had firmly established it, Israel enjoyed a period of repose and of great prosperity, which, at the date of the psalm, was probably just commencing.
Psa 147:14
He maketh peace in thy borders. The completion of the walls and gates of Jerusalem brought to an end the troubles caused by Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem, and established general peace and tranquility in Israel. And filleth thee with the finest of the wheat; literally, with the fat of wheat; i.e. wheat in abundance and of good quality. The prosperity of Nehemiah’s time appears in Neh 10:28-39; Neh 12:44-47; Neh 13:12-15.
Psa 147:15
He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth. Heavy crops, good harvests, abundant food, result from God’s providential ordering of his world, to which he gives commands that are obeyed instantly, since his word runneth very swiftly.
Psa 147:16
He giveth snow like wool. The loveliness of new-fallen snow has evidently been felt by the psalmist, to whom it has seemed like a spotless robe of whitest wool spread upon the earth. Snow, though rare in Palestine, does occasionally fall, and is said to “cover the streets of Jerusalem two winters out of three. It generally comes in small quantities; but there are sometimes very snowy winters.” In 1879, for instance, snow lay in Jerusalem to a depth of seventeen inches. He scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes. The metaphor is less appropriate, and was selected, probably, on account of the near resemblance of the two words, kephor and kaepher.
Psa 147:17
He casteth forth his ice like morsels; or, “like crumbs;” i.e. in profusion, as men feed birds. The “ice” intended would seem to be that of hailstones. Who can stand before his cold? Though the thermometer rarely shows more than six or seven degrees of frost in Palestine, yet the Oriental is as much chilled by such a temperature as the Englishman by one twenty degrees lower. He shivers in his light attire, and is very reluctant to leave the shelter of his house or tent.
Psa 147:18
He sendeth out his word, and melteth them (comp. Psa 147:15). God has only to “speak the word,” and all trace of winter disappearshoar-frost, hail, snow, melt away, and the atmosphere is once more soft and genial. He causeth his wind to blow. The change usually comes With a change of wind, which, as with ourselves, is commonly cold from the north and east, warm from the west and south. And the waters flow. A thaw sets in, and soon all the watercourses are full of rushing streams.
Psa 147:19
He showeth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. Beyond and above all the physical blessings which God bestows on man are the gifts of spiritual enlightenment dud direction. These also Israel may count on receiving from him, who has already given them a written revelation”statutes dud judgments”while he also enlightens and directs them from time to time by his prophets.
Psa 147:20
He hath not dealt so with any nation. Though the Word of God, to a certain extent, “lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (Joh 1:9), yet this light of nature is not to be compared to the revelation vouchsafed to Israel. Israel was God’s “peculiar people,” and had peculiar privileges, which involved special responsibilities. And as for his judgments, they (i.e. the nations) have not known them (comp. Amo 3:2, “You only have I known out of all the families of the earth: therefore will I visit upon you all your iniquities”). Praise ye the Lord (comp. Psa 147:1).
HOMILETICS
Psa 147:1-11
Foundation-truths.
We are summoned by the psalmist to praise God; we are told that praise is “pleasant” and “comely” (Psa 147:1); it is an act which is congenial and fitting, because the God we worship is one who is worthy of all the homage we can pay him; he is “greatly to be praised” (Psa 145:3). The grounds on which we are invited to bless God are very familiar, but they are very sound and strong; we can never dwell too much upon them.
I. HIS INFINITUDE IN UNDERSTANDING. (Psa 147:5.) “There is no searching of his understanding” (Isa 40:28; see Rom 11:33-36). When we consider what must be the understanding of him who created and who sustains this marvelous framework of nature, who guides and upholds all things throughout the vast universe, every smallest thing as well as the greatest being subject to him and dependent upon him, we get some faint idea of the absolute boundlessness of the Divine wisdom.
II. HIS ALMIGHTINESS. “Of great power” (verse5).
III. HIS BENEFICENCE. (Psa 147:8, Psa 147:9.) It would be a terrible thing, indeed, for all created beings if almighty power were under the control of malevolence, or even of selfishness. We see what happens when exceptional human power is directed by unscrupulousness; we see what suffering, what desolation, is the result. We are so familiar with the thought of God’s goodness that we are not much affected by it; but we ought to be profoundly stirred by the truth that omnipotence, exercised every where in God’s vast domain, through every sphere, is put forth to feed, to clothe, to shelter, to help, to relieve, to brighten, to bless.
IV. HIS CONDESCENSION. (Psa 147:4.) God “humbles himself to behold” every particular star that shines in the heavens, every single event that happens on the earth, every individual human soul that thinks, that feels, that struggles, that endures. Christ “calleth his own sheep by name” (Joh 10:3). He not only cares generally for his flock, but particularly for each member of it.
V. His RIGHTEOUSNESS. (Psa 147:6.) Those who are content to accept his ruling, and to take cheerfully the humblest sphere he has assigned them, he “lifts up;” to them he gives honor, satisfaction, joy, life. The meek are made to “inherit the land” (Mat 5:5), to spend peaceful, happy, useful days. But the wicked that exalt themselves unjustly and unscrupulously, he casteth to the ground.” God makes pride, violence, vice, to lead downwards, and to end in shame.
VI. HIS TENDERSESS. (Psa 147:3.) When our spirit is very sorely wounded, when our heart bleeds after some specially hard blow, then we shrink from the rough handling of conventional condolence; we fee] that we cannot bear the touch of any hand but the gentlest of all. There is often the truest kindness in silent sympathy, for speech would be hurtful, and make the wound bleed again. Only Christ can help us then. He can render us the ministry we needcan heal the broken heart, and bind up its wounds. There are deep places through which, now and again, we have to pass, of which it has been truly said, “That is a mighty baptism, and only Christ can go down with us into those waters.” But he can, and he does. His Divine tenderness” soothes our sorrows, and heals our wounds.”
VII. HIS GOOD PLEASURE. (Psa 147:10, Psa 147:11.) God’s regard is not given to any of those outward and visible things, in beholding which we take pleasure, and on which we rely for safety; his regard is granted to the human spirit that is reverently turned to him in lowly worship, to the heart that is trusting in his promised mercy. The Divine Savior is not approving the Church that is boasting of its wealth, or its numbers, or the compactness of its organization; he is well pleased with the little company of souls that are realizing his presence, having true fellowship with him, sharing his suffering and sacrifice, leaning on his Word.
VIII. HIS SALVATION AND RESTORATION. (Psa 147:2.) He who brought back the exiles from Babylon, redeeming them from servitude and dishonor, and who “built up” Jerusalem, is the God who now brings home to himself those that have been afar off; and is he who now builds up his Church in the face of its enemies.
Psa 147:12-20
National well-being.
Piety and patriotism, that go so well together and were so intimately bound together in the mind of the Jews, are here very closely associated. We, too, are convinced that the future of our country will be determined by its faithfulness or unfaithfulness to the Lord whom it professes to serve. There are four features of national well-being here.
I. SECURITY. (Psa 147:13.) “He hath strengthened the bars of thy gates.” Jerusalem was surrounded by its protecting walls (Neh 2:12), and its citizens could work in safety and rest in peace. In our island home, which has known no shadow of fear of invasion for eighty years, we cannot realize how great a blessing is freedom from that great national evil, or from the dread of it. The thought hardly enters into our minds. But we have, if we would think about it, all the more occasion for gratitude that we abide in such continuous safety and security; we have “peace in our borders.”
II. PROSPERITY. (Psa 147:14-18.) The wealth of a country depends very largely on the industry, the frugality, and the forethought of its people. If they do not carefully, systematically, and scientifically cultivate its fields, spare and plant its trees, penetrate its mines and its waters, save their resources for renewed fertilization and for enterprise of various kinds, the country will, in these times of competition more especially, certainly decline. But its prosperity also depends on the bounties of Divine providence: on the fall of rain and snow; on the regular return of the seasons in their order; on the cold winds of winter, and the warm airs of summer; on the pulverizing frosts and the ripening sunshine. It is the bountiful hand of Heaven that gives the rich harvest, and fills the garners with the “finest of the wheat.”
III. HOMES AND HOME–LIFE. “He hath blessed thy children within thee” (Psa 147:13). No product of field or mine can be compared with that of the homes of the people. Happy is the nation that dwells in homes of purity, peace, love, piety!
IV. RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGE. (Psa 147:19, Psa 147:20.) The distinguishing blessing of Israel was its knowledge of the true God, and its consequent training in all personal, domestic, and social virtues. The people of Israel were acquainted with the “word,” and therefore with the will of God, and their life was, to some large extent in their better days, ordered according to his “statutes” and “judgments.” In their worship, in their pursuits, and in their homes, they rejoiced before the Lord, and they walked in his ways. This is the crowning blessing. Perhaps we may think that we in this country may adopt the language of the psalmist, and apply it to ourselves: “he hath not dealt so with any nation.” That might be the exaggeration of a complacent patriotism, but would it not rather be the right feeling of a grateful piety? With all our sacred edifices, our Christian ministry, our evangelizing and philanthropic institutions (healing, preserving, remedial), our educational advantages, our preservation of the seventh day as a day of rest and worship, have we not received, and do we not retain, a measure of privilege which calls for intense gratitude, which also lays us under very serious obligation? For, from those to whom much is given much will be required; “exalted to heaven” in privilege, let us see that we are not “cast down to hell” in condemnation for not availing ourselves of it, and “knowing the day of our visitation,”
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY
Psa 147:1
In praise of praise.
This psalm carries on and gloriously sustains the great Hallel of adoring gratitude and glad thanksgiving with which the Book of Psalms ends. This first verse contains a threefold laudation of the Lord’s praise.
I. BECAUSE “IT IS GOOD.” And this is most true.
1. In reference to God. For it ministers pleasure to him. Do not the experiences of many a parental heart bear witness to this truth? Are not we delighted with the loving utterances of our children, by which they testify their heart’s affection towards us? It may be but the prattle of childish lips, or the lispings of such as are hardly more than babes, but it is delightful all the same; and our children’s affection, when it has become older and more thoughtful,what would our homes be without it? And right sure are we that our poor praise delights the Lord to whom it is rendered; he recognizes in it that response to his own love, for which all love, and emphatically his, cannot but crave. And it is good in his sight, further, because it wins him glory from men.
II. BECAUSE “IT IS PLEASANT.”
III. BECAUSE “IT IS COMELY.”S.C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
Psa 147:1
The pleasantness of praise.
When the poet Carpani inquired of his friend Haydn how it happened that his church music was always so cheerful, the great composer made the following reply: “I cannot make it otherwise; I write according to the thought I feel. When I think upon God, my heart is so full of joy that the notes dance and leap, as it were, from my pen, and since God has given me a cheerful heart, it will be pardoned me that I praise him with a cheerful spirit.” Religious life and relations are often wrongly toned through the influence of the strange sentiment that what is acceptable to God must be a strain and trial to us. This strange sentiment rests on the mistaken idea that matter itself is evil, and, as man is material, his work is, at every cost, to master and crush the material element. This is at the root of Hinduism and Buddhism; it inspires the hermit; it fills nunneries and monasteries; and it explains the bodily austerities of good men, such as Henry Martyn, who walked about with pebbles in his shoes, as if to make himself miserable and so make himself acceptable to God. This notion is far more widespread, and far more mischievous, than is usually recognized. Constantly we find good people suspecting themselves of insincerity, or quite sure that something dreadful is going to happen, if they find themselves happy, and really enjoying their religious duties and exercises.
I. TO FEEL THE PLEASANTNESS OF PRAISE IS A SIGN OF CHERISHING RIGHT THOUGHTS OF GOD. What he recognizes is the good of his creatures, and that includes their happiness. And this characteristic of God is in no way affected by the fact that man has sinned. God is still anxious for his happiness, and helps him out of the bondage of sin that he may be happy. Long faces, miserable tones, depressing anticipations, and exaggerated and constant wailings about sin, do not honor or please God. He wants even his sinful children to find and feel the pleasantness of the praise they offer to him. It is comely to enjoy our religion.
II. TO FEEL THE PLEASANTNESS OF PRAISE IS A SIGN OF CHERISHING RIGHT THOUGHTS CONCERNING OURSELVES. There are times when a man ought to cherish a due sense of his sinfulness and sin, but to he always wailing over it nourishes formality and insincerity. A man is a sinner, but he is a child of God nevertheless, and does well to remember his sonship oftener than his sin.R.T.
Psa 147:3
God’s help for the suffering ones.
“It takes a brave soul to bear all this so grandly,” said a tender-hearted doctor, stooping over his suffering patient. She lifted her heavy eyelids, and, looking into the doctor’s face, replied, “It is not the brave soul at all; God does it all for me.” “He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.” The second clause of this sentence may but repeat the first with a slight variety, according to the Hebrew fashion of composition which we have had several times to observe. But we may meditatively recognize a distinction between the clauses, referring the first to the heart-sphere, and the second to the bodily.
I. MAN‘S SUFFERINGS BELONG TO TWO SPHERES. Answering to man as a dual being. He’s a spirit. He has a body. So he has the possibility of suffering in the spirit that he is and in the body that he has. Bodily wounds bring before us the whole sphere of sufferings which relate to the bodily organization and relations. It may be true that bodily pain directly affects the spirit, but it is equally true, if more subtle, that pain in the spirit affects the body. Still we can keep the two separate in thought. What an accumulation and variety of pains and woes can affect the human body! How tempted we are to think that these are the supreme woes! They are not. The broken heart is the woe of woes. The distresses of the spirit are the supreme distresses. Afflict a man’s body, and body-sphere, even as Job was afflicted, the man does not know what suffering is until he suffers in his soul. This is impressively seen on Calvary, where was the very height of bodily woe. There we see the transcendent woe of the suffering soul.
II. GOD‘S HELP BELONGS TO THE TWO SPHERES, “Who forgiveth all our iniquities, and healeth all our diseases;” “He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.” This is no less true, because for his healings in the bodily sphere God uses agencies that we can recognize. He uses agencies also for his healings in the spirit-sphere, though they often are such as we cannot recognize. Even when we are willing to pray to God for the healing of our bodily pains, we are mournfully unwillingor it may be we do not think it rightto seek God’s help in our suffering mental and spiritual states. God for our woes of feeling we all but very imperfectly realize.R.T.
Psa 147:6
The Lord’s ways with the meek.
This term often means “the afflicted.” This word “meek” has several distinct meanings as used in the Word of God, but its root-idea seems to be “lowly feeling about ourselves.” This associates with both “humility” and “disinterestedness.” Sometimes the bad side of the word comes into view, and it expresses the feeling of the crushed man, who has become heartless, spiritless, who is broken down, who has wholly lost his energy; who, like David in his time of distress, wails out his faithless fear, “I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul!” There is something of that heartlessness and hopelessness indicated in this text.
I. THE LORD IS NOT ALTOGETHER INDIFFERENT TO THEM. He might be. They must be to him somewhat as the wayside beggar is to us. How often we pass him by with utter indifference! and when we have any feeling at all, it is only a revulsion from the miserable object. Yet when we think of it, that state of mind distresses us. We cannot be really good; for if we were, no form of humiliation or distress would fail to touch us with the tenderest pity. God cannot be indifferent to the meek.
II. THE LORD DOES NOT PITY THEM, AND STAND ASIDE. As the priest and Levite did when they came and looked on the stripped and wounded sufferer. Too often man pities, and does nothing; comforting himself with the thought that he pitied, and so was evidently tender and sensitive in feeling. Situations presented in novels excite our pity, but they do us no moral good, because we have no chance of putting our pity into helpful action. We could have no heart-rest in God, if all we could be sure about him was that he pitied us.
III. THE LORD GRACIOUSLY HELPS THOSE WHOM HE PITIES. As did the good Samaritan, spending himself to relieve the man whose distress awakened his pitiful feeling. The help God gives is put into a word which precisely matches the word “meek.” He upholdeth. The crushed, humbled, heartless man is in danger of falling and fainting. He can hardly hold himself up. So precisely what he needs is steadying, upholding, everlasting arms put about him until he can feel his feet, recover his strength, find life flow freely again, and smile into God’s watching face the smile of recovered hope.R.T.
Psa 147:8
God’s care of the mountain grasses.
The following extract from Hugh Macmillan’s ‘Bible Teaching in Nature’ suggests both sermon-topic and illustration, and the peculiarities noticed are fresh and unfamiliar: “The mountain grasses grow spontaneously; they require no culture but such as the rain and the sunshine of heaven supply. They obtain their nourishment directly from the inorganic soil, and are independent of organic materials. Nowhere is the grass so green and vigorous as on the beautiful slopes of lawn-like pasture high up on the Alps, radiant with the glory of wild flowers, and ever musical with the hum of grasshoppers, and the tinkling of cattle-bells. Innumerable cows and goats browse upon them; the peasants spend the summer months in making cheese and hay from them for winter consumption in the valleys. This exhausting system of husbandry has been carried on during untold centuries; no one thinks of manuring the Alpine pastures; and yet no deficiency has been observed in their fertility, though the soil is but a thin covering spread over the naked rocks. It may be regarded as a part of the same wise and gracious arrangement of Providence that the insects which devour the grasses on the Kuh and Sehaf A1pen, the pasturages of the cows and sheep, are kept in check by a predominance of carnivorous insects. In all the mountain meadows, it has been ascertained that the species of carnivorous are at least four times as numerous as the species of herb-eating insects. Thus, in the absence of birds, which are rare in Switzerland, the pastures are preserved from a terrible scourge. To one not aware of this check, it may seem surprising how the verdure of the Alpine pastures should be so rich and luxuriant, considering the immense development of insect-life. The grass, whenever the sun shines, is literally swarming with thembutterflies of gayest hues, and beetles of brightest iridescence; and the air is filled with their loud murmurs. I remember well the vivid feeling of God’s gracious providence which possessed me when passing over the Wengern Alp, at the foot of the Jung Frau, and seeing, wherever I rested on the green turf, the balance of nature so wonderfully preserved between the herb which is for man’s food, and the moth before which he is crushed. Were the herbivorous insects allowed to multiply to their full extent, in such favorable circumstances as the warmth of the air and the verdure of the earth in Switzerland produce, the rich pastures which now yield abundant food for upwards of a million and a half of cattle would speedily become bare and leafless deserts. Not only in their power of growing without cultivation, but also in the peculiarities of their structure, the mountain grasses proclaim the hand of God. Many of them are viviparous. Instead of producing flowers and seeds, as the grasses in the tranquil valleys do, the young plants spring from them perfectly formed. They cling round the stem, and form a kind of blossom. In this state they remain until the parent stalk withers and falls prostrate on the ground, when they immediately strike root and form independent grasses. This is a remarkable adaptation to circumstances; for it is manifest that were seeds, instead of living plants, developed in the ears of the mountain grasses, they would be useless in the stormy region where they grow. They would be blown away, far from the places they were intended to clothe, to spots foreign to their nature and habits, and thus the species would speedily perish.” Ruskin says, “Look up to the higher hills, where the waves of green roll silently into long inlets among the shadows of the pines, and we may perhaps know the meaning of those quiet words of Psa 147:8.”R.T.
Psa 147:16, Psa 147:17
The lessons of the winter.
“What can be lovelier than the glittering jewels with which the hoar-frost bedizens every leaf and spray of the woodland? Or the translucent azure of the glacier crevasses with their long pendants of lustrous ice? There are beautiful things in winter as well as in summer; and we need the cold, unearthly splendors of the one as much as the glowing, living charms of the other to educate our sense of God’s greatness in his works. But beauty is everywhere in nature the flower of utility; and in the realms of frost this quality is most strikingly displayed” (Hugh Macmillan). There is a short, but sharp winter-time in the Holy Land, extending from the middle of December to the middle of February. There are severe winds from the north and north-east, with heavy rains and frosts. Kings often had “winter houses.” Even the seasons God has made to fit in with man’s highest needs. Winter is the stillness and re-rooting of the year. It is as truly a busy time as any other time of the year, but the activities go on in secret, underground. So in man’s religious life. He needs re-rooting times. Seasons when activity must give place to culture, in preparation for further and higher activities. Times of stillness, sickness, trouble, are the great winter-times for soul-rooting. The actual winter-time is a time of great opportunities for our religious life.
1. It may be a time of personal soul-culture.
2. It may be a time of intellectual nourishment.
3. It may be a time of social intercourse.
4. It may be a time of Christian work.
It is the Church’s best time for work. When telling what the Lord Jesus did in Solomon’s porch, John says, “It was winter.” lie did not suffer himself to be unduly affected by outward conditions, or hindered in his work by them. In winter he was still “about his Father’s business.” He mastered the cold to carry out good plans. Winter is, for us, full of temptations to self-indulgence. Are we mastering the temptations, and winning our winters for God?R.T.
Psa 147:16
The mission of the frost and the snow.
“He wraps the earth in snow as in a warm white woolen garment, and scatters the frost so that the trees, etc; appear as if powdered with (wood) ashes blown about by the wind.” The rain, the frost, and the snow are all forms of moisture. Winter is God’s time for putting things to rights. Three things especially want renewing and replenishingthe earth, the air, the water, and to do this replenishing is the mission of the frost, the snow, and the rain. But everything that God does is beautiful as well as useful; and so we find the hoar-frost makes an exquisite silvery world; the snow hangs in festoons of wonderful glistening whiteness; and the rain makes the lovely cascades leap from crag to crag down the hillsides. We think now chiefly of their usefulness. The frost breaks up the ground, checks the too abundant growth of insect-life, and keeps the air cool to check vegetation, and make the sap in the trees wait for its due time. The snow penetrates the soil, and nourishes it both with warmth and moisture; and it carries to the ground some of the chemical elements it needs to fit it for its new year’s work. And the rain refills the secret springs whence our fresh water comes, and washes down from the hillsides new soil with which to fertilize the valleys. God does grandly in his winter-time what we see the farmer doing in his little wayploughing, manuring, hedging, ditching, road-repairing, etc.; getting ready for summer’s life and growth. And the frost and the snow may carry this as their message to our hearts concerning God’s dealings with us. “We have apparently very severe and hard things to do for God; but we try to do them cheerfully, and we try to do them well, and, after all, they are really very kind things, only the gracious severities of the infinite love.R.T.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT
Psa 147:1-6
Jehovah the infinitely Mighty and Omniscient One, in the creation and in the human world, worthy, therefore, of all praise and worship.
“Celebrates God’s almighty and gracious rule over his people, and over the world of nature, but mingles with this a special commemoration of his goodness in bringing back his people from their captivity, and rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.”
I. GOD IS ALMIGHTY IN THE WORK OF THE MATERIAL UNIVERSE.
1. He created the heavenly worlds. (Isa 40:26.)
2. He has a perfect knowledge of them. (Psa 147:4.) He knows all the innumerable multitude: “telleth the number of the stars.” And knows each one of them in particular: “and calleth them all by their names.” “Not one faileth.” God is great in power, and great in knowledge; “there is no searching of his understanding.” The inference from all this is only suggested, not stated.
II. GOD IS ALL–GOOD AS WELL AS ALMIGHTY AND OMNISCIENT. (Psa 147:2, Psa 147:3, Psa 147:6.) He must know and be able to succor human woe to whom it is an easy thing to create and count and guide the stars.
1. He can recover from slavery and restore to freedom. (Psa 147:2.) Those who have been taken captive, and dispersed abroad. Slaves are those fit for slavery.
2. He can restore men from the depths of suffering and despair. (Psa 147:3.) The broken in heart, and most deeply wounded.
3. God‘s justice is perfect in its retributive work. (Psa 147:6.) He exalts the righteous above their afflictions, and casts down the prosperous wicked.S.
Psa 147:7-11
God worthy of praise.
“A fresh burst of praise because of God’s Fatherly care, as shown in his provision for the wants of the cattle and the fowls of the air. And as he feeds the ravens, which have neither storehouse nor barn, but only cry to him for their food, so amongst men his delight is not in those who trust in their own strength and swiftness, but in those who look to him, and put their trust in his goodness.” God is to be praised
I. BECAUSE HE PROVIDES FOR THE FERTILITY OF THE MATERIAL WORLD. Clouds temper the heat of the sun as well as pour forth rain to fertilize the earth, and make it productive of food for man and beast. The chain of connection between God and man bountifully set forth in Hos 2:21, Hos 2:22, “I will hear the heavens,” etc.
II. BECAUSE OF HIS BOUNTY TOWARDS ALL ORDERS OF THE ANIMAL CREATION. Grass upon the mountains where the herds and flocks feed, and which the plough and labors of man cannot reach. God is the Shepherd of all inferior as well as superior life. The young ravens, which are forsaken and cast off by their mothers very early, unconsciously cry to him for food, and are fed. The great and the small equally provided for by his bountiful, universal care.
III. THOUGH GOD IS THE SOURCE OF ALL STRENGTH, HE HAS ONLY AN INFERIOR PLEASURE IN PHYSICAL STRENGTH. (Hos 2:10.) “The strength of the hills is his also;” “Strong in power; not one faileth.” He must delight in power of all kinds, intellectual and moral, as we do. But neither for himself nor for man is mere strength his chief delight.
IV. GOD‘S GLORY IS IN DISPENSING HELP TO THOSE WHO TRUST AND HOPE IN HIM. His delight is in goodness. Gives confidence and courage to those who fear him. Gives strength and riches to those who hope for his loving-kindness. Gives to them his mercy.S.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Psalms 147.
The prophet exhorteth to praise God for his care of the church, his power, and his mercy: for his providence: for his blessings upon the kingdom, for his power over the seasons, and for his ordinances in the church.
THIS psalm is supposed to have respect to the return of the Jewish nation from the Babylonish captivity, and the instauration of Jerusalem which followed upon it. It has been very probably conjectured that Nehemiah wrote it; and by the 2nd, 3rd, and 13th verses it seems to have been composed just after the restoration upon the rebuilding of Jerusalem; and at such a time especially praise must look becoming.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psalms 147
1Praise ye the Lord:
For it is good to sing praises unto our God;
For it is pleasant; And praise is comely.
2The Lord doth build up Jerusalem:
He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.
3He healeth the broken in heart,
And bindeth up their wounds.
4He telleth the number of the stars;
He calleth them all by their names.
5Great is our Lord, and of great power:
His understanding is infinite.
6The Lord lifteth up the meek:
He casteth the wicked down to the ground.
7Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving;
Sing praise upon the harp unto our God;
8Who covereth the heaven with clouds
Who prepareth rain for the earth,
Who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.
9He giveth to the beast his food,
And to the young ravens which cry.
10He delighteth not in the strength of the horse:
He taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man.
11The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him,
In those that hope in his mercy.
12Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem.
Praise thy God, O Zion.
13For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates;
He hath blessed thy children within thee.
14He maketh peace in thy borders,
And filleth thee with the finest of the wheat.
15He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth:
His word runneth very swiftly.
16He giveth snow like wool:
He scattereth the hoar frost like ashes.
17He casteth forth his ice like morsels:
Who can stand before his cold?
18He sendeth out his word, and melteth them:
He causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow.
19He sheweth his word unto Jacob,
His statutes and his judgments unto Israel.
20He hath not dealt so with any nation:
And as for his judgments, they have not known them.
Praise ye the Lord.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Contents and Composition.The Psalm consists of three sections without any regular rhythmical structure: Psa 147:1-6; Psalms 7-11; Psalms 12-20, each of which begins with an exhortation to praise Jehovah. The ground and matter of such praise is the gracious exercise of His power, and is so exhibited here to the Church. The poet introduces the subject by telling of the restoration of Jerusalem, and the gathering of Israel, and then describes the helpful acts of the Almighty as those of an infinitely wise God, who sets even the stars in order, and as those of a physician who heals and comforts mankind in its countless wounds. He then recounts proofs of His care over all creatures, in connection with the reflection that God takes pleasure, not in natural strength and beauty, but in those that fear Him and seek His salvation. Finally, he extols the aid which the Almighty has rendered to His people, who are advanced above all nations by the revelation of His law, by blessing the inhabitants of the newly strengthened city, and of the country whose boundaries are secured, and blessing the land itself by regulating the seasons of the year and the weather.
There is nothing to prove the supposition that the restoration of the walls by Hyrcanus is referred to (1Ma 16:23), and that Psa 147:12 ff. are a later addition (Hitz.). The same remark applies to the division into two Psalms (Sept.) and to the opinion that this Psalm was sung at the Dedication (Nehemiah 12) of the walls completed by Nehemiah (Neh 6:15), a view maintained by Hengstenberg. It is enough to know that it was of late composition. [On the other hand Perowne: It is not improbable, as Hengstenberg suggests, that not this Psalm only, but the rest of the Psalms, to the end of the Book, are all anthems originally composed for this occasion. The wall had been built under circumstances of no ordinary difficulty and discouragement (Neh 2:17 to Neh 4:23); its completion was celebrated with no common joy and thankfulness (Neh 12:27-43).J. F. M.]
Psa 147:1-2. For it is good.A change in the accents, and, to a certain extent, in the reading (Venema, Olshausen, Hupfeld) in order to get the sense: praise Jehovah, for He is good; play to our God, for He is pleasant, is not necessary, as is shown from Psa 92:2; Psa 133:1; Psa 135:3. It is the less to be recommended here, as the passage before us is imitated from the one last named, and the last clause, which describes the appropriateness of such praise, is taken from Psa 33:1. The mention of the outcasts (Psa 147:2), that is, the exiles (Isa 11:12; Isa 56:8), shows that it is not building in general that is alluded to, but the building of Jerusalem after its destruction. It is only the application which can justify the interpretation in a spiritual sense (Calvin, Stier).
Psa 147:3-6. How easy it is for God to help men is illustrated after Psa 40:26 f., by the fact that He has assigned a number to the stars which men cannot count (Gen 15:5). This means that, in creating them, He called forth a number determined by Himself. It is also said that He calls them all by name, i.e., that He knows and names them according to their special features, and employs them in His service according to His will, in conformity with the names which correspond to such knowledge. The Omniscience and Omnipresence of God are thus presented at once to the soul, but in Psa 147:5 they are mentioned separately, and these references are the more consoling, as the thought of the members of His Church, scattered in countless numbers through foreign lands, is clearly discerned through the figurative drapery of the expression itself. The greatness of God (Psa 147:5) with respect to might (Job 37:23) corresponds to the fulness of His understanding (Psa 145:3), which no number can express.
Psa 147:6 then calls attention to the exercise of these Divine attributes in its love and justice. [Perowne: The same Lord who, with infinite power and unsearchable wisdom, rules the stars in their courses, rules also the world of man. The history of the world is a mirror both of His love and of His righteous anger. His rule and order are a correction of mans anarchy and disorder.J. F. M.]
Psa 147:7-14. Answer to Jehovah.[E. V.: sing to the Lord]. There is no allusion here to an antiphonal choral song (Sept., Luther) as in Exo 15:21, but a song of praise is called for as the answer of grateful men, to the honor of the Divine Giver (Exo 32:18; Num 21:17; Isa 27:2). Psa 147:9 recalls Job 38:41, as Psa 147:8 f. Psa 104:14. The strength of the steed and his own muscular power will not save the warrior; if God purposes to destroy him, he cannot escape from Him (Psa 33:16 f.; Amo 2:14 f.); neither do these natural powers achieve the victory (Pro 21:31). God is well pleased not with natural, but with spiritual advantages and power, especially with fear of and trust in Him. And they are followed by security and blessing in city, house, and land, as by Divine gifts. [Psa 147:13 a is taken by Dr. Moll, as by Hupfeld and those who do not perceive any special historical reference, as a figurative expression denoting security. Those who, like Hengstenberg, with whom Alexander, Perowne, and most agree, hold the view referred to in the Introduction and its addition above, understand it to refer to the restoration of the city walls, completed by Nehemiah.J. F. M.]
Psa 147:15-20. The word in Psa 147:15 alludes to Genesis 1; Psa 33:6-9. For the immediate reference is to the word as the messenger of Gods power and His active work in nature (Psa 107:20). There is no mention before Psa 147:19 f. of the historical word of revelation, whose sphere is Israel. The transition is not made by the enumeration of particular blessings of God in their universal exercise (Geier, Amyrald), but by the idea of His speaking. In the vicissitudes of nature here described there is perhaps presented an image of the period of suffering and of the returning deliverance (Hengstenberg). The comparison of the snow to wool is hardly based upon the circumstance that the snow covers the earth warmly and softly like wool, but alludes either to the small particles which fly away, or more probably to the white color common to both, (Isa 1:18; Eze 27:18; Dan 7:9). The commandment or the word (Psa 147:18) is described as Gods messenger also in Psa 78:49; Psa 105:17; Psa 107:20. As in Psa 147:19 is used, and not , expression is given to the thought that God continues to testify concerning Himself in prophecy, upon the ground of the Thora (Delitzsch). In the final sentence, according to Psa 94:10; Act 14:16 f.; Rom 1:20, there is denied to the heathen not an absolute (Hengstenberg), but only a relative knowledge of the Divine judgment (Geier, et al.) The privilege of Israel is to possess the positive or historical revelation (Deu 4:7 f.; 32 f.; Bar 4:4). [Delitzsch: The joyful hallelujah is not sounded because these other nations do not possess such a positive knowledge of Gods judgments, but because Israel does possess it. It is declared abundantly in other places that this knowledge of Israel shall be the means of making salvation the common property of the whole world of nations.J. F. M.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Praise to God for His blessings is due to Him and becoming to us.Gods sovereign deeds in His dealings with His people, show the same omnipotence, wisdom, and goodness, as do His sovereign deeds in nature.Among all Gods blessings, the gift of His word is to be ranked specially high, and to be praised by its right use. Augustine: Thou canst not be ever singing with thy voice; but thy life can and ought to be one unceasing song of praise to God.
Starke: Gods praise is nothing but a thankful recital of His great blessings, for which the glory is due to Him alone.If true songs of praise are to flow forth to God, the heart must first be filled with His knowledge and love.The indolence of the heart is no excuse for the neglect of Gods praise.If Gods government is incomprehensible, let us leave it uncensured.The wicked, in their temporal prosperity and pride, stand, as it were, upon a round and slippery ball; God touches it, and they fall to the ground. But the salvation of believers is founded upon a firm rock.The starry heavens are a true masterpiece of Gods wisdom.Everything lies bare and unveiled under the eye of God; even thy name, thy heart, and thy deeds, are well known to Him; see to it that He may be able to remember thee in mercy.The grace of God makes the pious strong in tribulation, so that they by faith triumph in Christ, and overcome the world.He who has a voice to sing, let him use it to the praise of God.A thankful heart is the true harp, which plays well before God.To please God and enjoy His favor are better than all the honor and glory of the world.The true strength, which is never put to shame, is on the side of those who fear the Lord, those who would rather give up their lives than offend God.Gods almighty protection is the true defence of a country; without it all other defences can neither help or endure.The best peace in a Christian Church is the union of its teachers in the true doctrine.As God changes the weather, so does He regulate the vicissitudes of affliction. After the storm He makes the sun shine again.Gods word is the greatest treasure on earth. Happy are the people and country who have received it pure and simple.
Franke: If there is anything that human strength cannot overcome, God needs but to speak a word, and all nature, as it were, is changed.The matter of our praise is the glory of Jehovah; the motive to praise is given in the knowledge of that glory by the experience of faith.What men do to the glory of God becomes a blessing to themselves; and the more they love to do what they should, the more is duty changed into blessing.
[Matt. Henry: Praising God is work that is its own wages.In giving honor to God, we really do ourselves a great deal of honor.In the same heart and at the same time there must be both a reverence of Gods majesty, and a complacency in His goodness; both a believing dread of His wrath, and a believing expectation of His favor. Not that we must hang in suspense between hope and fear, but must act under the gracious influence of hope and fear. Our fear must save our hope from swelling into presumption, and our hope must save our fear from sinking into despair.Bp. Horne: To exalt and reward the humble, penitent, believing, and obedient; to depress and punish the proud, impenitent, and unbelieving, and disobedient; these are the measures and ends of all the Divine dispensations. And as a man ranks himself in one or the other of these two divisions, he may expect from heaven storm or sunshine, mercy or judgment.Barnes: The fact that the ancient people of God possessed His judgments was a sufficient reason for the Hallelujah with which the Psalm closes. The fact that we possess them is a sufficient reason why we should re-echo the shout of praise, and cry Hallelujah!J. F. M.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
The subject, though enlarged in this Psalm, is in substance the same as the two former. It consists of the praises of the Church upon earth looking unto her Lord, in imitation of the church adoring Jehovah in heaven.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
I consider this subject spiritually. For the building of Jerusalem is peculiarly the office of Christ. When the Lord promises to lift up an ensign to the people, it evidently refers to Christ. See those scriptures, Isa 11:12 ; whence Christ saith, Joh 12:32 ; hence also that sweet promise, Isa 27:13 ; and hence, if we accept this divine Psalm in this spiritual illustration of it all that follows may be interpreted with reference to Christ.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Praise and Life
Psa 147:1
I. The Universal Hallelujah. One has amplified and localized and modernized the application of this Psalm because it is, perhaps, in its call to Nature to find a voice and praise the Lord, more nearly akin to our own modern thought, more like the high Christian teaching of our own poet Wordsworth than any other in the Hebrew Psalter.
II. A Pagan Hymn of Praise. We should err if we thought that the idea of praise to the Most High God was either Jewish or Christian. The pagan worshippers of Isis in Egypt have left on record their sense of the need of praise. But there is a difference. The pagan feels that praise is due to the great creating power, knows it is a good thing to sing praises unto the Lord, but he does not see that everything which hath breath can and must praise the Lord, by living its life to the full. And here come in the Hebrew ideal and the Christian ideal to help us. Praise is life that recognizes its fountainhead, utters its joy to the Giver by living life at its best, and magnifies the Giver of all life by fulfilling its appointed life-task with its utmost perfection.
III. Christ’s Praiseful Life. Christ’s life was one long hymn of praise at its noblest and best. He came to glorify the Father by living His Father’s life in human shape at its highest. It was in order to teach men that life lived in fullest obedience to the Divine will and in entire dependence upon God was praise, that Jesus pointed men to the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, and showed that in their perfect obedience to the law of their being there, and in their entire dependence upon the Divine will, they the makers of sweet praise were patterns for us men and our salvation. And since the day of Christ, who came to be the bread for all the world, men whose spirits have eaten the bread of life He gave them that sweet food from heaven which was knowledge of and obedience to the Divine will, coupled with power from on high to assimilate that knowledge and make it part of daily life the world has known that just in proportion as they were really alive unto God, men could praise God, and has realized that the dead (those in whom the Spirit of Christ is not) cannot praise God, neither they that go down to the pit of selfishness and sin; nay rather, but that the living, they alone can praise God as we do this day.
H. D. B. Rawnsley, Christian World Pulpit, No. 1868, p. 123.
References. CXLVII. 1. Blomfield, Sermons in Town and Country, p. 335. CXLVII. 2. Morrison, Sermons Preached at Lyme Regis, p. 145. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxii. No. 1320. CXLVII. 2-5. J. Parker, City Temple Pulpit, vol. i. p. 217.
The Builder of Jerusalem
Psa 147:2-5
If we were asked to select a passage to read to somebody about our God, could we select a much more beautiful passage than this 147th Psalm? It is so simple, so sublime. The sentences are so short, they might all almost be put into words of one syllable. Just as the sun itself is reflected in the dewdrop, so the glory of our God is reflected in these simple words.
Consider the lovableness of our God.
I. First of all, notice that His work is constructive? God does not destroy and cast down: He builds up constructs. Our God builds us up, that is Creation. He took us out of the dust of the earth and built us up into perfection. That is the whole history. What building! He took the very lowest, you see Dust. Where did the dust come from? Poor dust body. He breathed into it the ‘breath of life’ Equipment under the action of God. That is our Creation Construction: and our whole life, Edification: and the end, Perfection. ‘The Lord doth build up.’ ‘Who shall build the tabernacle?’ ‘Let us make three tabernacles.’ The heavens cannot contain Him, Who dwelleth with those who are of a humble and contrite heart. ‘The Lord doth build up.’ II. Notice what it is He builds up Jerusalem. This is no localization. If you want an idea of localization, go to Jerusalem and see for yourself, but the Jerusalem for us is the Jerusalem which cometh down out of heaven: it is a city where we may dwell all together, and the light of the city is God Himself. A Holy City He builds, an Eternal City, a City of Peace. ‘He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.’ It is not God’s will that any should be an outcast He gathereth them together. If anybody is an outcast it is not that God has cast Him out, but that he has cast God out of his soul.
III. ‘He healeth those that are broken in heart.’ So many people in this cruel world are what we call ‘brokendown’ people broken in health, broken in wealth, lost their money, lost all thought, lost all sympathy, lost all love lost all peace, lost heart, ‘broken-hearted’. Our God healeth those that are broken in heart. It is not a partial or tentative healing; it goes to the very core, it goes down to the very root: He healeth the heart. He is the only real heart doctor. If the heart is all right all else will be right. ‘He healeth those that are broken in heart.’ Our God alone can do it. He Who made the heart can heal it.
IV. ‘And bindeth up their wounds.’ Note the tender expression. Some people think that the Old Testament is hard and crude, and the New Testament loving and sweet. You cannot find any verse in the Bible more lovely and tender than this verse about our God. He, ‘bindeth up their wounds’. The Hands that made you will bind up your wounds; The Fingers that created you will heal you. What more can you want? It is like the text which says: ‘He maketh all my bed in my sickness’.
V. And while God is doing all this, what about the Universe? Does He leave the universe to take care of itself? to go on as it likes? Oh, no. ‘He ordereth all things in heaven and earth.’ If once He let the universe go, where would it go? a general crash. ‘He telleth the number of the stars.’ No man has ever yet been able to tell the number of the stars, and there never will be a man who can tell their number, for they are infinite. But God, Who is infinite, can tell the number of them. And why? He will not miss one of them. The Lord who will not let a lamb be lost out of the flock will not let a single star be lost out of the firmament. He Who will bring back the wanderer, and get the outcast of Israel home, telleth the number of the stars. He telleth every one. And what is more singular than that: there is a sort of familiarity between God and the stare. Look up into the heavens and think, ‘He calleth them all by their names’. We call the stars by heathen names. I do not think the names by which we call the stars are the same as the names by which God calls them just as if He spoke to the stars and the stars answered him back again, a sort of sympathetic give and take between the Creator and the created. Who knows? ‘His wisdom is infinite.’ What if the light created speaks to the Light Uncreated, which is God? How do you know? There are many more things in heaven and earth than you or I understand, and science is every day showing to us how very little we know of the things that are. ‘He telleth the number of the stars, and calleth them all by their names.’ How great is His power! and ‘His understanding is infinite!’
VI. Bring this subject under the glorious light of the Gospel. ‘The Lord buildeth up Jerusalem.’ We who know the Gospel know how He did it. He built it up with His Blood. The Church of God is built up with the precious Blood of the Covenant.
‘He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.’ You know what that means now. You know how they cast Him out of the city, and that He was the great Outcast of Israel, and the poor outcasts of Israel are brought home by the great Outcast of Israel.
‘He healeth those that are broken in heart.’ How could He heal the broken-hearted so well? Because His own Heart was broken and wounded. It is wounded men that need a wounded Saviour. A broken-hearted man needs a broken-hearted Saviour.
‘He telleth the number of the stars.’ What are the stare but His Saints? The Saints shine as the stars for ever and ever, and God knows them. ‘Right dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of His Saints,’ and they shine as the stars.
References. CXLVII. 3, 4. F. Bourdillon, Plain Sermons for Family Reading, p. 122. CXLVII. 5. W. F. Shaw, Sermon Sketches, p. 15. CXLVII. 7, 9. C. Kingsley, The Water of Life, p. 317.
Psa 147:8
Ruskin writes: ‘Look up towards the higher hills, where the waves of everlasting green roll silently into their long inlets among the shadows of the pines, and we may, perhaps, at last know the meaning of those quiet words of the 147th Psalm, “He maketh grass to grow upon the mountains”‘.
References. CXLVII. 9. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii. No. 672. CXLVII. 16-18. Ibid, vol. xii. No. 670.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
The Grand Doxology
Psalms 146-150
How could the Book of Psalms end but in this way? Psalms cannot end in prose. Whether the arrangement is mechanical or inspired, it is the best possible. There is a fitness of things, and that fitness is realised in this peroration. It is as if a great broad river had suddenly become a resounding cascade; these five psalms are the final cataract. The Psalmist will have everything pressed into the choir. He will not have a small band. He ranges creation through, and brings everybody and everything into the orchestra. There goes out from him a great sound, “Praise ye the Lord.” Not only will he deliver this exhortation, he will exemplify what he means, and therefore he continues, “Praise the Lord, O my soul.” We must be on fire ourselves if we would set other people on fire. “While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.” He will have all instruments pressed into this service. He knows all the instruments by name; he says, There are three sorts of instruments at least: the wind instruments, which a man seems to play with his soul “the Lord breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,” and with that heaven-given afflatus the truly praising soul addresses itself to the instrument; and there are stringed instruments as the harp and lute to which a man speaks through his hands, the soul running out at the finger-tips; there are also percussive instruments which a man must smite, as the drum, and the tambourine, the cymbals, the triangles, and instruments many. So he would have skilled fingers that know how to operate upon stringed instruments, and skilled strong fingers and hands quite a muscular service to make the drum throb, and take a share in this offering of hallelujah and acclaim unto God. He must have read all the Psalms before he wrote these five. He seems to have written all the Psalms as well as read them. There is a way of reading a book, which is the next best thing to having written it. To hear the book well read, to hear your own letter well uttered! There is an authorship of reading. It would seem as if this man had taken up all the great psalms and had rewritten them in his heart, and had come out at last with an appropriate conclusion.
In these five psalms we have great burst of praise. The instruments were made for the psalms. Everything was made for the Church. Perversions many there have been, and probably will be, but they are perversions, and must be recognised and stigmatised as such. No bad man has a right to any instrument of music. He holds it by no right that can be established in the court of equity; he does not know how to handle that thing of beauty, he does not know how to speak to that secret of sweet sounds. There is nothing more horrible than that a blaspheming man should sing at a sacred concert. There is no irony so unpardonable. Christian men should not support it. Christian service should be rendered by Christian people. For a man who has been guilty of anything that is vilely wrong to sing in any of the great oratorios is a lie seven times told; a black and most pestilent thing quite a horrible outrage to taste, to decency, to the genius of piety. Some have supposed that the Psalmist really did not desire to have all these instruments, but that he is simply struggling or working his way towards a great human appeal, namely, Praise ye the Lord: especially let Israel praise the Lord; he is simply trying to construct a great altar of Hebrew music. Grammatically that may be partly right; in a narrow sense of the terms, the Psalmist may have been fixing his thoughts wholly upon the human temple, and when he calls for a universal song his universe may have been restricted to Israel. Some men do not know the meaning of their own words. Great religious utterances have to be interpreted to the speakers themselves. Isaiah might profitably listen to a modern discourse upon his own prophecies, and be told what he meant when he used his own mother-tongue. I prefer, therefore, to take the larger construction, and to believe that the Psalmist was seeking to press everything into God’s service. He saw that the universe itself is silent music, a dumb poem, a most marvellous miracle in the expression of fitness, interdependence, harmony. Said he, This great universe wants but one little spark to fall upon it, and the whole will rise as if in flames of praise. Man has nothing to do in the way of improving the universe. Poor man! he can but take a little part of the universe to pieces, and call it science. He cannot improve the rotundity of the earth, he cannot add a beam to the moon. The Psalmist, looking upon these things from a great height, said, All this means something more than has yet been articulated: this silence is supreme eloquence, this is all that prose can do: God is waiting for the man whom he will inspire with the spirit of poetry, and if that man will let fall one short syllable on this miracle of prose it will become poetry infinite, ineffable. It will be a sad thing when a man can tell all he means. Do not believe that the grammarian can exhaust the Bible. Do not entertain the thought that the Bible-writers knew one ten-thousandth part of what they were writing about. They were instruments, they were the clerks of God, they were but scribes hired to do the work of human education. All things are tending in the direction of universal praise. If this were mere reverie, we might applaud it as such, and dismiss it; but all through these five concluding psalms there runs a line of sternest logic, boldest, truest, sweetest reasoning. This is so with the whole Bible. All its flowers are grown upon rocks; far below the fecundant soil lies the stable masonry. The flowers are thousands upon thousands, squared and cubed, and then redoubled and multiplied again; but under all there lies the base of truth.
Shall we join this praise? Which God shall we worship in song? The Psalmist says, I will give you his full address: this is the God “which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is.” That is force, energy: how can I blow the instrument, or strike the string, or smite the drum in praise of force, though it be set out in strong typography on the printed page? Then saith the Psalmist, You have interrupted me, that is not the full address of the Most High; he but begins there, the continuance thereof is this, “Which keepeth truth for ever: which executeth judgment for the oppressed.” That is majesty, moral, spiritual, sublime. We might raise a tremulous hymn to such a Personality, but we should almost have to look down whilst we sang the adoring psalm. But, said the Psalmist, you have interrupted me, that, is not the full address of the Most High “Which giveth food to the hungry:” now he is domestic, companionable, approachable. “The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind:” now how tender, gentle, pitiful!” The Lord raiseth them that are bowed down:” then he is almost like one of them. “Praise ye the Lord.” Certainly! we must. We can adore majesty, and run away from it because it may overpower us by its intolerable sublimity, but if God feed the hungry, open the eyes of the blind, and raise them that are bowed down, we can look at him in the face whilst we are singing his hymns. But, saith the Psalmist, that is not all: “The Lord preserveth the strangers:” why, we are all strangers when we are two miles from the beaten track. “He relieveth the fatherless and widow:” what! the God of suns and constellations and universes on which no measuring-line has been laid, does he care for the widow and the orphan in their affliction? “Praise ye the Lord.” Here is an end of ecstasy. This is no sentimental rapture; this is a reply, praise answering love, a glorious consent, a concert which the universe approves. Herein must our musical education be perfected. An impious singer ought to be frowned down, avoided, and left desolate. It will be a sad thing when we admire the music and neglect the sentiment. The choir constituted by the Psalmist is a choir of appreciative, grateful, responsive hearts. Nor can he get away altogether from this line of annotation. He puts the same thought in many different ways. He does not neglect the majesty of the Lord; he represents the Lord as telling the number of the stars, and calling them all by their names; as covering the heaven with clouds, preparing rain for the earth, making grass to grow upon the mountains: he represents God as giving snow like wool, scattering the hoarfrost like ashes, casting forth his ice like morsels, and coming upon the universe with a cold before which it perishes. Then he runs parallel with all this, a line more than golden, a line more than loving: “Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite:” hear how the trumpets blare and roar as they utter that glorious sentiment! Now “he healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.” The Lord is the doctor of the family, the physician of the soul; as if neglecting the stars awhile, he comes down to human hearts.
Let us not then say that the Psalmist is a mere contemplatist or rhapsodist; he is a man who recognises the providential side of life, and will have a hymn appropriate thereto. If we made our providences the beginning of our psalms our psalms would never end. “He also exalteth the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints; even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him.” “The Lord taketh pleasure in his people; he will beautify the meek with salvation.” This is the providential aspect. Here is God working in human history. Here the Lord is building his own monument of love, and writing his own memorial of tender mercy, and the Psalmist calls us around this memorial and this monument that we may join him in holy rapturous song. We should count our family mercies before we determine where our hymn shall begin and end. We are poor reckoners if we begin with our disadvantages. We do not mean to end well; we are trying, however subtly or unconsciously, to get up a case against the goodness and mercy of God. We should begin at the other end: with the sunshine and the music, with all little things and great things that make up the best aspect of our home-life. Then when the Psalmist says, “I am going to sing,” we shall say, So am I: let us sing together that we may create an opportunity for others; let us announce our intention far and wide, and mayhap some will sing as followers who could not well begin the holy tune themselves. Thus praise becomes contagious, thus song begets song, until the whole universe is full of melody. There are some who have never sung. By the term “sung” we do not here mean anything that is technical or mechanical. There is a singing without words, there is a silent singing; there is a way of singing by sympathy. Sometimes people think they are not singing unless they can hear their own voices; certainly to uplift the voice is one way of singing: some can sing better through sympathy, they feel that others are expressing what they wanted to say, and in the expression of others they find rest and joy. Whether in this way or in that, every man should sing. Every man should recognise the providences of God. You were brought low, and he helped you; you were in the jungle of a tremendous thicket, and he relieved you; you were trying to thread your way through a labyrinth, and you found yourself coming back again and again upon your own steps, and he gave you the clue, and in an hour or two you were out at the wicket-gate free again, and you met the Psalmist there; for that Psalmist stands for us at every turn in life, and he said, “Praise ye the Lord;” and if you had not instantly answered in song, personal or sympathetic, you would have proved yourself unworthy of the divine deliverance.
The Psalmist indicates a retributive element in the service of praise: “Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand; to execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron.” These words have been fruitful of oppression. They have been misused by nearly all sections of the Church. No one section can blame another, saying, “You have perverted these words,” because we are all in one condemnation. We have mistaken fury for reasoning: we have forgotten that the democracy is heathenism, if it be not educated and morally inspired. It is not our business to strike off the ears of men, nor to throw chains upon kings, and fetters of iron upon nobles. They have to come down that is written in the books that cannot be burned but they must come down otherwise; not by violence, but by the uplifting of the general mass of the people; so there shall not be so much a coming down of some as the raising up of all; then the new democracy shall be the true aristocracy. Let us beware of religious oppression above all other. No one man, as we have often seen, has all the truth, nor ought to set himself up as the papal administrator of all that is right and wrong in intellectual beliefs. This man has part of the truth, and his brother has another part; they should meet, and mutually contribute; and the third man should add his share, and every other man contribute his quota, that from the sum-total of humanity we may get the sum-total of the revelation of God. You do not improve your oppression by singing to it. You do not make murder less murder because you dance your way to the scene of execution. Keep the high praises of God for holy hearts and holy mouths.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
PSALMS
XI
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS
According to my usual custom, when taking up the study of a book of the Bible I give at the beginning a list of books as helps to the study of that book. The following books I heartily commend on the Psalms:
1. Sampey’s Syllabus for Old Testament Study . This is especially good on the grouping and outlining of some selected psalms. There are also some valuable suggestions on other features of the book.
2. Kirkpatrick’g commentary, in “Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges,” is an excellent aid in the study of the Psalter.
3. Perowne’s Book of Psalms is a good, scholarly treatise on the Psalms. A special feature of this commentary is the author’s “New Translation” and his notes are very helpful.
4. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David. This is just what the title implies. It is a voluminous, devotional interpretation of the Psalms and helpful to those who have the time for such extensive study of the Psalter.
5. Hengstenburg on the Psalms. This is a fine, scholarly work by one of the greatest of the conservative German scholars.
6. Maclaren on the Psalms, in “The Expositor’s Bible,” is the work of the world’s safest, sanest, and best of all works that have ever been written on the Psalms.
7. Thirtle on the Titles of the Psalms. This is the best on the subject and well worth a careful study.
At this point some definitions are in order. The Hebrew word for psalm means praise. The word in English comes from psalmos , a song of lyrical character, or a song to be sung and accompanied with a lyre. The Psalter is a collection of sacred and inspired songs, composed at different times and by different authors.
The range of time in composition was more than 1,000 years, or from the time of Moses to the time of Ezra. The collection in its present form was arranged probably by Ezra in the fifth century, B.C.
The Jewish classification of Old Testament books was The Law, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings. The Psalms was given the first place in the last group.
They had several names, or titles, of the Psalms. In Hebrew they are called “The Book of Prayers,” or “The Book of Praises.” The Hebrew word thus used means praises. The title of the first two books is found in Psa 72:20 : “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.” The title of the whole collection of Psalms in the Septuagint is Biblos Psalman which means the “Book of Psalms.” The title in the Alexandrian Codex is Psalterion which is the name of a stringed instrument, and means “The Psalter.”
The derivation of our English words, “psalms,” “psalter,” and “psaltery,” respectively, is as follows:
1. “Psalms” comes from the Greek word, psalmoi, which is also from psallein , which means to play upon a stringed instrument. Therefore the Psalms are songs played upon stringed instruments, and the word here is used to apply to the whole collection.
2. “Psalter” is of the same origin and means the Book of Psalms and refers also to the whole collection.
3. “Psaltery” is from the word psalterion, which means “a harp,” an instrument, supposed to be in the shape of a triangle or like the delta of the Greek alphabet. See Psa 33:2 ; Psa 71:22 ; Psa 81:2 ; Psa 144:9 .
In our collection there are 150 psalms. In the Septuagint there is one extra. It is regarded as being outside the sacred collection and not inspired. The subject of this extra psalm is “David’s victory over Goliath.” The following is a copy of it: I was small among my brethren, And youngest in my father’s house, I used to feed my father’s sheep. My hands made a harp, My fingers fashioned a Psaltery. And who will declare unto my Lord? He is Lord, he it is who heareth. He it was who sent his angel And took me from my father’s sheep, And anointed me with the oil of his anointing. My brethren were goodly and tall, But the Lord took no pleasure in them. I went forth to meet the Philistine. And he cursed me by his idols But I drew the sword from beside him; I beheaded him and removed reproach from the children of Israel.
It will be noted that this psalm does not have the earmarks of an inspired production. There is not found in it the modesty so characteristic of David, but there is here an evident spirit of boasting and self-praise which is foreign to the Spirit of inspiration.
There is a difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint. Omitting the extra one in the Septuagint, there is no difference as to the total number. Both have 150 and the same subject matter, but they are not divided alike.
The following scheme shows the division according to our version and also the Septuagint: Psalms 1-8 in the Hebrew equal 1-8 in the Septuagint; 9-10 in the Hebrew combine into 9 in the Septuagint; 11-113 in the Hebrew equal 10-112 in the Septuagint; 114-115 in the Hebrew combine into 113 in the Septuagint; 116 in the Hebrew divides into 114-115 in the Septuagint; 117-146 in the Hebrew equal 116-145 in the Septuagint; 147 in the Hebrew divides into 146-147 in the Septuagint; 148-150 in the Hebrew equal 148-150 in the Septuagint.
The arrangement in the Vulgate is the same as the Septuagint. Also some of the older English versions have this arangement. Another difficulty in numbering perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another, viz: In the Hebrew often the title is verse I, and sometimes the title embraces verses 1-2.
The book divisions of the Psalter are five books, as follows:
Book I, Psalms 1-41 (41 chapters)
Book II, Psalms 42-72 (31 chapters)
Book III, Psalms 73-89 (17 chapters)
Book IV, Psalms 90-106 (17 chapters)
Book V, Psalms 107-150 (44 chapters)
They are marked by an introduction and a doxology. Psalm I forms an introduction to the whole book; Psa 150 is the doxology for the whole book. The introduction and doxology of each book are the first and last psalms of each division, respectively.
There were smaller collections before the final one, as follows:
Books I and II were by David; Book III, by Hezekiah, and Books IV and V, by Ezra.
Certain principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection:
1. David is honored with first place, Book I and II, including Psalms 1-72.
2. They are grouped according to the use of the name of God:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovah psalms;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohim-psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovah psalms.
3. Book IV is introduced by the psalm of Moses, which is the first psalm written.
4. Some are arranged as companion psalms, for instance, sometimes two, sometimes three, and sometimes more. Examples: Psa 2 and 3; 22, 23, and 24; 113-118.
5. They were arranged for liturgical purposes, which furnished the psalms for special occasions, such as feasts, etc. We may be sure this arrangement was not accidental. An intelligent study of each case is convincing that it was determined upon rational grounds.
All the psalms have titles but thirty-three, as follows:
In Book I, Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 33 , (4 are without titles).
In Book II, Psa 43 ; Psa 71 , (2 are without titles).
In Book IV, Psa 91 ; Psa 93 ; Psa 94 ; Psa 95 ; Psa 96 ; Psa 97 ; Psa 104 ; Psa 105 ; Psa 106 , (9 are without titles).
In Book V, Psa 107 ; III; 112; 113; 114; 115; 116; 117; 118; 119; 135; 136; 137; 146; 147; 148; 149; 150, (18 are without titles).
The Talmud calls these psalms that have no title, “Orphan Psalms.” The later Jews supply these titles by taking the nearest preceding author. The lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; and 10 may be accounted for as follows: Psa 1 is a general introduction to the whole collection and Psa 2 was, perhaps, a part of Psa 1 . Psalms 9-10 were formerly combined into one, therefore Psa 10 has the same title as Psa 9 .
QUESTIONS
1. What books are commended on the Psalms?
2. What is a psalm?
3. What is the Psalter?
4. What is the range of time in composition?
5. When and by whom was the collection in its present form arranged?
6. What the Jewish classification of Old Testament books, and what the position of the Psalter in this classification?
7. What is the Hebrew title of the Psalms?
8. Find the title of the first two books from the books themselves.
9. What is the title of the whole collection of psalms in the Septuagint?
10. What is the title in the Alexandrian Codex?
11. What is the derivation of our English word, “Psalms”, “Psalter”, and “Psaltery,” respectively?
12. How many psalms in our collection?
13. How many psalms in the Septuagint?
14. What about the extra one in the Septuagint?
15. What is the subject of this extra psalm?
16. How does it compare with the Canonical Psalms?
17. What is the difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint?
18. What is the arrangement in the Vulgate?
19. What other difficulty in numbering which perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another?
20. What are the book divisions of the Psalter and how are these divisions marked?
21. Were there smaller collections before the final one? If so, what were they?
22. What principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection?
23. In what conclusion may we rest concerning this arrangement?
24. How many of the psalms have no titles?
25. What does the Talmud call these psalms that have no titles?
26. How do later Jews supply these titles?
27. How do you account for the lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ?
XII
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS (CONTINUED)
The following is a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms:
1. The author: “A Psalm of David” (Psa 37 ).
2. The occasion: “When he fled from Absalom, his son” (Psa 3 ).
3. The nature, or character, of the poem:
(1) Maschil, meaning “instruction,” a didactic poem (Psa 42 ).
(2) Michtam, meaning “gold,” “A Golden Psalm”; this means excellence or mystery (Psa 16 ; 56-60).
4. The occasion of its use: “A Psalm of David for the dedication of the house” (Psa 30 ).
5. Its purpose: “A Psalm of David to bring remembrance” (Psa 38 ; Psa 70 ).
6. Direction for its use: “A Psalm of David for the chief musician” (Psa 4 ).
7. The kind of musical instrument:
(1) Neginoth, meaning to strike a chord, as on stringed instruments (Psa 4 ; Psa 61 ).
(2) Nehiloth, meaning to perforate, as a pipe or flute (Psa 5 ).
(3) Shoshannim, Lilies, which refers probably to cymbals (Psa 45 ; Psa 69 ).
8. A special choir:
(1) Sheminith, the “eighth,” or octave below, as a male choir (Psa 6 ; Psa 12 ).
(2) Alamoth, female choir (Psa 46 ).
(3) Muth-labben, music with virgin voice, to be sung by a choir of boys in the treble (Psa 9 ).
9. The keynote, or tune:
(1) Aijeleth-sharar, “Hind of the morning,” a song to the melody of which this is sung (Psa 22 ).
(2) Al-tashheth, “Destroy thou not,” the beginning of a song the tune of which is sung (Psa 57 ; Psa 58 ; Psa 59 ; Psa 75 ).
(3) Gittith, set to the tune of Gath, perhaps a tune which David brought from Gath (Psa 8 ; Psa 81 ; Psa 84 ).
(4) Jonath-elim-rehokim, “The dove of the distant terebinths,” the commencement of an ode to the air of which this song was to be sung (Psa 56 ).
(5) Leannoth, the name of a tune (Psa 88 ).
(6) Mahalath, an instrument (Psa 53 ); Leonnoth-Mahaloth, to chant to a tune called Mahaloth.
(7) Shiggaion, a song or a hymn.
(8) Shushan-Eduth, “Lily of testimony,” a tune (Psa 60 ). Note some examples: (1) “America,” “Shiloh,” “Auld Lang Syne.” These are the names of songs such as we are familiar with; (2) “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” are examples of sacred hymns.
10. The liturgical use, those noted for the feasts, e.g., the Hallels and Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 146-150).
11. The destination, as “Song of Ascents” (Psalms 120-134)
12. The direction for the music, such as Selah, which means “Singers, pause”; Higgaion-Selah, to strike a symphony with selah, which means an instrumental interlude (Psa 9:16 ).
The longest and fullest title to any of the psalms is the title to Psa 60 . The items of information from this title are as follows: (1) the author; (2) the chief musician; (3) the historical occasion; (4) the use, or design; (5) the style of poetry; (6) the instrument or style of music.
The parts of these superscriptions which most concern us now are those indicating author, occasion, and date. As to the historic value or trustworthiness of these titles most modern scholars deny that they are a part of the Hebrew text, but the oldest Hebrew text of which we know anything had all of them. This is the text from which the Septuagint was translated. It is much more probable that the author affixed them than later writers. There is no internal evidence in any of the psalms that disproves the correctness of them, but much to confirm. The critics disagree among themselves altogether as to these titles. Hence their testimony cannot consistently be received. Nor can it ever be received until they have at least agreed upon a common ground of opposition.
David is the author of more than half the entire collection, the arrangement of which is as follows:
1. Seventy-three are ascribed to him in the superscriptions.
2. Some of these are but continuations of the preceding ones of a pair, trio, or larger group.
3. Some of the Korahite Psalms are manifestly Davidic.
4. Some not ascribed to him in the titles are attributed to him expressly by New Testament writers.
5. It is not possible to account for some parts of the Psalter without David. The history of his early life as found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1and 2 Chronicles, not only shows his remarkable genius for patriotic and sacred songs and music, but also shows his cultivation of that gift in the schools of the prophets. Some of these psalms of the history appear in the Psalter itself. It is plain to all who read these that they are founded on experience, and the experience of no other Hebrew fits the case. These experiences are found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles.
As to the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition, I have this to say:
1. This theory has no historical support whatever, and therefore is not to be accepted at all.
2. It has no support in tradition, which weakens the contention of the critics greatly.
3. It has no support from finding any one with the necessary experience for their basis.
4. They can give no reasonable account as to how the titles ever got there.
5. It is psychologically impossible for anyone to have written these 150 psalms in the Maccabean times.
6. Their position is expressly contrary to the testimony of Christ and the apostles. Some of the psalms which they ascribe to the Maccabean Age are attributed to David by Christ himself, who said that David wrote them in the Spirit.
The obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result if it be Just, is a positive denial of the inspiration of both Testaments.
Other authors are named in the titles, as follows: (1) Asaph, to whom twelve psalms have been assigned: (2) Mosee, Psa 90 ; (3) Solomon, Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ; (4) Heman, Psa 80 ; (5) Ethem, Psa 89 ; (6) A number of the psalms are ascribed to the sons of Korah.
Not all the psalms ascribed to Asaph were composed by one person. History indicates that Asaph’s family presided over the song service for several generations. Some of them were composed by his descendants by the game name. The five general outlines of the whole collection are as follows:
I. By books
1. Psalms 1-41 (41)
2. Psalms 42-72 (31)
3. Psalms 73-89 (17)
4. Psalms 90-106 (17)
5. Psalms 107-150 (44)
II. According to date and authorship
1. The psalm of Moses (Psa 90 )
2. Psalms of David:
(1) The shepherd boy (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 ).
(2) David when persecuted by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ).
(3) David the King (Psa 101 ; Psa 18 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 110 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 21 ; Psa 60 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 3:4 ; Psa 64 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 ).
3. The Asaph Psalms (Psa 50 ; Psa 73 ; Psa 83 ).
4. The Korahite Psalms (Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 84 ).
5. The psalms of Solomon (Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ).
6. The psalms of the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah (Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 )
7. The psalms of the Exile (Psa 74 ; Psa 79 ; Psa 137 ; Psa 102 )
8. The psalms of the Restoration (Psa 85 ; Psa 126 ; Psa 118 ; 146-150)
III. By groups
1. The Jehovistic and Elohistic Psalms:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovistic;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohistic Psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovistic.
2. The Penitential Psalms (Psa 6 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 130 ; Psa 143 )
3. The Pilgrim Psalms (Psalms 120-134)
4. The Alphabetical Psalms (Psa 9 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 25 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 37 ; 111:112; Psa 119 ; Psa 145 )
5. The Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 11-113; 115-117; 146-150; to which may be added Psa 135 ) Psalms 113-118 are called “the Egyptian Hallel”
IV. Doctrines of the Psalms
1. The throne of grace and how to approach it by sacrifice, prayer, and praise.
2. The covenant, the basis of worship.
3. The paradoxical assertions of both innocence & guilt.
4. The pardon of sin and justification.
5. The Messiah.
6. The future life, pro and con.
7. The imprecations.
8. Other doctrines.
V. The New Testament use of the Psalms
1. Direct references and quotations in the New Testament.
2. The allusions to the psalms in the New Testament. Certain experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart, such as: (1) his peaceful early life; (2) his persecution by Saul; (3) his being crowned king of the people; (4) the bringing up of the ark; (5) his first great sin; (6) Absalom’s rebellion; (7) his second great sin; (8) the great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 ; (9) the feelings of his old age.
We may classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time, thus:
1. His peaceful early life (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 )
2. His persecution by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 7 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 120 ; Psa 140 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ; Psa 17 ; Psa 18 )
3. Making David King (Psa 27 ; Psa 133 ; Psa 101 )
4. Bringing up the ark (Psa 68 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 132 ; Psa 15 ; Psa 78 ; Psa 96 )
5. His first great sin (Psa 51 ; Psa 32 )
6. Absalom’s rebellion (Psa 41 ; Psa 6 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 109 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 39 ; Psa 3 ; Psa 4 ; Psa 63 ; Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 5 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 )
7. His second great sin (Psa 69 ; Psa 71 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 103 )
8. The great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 (Psa 2 )
9. Feelings of old age (Psa 37 )
The great doctrines of the psalms may be noted as follows: (1) the being and attributes of God; (3) sin, both original and individual; (3) both covenants; (4) the doctrine of justification; (5) concerning the Messiah.
There is a striking analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms. The Pentateuch contains five books of law; the Psalms contain five books of heart responses to the law.
It is interesting to note the historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms. These were controversies about singing uninspired songs, in the Middle Ages. The church would not allow anything to be used but psalms.
The history in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah is very valuable toward a proper interpretation of the psalms. These books furnish the historical setting for a great many of the psalms which is very indispensable to their proper interpretation.
Professor James Robertson, in the Poetry and Religion of the Psalms constructs a broad and strong argument in favor of the Davidic Psalms, as follows:
1. The age of David furnished promising soil for the growth of poetry.
2. David’s qualifications for composing the psalms make it highly probable that David is the author of the psalms ascribed to him.
3. The arguments against the possibility of ascribing to David any of the hymns in the Hebrew Psalter rests upon assumptions that are thoroughly antibiblical.
The New Testament makes large use of the psalms and we learn much as to their importance in teaching. There are seventy direct quotations in the New Testament from this book, from which we learn that the Scriptures were used extensively in accord with 2Ti 3:16-17 . There are also eleven references to the psalms in the New Testament from which we learn that the New Testament writers were thoroughly imbued with the spirit and teaching of the psalms. Then there are eight allusions ‘to this book in the New Testament from which we gather that the Psalms was one of the divisions of the Old Testament and that they were used in the early church.
QUESTIONS
1. Give a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms.
2. What is the longest title to any of the psalms and what the items of this title?
3. What parts of these superscriptions most concern us now?
4. What is the historic value, or trustworthiness of these titles?
5. State the argument showing David’s relation to the psalms.
6. What have you to say of the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition?
7. What the obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result, if it be just?
8. What other authors are named in the titles?
9. Were all the psalms ascribed to Asaph composed by one person?
10. Give the five general outlines of the whole collection, as follows: I. The outline by books II. The outline according to date and authorship III. The outline by groups IV. The outline of doctrines V. The outline by New Testament quotations or allusions.
11. What experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart?
12. Classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time.
13. What the great doctrines of the psalms?
14. What analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms?
15. What historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms?
16. Of what value is the history in Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah toward a proper interpretation of the psalms?
17. Give Professor James Robertson’s argument in favor of the Davidic authorship of the psalms.
18. What can you say of the New Testament use of the psalms and what do we learn as to their importance in teaching?
19. What can you say of the New Testament references to the psalms, and from the New Testament references what the impression on the New Testament writers?
20. What can you say of the allusions to the psalms in the New Testament?
XVII
THE MESSIAH IN THE PSALMS
A fine text for this chapter is as follows: “All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Psalms concerning me,” Luk 24:44 . I know of no better way to close my brief treatise on the Psalms than to discuss the subject of the Messiah as revealed in this book.
Attention has been called to the threefold division of the Old Testament cited by our Lord, namely, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luk 24:44 ), in all of which were the prophecies relating to himself that “must be fulfilled.” It has been shown just what Old Testament books belong to each of these several divisions. The division called the Psalms included many books, styled Holy Writings, and because the Psalms proper was the first book of the division it gave the name to the whole division.
The object of this discussion is to sketch the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah, or rather, to show how nearly a complete picture of our Lord is foredrawn in this one book. Let us understand however with Paul, that all prophecy is but in part (1Co 13:9 ), and that when we fill in on one canvas all the prophecies concerning the Messiah of all the Old Testament divisions, we are far from having a perfect portrait of our Lord. The present purpose is limited to three things:
1. What the book of the Psalms teaches concerning the Messiah.
2. That the New Testament shall authoritatively specify and expound this teaching.
3. That the many messianic predictions scattered over the book and the specifications thereof over the New Testament may be grouped into an orderly analysis, so that by the adjustment of the scattered parts we may have before us a picture of our Lord as foreseen by the psalmists.
In allowing the New Testament to authoritatively specify and expound the predictive features of the book, I am not unmindful of what the so-called “higher critics” urge against the New Testament quotations from the Old Testament and the use made of them. In this discussion, however, these objections are not considered, for sufficient reasons. There is not space for it. Even at the risk of being misjudged I must just now summarily pass all these objections, dismissing them with a single statement upon which the reader may place his own estimate of value. That statement is that in the days of my own infidelity, before this old method of criticism had its new name, I was quite familiar with the most and certainly the strongest of the objections now classified as higher criticism, and have since patiently re-examined them in their widely conflicting restatements under their modern name, and find my faith in the New Testament method of dealing with the Old Testament in no way shattered, but in every way confirmed. God is his own interpreter. The Old Testament as we now have it was in the hands of our Lord. I understand his apostle to declare, substantially, that “every one of these sacred scriptures is God-inspired and is profitable for teaching us what is right to believe and to do, for convincing us what is wrong in faith or practice, for rectifying the wrong when done, that we may be ready at every point, furnished completely, to do every good work, at the right time, in the right manner, and from the proper motive” (2Ti 3:16-17 ).
This New Testament declares that David was a prophet (Act 2:30 ), that he spake by the Holy Spirit (Act 1:16 ), that when the book speaks the Holy Spirit speaks (Heb 3:7 ), and that all its predictive utterances, as sacred Scripture, “must be fulfilled” (Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:16 ). It is not claimed that David wrote all the psalms, but that all are inspired, and that as he was the chief author, the book goes by his name.
It would be a fine thing to make out two lists, as follows:
1. All of the 150 psalms in order from which the New Testament quotes with messianic application.
2. The New Testament quotations, book by book, i.e., Matthew so many, and then the other books in their order.
We would find in neither of these any order as to time, that is, Psa 1 which forecasts an incident in the coming Messiah’s life does not forecast the first incident of his life. And even the New Testament citations are not in exact order as to time and incident of his life. To get the messianic picture before us, therefore, we must put the scattered parts together in their due relation and order, and so construct our own analysis. That is the prime object of this discussion. It is not claimed that the analysis now presented is perfect. It is too much the result of hasty, offhand work by an exceedingly busy man. It will serve, however, as a temporary working model, which any one may subsequently improve. We come at once to the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah.
1. The necessity for a Saviour. This foreseen necessity is a background of the psalmists’ portrait of the Messiah. The necessity consists in (1) man’s sinfulness; (2) his sin; (3) his inability of wisdom and power to recover himself; (4) the insufficiency of legal, typical sacrifices in securing atonement.
The predicate of Paul’s great argument on justification by faith is the universal depravity and guilt of man. He is everywhere corrupt in nature; everywhere an actual transgressor; everywhere under condemnation. But the scriptural proofs of this depravity and sin the apostle draws mainly from the book of the Psalms. In one paragraph of the letter to the Romans (Rom 3:4-18 ), he cites and groups six passages from six divisions of the Psalms (Psa 5:9 ; Psa 10:7 ; Psa 14:1-3 ; Psa 36:1 ; Psa 51:4-6 ; Psa 140:3 ). These passages abundantly prove man’s sinfulness, or natural depravity, and his universal practice of sin.
The predicate also of the same apostle’s great argument for revelation and salvation by a Redeemer is man’s inability of wisdom and power to re-establish communion with God. In one of his letters to the Corinthians he thus commences his argument: “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? -For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preach-ing to save them that believe.” He closes this discussion with the broad proposition: “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God,” and proves it by a citation from Psa 94:11 : “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.”
In like manner our Lord himself pours scorn on human wisdom and strength by twice citing Psa 8 : “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Mat 11:25-26 ). “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children that were crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” (Mat 21:15-16 ).
But the necessity for a Saviour as foreseen by the psalmist did not stop at man’s depravity, sin, and helplessness. The Jews were trusting in the sacrifices of their law offered on the smoking altar. The inherent weakness of these offerings, their lack of intrinsic merit, their ultimate abolition, their complete fulfilment and supercession by a glorious antitype were foreseen and foreshown in this wonderful prophetic book: I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; And thy burnt offerings are continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, Nor he-goat out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, And the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all of the birds of the mountains; And the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats? Psa 50:8-13 .
Yet again it speaks in that more striking passage cited in the letter to the Hebrews: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers, once purged should have no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, But a body didst thou prepare for me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure: Then said I, Lo, I am come (In the roll of the book it is written of me) To do thy will, O God. Saying above, Sacrifice and offering and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein, (the which are offered according to the law), then hath he said, Lo, I am come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second” (Heb 10:1-9 ).
This keen foresight of the temporary character and intrinsic worthlessness of animal sacrifices anticipated similar utterances by the later prophets (Isa 1:10-17 ; Jer 6:20 ; Jer 7:21-23 ; Hos 6:6 ; Amo 5:21 ; Mic 6:6-8 ). Indeed, I may as well state in passing that when the apostle declares, “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins,” he lays down a broad principle, just as applicable to baptism and the Lord’s Supper. With reverence I state the principle: Not even God himself by mere appointment can vest in any ordinance, itself lacking intrinsic merit, the power to take away sin. There can be, therefore, in the nature of the case, no sacramental salvation. This would destroy the justice of God in order to exalt his mercy. Clearly the psalmist foresaw that “truth and mercy must meet together” before “righteousness and peace could kiss each other” (Psa 85:10 ). Thus we find as the dark background of the psalmists’ luminous portrait of the Messiah, the necessity for a Saviour.
2. The nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah. In no other prophetic book are the nature, fullness, and blessedness of salvation so clearly seen and so vividly portrayed. Besides others not now enumerated, certainly the psalmists clearly forecast four great elements of salvation:
(1) An atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit offered once for all (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:4-10 ).
(2) Regeneration itself consisting of cleansing, renewal, and justification. We hear his impassioned statement of the necessity of regeneration: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts,” followed by his earnest prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me,” and his equally fervent petition: “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psa 51 ). And we hear him again as Paul describes the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin Psa 32:1 ; Rom 4:6-8 .
(3) Introduction into the heavenly rest (Psa 95:7-11 ; Heb 3:7-19 ; Heb 4:1-11 ). Here is the antitypical Joshua leading spiritual Israel across the Jordan of death into the heavenly Canaan, the eternal rest that remaineth for the people of God. Here we find creation’s original sabbath eclipsed by redemption’s greater sabbath when the Redeemer “entered his rest, ceasing from his own works as God did from his.”
(4) The recovery of all the universal dominion lost by the first Adam and the securement of all possible dominion which the first Adam never attained (Psa 8:5-6 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 ; 1Co 15:24-28 ).
What vast extent then and what blessedness in the salvation foreseen by the psalmists, and to be wrought by the Messiah. Atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit; regeneration by the Holy Spirit; heavenly rest as an eternal inheritance; and universal dominion shared with Christ!
3. The wondrous person of the Messiah in his dual nature, divine and human.
(1) His divinity,
(a) as God: “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Psa 45:6 and Heb 1:8 ) ;
(b) as creator of the heavens and earth, immutable and eternal: Of old didst thou lay the foundation of the earth; And the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end Psa 102:25-27 quoted with slight changes in Heb 1:10-12 .
(c) As owner of the earth: The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein, Psa 24:1 quoted in 1Co 10:26 .
(d) As the Son of God: “Thou art my Son; This day have I begotten thee” Psa 2:7 ; Heb 1:5 .
(e) As David’s Lord: The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool, Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:41-46 .
(f) As the object of angelic worship: “And let all the angels of God worship him” Psa 97:7 ; Heb 1:6 .
(g) As the Bread of life: And he rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them food from heaven Psa 78:24 ; interpreted in Joh 6:31-58 . These are but samples which ascribe deity to the Messiah of the psalmists.
(2) His humanity, (a) As the Son of man, or Son of Adam: Psa 8:4-6 , cited in 1Co 15:24-28 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Compare Luke’s genealogy, Luk 3:23-38 . This is the ideal man, or Second Adam, who regains Paradise Lost, who recovers race dominion, in whose image all his spiritual lineage is begotten. 1Co 15:45-49 . (b) As the Son of David: Psa 18:50 ; Psa 89:4 ; Psa 89:29 ; Psa 89:36 ; Psa 132:11 , cited in Luk 1:32 ; Act 13:22-23 ; Rom 1:3 ; 2Ti 2:8 . Perhaps a better statement of the psalmists’ vision of the wonderful person of the Messiah would be: He saw the uncreated Son, the second person of the trinity, in counsel and compact with the Father, arranging in eternity for the salvation of men: Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 . Then he saw this Holy One stoop to be the Son of man: Psa 8:4-6 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Then he was the son of David, and then he saw him rise again to be the Son of God: Psa 2:7 ; Rom 1:3-4 .
4. His offices.
(1) As the one atoning sacrifice (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 ).
(2) As the great Prophet, or Preacher (Psa 40:9-10 ; Psa 22:22 ; Heb 2:12 ). Even the method of his teaching by parable was foreseen (Psa 78:2 ; Mat 13:35 ). Equally also the grace, wisdom, and power of his teaching. When the psalmist declares that “Grace is poured into thy lips” (Psa 45:2 ), we need not be startled when we read that all the doctors in the Temple who heard him when only a boy “were astonished at his understanding and answers” (Luk 2:47 ); nor that his home people at Nazareth “all bear him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth” (Luk 4:22 ); nor that those of his own country were astonished, and said, “Whence hath this man this wisdom?” (Mat 13:54 ); nor that the Jews in the Temple marveled, saying, “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” (Joh 7:15 ) ; nor that the stern officers of the law found their justification in failure to arrest him in the declaration, “Never man spake like this man” (Joh 7:46 ).
(3) As the king (Psa 2:6 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 45:1-17 ; Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:42-46 ; Act 2:33-36 ; 1Co 15:25 ; Eph 1:20 ; Heb 1:13 ).
(4) As the priest (Psa 110:4 ; Heb 5:5-10 ; Heb 7:1-21 ; Heb 10:12-14 ).
(5) As the final judge. The very sentence of expulsion pronounced upon the finally impenitent by the great judge (Mat 25:41 ) is borrowed from the psalmist’s prophetic words (Psa 6:8 ).
5. Incidents of life. The psalmists not only foresaw the necessity for a Saviour; the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation; the wonderful human-divine person of the Saviour; the offices to be filled by him in the work of salvation, but also many thrilling details of his work in life, death, resurrection, and exaltation. It is not assumed to cite all these details, but some of the most important are enumerated in order, thus:
(1) The visit, adoration, and gifts of the Magi recorded in Mat 2 are but partial fulfilment of Psa 72:9-10 .
(2) The scripture employed by Satan in the temptation of our Lord (Luk 4:10-11 ) was cited from Psa 91:11-12 and its pertinency not denied.
(3) In accounting for his intense earnestness and the apparently extreme measures adopted by our Lord in his first purification of the Temple (Joh 2:17 ), he cites the messianic zeal predicted in Psa 69:9 .
(4) Alienation from his own family was one of the saddest trials of our Lord’s earthly life. They are slow to understand his mission and to enter into sympathy with him. His self-abnegation and exhaustive toil were regarded by them as evidences of mental aberration, and it seems at one time they were ready to resort to forcible restraint of his freedom) virtually what in our time would be called arrest under a writ of lunacy. While at the last his half-brothers became distinguished preachers of his gospel, for a long while they do not believe on him. And the evidence forces us to the conclusion that his own mother shared with her other sons, in kind though not in degree, the misunderstanding of the supremacy of his mission over family relations. The New Testament record speaks for itself:
Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them. How is it that ye sought me? Knew ye not that I must be in my Father’s house? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them Luk 2:48-51 (R.V.).
And when the wine failed, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. And Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. Joh 2:3-5 (R.V.).
And there come his mother and his brethren; and standing without; they sent unto him, calling him. And a multitude was sitting about him; and they say unto him. Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answereth them, and saith, Who is my mother and my brethren? And looking round on them that sat round about him, he saith, Behold, my mother and my brethren) For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother Mar 3:31-35 (R.V.).
Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of tabernacles, was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may behold thy works which thou doest. For no man doeth anything in secret, and himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou doest these things, manifest thyself to the world. For even his brethren did not believe on him. Jesus therefore saith unto them, My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that its works are evil. Go ye up unto the feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; because my time is not fulfilled. Joh 7:2-9 (R.V.).
These citations from the Revised Version tell their own story. But all that sad story is foreshown in the prophetic psalms. For example: I am become a stranger unto my brethren, And an alien unto my mother’s children. Psa 69:8 .
(5) The triumphal entry into Jerusalem was welcomed by a joyous people shouting a benediction from Psa 118:26 : “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Mat 21:9 ); and the Lord’s lamentation over Jerusalem predicts continued desolation and banishment from his sight until the Jews are ready to repeat that benediction (Mat 23:39 ).
(6) The children’s hosanna in the Temple after its second purgation is declared by our Lord to be a fulfilment of that perfect praise forecast in Psa 8:2 .
(7) The final rejection of our Lord by his own people was also clear in the psalmist’s vision (Psa 118:22 ; Mat 21:42-44 ).
(8) Gethsemane’s baptism of suffering, with its strong crying and tears and prayers was as clear to the psalmist’s prophetic vision as to the evangelist and apostle after it became history (Psa 69:1-4 ; Psa 69:13-20 ; and Mat 26:36-44 ; Heb 5:7 ).
(9) In life-size also before the psalmist was the betrayer of Christ and his doom (Psa 41:9 ; Psa 69:25 ; Psa 109:6-8 ; Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:20 ).
(10) The rage of the people, Jew and Gentile, and the conspiracy of Pilate and Herod are clearly outlined (Psa 2:1-3 ; Act 4:25-27 ).
(11) All the farce of his trial the false accusation, his own marvelous silence; and the inhuman maltreatment to which he was subjected, is foreshown in the prophecy as dramatically as in the history (Mat 26:57-68 ; Mat 27:26-31 ; Psa 27:12 ; Psa 35:15-16 ; Psa 38:3 ; Psa 69:19 ).
The circumstances of his death, many and clear, are distinctly foreseen. He died in the prime of life (Psa 89:45 ; Psa 102:23-24 ). He died by crucifixion (Psa 22:14-17 ; Luk 23 ; 33; Joh 19:23-37 ; Joh 20:27 ). But yet not a bone of his body was broken (Psa 34:20 ; Joh 19:36 ).
The persecution, hatred without a cause, the mockery and insults, are all vividly and dramatically foretold (Psa 22:6-13 ; Psa 35:7 ; Psa 35:12 ; Psa 35:15 ; Psa 35:21 ; Psa 109:25 ).
The parting of his garments and the gambling for his vesture (Psa 22:18 ; Mat 27:35 ).
His intense thirst and the gall and vinegar offered for his drink (Psa 69:21 ; Mat 27:34 ).
In the psalms, too, we hear his prayers for his enemies so remarkably fulfilled in fact (Psa 109:4 ; Luk 23:34 ).
His spiritual death was also before the eye of the psalmist, and the very words which expressed it the psalmist heard. Separation from the Father is spiritual death. The sinner’s substitute must die the sinner’s death, death physical, i.e., separation of soul from body; death spiritual, i.e., separation of the soul from God. The latter is the real death and must precede the former. This death the substitute died when he cried out: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me.” (Psa 22:1 ; Mat 27:46 ).
Emerging from the darkness of that death, which was the hour of the prince of darkness, the psalmist heard him commend his spirit to the Father (Psa_31:35; Luk 23:46 ) showing that while he died the spiritual death, his soul was not permanently abandoned unto hell (Psa 16:8-10 ; Act 2:25 ) so that while he “tasted death” for every man it was not permanent death (Heb 2:9 ).
With equal clearness the psalmist foresaw his resurrection, his triumph over death and hell, his glorious ascension into heaven, and his exaltation at the right hand of God as King of kings and Lord of lords, as a high Driest forever, as invested with universal sovereignty (Psa 16:8-11 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 68:18 ; Psa 2:6 ; Psa 111:1-4 ; Psa 8:4-6 ; Act 2:25-36 ; Eph 1:19-23 ; Eph 4:8-10 ).
We see, therefore, brethren, when the scattered parts are put together and adjusted, how nearly complete a portrait of our Lord is put upon the prophetic canvas by this inspired limner, the sweet singer of Israel.
QUESTIONS
1. What is a good text for this chapter?
2. What is the threefold division of the Old Testament as cited by our Lord?
3. What is the last division called and why?
4. What is the object of the discussion in this chapter?
5. To what three things is the purpose limited?
6. What especially qualifies the author to meet the objections of the higher critics to allowing the New Testament usage of the Old Testament to determine its meaning and application?
7. What is the author’s conviction relative to the Scriptures?
8. What is the New Testament testimony on the question of inspiration?
9. What is the author’s suggested plan of approach to the study of the Messiah in the Psalms?
10. What the background of the Psalmist’s portrait of the Messiah and of what does it consist?
11. Give the substance of Paul’s discussion of man’s sinfulness.
12. What is the teaching of Jesus on this point?
13. What is the teaching relative to sacrifices?
14. What the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah and what the four great elements of it as forecast by the psalmist?
15. What is the teaching of the psalms relative to the wondrous person of the Messiah? Discuss.
16. What are the offices of the Messiah according to psalms? Discuss each.
17. Cite the more important events of the Messiah’s life according to the vision of the psalmist.
18. What the circumstances of the Messiah’s death and resurrection as foreseen by the psalmist?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
XV
PSALM AFTER DAVID PRIOR TO THE BABYLONIAN EXILE
The superscriptions ascribed to Asaph twelve palms (Psa 50 ; 73-83) Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun presided over the Levitical singers in the time of David. Their sons also directed the various bands of musicians (1Ch 25 ). It seems that the family of Asaph for many generations continued to preside over the service of song (Cf. Ezr 3:10 ).
The theme of Psa 50 is “Obedience is better than sacrifice,” or the language of Samuel to Saul when he had committed the awful sin in respect to the Amalekites. This teaching is paralleled in many Old Testament scriptures, for instance, Psa 51:16-17 . For thou delightest not in sacrifice; else would I give it: Thou hast no pleasure in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
The problem of Psa 73 is the problem of why the wicked prosper (Psa 73:1-14 ), and its solution is found in the attitude of God toward the wicked (Psa 73:15-28 ). [For a fine exposition of the other psalms of this section see Kirkpatrick or Maclaren on the Psalms.]
The psalms attributed to the sons of Korah are Psa 42 ; Psa 44 ; Psa 45 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 ; Psa 49 ; Psa 84 ; Psa 85 ; Psa 87 . The evidence that Psalms 42-43 were one poem is internal. There are three stanzas, each closing with a refrain. The similarity of structure and thought indicates that they were formerly one psalm. A parallel to these two psalms we find in the escape of Christian from the Castle of Giant Despair in Pilgrim’s Progress .
Only two psalms were ascribed to Solomon, viz: Psa 72 and 127. However, the author believes that there is good reason to attribute Psa 72 to David. If he wrote it, then only one was written by Solomon.
The theme of Psa 72 is the reign of the righteous king, and the outline according to DeWitt, which shows the kingdom as desired and foretold, is as follows: (1) righteous (Psa 72:1-4 ) ; (2) perpetual (Psa 72:5-7 ); (3) universal (Psa 72:8-11 ); (4) benign (Psa 72:12-14 ); (5) prosperous (Psa 72:15-17 ).
Psa 127 was written when Solomon built the Temple. It is the central psalm of the psalms of the Ascents, which refer to the Temple. It seems fitting that this psalm should occupy the central position in the group, because of the occasion which inspired it and its relation to the other psalms of the group. A brief interpretation of it is as follows: The house here means household. It is a brief lyric, setting forth the lessons of faith and trust. This together with Psa 128 is justly called “A Song of Home.” Once in speaking to Baylor Female College I used this psalm, illustrating the function of a school as a parent sending forth her children into the world as mighty arrows. Again I used this psalm in one of my addresses in our own Seminary in which I made the household to refer to the Seminary sending forth the preachers as her children.
The psalms assigned to the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah are Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 . The historical setting is found in the history of the reign of Hezekiel. Their application to Judah at this time is found in the historical connection, in which we have God’s great deliverances from the foreign powers, especially the deliverance from Sennacherib. We find in poetry a description of the destruction and desolation of Jerusalem in the Lamentations of Jeremiah and in Psa 74 ; Psa 79 .
The radical critics ascribe Psa 74 ; Psa 79 to the Maccabean period, and their argument is based upon the use of the word “synagogues,” in Psa 74:8 . The answer to their contention is found in the marginal rendering which gives “places of assembly” instead of “synagogues.” The word “synagogue” is a Greek word translated from the Hebrew, which has several meanings, and in this place means the “place of assembly” where God met his people.
The silence of the exile period is shown in Psa 137 , in which they respond that they cannot sing a song of Zion in a strange land. Their brightening of hope is seen in Psa 102 . In this we have the brightening of their hope on the eve of their return. In Psa 85:10 we have a great text:
Mercy and truth are met together;
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
The truth here is God’s law demanding justice; mercy is God’s grace meeting justice. This was gloriously fulfilled in Christ on the cross. He met the demands of the law and offers mercy and grace to all who accept them on the terms of repentance and faith.
Three characteristics of Psa 119 are, first, it is an alphabetical psalm; second, it is the longest chapter in the Bible, and third, it is an expansion of the latter part of Psa 19 . Psalms 146-150 were used for worship in the second temple. The expressions of innocence in the psalms do not refer to original sin, but to a course of conduct in contrast with wicked lives. The psalmists do not claim absolute, but relative sinlessness.
The imprecations in the psalms are real prayers, and are directed against real men who were enemies of David and the Jewish nation, but they are not expressions of personal resentment. They are vigorous expressions of righteous indignation against incorrigible enemies of God and his people and are to be interpreted in the light of progressive revelation. The New Testament contains many exultant expressions of the overthrow of the wicked. (Cf. 1Co 16:22 ; 2Ti 4:14 ; Gal 5:12 ; Rev 16:5-6 ; Rev 18:20 .) These imprecations do not teach that we, even in the worst circumstances, should bear personal malice, nor take vengeance on the enemies of righteousness, but that we should live so close to God that we may acquiesce in the destruction of the wicked and leave the matter of vengeance in the hands of a just God, to whom vengeance belongs (Rom 12:19-21 ).
The clearest teachings on the future life as found in the psalms, both pro and con, are found in these passages, as follows: Psa 16:10-11 ; Psa 17:15 ; Psa 23:6 ; Psa 49:15 ; Psa 73:23-26 . The passages that are construed to the contrary are found in Psa 6:5 ; Psa 30:9 ; Psa 39:13 ; Psa 88:10-12 ; Psa 115:17 . The student will compare these passages and note carefully their teachings. The first group speaks of the triumph over Sheol (the resurrection) ; about awaking in the likeness of God; about dwelling in the house of the Lord forever; about redemption from the power of Sheol; and God’s guiding counsel and final reception into glory, all of which is very clear and unmistakable teaching as to the future life.
The second group speaks of DO remembrance in death; about no profit to the one when he goes down to the pit; of going hence and being no more; about the dead not being able to praise God and about the grave as being the land of forgetfulness ; and about the dead not praising Jehovah, all of which are spoken from the standpoint of the grave and temporal death.
There is positively no contradiction nor discrepancy in the teaching of these scriptures. One group takes the spirit of man as the viewpoint and teaches the continuity of life, the immortality of the soul; the other group takes the physical being of man as the viewpoint and teaches the dissolution of the body and its absolute unconsciousness in the grave.
QUESTIONS
1. How many and what psalms were ascribed to Asaph?
2. Who presided over the Levitical singers in the time of David?
3. What is the theme of Psa 50 , and where do we find the same teaching in the Old Testament?
4. What is the problem of Psa 73 , and what its solution?
5. What psalms are attributed to the sons of Korah?
6. What is the evidence that Psalms 42-43 were one poem and what the characteristic of these two taken together?
7. What parallel to these two psalms do we find in modern literature?
8. What psalms were ascribed to Solomon?
9. What is the theme of Psa 72 ?
10. What is the outline according to DeWitt, which shows the kingdom as desired and foretold?
11. When was Psa 127 written and what the application as a part of the Pilgrim group?
12. Give a brief interpretation of it and the uses made of it by the author on two different occasions.
13. What psalms are assigned to the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah, and what their historical setting?
14. What is their application to Judah at this time?
15. Where may we find in poetry a description of the destruction and desolation of Jerusalem?
16. To what period do radical critics ascribe Psalms 74-79; what is their argument, and what is your answer?
17. Which psalm shows the silence of the exile period and why?
18. Which one shows their brightening of hope?
19. Explain Psa 85:10 .
20. Give three characteristics of Psa 119 .
21. What use was made of Psalms 146-150?
22. Explain the expression of innocence in the psalms in harmony with their teaching of sin.
23. Explain the imprecations in the psalms and show their harmony with New Testament teachings.
24. Cite the clearest teachings on the future life as found in the psalms, both pro and con.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Psa 147:1 Praise ye the LORD: for [it is] good to sing praises unto our God; for [it is] pleasant; [and] praise is comely.
Ver. 1. It is good to sing praises ] For, 1. Hereby we glorify God, Psa 50:23 , and so do him right; for he is the proper object of praises, worthy only to be praised, Psa 18:32 . Hereby we do good to ourselves, secure former favours, which else we forfeit, and procure further blessings, which else we forestall. Hereby also we make things good in themselves to become good to us.
For it is pleasant
And praise is comely
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
“Praise ye Jah.” Incomparably greater things are before Israel than the work of Nehemiah for the returned remnant, though to speak of this may have given occasion to their glorious hope, inseparable from the Messiah and the kingdom and all Israel then to be saved. Then indeed it will be Jehovah building Jerusalem and gathering Israel’s outcasts far beyond the little provisional mercy to the Jews from Babylon. And He is competent Who makes the world, yea the universe, delights most of all in the lowly that fear Him, and shows Jacob His word, Israel His judgments; for He thus owned no other nation.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 147:1-6
1Praise the Lord!
For it is good to sing praises to our God;
For it is pleasant and praise is becoming.
2The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
He gathers the outcasts of Israel.
3He heals the brokenhearted
And binds up their wounds.
4He counts the number of the stars;
He gives names to all of them.
5Great is our Lord and abundant in strength;
His understanding is infinite.
6The Lord supports the afflicted;
He brings down the wicked to the ground.
Psa 147:1-6 This first strophe (Psa 147:1-6), like Psalms 146, lists several characteristics of God which can be ascertained by His acts (this Psalm is post-exilic).
1. for Israel
a. builds up Jerusalem
b. gathers her outcasts (i.e., exiles, cf. Isa 11:12; Eze 39:28)
2. for the needy
a. heals the broken hearted (possibly refers to repentant Israel in exile, cf. Psa 51:17-18)
b. supports the afflicted (i.e., often used of faithful followers)
c. brings down the wicked
(1) foreign nations
(2) unfaithful covenant partners
3. against paganism (i.e., astral idolatry)
a. counts the number of stars (Gen 1:16; Isa 40:26, i.e., not gods, cf. Psa 8:3)
b. calls them by name (i.e., controls them)
c. YHWH is abundant in strength (cf. Isa. 40 26e)
d. YHWH has infinite understanding (BDB 108, cf. Isa 40:28)
Psa 147:1
NASBbecoming
NKJVbeautiful
TEV, REBfitting
JPSOAglorious
This adjective (BDB 610) can mean
1. beautiful – Son 1:5; Son 2:14; Son 4:3; Son 6:4
2. fitting, appropriate when used of praise to God – Psa 33:1; Psa 93:5; Pro 17:7
Psa 147:4 b He gives names to all of them The naming of something demonstrates authority over it (cf. Gen 2:18-20).
Psa 147:6 to the ground This can be understood in several ways.
1. the defeated enemy bowing to the ground
2. a circumlocution for death/Sheol
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
The second of these five Hallelujah Psalms, the EXODUS Psalm.
Praise ye THE LORD. Hebrew Hallelu-JAH. App-4. Not “inserted by mistake in verse Psa 147:1 instead of in the title”, but required here by the Structure. See the Structure.
For. Not “come into the first line from the second by dittography”, but an essential part of the second line, which is repeated by the Figure of speech Anadiplosis (App-6) in the third line. The first verse thus does contain two lines (beside the “Hallelujah”) like all the other verses.
God. Hebrew. Elohim. App-4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 147:1-20 :
Praise ye the LORD [or hallelujah]: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; it’s pleasant; praise is comely [or desirable, beautiful]. The LORD doth build up Jerusalem: he gathers together the outcasts of Israel. He heals the broken in heart, he binds up their wounds. He tells the number of the stars; he calls them all by their names ( Psa 147:1-4 ).
That to me is just fabulous. I love it! I’ve been sort of an amateur astronomer from my youth. Always been very interested in the heavens. From the time I was going through college I went out to the Griffith Observatory every month when they have a change of program and look at the programs that they offer there at the Griffith Observatory. Always fascinated with the vastness of this universe, because it just spoke to me of the greatness of the God that I serve.
And to learn of the number of stars. It is estimated that there are perhaps as many stars in the heavens as there are grains of sand upon the earth. Some have estimated there to be ten to the twenty-fifth power number of stars. Or ten with twenty-five zeroes tacked on behind. The Milky Way galaxy which our solar system is a part is just one of the many galaxies. Outside of us, the next one is the Adromeda galaxy and they’re discovering new galaxies all the time. And the galaxies, each of them contain billions of stars. If you look at the Milky Way on a summer evening out on the desert or up in the mountains, that glow that is in the sky comes from the billions of stars that are in our Milky Way galaxy.
Now, “He tells the number of the stars.” Now, we guessed at the number of the stars. It’s interesting that when the science of astronomy was first developed in the early stages, some of the early scientists stayed up at night counting stars. And some of the earlier astronomers declare with scientific accuracy that there were 6,126 stars in the sky. And then later another astronomer who did much the same kind of a thing revised and said, “No, he was wrong. There’s 6,232.” And so the estimates of the number of the stars was always very low. In other words, something under 10,000 stars. Until, of course, the ability to magnify with a telescope, and we discovered that the stars are innumerable.
Well, actually, the Bible said that all along. God said to Abraham. He said, “Look up into the heavens.” He said, “Can you number the stars? So shall thy seed be.” You can’t number them. You won’t be able to number them. And God declared that the stars were innumerable. And yet, God has numbered the stars. As far as man is concerned, we don’t know. We guessed at a number, ten to the twenty-fifth power. Who knows, it may be ten to the fiftieth power. But it’s a guess. It’s an estimate. But God knows the number of the stars. But more than that, He calls them all by their names.
Now the stars that He has called by name is not like stars like, Hey Joe and Jim and Jeff, you know. God said to Job,” Can you find the sweet influence of the Pleiades? What about Arcturus? How would you like to guide us through the sky?” And He speaks about the bands of Orion and so forth. And so God is calling them by these fancy, technical names. All of the billions of them. The next verse says,
Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite ( Psa 147:5 ).
It would have to be just to know all the names of all the stars.
The LORD lifts up the meek: and casts the wicked down to the ground ( Psa 147:6 ).
Again, the idea of exalting the meek.
Sing unto the LORD with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God: Who covers the heavens with clouds, who prepares the rain for the earth, who makes the grass to grow upon the mountains. He gives to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry. He delights not in the strength of the horse: he takes not pleasure in the legs of a man. The LORD takes pleasure in those that reverence him, in those that hope in his mercy. Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion. For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates; he hath blessed thy children within thee. He makes peace in thy borders, he fills you with the finest of the wheat. He sends forth his commandment upon the earth: his word runs very swiftly. He gives snow like wool: he scatters the hoar frost like ashes. He casts forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold? He sends out his word, and melts them: he causes his wind to blow, and the waters flow. He shows his word unto Jacob, his statutes, his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the LORD ( Psa 147:7-20 ).
For God’s special work for His people. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
This is one of the Hallelujah Psalms; it begins and ends with Praise ye the LORD. May our hearts be in tune, that we may praise the Lord while we read these words of praise!
Psa 147:1. Praise ye the LORD:
It is not enough for the Psalmist to do it himself. He wants help in it, so he says, Praise ye the LORD. Wake up, my brethren; bestir yourselves, my sisters; come, all of you, and unite in this holy exercise! Praise ye the LORD.
Psa 147:1. For it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely.
When a thing is good, pleasant, and comely, you have certainly three excellent reasons for attending to it. It is not everything that is good; but here you have a happy combination of goodness, pleasantness, and comeliness. It will do you good to praise God. God counts it good, and you will find it a pleasant exercise. That which is the occupation of heaven must be happy employment. It is good to sing praises unto our God, it is pleasant, and certainly nothing is more comely and beautiful, and more in accordance with the right order of things, than for creatures to praise their Creator, and the children of God to praise their Father in heaven.
Psa 147:2. The LORD doth build up Jerusalem:
Praise his name for that. You love his church; be glad that he builds it up. Praise him who quarries every stone, and puts it upon the one foundation that is laid, even Jesus.
Psa 147:2. He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.
Praise him for that. If you were once an outcast, and he has gathered you, give him your special personal song of thanksgiving.
Psa 147:3. He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.
Praise him for that, ye who have had broken hearts! If he has healed you, surely you should give him great praise.
Psa 147:4. He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.
He who heals broken hearts counts the stars, and calls them by their names, as men call their servants, and send them on their way. Praise his name. Can you look up at the starry sky at night without praising him who made the stars, and leads out their host?
Psa 147:5. Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.
Praise him, then; praise his greatness, his almightiness, his infinite wisdom. Can you do otherwise? Oh, may God reveal himself so much to your heart that you shall be constrained to pay him willing adoration!
Psa 147:6. The LORD lifteth up the meek:
What a lifting up it is for them, out of the very dust where they have been trodden down by the proud and the powerful! The Lord lifts them up. Praise him for that.
Psa 147:6. He casteth the wicked down to the ground.
Thus he puts an end to their tyranny, and delivers those who were ground beneath their cruel power. Praise ye his name for this also. Excuse me that I continue to say to you, Praise ye the Lord, for, often as I say it, you will not praise him too much; and we need to have our hearts stirred up to this duty of praising God, which is so much neglected. After all, it is the praise of God that is the ultimatum of our religion. Prayer does but sow; praise is the harvest. Praying is the end of preaching, and praising is the end of praying. May we bring to God much of the very essence of true religion, and that will be the inward praise of the heart!
Psa 147:7. Sing unto the LORD with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God:
Unto our God. How that possessive pronoun puts a world of endearment into the majestic word God! This God is our God. Come, my hearer, can you call God your God? Is he indeed yours? If so, Sing unto the LORD with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God.
Psa 147:8. Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.
They did not talk about the law of nature in those days. They ascribed everything to God; let us do the same. It is a poor science that pushes God farther away from us, instead of bringing him nearer to us. HE covers the heaven with clouds, HE prepares the rain for earth, HE makes the grass to grow upon the mountains.
Psa 147:9. He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.
Our God cares for the birds and the beasts. He is as great in little things as in great things. Praise ye his name. The gods of the heathen could not have these things said of them; but our God takes pleasure in providing for the beasts of field and the birds of the air. The commissariat of the universe is in his hand: Thou openest thine hand, and satisfieth the desire of every living thing.
Psa 147:10-11. He delighteth not in the strength of the horse: he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man. The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.
Kings of the olden times rejoiced in the thews and sinews of their soldiers and their horses; but God has no delight in mere physical strength. He takes pleasure in spiritual things, even in the weakness which makes us fear him, even that weakness which has not grown into the strength of faith, and yet hopes in his mercy. The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.
Psa 147:12. Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion.
Let whole cities join together to praise God. Shall we live to see the day when all London shall praise him? Shall we, ever, as we go down these streets, with their multitudes of inhabitants, see the people standing in the doorways, and asking, What must we do to be saved? Shall we ever see every house with anxious enquirers in it, saying, Tell us, tell us, how can we be reconciled to God? Pray that it may be so. In Cromwells day, if you went down Cheapside at a certain hour of the morning, you would find every blind drawn down; for the inmates were all at family prayer. There is no street like that in London now. In those glorious Puritan times, there was domestic worship everywhere, and the people seemed brought to Christs feet. Alas, it was but an appearance in many cases; and they soon turned back to their own devices! Imitating the Psalmist, let us say, Praise the Lord, O London; praise thy God, O England!
Psa 147:13. For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates; he hath blessed thy children within thee.
As a nation, we have been greatly prospered, defended, and supplied; and the church of God has been made to stand fast against her enemies, and her children have been blessed.
Psa 147:14-15. He maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat. He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly.
Oriental monarchs were very earnest to have good post arrangements. They sent their decrees upon swift dromedaries. They can never be compared with the swiftness of the purpose of Gods decree. His word runneth very swiftly. Oh, that the day would come when, over all the earth, Gods writ should run, and Gods written Word should come to be reverenced, believed, and obeyed!
Psa 147:16. He giveth snow like wool:
Men say, it snows; but what it is it that snows? The Psalmist rightly says of the Lord, HE giveth snow. They say that according to the condition of the atmosphere, snow is produced; but the believer says, He giveth snow like wool. It is not only like wool for whiteness; but it is like it for the warmth which it gives.
Psa 147:16. He scattereth the hoar frost like ashes.
The simile is not to be easily explained; but it will often have suggested itself to you who, in the early morning, have seen the hoar frost scattered abroad.
Psa 147:17. He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold?
None can stand before his heat; but when he withdraws the fire, and takes away the heat, the cold is equally destructive. It burns up as fast as fire would. Who can stand before his cold? If God be gone, if the Spirit of God be taken away from his church, or from any of you, who can stand before his cold? The deprivation is as terrible as if it were a positive infliction. Who can stand before his cold?
Psa 147:18. He sendeth out his word, and melteth them; he causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow.
The frozen waters were hard as iron; the south wind toucheth them, and they flow again. What can God not do? The great God of nature is our God. Let us praise him. Oh, may our hearts be in a right key tonight to make music before him!
Psa 147:19. He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel.
This is something greater than all his wonders in nature. The God of nature is the God of revelation. He hath not hidden his truth away from men. He hath come out of the eternal secrecies, and he hath showed his word, especially his Incarnate Word, unto his people. Let his name be praised.
Psa 147:20. He hath not dealt so with any nation:
Or, with any other nation. He revealed his statutes and his judgments to Israel; and since their day, the spiritual Israel has been privileged in like manner: He hath not dealt so with any nation.
Psa 147:20. And as for his judgments, they have not known them.
Even today there are large tracts of country where God is not known. If we know him, let us praise him.
Psa 147:20. Praise ye the LORD.
Hallelujah! The Psalm ends upon its key-note: Praise ye the LORD. So may all our lives end! Amen.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
In this psalm, beginning with a call which declares the pleasantness and comeliness of praise (v. Psa 147:1), the singer first celebrates the Divine activity in restoring His people (vv. Psa 147:2-6). He then proceeds to declare how God provides for all human needs (vv. Psa 147:7-11); and finally rejoices in the perfection of His government (vv. Psa 147:12-20).
In the first movement dealing with the restoration of Israel, there is a very beautiful suggestion of the inter- relation of the pitying power of God. He healeth the broken-hearted … He telleth the number of the stars. In this activity of restoration there is manifest power and wisdom, and strict discrimination in the upholding of the meek, and the abasing of the wicked. In His providence God provides for all material needs, and yet His purpose in so doing is that of creating the spiritual attitudes towards Himself in which He supremely delights, His delight finally not in animal strength, but in the fear and hope which constitute spiritual strength.
In the last movement there is a fine recognition of His provision of material supply, which is however, all the way through made a parabolic of His sustenance of spiritual strength. Literally He gives His people the finest of the wheat, and actually gives snow, and hoar frost, and ice; and yet all these things are intended to be revelations of the methods by which He sends His commandment and His word, His statutes and His judgments, for the perfect ordering of life.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Why We Praise the Lord
Psa 147:1-11
It has been supposed that this psalm was prepared for use when the new walls of the city were completed in the days of Nehemiah. It contains a further enumeration of Gods present tenses. The psalmist never tires of celebrating the immediateness of God. He will not tolerate the intervention of second causes, which are the artifice of scientific explanation. Laws are, after all, only the convenient statement of the regularity of Gods methods. The couplets of this psalm are amazingly suggestive. By contrast they complete each other. God builds up the great city of Jerusalem, but His heart goes out to the individual prodigal. He is equally at home in the hospital where broken hearts congregate, and among the stars, which He names and counts as a shepherd His flock. He upholds the meek and overthrows the proud. Spring, with its clouds and rain and sprouting grass, is His work; but so also the wild life of the forest, with its beasts and birds. He has no such delight in athletic strength or speed as He has in the reverent worship of His people. There is a perfect balance and rhythm in Gods nature.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Psa 147:1
Consider the glory and the use of the Book of Psalms.
I. Think, first, of the rareness and preciousness of that unique gift to the Church. The Hebrew’s characteristic was his religion, and not his literature. The Hebrew race left behind it a trophy corresponding to this characteristic. It was not a code of laws, embodying the great issues of justice, though Moses was of the seed of Abraham. It was not a volume of poetry, to whose immortal pages the centuries add imperishable beauty; at least, it was not a volume of poetry as such. It was something more unusual. If we measure the preciousness of products by their reality, then prayers are the most precious of all products. So rare and unique is the Book of Psalms.
II. Note some of the general uses of the Psalter. (1) The Psalms bring out with unapproachable practical influence the idea of a living, personal God, the Creator, and Judge, and Friend of men; His moral character; the whole body of truths rightly or wrongly termed natural religion. (2) The Psalms bring out as nothing else can the ideal of spiritual religion. (a) They show us that religion’s exceeding great reward is in itself. (6) They tell us that man’s spiritual ideal is not in its essence formal or ceremonial. (c) They show, as a feature of the spiritual character unknown to all other religions, a deep, abiding sense of sinfulness; a holiness arising not from effort, but from conscience feeling a burden and faith laying it upon a Saviour.
III. The Psalms are a proof of the existence of the Divine world, just as music is the proof of the existence of a world of harmony. We possess aspirations beyond our present needs. They will never read man truly who forget that he bears within a spiritual prophecy, as truly as he bears without a natural history. Of this prophecy the Psalms are the accumulated utterances. They tell us that even if the tree of humanity, embedded in the soil of myriad ages, has roots that go down lower than the “cabin of the savage,” to “the lair of the brute,” yet aloft it has tendrils that stretch themselves upwards towards the light of immortality. “I am continually with Thee; Thou hast holden me by Thy right hand.” “This God is our God for ever and ever; He shall be our Guide unto death.”
Bishop Alexander, The Great Question, p. 238.
References: Psa 147:1.-A. Blomfield, Sermons in Town and Country, p. 335. Psa 147:2.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxii., No. 1302.
Psa 147:2-5
The text reveals the constructive side of Divine government:-
I. As shown in the building up of the Church. That He should do so shows: (1) that the Church is self-demolished; (2) that it is self-helpless; (3) that God is the Gatherer, the Redeemer, and the Builder of the Church.
II. As seen in the gentle care of human hearts. Learn from this: (1) the personality of God’s knowledge; (2) the infinite adaptations of Divine grace; (3) the perfectness of Divine healing.
III. As seen in the order, the regularity, and the stability of creation. (1) God takes care of the great universe; may I not trust Him with my life? (2) Where God’s will is unquestioned, the result is light, beauty, music; why should I oppose myself to its gracious dominion?
Parker, City Temple, vol. i., p. 217 (see also Pulpit Notes, p. 197).
Reference: Psa 147:3.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. i., No. 53.
Psa 147:7-8
We might almost assert that this Psalm was composed in spring. Spring, as Eastern travellers tell us, comes with a suddenness and beauty in that bare land of Palestine that we can hardly conceive of. All at once the dry, stony hills are clad with the tenderest green, the flowers fill the fields, and the heavens drop down dew.
I. But whether composed in spring or not, the hundred and forty-seventh Psalm may teach us a great lesson: a lesson of thankfulness; a lesson of acknowledgment to God for His care-for His care of all His creatures, cattle and birds as well as man. The gratitude that is acceptable to God is the offering of a just, and merciful, and humble life-an offering that God loves better than any other service, which in His sight is more than whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices.
II. Let us learn from this season to have trust and confidence in God. Let us love to mark in what we see now the care of God for all His creatures. Not all the cunning of man could make a single blade of grass, or cause one leaf to come out of its sheath, or one flower to bud and bloom. Think of the witness which spring bears to the providence and love of God.
III. Let us learn from the present season at least a hint about our immortal destiny. A few weeks ago, and all nature seemed dead. The trees were leafless; the ground was bare; there was no song of birds in the air. But now there is life, visible and joyous life, all around us. The earth has had her Easter, and is risen. And shall not we see in this a type and parable of our own resurrection? Shall it not help in its degree to confirm the blessed hope that we shall live though we die; that death is not the end of our being?
R. D. B. Rawnsley, Sermons in Country Churches, 2nd series, p. 41.
References: Psa 147:7-9.-C. Kingsley, The Water of Life, p. 317. Psa 147:9.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii., No. 672. Psa 147:12.-J. A. Sellar, Church Doctrine and Practice, p. 188. Psa 147:14, Psa 147:15.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vi., No. 314. Psa 147:15.-Ibid., vol. xxvii., No. 1607.
Psa 147:16
I. Look, first, at the beauty of the snow. It makes a spiritual world of this dull, dark earth of ours; and the fields that seemed fit only for the growth of man’s food and the tread of weary feet in the common labours of life, covered with its white, immaculate carpet, look like a celestial floor, on which white-winged angels on lofty errands of mercy might alight from the kindred heavens. The snow-crystals are the blossoms of inorganic nature. Their beauty is not a chance endowment. It is God’s Hall-mark, attesting that the work is His. Such beauty is a reflection of the Divine image, not something that God does, but something that He is, really and suitably a part of Himself. It awakens that curiosity about God which is an essential element of worship. He who arranged the particles of snow into such exquisite shapes of beauty can bring order out of our confusion, and change our vile bodies and spirits into the likeness of Christ’s.
II. Look at the power of the snow. In a few hours God’s little army of snowflakes does a work which defies all the resources of man to undo it, and before which he has to pause baffled and defeated.
III. Look, further, at the service of the snow. “He giveth snow like wool,” says the psalmist. The comparison expressively indicates one of the most important purposes which the snow serves in the economy of nature. It covers the earth like a blanket during that period of winter sleep which is necessary to recruit its exhausted energies and prepare it for fresh efforts in spring. He who warms the tender latent life of the flowers by the snow, and moulds the quiet beauty of the summer landscape by the desolating glacier, makes the cold of adversity to cherish the life of the soul, and to round into spiritual loveliness the harshness and roughness of a carnal, selfish nature.
IV. Look at the Giver of the snow. The psalmist had not the shadow of a doubt that God formed and sent the annual miracle of snow, as He had formed and sent the daily miracle of manna in the desert. It was a commonplace thing; it was a natural, ordinary occurrence; but it had the Divine sign upon it, and it showed forth the glory and goodness of God as strikingly as the most wonderful supernatural event in his nation’s history.
H. Macmillan, Two Worlds are Ours, p. 269.
Four attributes of God find their illustration and plain exhibition in the snow:-
I. His omnipresence. Each one of these drifting flakes is a present from God. “He giveth snow like wool.” (1) Sometimes it seems as if we were less observant of Divine handiwork in nature than the early Christians used to be. (2) Sometimes it seems as if we were most absurdly concerned lest the dignity of God should not be preserved in the minute management of things. (3) Sometimes it seems as if we were positively afraid to put God in peril by admitting that He is personally responsible for all His universe. It has invariably happened that the more clear are the expositions of trustworthy science, the safer is the Bible.
II. God’s beneficence finds an illustration in the snow. (1) The philosophy of God’s benediction in these bewildering flakes carries with it an interesting surprise. We are wont to associate cold only with a winter’s depth of snow; but snow keeps the ground from freezing, and so preserves the life of seeds and trees. (2) The argument from this has two branches: it demands implicit confidence in God; it counsels generous remembrance of others around us.
III. The gentleness of God finds an illustration in the falling of the snow. Thus always appears God’s gentleness: (1) in nature; (2) in providence; (3) in grace; (4) in retribution. “The feet of the avenging deities are shod with wool,” says the classic poet. “He giveth snow like wool,” says the text.
IV. The holiness of God finds a fitting illustration in the snow. Snow has been chosen as the symbol: (1) of the Gospel of redemption. “As the snow cometh down from heaven, so shall My word be,” etc. (2) Of the standard of complete sanctification. “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be “white as snow.” (3) Of ultimate attainment in grace. Jesus’ robe of righteousness is absolutely white. (4) Of faith’s final reward. Three distinct visions of God as He appears in heaven have been vouchsafed on earth to mortal eyes: one to Daniel in Babylon, one to Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration, and one to John on the Isle of Patmos. These men all put on record what in that supreme moment they saw. They differ in some particulars, but the one thing they all noticed was the raiment of glorious apparel which was worn by the exalted Redeemer. The glistering garments, such as no fuller could whiten them, they thought made up the supernatural beauty of heaven itself. “His garment was white as snow.”
C. S. Robinson, Sermons on Neglected Texts, p. 49.
References: Psa 147:16, Psa 147:17.-W. Simpson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 40; W. G. Horder, Ibid., vol. xix., p. 76. Psa 147:16-18.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii., No. 670. Psa 147:17.-H. Macmillan, Bible Teachings in Nature, p. 27.
Psa 147:18
There are two lessons taught in these words:-
I. God works by means. God makes all the means, and then uses them as He sees good. God is not obliged to work by means. Sometimes, as we learn from the Bible, He is pleased to work miracles, just to show us His power and teach us that all things obey His will. But that is very seldom. Most things God does by using the proper means, not because He is obliged, but because it is the best and wisest plan, and He has made all things on purpose.
II. All things do God’s will, just as much as if He did everything by miracle-all things. But do all people? Do you?
Can you say that you obey all that God tells you in His word as swiftly and as perfectly as the snow melts before the fire? Alas! no. Nobody can say this, for even when we try our best to please God we find that we fail; and our obedience is imperfect, just as if the snow were only half to melt, and be all mixed up with little bits of warm ice that refused to melt. God wishes you to obey Him not as the snow, and winds, and clouds, and sunshine obey Him-because they cannot help it-but willingly, because you love Him.
E. R. Conder, Drops and Rocks, p. 70.
Reference: Psalm 147- Sermons for Boys and Girls, p. 323.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
for it is good: Psa 63:3-5, Psa 92:1, Psa 135:3
and praise: Psa 33:1, Psa 42:4, Psa 122:1-4, Rev 5:9-14, Rev 19:1-6
Reciprocal: Deu 12:12 – And ye Psa 50:14 – Offer Psa 54:6 – for it Psa 107:8 – praise Psa 112:1 – Praise ye the Lord
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
In relation to His people.
The second psalm here, while always recognizing God as the Creator, and pervading Nature with His glorious power, yet comes back again and again to tell rejoicingly what He is to His people Israel, with whom He has dealt as with no other, though His pleasure is always in all who fear Him; and whose trust is in His loving-kindness.
1. Every psalm begins with a call to praise, and Jehovah is still the inspiring Name. “Praise,” says the psalmist here, “is pleasant and comely.” How can this glorious God be coldly recognized? If you receive but the sun’s rays, you must be warmed. And now Israel is rejoicing in the favor of Him from whom she has so long been astray. Jerusalem is built up afresh; its outcasts have been gathered. They have found Him the healer of the broken-hearted, the Physician for their deep and gaping wounds. In all their sad and devious ways, the stars which in that long night have shone above them; have been His witnesses of wisdom and mercy constant, if far off, and of steadfast order all untouched with confusion. For us, too far off for individual recognition; He, as familiar with them, calls them all by name. Now the infinite wisdom of all this shines out: the order of heaven has banished the confusion of earth; the meek, fashioned to this by their down-treading, can now be lifted up; while the wicked He bringeth to the ground.
2. Again the psalmist goes to Nature to illustrate the tender care that is displayed throughout it. The clouds gather, only to prepare rain; heaven is thus in constant ministry to earth, and as the result grass clothes even the mountains. The beast thus receives its food, and the young ravens, which cry in the ears of God. But is this His final aim? Can the horse’s strength delight Him? Or even in man, his legs? No: the moral and spiritual rule throughout; and man; who fears Him, -man; hoping in His loving-kindness, -he is the creature in whom His delight is. Here is the song which for us has found expression in a far more wondrous way.
3. Jerusalem now basks in this sunshine, wrapped in the everlasting Arms. Zion has got her impregnable walls and bulwarks, her happy children; within her prosperity and satisfaction. These are but outward manifestations of divine favor: Jehovah has done this; it is the seal of God upon her forehead.
4. And to Him the whole earth is in subjection. His commandment throughout it is hastened by the swiftest messengers. He gives the snow and scatters the frost; solidifies the water with His cold, and melts it back again with a warmer wind. Nature is plastic in His hand everywhere and owns its God.
5. But Israel has higher laws than those which Nature owns; and these she has learned to realize as her peculiar joy. Transmitter of these to the world around, the nations know them but by her.
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Psa 147:1-3. Praise the Lord, for it is good It is acceptable to God, and greatly beneficial and productive of comfort to ourselves. It is pleasant, and praise is comely Being the only return man can make for his creation and redemption, and all other mercies; the offspring of gratitude, and the expression of love; the elevation of the soul, and the ante-past of heaven; its own reward in this life, and an introduction to the felicities of the next. Horne. The Lord doth build up Jerusalem It is the Lords own doing, and not mans. He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel Hebrew, , the banished, or expelled, who had been carried captives out of their own land, and dispersed in divers strange countries. He healeth the broken in heart Those whose hearts were broken, either with a sense of their sins, or with their afflictions, calamities, and sorrows. He seems to speak peculiarly of the captive Israelites now returned.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
This psalm, like the preseding, is without title in the Hebrew or Chaldee; but is ascribed by the Versions to Haggai and Zechariah.
REFLECTIONS.
The people are here exhorted to praise God for all that he had done for Israel; the duty is pleasant to the grateful heart, and the sacrifice is comely in the eyes of God. He recalled the exiles of Israel to inheritance, to wealth, and to the service of his sanctuary. In this view, sinners owe much to redeeming love. God has made us a people who were aliens, and far from righteousness, and has given us an inheritance among all them that are sanctified.
They are called to praise him because of his perfections, and the wonders of his works. He telleth the number of the stars. At his fiat, ten thousand thousand suns shone forth, the image of his glory. Each became the centre of a sphere, surrounded with satellites or habitable worlds, to reflect the lustre, and to glorify the Creator in an eternal concert of praise. All these rolled off in orbits, balanced by gravity; and the harmony of all the spheres demonstrates the infinite perfections of the eternal God. And if he numbers the stars, and regulates their motions, he numbers his saints with more peculiar care, for they bear his image, and shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars for ever and ever.
Jerusalem is exhorted to praise the Lord, for what, in a national view, he has done for her and her children. He had strengthened her gates, filled her granaries with wheat, had sent snow to give repose to nature in winter, and then melted it with the warm zephyrs of the spring. So will the Lord supply the soul with good, and warm the affections after cold with comfort.
Israel is next reminded of what she owed to God for revelation. She did not walk in the darkness and vanity of the gentile world. She had not to grope her way to truth and righteousness, as in the darkness of men alienated from the covenant. The Lord had given her statutes and judgments, pure and uncorrupted; whereas the heathen had but the fragments of Noahs covenant, and these were varied in every nation, according to the humour of the people. What then shall the christian church render to God, who in these last days has spoken to us by his own Son.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
CXLVII. The LXX, perhaps rightly, divides the Ps. into two, Psa 147:1-11 and Psa 147:12-20.
Psa 147:1-11. An invitation to praise Yahweh for His almighty power and His kindness to Israel. Observe how the two thoughts are intertwined. After Psa 147:8 c the LXX has, and herbage for the service of men. In Psa 147:10 the legs of a man is curious. Swift running is a characteristic of the Homeric heroes, but the emendation, armour of a man, is tempting.
Psa 147:12-20. The thought of Psa 147:1-11 recurs, here addressed to Jerusalem and specially to Zion. In Psa 147:17 ice is said to be sent forth in small fragments. Perhaps the Psalmist was thinking of hail.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
PSALM 147
The regathered nation of Israel called to praise the Lord for His restoring grace, His providential goodness, and His preserving care.
(vv. 1-6) Israel, delivered from all their enemies, rejoice in the favour of the Lord. They celebrate His restoring grace, gladly recognizing that they owe all their blessing to what He had done.
Man can break down, but only the Lord can build up Jerusalem. We in our folly can scatter the people of God; but it is only the Lord who gathereth together His outcast people. We can break hearts; it is only the Lord who healeth the broken in heart. We can open old wounds; it is the Lord who bindeth up our wounds.
Yet the One who, with tender compassion can stoop to heal a broken heart on earth, is the One who, in the greatness of His power, can tell the number of the stars, and in His infinite wisdom, call them all by names.
Man may crush the meek; but the Lord lifts them up. Alas! man may exalt the wicked, but the Lord casts them down to the ground.
(vv. 7-11) A further call for praise is found in the providential goodness of the Lord. He orders the clouds and sends the rain, and maketh the grass to grow to provide for His creatures. He delights not in those who trust in mere animal strength, but in the God-fearing who hope in His mercy.
(vv. 12-20) For the third time in the course of the psalm the people are called to praise the Lord. Already they had praised the Lord for His restoring grace that had gathered the outcasts and rebuilt Jerusalem; now He is praised for His preserving care, that keeps the gates of the city, maintains peace, satisfies the needs of His people (vv. 13-14); commands the seasons for their blessing (vv. 15-18); reveals His mind, and gives His statutes and judgments unto Israel (vv. 19-20).
Fuente: Smith’s Writings on 24 Books of the Bible
147:1 Praise ye the LORD: for [it is] good to sing praises unto our God; for [it is] {a} pleasant; [and] praise is comely.
(a) He shows in which we ought to exercise ourselves continually, and to take our pastime: that is, in praising God.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Psalms 147
God’s greatness and His grace, as in Psalms 146, are also the theme of this psalm. However, in this one, an unnamed psalmist viewed God as Sustainer more than as Creator. He provides what His creatures need.
"When Nehemiah and his people finished rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, restoring the gates, and resettling the people, they called a great assembly for celebration and dedication, and it is likely that this psalm was written for that occasion (Psa 147:2; Psa 147:12-14; Neh 12:27-43). . . . The psalm presents three reasons why the people should praise the Lord, and each section is marked off by the command to praise God (Psa 147:1; Psa 147:7; Psa 147:12)." [Note: Wiersbe, The . . . Wisdom . . ., p. 379.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
1. God’s objects of control 147:1-6
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
After the initial call to praise the Lord, the writer explained that such praise is pleasant and appropriate.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 147:1-20
THE threefold calls to praise Jehovah (Psa 147:1, Psa 147:7, Psa 147:12) divide this psalm into three parts, the two former of which are closely connected, inasmuch as the first part is mainly occupied with celebrating Gods mercy to the restored Israel, and the second takes a wider outlook, embracing His beneficence to all living things. Both these points of view are repeated in the same order in the third part (Psa 147:12-20), which the LXX makes a separate psalm. The allusions to Jerusalem as rebuilt, to the gathering of the scattered Israelites, and to the fortifications of the city naturally point to the epoch of the Restoration, whether or not, with Delitzsch and others, we suppose that the psalm was sung at the feast of the dedication of the new walls. In any case, it is a hymn of the restored people, which starts from the special mercy shown to them, and rejoices in the thought that “Our God” fills the earth with good and reigns to bless, in the realm of Nature as in that of special Revelation. The emphasis placed on Gods working in nature, in this and others of these closing psalms, is probably in part a polemic against the idolatry which Israel had learned to abhor, by being brought face to face with it in Babylon, and in part a result of the widening of conceptions as to His relation to the world outside Israel which the Exile had also effected. The two truths of His special relation to His people and of His universal lovingkindness have often been divorced, both by His people and by their enemies. This psalm teaches a more excellent way.
The main theme of Psa 147:1-6 is Gods manifestation of transcendent power and incalculable wisdom, as well as infinite kindness, in building up the ruined Jerusalem and collecting into a happy band of citizens the lonely wanderers of Israel. For such blessings praise is due, and the psalm summons all who share them to swell the song. Psa 147:1 is somewhat differently construed by some, as Hupfeld, who would change one letter in the word rendered above “to harp,” and, making it an imperative, would refer “good” and “pleasant” to God, thus making the whole to read, “Praise Jehovah, for He is good; harp to our God, for He is pleasant: praise is comely.” This change simplifies some points of construction, but labors under the objection that it is contrary to usage to apply the adjective “pleasant” to God; and the usual rendering is quite intelligible and appropriate. The reason for the fittingness and delightsomeness of praise is the great mercy shown to Israel in the Restoration, which mercy is in the psalmists thoughts throughout this part. He has the same fondness for using participles as the author of the previous psalm, and begins Psa 147:2, Psa 147:3, Psa 147:4, and Psa 147:6 with them. Possibly their use is intended to imply that the acts described by them are regarded as continuous, not merely done once for all. Jehovah is ever building up Jerusalem, and, in like manner, uninterruptedly energising in providence and nature. The collocation of Divine acts in Psa 147:2 bears upon the great theme that fills the singers heart and lips. It is the outcasts of Israel of whom he thinks, while he sings of binding up the brokenhearted. It is they who are the “afflicted,” helped up by that strong, gentle clasp; while their oppressors are the wicked, flung prone by the very wind of Gods hand. The beautiful and profound juxtaposition of gentle healing and omnipotence in Psa 147:3-4, is meant to signalise the work of restoring Israel as no less wondrous than that of marshalling the stars, and to hearten faith by pledging that incalculable Power to perfect its restoring work. He who stands beside the sick bed of the brokenhearted, like a gentle physician, with balm and bandage, and lays a tender hand on their wounds, is He who sets the stars in their places and tells them as a shepherd his flock or a commander his army. The psalmist borrows from Isa 40:26-29, where several of his expressions occur. “Counting a number for the stars” is scarcely equivalent to numbering them as they shine. It rather means determining how many of them there shall be. Calling them all by names (lit., He calls names to them all) is not giving them designations, but summoning them as a captain reading the muster roll of his band. It may also imply full knowledge of each individual in their countless hosts. Psa 147:5 is taken from the passage in Isaiah already referred to, with the change of “no number” for “no searching,” a change which is suggested by the preceding reference to the number of the stars. These have a number, though it surpasses human arithmetic; but His wisdom is measureless. And all this magnificence of power, this minute particularising knowledge, this abyss of wisdom, are guarantees for the healing of the broken hearted. The thought goes further than Israels deliverance from bondage. It has a strong voice of cheer for all sad hearts, who will let Him probe their wounds that He may bind them up. The mighty God of Creation is the tender God of Providence and of Redemption. Therefore “praise is comely,” and fear and faltering are unbefitting.
The second part of the psalm (Psa 147:7-11) passes out from the special field of mercy to Israel, and comes down from the glories of the heavens, to magnify Gods universal goodness manifested in physical changes, by which lowly creatures are provided for. The point of time selected is that of the November rains. The verbs in Psa 147:8, Psa 147:9, Psa 147:11, are again participles, expressive of continuous action. The yearly miracle which brings from some invisible storehouse the clouds to fill the sky and drop down fatness, the answer of the brown earth which mysteriously shoots forth the tender green spikelets away up on the mountain flanks, where no man has sown and no man will reap, the loving care which thereby provides food for the wild creatures, owned by no one, and answers the hoarse croak of the callow fledglings in the ravens nests-these are manifestations of Gods power and revelations of His character worthy to be woven into a hymn which celebrates His restoring grace, and to be set beside the apocalypse of His greatness in the mighty heavens. But what has Psa 147:10 to do here? The connection of it is difficult to trace. Apparently, the psalmist would draw from the previous verses, which exhibit Gods universal goodness and the creatures dependence on Him, the lesson that reliance on ones own resources or might is sure to be smitten with confusion, while humble trust in God, which man alone of earths creatures can exercise, is for him the condition of his receiving needed gifts. The beast gets its food, and it is enough that the young ravens should croak, but man has to “fear Him” and to wait on His “lovingkindness.” Psa 147:10 is a reminiscence of Psa 33:16-17, and Psa 147:11 of the next verse of the same psalm.
The third part (Psa 147:12-20) travels over substantially the same ground as the two former, beginning with the mercy shown to the restored Israel, and passing on to the wider manifestations of Gods goodness. But there is a difference in this repeated setting forth of both these themes. The fortifications of Jerusalem are now complete, and their strength gives security to the people gathered into the city. Over all the land once devastated by war peace broods, and the fields that lay desolate now have yielded harvest. The ancient promise {Psa 81:16} has been fulfilled, its condition having been complied with, and Israel having hearkened to Jehovah. Protection, blessing, tranquillity, abundance, are the results of obedience, Gods gifts to them that fear Him. So it was in the psalmists experience; so, in higher form, it is still. These Divine acts are continuous, and as long as there are men who trust, there will be a God who builds defences around them and satisfies them with good.
Again the psalmist turns to the realm of nature; but it is nature at a different season which now yields witness to Gods universal power and care. The phenomena of a sharp winter were more striking to the psalmist than to us. But his poets eye and his devout heart recognise even in the cold, before which his Eastern constitution cowered shivering, the working of Gods Will. His “commandment” or Word is personified, and compared to a swift-footed messenger. As ever, power over material things is attributed to the Divine word, and as ever, in the Biblical view of nature, all intermediate links are neglected, and the Almighty cause at one end of the chain and the physical effect at the other are brought together. There is between these two clauses room enough for all that meteorology has to say.
The winter piece in Psa 147:16-17 dashes off the dreary scene with a few bold strokes. The air is full of flakes like floating wool, or the white mantle covers the ground like a cloth; rime lies everywhere, as if ashes were powdered over trees and stones. Hailstones fall, as if He flung them down from above. They are like “morsels” of bread, a comparison which strikes us as violent, but which may possibly describe the more severe storms, in which flat pieces of ice fall. As by magic, all is changed when He again sends forth His word. It but needs that He should let a warm wind steal gently across the desolation, and every sealed and silent brook begins to tinkle along its course. And will not He who thus changes the face of the earth in like manner breathe upon frost-bound lives and hearts,
“And every winter merge in spring”?
But the psalm cannot end with contemplation of Gods universal beneficence, however gracious that is. There is a higher mode of activity for His word than that exercised on material things. God sends His commandment forth and earth unconsciously obeys, and all creatures, men included, are fed and blessed. But the noblest utterance of His word is in the shape of statutes and judgments, and these are Israels prerogative. The psalmist is not rejoicing that other nations have not received these, but that Israel has. Its privilege is its responsibility. It has received them that it may obey them, and then that it may make them known. If the God who scatters lower blessings broadcast, not forgetting beasts and ravens, has restricted His highest gift to His people, the restriction is a clear call to them to spread the knowledge of the treasure entrusted to them. To glory in privilege is sin; to learn that it means responsibility is wisdom. The lesson is needed by those who today have been served as heirs to Israels prerogative, forfeited by it because it clutched it for itself, and forgot its obligation to carry it as widely as God had diffused His lower gifts.