Psalm 147

Psa 147:1

See Lesson, Psalms, "Hallelujah".

HISTORICAL CONTEXT: Times of Hezekiah.

Psa 147:2

THE LORD BUILDS UP JERUSALEM: The saving of Jerusalem from the Assyrians (cp vv 12,13; Psa 46:5; 48:2,3; 102:16; 125:2).

(NT) ...After the great earthquake of Zec 14?

HE GATHERS THE EXILES OF ISRAEL: As a shepherd gathers his flock (Isa 11:12; 40:11; 54:7; Jer 23:3; 31:10; Eze 34:13). Ref to (1) the estranged northern tribes, coming to Hezekiah's great Passover, and (2) the restoration of the captives whom Sennacherib rounded up and took to Babylon (Mic 4:10).

(NT) Elect gathered to Jerusalem (Mat 24:31).

Psa 147:3

THE BROKENHEARTED: Those too sad to sing the Lord's songs in a foreign land like Babylon (Psa 137).

(NT) The repentant of Israel (Zec 12:10-14).

Psa 147:4

The fulfillment of the promises to Abraham: Gen 15:5; 22:17; Dan 12:3; Rom 4:18. Stars sym Israel: Gen 15:5; 22:17; Jer 33:22.

CALLS THEM EACH BY NAME: Esp true of God's New Israel (Isa 40:26; Joh 10:3; Rev 2:17; 3:12).

Psa 147:5

HIS UNDERSTANDING HAS NO LIMIT: "If there were a point where God stopped, then God wouldn't be perfect. For instance, if God knew almost everything, but not quite everything, then God wouldn't be perfect in knowledge. His understanding wouldn't be infinite... God, to be God, must be infinite in all that He is. He must have no bound and no limit, no stopping place, no point beyond which He can't go. When you think of God or anything about God you'll have to think infinitely about God" (AWT).

Psa 147:6

Humble = Hezekiah; wicked = Sennacherib and army. "The meek shall inherit the earth" (Mat 5:5).

Psa 147:8

Vv 8,9: The special blessing of rain, fertility and fruitfulness in the Year of Jubilee (Isa 37:30,31).

All this in the world of Nature is done by overall control of God. A wholesome faith dissipates the smoke-screen of "the laws of Nature" which modern scientists so enthusiastically interpose between man and a God who is ceaselessly at work. The Bible never talks about science or scientific law, but always about the acts of God (cp vv 15-17; Psa 104; Job 38-41; Mat 5:45).

Psa 147:9

HE PROVIDES FOOD FOR THE CATTLE AND FOR THE YOUNG RAVENS WHEN THEY CALL: This is the most marvelous fact to ponder: the same God who orders the courses of the majestic stars in the heavens, and calls each one by its name (v 4), who guides the way of nations of people (v 2) -- so as to save some and punish or destroy others -- ALSO sees that the cattle of the fields and the birds of the sky are fed! Nothing is too great, nor too small, for Him to notice and take care for! "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father" (Mat 10:29). "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them" (Mat 6:26).

Psa 147:10

THE STRENGTH OF THE HORSE: Cp Psa 33:16,17; Pro 21:31; Isa 31:1. This chimes in with Rabshakeh's crude challenge in 2Ki 18:23: "Now therefore... give pledges to my lord the king of Assyria, and I will deliver thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them." "The [cherubim] chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof" were plenty enough, and more, to answer the taunts of Rabshakeh!

(NT) All armaments abolished: Isa 2:4; Mic 4:3.

THE LEGS OF A MAN: Even though those "legs" be "iron" (Dan 2:33)!

Psa 147:13

STRENGTHENS: A play on the name of Hezekiah.

AND BLESSES YOUR PEOPLE WITHIN YOU: Hezekiah's faithful remnant.

Psa 147:14

Lit, "He makes 'Peace' your borders!": cp figure, Isa 60:17,18. This was all unexpected, at a time when lasting destruction from the Lord seemed inevitable.

AND SATISFIES YOU WITH THE FINEST OF WHEAT: The promised but unexpected blessing of the Year of Jubilee (see on v 8; also Psa 81:16).

Psa 147:15

COMMAND: The divine instruction to the Angel of God's power (Isa 37:36).

RUNS: Allusion to the cherubim war-chariots (Eze 1:18-21; Zec 6:1-8; Rev 5:6). Also, God's word through the prophets, who "run" to carry the message (Jer 23:21; 1Ki 18:46; 2Ch 16:9; Hab 2:2; Amo 8:12; Zec 4:10; Dan 12:4; Gal 2:2; Phi 2:16; 2Th 3:1; Jud 1:11; cp Pro 25:11).

(NT) A worldwide publishing of God's Law (Isa 2:2,3; Mic 4:1,2; Zec 8:20-22; 14:16-19).

Psa 147:16

HE SPREADS THE SNOW LIKE WOOL: Cp Job 37:6. This describes the feathery flakes of snow, blanketing the earth like wool, protecting the ground from worse cold, and at last giving much-needed moisture (Isa 55:10,11).

So white is the snow, that it is like wool which has been washed, and is a fit symbol of one whose sins have been truly forgiven and blotted out (Isa 1:18; cp Rev 1:14; 7:14).

Psa 147:17

AV has: "He casteth forth his ice like morsels" (Job 37:10). This could be: (1) hail, or (2) layers of ice, thin and brittle like wafers of unleavened bread.

WHO CAN WITHSTAND HIS ICY BLAST?: The NEB, following an emendation, has: "The waters stand frozen".

Psa 147:20

HE HAS DONE THIS FOR NO OTHER NATION: Cp Deu 4:32-34; 32:32-41; Rom 3:1,2; 2:17; Amo 3:2.

"But the reception of a law was not in itself a ground of satisfaction; the keeping of it would have been... They knew and approved in theory, but not in personal practice" (CRom 33).

THEY DO NOT KNOW HIS LAWS: Who has not known them? Surely the Gentiles (as Sennacherib's men). But also Israel, which did not truly "know" God's will because it never really fulfilled His main purpose in giving them the Law -- that is, so that they might become a light unto the Gentiles (Isa 49:6).