Psalms 147: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This psalm calls for praise to the LORD and gives reasons: he rebuilds Jerusalem and gathers Israel's scattered people, he heals those who are hurting, and he knows every star by name. It moves back and forth between his care for his people and his control of weather and the natural world, feeding animals and sending snow, frost and ice, then sending out his word to melt them and making his wind blow so the waters flow. It ends by saying he has given his word, his statutes, and his judgments to Jacob and Israel, and has not done this for any other nation.

Claim by Claim

1. 147:1
   • Praise the LORD.
   • It is good to sing praises to our God.
   • It is pleasant to sing praises to our God.
   • Praise is fitting.
2. 147:2
   • The LORD builds up Jerusalem.
   • He gathers the scattered outcasts of Israel.
3. 147:3
   • He heals those who are broken in heart.
   • He binds up their wounds.
4. 147:4
   • He counts the number of the stars.
   • He calls them all by names.
5. 147:5
   • Our Lord is great.
   • Our Lord is abundant in power.
   • There is no measure to his understanding.
6. 147:6
   • The LORD lifts up the humble.
   • He casts the wicked down to the ground.
7. 147:7
   • Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving.
   • Sing praise to our God with the lyre.
8. 147:8
   • He covers the heavens with clouds.
   • He prepares rain for the earth.
   • He makes grass grow on the mountains.
9. 147:9
   • He gives the beast its food.
   • He gives food to the young ravens that cry.
10. 147:10
    • He does not delight in the strength of the horse.
    • He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man.
11. 147:11
    • The LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him.
    • The LORD takes pleasure in those who hope in his steadfast love.
12. 147:12
    • Jerusalem is told to praise the LORD.
    • Zion is told to praise her God.
13. 147:13
    • He has strengthened the bars of your gates.
    • He has blessed your children within you.
14. 147:14
    • He makes peace in your borders.
    • He fills you with the finest of the wheat.
15. 147:15
    • He sends his command to the earth.
    • His word runs swiftly.
16. 147:16
    • He gives snow like wool.
    • He scatters hoarfrost like ashes.
17. 147:17
    • He casts forth his ice like crumbs.
    • No one can stand before his cold.
18. 147:18
    • He sends out his word and melts them.
    • He makes his wind blow.
    • The waters flow.
19. 147:19
    • He declares his word to Jacob.
    • He declares his statutes and his judgments to Israel.
20. 147:20
    • He has not done so for any other nation.
    • They have not known his judgments.
    • Praise the LORD.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

147:1

"Praise ye the LORD" translates the single Hebrew word *hallelu-yah*, "praise Yah," Yah being a short form of the divine name. Where the King James prints LORD in capitals, the Hebrew has that personal name of God (usually written YHWH), not the ordinary word for "lord" or "master."

147:2

The "outcasts" are exiles, Israelites deported or scattered when their kingdoms were conquered, most famously by Babylon in 586 BC, when Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed. "Builds up Jerusalem" points to the rebuilding of the city after some of those exiles returned, which places this psalm among the later ones in the collection.

147:3

Back then people wrapped a cut with long strips of cloth. That is what "bindeth up" means, like putting on a bandage.

147:4

In the ancient Near East, naming something was the act of one who owns or governs it, a king named his subjects and provinces. The point of counting and naming the stars is not astronomy but authority over a number no one could count.

147:6

"Meek" in 1611 English did not mean shy or weak. The Hebrew word covers the poor, the afflicted, and those pushed down by others, people at the bottom of the social heap. "Lifteth up" is also "holds up, sustains."

147:7

The instrument is the *kinnor*, a hand-held lyre with strings stretched over a wooden frame, closer to a small harp held against the body than to the tall upright harp of an orchestra.

147:9

Ravens were scavengers, classed as unclean birds under Israel's food laws and so of no use to anyone. Naming them makes the point sharper: God feeds even the creatures no one else would.

147:10

This is military language. The horse meant chariots and cavalry, the most expensive weaponry of the age; "the legs of a man" means the running speed and stamina of a foot soldier. The verse is about not being impressed by armies, not about athletics.

147:11

"Fear" here means reverent awe rather than fright, the attitude of someone standing before overwhelming power, not someone terrified of harm. "Mercy" translates *chesed*, the loyal, committed love owed within a binding relationship; it carries the sense of steady faithfulness rather than pity.

147:12

Zion was originally the fortified hill of Jerusalem captured by David, and the name came to stand for the whole city and its people. Jerusalem and Zion here are two names for the same place, paired for poetic parallelism.

147:13

City gates were closed with heavy wooden or bronze beams dropped into brackets across the doors. Strong bars were the difference between a city that held and a city that fell, so this is a picture of security from attack.

147:14

Literally "the fat of the wheat", the richest part. Grain was the basic food supply; a full harvest and quiet borders together describe a year with neither famine nor invasion.

147:15

God's "word" or command is pictured as a messenger sent running, envoys carried royal orders on foot, and the speed of the runner measured the reach of the king's power.

147:16

Snow and frost are rare and startling events in the hill country around Jerusalem, not a routine winter. The comparisons are to familiar household sights: fleece spread out white, and wood ash scattered thin and gray.

147:17

"Morsels" translates a word meaning crumbs or broken fragments, hailstones the size of bits of bread thrown down. "Who can stand before his cold" reflects a climate where an unexpected freeze was a genuine danger.

147:19

Jacob and Israel are two names for the same ancestor (Jacob was renamed Israel) and both are used for the nation descended from him. "Statutes" and "judgments" are the technical terms of Israel's law: fixed decrees on the one hand, and legal rulings or case decisions on the other. Together they mean the whole body of law given at Sinai.

147:20

"Statutes" are written laws and "judgments" are the decisions that settle a case. Israel had received these at Mount Sinai, and no other nation had been given them.