Psalms 147
What Happens in This Chapter
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.
Praise the LORD! It is good to sing songs of praise to our God. It is pleasant, and praise is fitting.
1Praise ye the LORD: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely.
"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."
2The LORD builds up the city of Jerusalem. He gathers back the people of Israel who were driven away from home.
2The LORD doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.
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.
3He heals people whose hearts are broken, and he bandages their wounds.
3He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.
4He counts the stars and knows how many there are. He calls each one of them by name.
4He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.
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.
5Our Lord is great, and his power is great. There is no limit to what he understands.
5Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.
6The LORD lifts up those who are humble, but he throws the wicked down to the ground.
6The LORD lifteth up the meek: he casteth the wicked down to the ground.
"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."
7Sing to the LORD and thank him. Make music to our God on the harp.
7Sing unto the LORD with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God:
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.
8He covers the sky with clouds. He gets rain ready for the earth. He makes grass grow on the mountains.
8Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.
9He gives food to the animals, and to the young ravens when they cry out.
9He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.
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.
10He is not impressed by how strong a horse is. He takes no pleasure in how powerful a man's legs are.
10He delighteth not in the strength of the horse: he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man.
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.
11The LORD is pleased with those who honor and respect him, and with those who put their hope in his faithful love.
11The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.
"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.
12Jerusalem, praise the LORD! Zion, praise your God!
12Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion.
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.
13He has made the bars across your gates strong, and he has blessed the children who live inside your walls.
13For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates; he hath blessed thy children within thee.
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.
14He brings peace to your borders. He fills you with the best wheat there is.
14He maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat.
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.
15He sends out his command to the earth. His word runs very fast.
15He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly.
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.
16He lays down snow like wool. He scatters frost like ashes.
16He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes.
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.
17He throws down his ice like little pieces of stone. Who can stand up to his cold?
17He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold?
"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.
18Then he sends out his word and melts them. He makes his wind blow, and the water flows again.
18He sendeth out his word, and melteth them: he causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow.
19He tells his word to Jacob, and his rules and his decisions to Israel.
19He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel.
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.
20He has not done this for any other nation. Those nations do not know his decisions. Praise the LORD!
20He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the LORD.
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