Psalm 147 Commentary
Praise the LORD!
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KEY THOUGHT: For it is pleasant, and praise is beautiful. [Psalm 147:1c NKJV]
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Psalm 147 NKJV
Praise to God for His Word and Providence
147 Praise[a] the Lord!
For it is good to sing praises to our God;
For it is pleasant, and praise is beautiful.
2 The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
He gathers together the outcasts of Israel.
3 He heals the brokenhearted
And binds up their [b]wounds.
4 He counts the number of the stars;
He calls them all by name.
5 Great is our Lord, and mighty in power;
His understanding is infinite.
6 The Lord lifts up the humble;
He casts the wicked down to the ground.
7 Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;
Sing praises on the harp to our God,
8 Who covers the heavens with clouds,
Who prepares rain for the earth,
Who makes grass to grow on the mountains.
9 He gives to the beast its food,
And to the young ravens that cry.
10 He does not delight in the strength of the horse;
He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man.
11 The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him,
In those who hope in His mercy.
12 Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!
Praise your God, O Zion!
13 For He has strengthened the bars of your gates;
He has blessed your children within you.
14 He makes peace in your borders,
And fills you with [c]the finest wheat.
15 He sends out His command to the earth;
His word runs very swiftly.
16 He gives snow like wool;
He scatters the frost like ashes;
17 He casts out His hail like [d]morsels;
Who can stand before His cold?
18 He sends out His word and melts them;
He causes His wind to blow, and the waters flow.
19 He declares His word to Jacob,
His statutes and His judgments to Israel.
20 He has not dealt thus with any nation;
And as for His judgments, they have not known them.
[e]Praise the Lord!
Footnotes
a. Psalm 147:1 Heb. Hallelujah
b. Psalm 147:3 Lit. sorrows
c. Psalm 147:14 Lit. fat of wheat
d. Psalm 147:17 fragments of food
e. Psalm 147:20 Heb. Hallelujah
New King James Version (NKJV)
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Psalm 147 Commentary
Obeying traffic rules is convenient because you keep yourself out of trouble. You stay safe, and others also stay safe.
The thought is very different when the psalmist says that it is good to praise the LORD. Praising the LORD makes you feel good. It is like enjoying a good meal! It’s like enjoying the beauty of nature. It leaves you fully satisfied.
Don’t you wonder why believers are ever joyful and happy even without liquor or drugs!
The palmist journeys between the grand and the miniature. There are countless stars in the universe. Our own sun is simply one of the stars! Yet the LORD has named each one of them!
God’s knowledge of each star is both general and detailed. He knows the components of each star. He knows the details of each component. After all, He created them all. A man would be an element on the component we call Earth. It is part of the star we call the Sun. The LORD created all and knows all!
The earth would be like a grain of sand on the LORD’s desk. Yet the LORD knows each one of the billions of creatures on that grain of sand. When they are scattered, He draws them back. When they are heartbroken, He heals them. Indeed, our LORD is great with limitless strength!
We will never comprehend what He knows and does.
But we can sing. We can be grateful. We can make music using instruments. We can praise the LORD!
The background of praise is the existence of counterfeits in the place where the LORD once stood. Science explains the existence of everything we see and cannot see. Entertainment is the source of goodness. So the lie persists.
This psalm stands to counter this lie and lead the saint back to the basics of creation. Look at the LORD again and see everything in the right way.
The Creator God sustains creation, including the life we know.
Forget human effort. Fear the LORD. “His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of the warrior.”
Humans expend energy to be great, to survive, to get by, or simply to stay afloat. In the absence of the fear of the LORD, the special acknowledgment of who is who in the grand plan of creation, human effort is all emptiness.
In the midst of this emptiness, the LORD reveals His word to Jacob. It is the desire of nations. But who knows it? Who bothers?
The last 5 psalms of the Book of Psalms start and end with the phrase, “Praise the LORD.” It’s an invitation to praise. They also serve as a bold statement that, at the beginning of it all, is praise, and at the end of it all is praise.
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