Psalm 147 Commentary
Obeying traffic rules is good 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 is 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 minute. There are countless stars in the universe. Our own sun is simply one of the stars! Yet the LORD has each one of them named.
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. Countless threads exist to serve as conduits for man’s completeness. What a big lie! 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.
He sustains life, even 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.” The scripture refers to human effort at greatness, 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.” They are 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. The LORD wins. When every knee bows down, only one name will be on every man’s tongue. Praise the LORD!
More resources visit http://www.lovingscripture.com
LOVING SCRIPTURE 