Psalms

Psalms 147

20 verses · Wisdom · Old Testament

1Praise Yah, for it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant and fitting to praise him. 2Yahweh builds up Jerusalem. He gathers together the outcasts of Israel. 3He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds. 4He counts the number of the stars. He calls them all by their names. 5Great is our Lord, and mighty in power. His understanding is infinite. 6Yahweh upholds the humble. He brings the wicked down to the ground. 7Sing to Yahweh with thanksgiving. Sing praises on the harp to our God, 8who covers the sky with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who makes grass grow on the mountains. 9He provides food for the livestock, and for the young ravens when they call. 10He doesn’t delight in the strength of the horse. He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man. 11Yahweh takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his loving kindness. 12Praise Yahweh, Jerusalem! Praise your God, Zion! 13For he has strengthened the bars of your gates. He has blessed your children within you. 14He makes peace in your borders. He fills you with the finest of the wheat. 15He sends out his commandment to the earth. His word runs very swiftly. 16He gives snow like wool, and scatters frost like ashes. 17He hurls down his hail like pebbles. Who can stand before his cold? 18He sends out his word, and melts them. He causes his wind to blow, and the waters flow. 19He shows his word to Jacob, his statutes and his ordinances to Israel. 20He has not done this for just any nation. They don’t know his ordinances. Praise Yah!

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What others are saying

3 commentators · 33 notes on this chapter

Matthew HenryEnglish Puritan / Nonconformist · 1708–17142

Writes as a pastor rather than a critic. Expect devotional and practical application over historical or linguistic analysis, read through a Reformed covenantal frame — and expect the Old Testament to be read forward toward Christ throughout.

Why this voice is here: The most widely read English commentary for three centuries. Included as a baseline: where Henry and a modern voice diverge, the divergence itself is usually the interesting part.

v. 1–11

Here, I. The duty of praise is recommended to us. It is not without reason that we are thus called to it again and again: Praise you the Lord (Psa 147:1), and again (Psa 147:7), Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving, sing praise upon the harp to our God (let…

v. 12–20

Jerusalem, and Zion, the holy city, the holy hill, are here called upon to praise God, Psa 147:12. For where should praise be offered up to God but where his altar is? Where may we expect that glory should be given to him but in the beauty of holiness? Let…

John GillParticular Baptist / High Calvinist · 1746–176320

The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.

Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.

v. 1

Praise ye the Lord,.... When he shall reign, as Kimchi connects this psalm with the preceding; the arguments used to engage men to this work are taken partly from the nature of it, as in the next clauses; and partly from what the Lord is and does, as in the…

v. 2

The Lord doth build up Jerusalem,.... Literally, after the Babylonish captivity, according to some; or rather when taken from the Jebusites by David; or spiritually the church, which is often called Jerusalem, even the Gospel church, of which Christ is the…

v. 3

He healeth the broken in heart,.... Christ is a physician; many are the diseases of his people; he heals them all by his blood, stripes, wounds; and among the rest their broken hearts, which none can cure but himself; hearts broken by the word, as a hammer…

Jamieson, Fausset & BrownScottish Presbyterian / Reformed · 187111

The concise option. Three authors split the canon, so the voice shifts between sections. Expect brief, sober, conservative notes that resolve difficulties rather than dwelling on them — useful for orientation, thinner than Gill or Clarke where a passage is genuinely contested.

Why this voice is here: The quickest way to see what the mainstream Reformed reading of a passage is. Start here, then go to Gill or Clarke when it matters.

v. 2

(Compare Psa 107:3; Isa 11:12).

v. 3

Though applicable to the captive Israelites, this is a general and precious truth. wounds--(Compare Margin).

v. 4–5

God's power in nature (Isa 40:26-28, and often) is presented as a pledge of His power to help His people. telleth . . . stars--what no man can do (Gen 15:5).

World English Bible — Public domain