Psalm 147.1-12

Praise for God’s Care for Jerusalem

¹Praise the Lord!
How good it is to sing praises to our God;
   for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting.
²The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
   he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
³He heals the broken-hearted,
   and binds up their wounds.
⁴He determines the number of the stars;
   he gives to all of them their names.
⁵Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
   his understanding is beyond measure.
⁶The Lord lifts up the downtrodden;
   he casts the wicked to the ground.

⁷Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;
   make melody to our God on the lyre.
⁸He covers the heavens with clouds,
   prepares rain for the earth,
   makes grass grow on the hills.
⁹He gives to the animals their food,
   and to the young ravens when they cry.
¹⁰His delight is not in the strength of the horse,
   nor his pleasure in the speed of a runner;^*
11but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him,
   in those who hope in his steadfast love.

¹²Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!
   Praise your God, O Zion!

The Psalms are wonderful and Psalm 147 ranks with the best of them. It is post exilic (see verse 2) – written some time after Cyrus allowed the people to return to Jerusalem and even after the reforms of Ezra and Nehemiah. People drifted back over many years – ‘outcasts’ and ‘broken-hearted’ and ‘downtrodden’. There is a lovely image of God gathering them, healing them and lifting them up. Even when we have fallen and landed ourselves in a real mess, He is willing and able to overcome all things and make us whole once more.

Verses 7-11 introduce another theme – God’s sustaining providence – and so the Psalmist praises God for rain, vegetation, food for all even the beasts and the birds. God does not delight in physical strength, but rather to those who respond to Him in reverence and hope. (see Rhodes 1960:188-189)

What had happened?

The returned exiles had rebuilt Jerusalem, especially the Temple and the walls, and had been reminded of God’s Covenant with them: “I will be your God and you will be my people if you obey my commands”. Disobeying God’s commands had got them into trouble, eventually leading to their defeat and exile in Babylon. But now God had used the Medes and the Persians to deal with the Babylonians and they had been defeated. King Cyrus – the great Persian – had allowed them to return. There had been a long period of peace. Knight suggests that Psalm 147 probably came from those who had remained in Babylon for some time after their freedom and were now trickling back into Jerusalem. Knight sees a parallel with the Return of the Prodigal Son and in like way, ‘God gathers the outcasts of Israel’. He continues:

“… in our time, once God’s lost sheep return home to the local ‘Zion’, they ought to be finding an older brother ready and willing to heal the broken-hearted and bind up their wounds.”

I believe this is a time when the gods of Babylon have failed people today, the gods of material possessions, status, power and general worldliness. But is the Church ready and willing to receive those wishing to return? We are the Body of Christ; it is our duty and privilege to be there as Christ to those who are lost. They are as numerous as the countless stars in the universe and God knows them and loves them and wants us to reach out to them.

God knows all things as He is the creator of all that is. He is greater than anything we can ever imagine and yet he loves us all – especially when we are lost. God wants us to return to Him. His power and his understanding and his love are beyond measure – like all He has created. In fact, Knight suggests that ‘… his power and his understanding are his love beyond measure.’ (page 352) Apparently, this came home to Luther who, while recovering from utter exhaustion, was given a break in the countryside. In order to get some fresh air, he was taken for a ride to watch a hunting party. Luther got comfortable in the carriage and opened his Bible at this Psalm. Knight explains: “Quite forgetting where he was, he there and then penned an exposition of it that plumbs the depths as a great revelation of the love of God.”

We are inspired to erupt into praise. God cares for nature but most especially for His people. Jesus reminds us that God is ‘moved’ even by the fall of a small sparrow – and yet we are worth much more than many sparrows.

Don’t you just love verse 11: God ‘… takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love …’

As we know, the word ‘fear’ is just another way of speaking of reverence. We come to God, always in reverence because of God’s greatness and we place our hope in Him which enables us to face the greatest trials because we are filled with God’s ‘hesed’ – his steadfast love. (A lovely definition of ‘hesed’ is “… the consistent, ever-faithful, relentless, constantly-pursuing, lavish, extravagant, unrestrained, furious love of our Father God.”)

We can give God pleasure; we can bless God. What an amazing thought. Little old ordinary you and me can give pleasure to Almighty God. To use an over-used word from teenage vocabulary – this is truly ‘awesome’.

Let us give our Lord pleasure today as we worship him with great reverence and as we place our hope in his steadfast love.

Thank you for a lovely week of refreshment as you have expounded the Scriptures. Indeed faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the word of Christ (Romans 10:17).

As ever,

David