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Opening Prayer
Thank you, Father, that we are your handiwork, created in Christ to do good works, which you have prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)
Read PSALM 147
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Psalm 147
1 Praise the Lord.[a]
How good it is to sing praises to our God,
how pleasant and fitting to praise him!
2 The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
he gathers the exiles of Israel.
3 He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
4 He determines the number of the stars
and calls them each by name.
5 Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
his understanding has no limit.
6 The Lord sustains the humble
but casts the wicked to the ground.
7 Sing to the Lord with grateful praise;
make music to our God on the harp.
8 He covers the sky with clouds;
he supplies the earth with rain
and makes grass grow on the hills.
9 He provides food for the cattle
and for the young ravens when they call.
10 His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,
nor his delight in the legs of the warrior;
11 the Lord delights in those who fear him,
who put their hope in his unfailing love.
12 Extol the Lord, Jerusalem;
praise your God, Zion.
13 He strengthens the bars of your gates
and blesses your people within you.
14 He grants peace to your borders
and satisfies you with the finest of wheat.
15 He sends his command to the earth;
his word runs swiftly.
16 He spreads the snow like wool
and scatters the frost like ashes.
17 He hurls down his hail like pebbles.
Who can withstand his icy blast?
18 He sends his word and melts them;
he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow.
19 He has revealed his word to Jacob,
his laws and decrees to Israel.
20 He has done this for no other nation;
they do not know his laws.[b]
Praise the Lord.
Footnotes
- Psalm 147:1 Hebrew Hallelu Yah; also in verse 20
- Psalm 147:20 Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scrolls and Septuagint nation; / he has not made his laws known to them
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
‘Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven, / who like me his praise should sing?’1
This post-exilic psalm sees the return from Babylonian exile and the restoration of Jerusalem as a reason to offer praise and worship to God, acknowledging God’s power and his gracious care of the covenant people, whose unique status is acknowledged (v. 20). The heartbreak of exile has been replaced by the healing comfort of being home again. The security and well-being of the post-exilic community were seen as divine gifts.
The argument goes from the particular, through the general, to the universal:2 God provides for Israel specifically, cares for the broken- hearted generally, and controls the heavens. It is the same Creator God who flung the stars into space and set the captives free from Babylonia. That God’s power avails at every level should enable us to trust him with our particular problem, be it great or small. The tragedy is that humans are so prone to seek their sufficiency in money, possessions, materialism, etc.
The references to God sending out ‘his word’ (vv. 15–19) are striking. It is the Word of God that shapes nature and history. The world is not left to its own devices, but
God controls it through his Word. In Isaiah, God reminds us that his Word ‘will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it,’³ and in Hebrews that it is ‘alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit.’⁴ As Christians, we have the deeper meaning of Jesus, identified as the Word of God incarnate.
Apply
Ezekiel and the psalmist often saw God’s hand in events: what evidence of God’s hand do you see in contemporary events?
Closing prayer
Thank you, Father, for your presence and power displayed, not just in Scripture, but in the day-to-day goings-on of my life and the world.
1 ‘Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven’, Henry F Lyte, 1834. 2 HL Ellison Ezekiel (Paternoster Press, 1967), 122. 3 Isa 55:11 4 Heb 4:12
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