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Scott's Reference Library
Psalm 147:1 through Psalm 147:12 (NIV)
1 Praise the LORD.
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 thanksgiving;
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 a man;
11 the LORD delights in those who fear him,
who put their hope in his unfailing love.
12 Extol the LORD, O Jerusalem;
praise your God, O Zion,
Psalm 147:20 (NIV)
20 He has done this for no other nation;
they do not know his laws.
Praise the LORD.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
VERSES 1-11
Praising God is work that is its own wages. It is comely; it becomes us as
reasonable creatures, much more as people in covenant with God. He gathers
outcast sinners by his grace, and will bring them into his holy habitation. To
those whom God heals with the consolations of his Spirit, he speaks peace,
assures them their sins are pardoned. And for this, let others praise him also.
Man’s knowledge is soon ended; but God’s knowledge is a dept that can never be
fathomed. And while he telleth the number of the stars, he condescends to hear
the broken-hearted sinner. While he feeds the young ravens, he will not leave
his praying people destitute. Clouds look dull and melancholy, yet without them
we could have no rain, therefore no fruit. Thus afflictions look black and
unpleasant; but from clouds of affliction come showers that make the soul to
yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness. The psalmist delights not in things
wherein sinners trust and glory; but a serious and suitable regard to God is, in
his sight, of very great price. We are not to be in doubt between hope and fear,
but to act under the gracious influences of hope and fear united.
VERSES 12-20
The church, like Jerusalem of old, built up and preserved by the wisdom, power,
and goodness of God, is exhorted to praise him for all the benefits and
blessings vouchsafed to her; and these are represented by his favours in the
course of nature. The thawing word may represent the gospel of Christ, and the
thawing wind the Spirit of Christ; for the Spirit is compared to the wind, John
3:8. Converting grace softens the heart that was hard frozen, and melts it into
tears of repentance, and makes good reflections to flow, which before were
chilled and stopped up. The change which the thaw makes is very evident, yet how
it is done no one can say. Such is the change wrought in the conversion of a
soul, when God’s word and Spirit are sent to melt it and restore it to itself.
See Psalm 102:12-28
See
Healing