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"In Praise of God the Almighty"
Psalm 147.13-20
Good News Translation (GNT)
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13 He keeps your gates strong;
he blesses your people.
14 He keeps your borders safe
and satisfies you with the finest wheat.
15 He gives a command to the earth,
and what he says is quickly done.
16 He spreads snow like a blanket
and scatters frost like dust.
17 He sends hail like gravel;
no one can endure the cold he sends!
18 Then he gives a command, and the ice melts;
he sends the wind, and the water flows.
19 He gives his message to his people,
his instructions and laws to Israel.
20 He has not done this for other nations;
they do not know his laws.
Praise the Lord!
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Commentary taken from 'word-on-the-web'
supplied by Scripture Union
'In Praise of God the Almighty'
This psalm is replete with echoes and quotations from other parts of the Old Testament
(eg Deuteronomy 4; Job 37-39; Psalms 33,104)
and seems to have been written to celebrate Israel's return from exile.
In verse 12 the people of Jerusalem sing his praises.
God has fulfilled his promises.
By the waters of Babylon his people had wept at the sheer difficulty of singing the Lord's praises in exile (Psalm 137:4).
For the Jew, the Temple was the place where God dwelt on earth.
Pilgrimages to the Temple were the means by which the Jews maintained and celebrated the presence of God in their midst.
In exile all that was taken away - but now they have returned.
They are rebuilding.
They celebrate with a collage of praises from their Scriptures.
Trust we put in human leaders is bound to fail.
Faith in God is secure, whatever disasters - deserved or undeserved - we may suffer.
His laws are a source of joy.
Christians read this psalm with a heightened appreciation of who God is and what he has done.
He has brought us back from the exile of a life outside him into the fellowship of his church.
We no longer need a Temple now that the Holy Spirit is poured into our lives.
Individually and communally, we experience and celebrate his dynamic work in our midst.
We have not only the laws and decrees of the Old Testament but the living words of the New Testament.
Above all, we delight in Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, alive in our midst!
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