Bible Commentaries
Psalms 147

Verse 1

147:1 Praise ye the LORD: for [it is] good to sing praises unto our God; for [it is] {a} pleasant; [and] praise is comely.

(a) He shows in which we ought to exercise ourselves continually, and to take our pastime: that is, in praising God.

Verse 2

147:2 The LORD doth build up {b} Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.

(b) Because the Lord is the founder of the Church, it cannot be destroyed, though the members of it are dispersed and seem as it were for a time to be cut off.

Verse 3

147:3 He healeth the {c} broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.

(c) With affliction, or sorrow for sin.

Verse 4

147:4 He {d} telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by [their] names.

(d) Though it seems incredible to man, that God should assemble his Church, being so dispersed, yet nothing can be too hard to him that can number and name all the stars.

Verse 6

147:6 The LORD lifteth up the meek: he casteth the wicked down to the {e} ground.

(e) For the more high that the wicked climb the greater is their fall in the end.

Verse 8

147:8 Who {f} covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.

(f) He shows by the example of God’s mighty power, goodness, and wisdom, that he can never lack just opportunity to praise God.

Verse 9

147:9 He giveth to the beast his food, [and] to the young ravens which {g} cry.

(g) For their crying is as it were a confession of their need, which cannot be relieved, but by God alone, then if God show himself mindful of the most contemptible souls, can he suffer them to die with famine, whom he has assured of life everlasting?

Verse 10

147:10 He delighteth not in the {h} strength of the horse: he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man.

(h) Though to use lawful means is both profitable and pleases God, yet to put our trust in them is to defraud God of his honour.

Verse 13

147:13 For he hath {i} strengthened the bars of thy gates; he hath blessed thy children within thee.

(i) He not only furnishes his Church with all that is necessary but preserves also the same, and makes it strong against all outward force.

Verse 15

147:15 He sendeth forth his {k} commandment [upon] earth: his word runneth very {l} swiftly.

(k) His secret working in all creatures is as a command to keep them in order and to give them moving and force.

(l) For immediately and without resisting all things obey him.

Verse 19

147:19 He sheweth his {m} word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel.

(m) As before he called God’s secret working in all his creatures his word: so he means by this his word the doctrine of life everlasting, which he has left to his Church as a precious treasure.

Verse 20

147:20 He hath not dealt so with any nation: and [as for his] judgments, they have not {n} known them. Praise ye the LORD.

(n) The cause of this difference is God’s free mercy, which has elected his in his Son Christ Jesus to salvation: and his just judgment, by which he has appointed the reprobate to eternal damnation.