Subject. - This is a specially remarkable song. In it the greatness and the condescending goodness of the Lord are celebrated. The God of Israel is set forth in his peculiarity of glory as caring for the sorrowing, the insignificant, and forgotten. The poet finds a singular joy in extolling one who is so singularly gracious. It is a Psalm of the city and of the field, of the first and the second creations, of the commonwealth and of the church. It is good and pleasant throughout.

Division. - The song appears to divide itself into three portions. Psalm 147:1-6, Jehovah is extolled for building up Zion, and blessing his mourners; Psalm 147:7-11, the like praise is given because of his provision for the lowly, and his pleasure in them; and then, Psalm 147:12-20, he is magnified for his work on behalf of his people, and the power of his word in nature and in grace. Let it be studied with joyful gratitude.

Hints to Preachers

Psalm 147:1. - Praise. Its profit, pleasure, and propriety. - J. F.

Psalm 147:1. - The Reasonable Service.

I. The methods of praise, by word, song, life; individually, socially.

II. The offerers of praise, "ye."

III. The object of praise: "the Lord, our God."

IV. The reasons for praise: it is "good," "pleasant," "becoming." - C. A. D.

Psalm 147:1-3. -

I. The Privilege of Praising God.

1. It is good.

2Pleasant.

3Becoming.

II. The Duty of Praising God.

1. For gathering a church for himself among men: "The Lord doth build up Jerusalem."

2. For the materials of which it is composed: "The outcasts," etc.

3. For the preparation of those materials for his purpose: "He healeth," etc., Psalm 147:3. - G. R.

Psalm 147:2. - The Lord is Architect, Builder, Sustainer, Restorer, and Owner of the Church. In each relation let him be praised.

Psalm 147:2. - The Great Gatherer.

I. Strange persons sought for.

II. Special search and means made use of.

III. Selected centre to which he brings them.

IV. Singular exhibition of them for ever and ever in heaven.

Psalm 147:2. - First the church built and then the sinners gathered into it. A prosperous state of the church within necessary to her increase from without.

Psalm 147:2. - See "Spurgeon's Sermons," No. 1302 - "Good Cheer for Outcasts."

Psalm 147:2. - Upbuilding and In gathering.

I. The church may be in a fallen condition.

II. Its upbuilding is the Lord's work.

III. He accomplishes it by gathering together its outcast citizens. - C. A. D.

Psalm 147:3. - See "Spurgeon's Sermons," No. 53: "Healing for the Wounded."

Psalm 147:3. - God a true physician, and a tender nurse. - J. F.

Psalm 147:3, Psalm 147:4. - Heaven's Brilliants, and Earth's Broken Hearts.

I. The Proprietor of the Stars with the Wounded. The stars left kingless for broken hearts. Jehovah! with lint and liniment and a woman's hand. Who binds together the stars, shall bind firmly grieved hearts.

II. The Gentle Heart-healer with the Stars. Be all power entrusted to such tenderness. Its comely splendour. God guides the stars with an eye on wounded hearts. The hopefulness of prayer.

III. Hearts, Stars, and Eternity. Some hearts shall "shine as the stars." Some stars shall expire in "blackness of darkness." God's hand and eye are everywhere making justice certain. Trust and sing. - W. B. H.

Psalm 147:3, Psalm 147:4. - God's Compassion and Power.

I. Striking diversity of God's cares: "hearts" and "stars."

II. Wonderful variety of God's operations. Gently caring for human hearts. Preserving the order, regularity, and stability of creation.

III. Blessed results of God's work. Broken hearts healed; wounds bound up. Light, harmony, and beauty in the heavens.

IV. Mighty encouragement to trust in God. God takes care of the universe; may I not entrust my life, my soul, to him? Where he rules unquestioned there is light and harmony; let me not resist his will in my life. - C. A. D.

Psalm 147:5. - A contemplation of God's greatness.

I. Great in his essential nature.

II. Great in power.

III. Great in wisdom. Let us draw inferences concerning the insignificance of man, &c.

Psalm 147:6. - Reversal.

I. In the estimate of the world the meek are cast down and the wicked lifted up.

II. In the judgment of heaven the meek are lifted up and the wicked cast down.

III. The judgment of heaven will, in the end, be found the true one. - C. A. D.

Psalm 147:7. - The use and benefit of singing.

Psalm 147:8. - God in all. The unity of his plan; the co-operation of divine forces; the condescending mercy of the result.

Psalm 147:9. - See "Spurgeon's Sermons," No. 672, "The Ravens' Cry."

Psalm 147:11. - The singularity of our God, and of his favour. For which he is to be praised.

I. The objects of that favour distinguished.

1. From physical strength.

2. From mental vigour.

3. From self-reliance.

4. From mere capacity for service.

II. The objects of that favour described.

1. By emotions relating to God.

2. By the weakest forms of spiritual life.

3. By the highest degrees of it; for the maturest saint fears and hopes.

4. By the sacred blend of it. Fear of our guilt, hope of his mercy. Fear of self, confidence in God. Hope of perseverance, fear of sinning. Hope of heaven, fear of coming short. Hope of perfection, mourning defects.

III. The blessing of that favour implied.

1. God loves to think of them.

2. To be with them.

3. To minister to them.

4. To meet them in their fears and their hopes.

5. To reward them for ever.

Psalm 147:11. - He takes pleasure in their persons, emotions, desires, devotions, hopes, and characters. - W. W.

Psalm 147:12. -

I. The Lord whom we praise.

II. His praise in our houses - Jerusalem.

III. Our praise in his house - Zion.

Psalm 147:13. - A Strong Church.

I. The utility and value of a strong church.

II. The marks which distinguish it.

1. Gates well kept.

2. Increase of membership.

3. The converts blessed to others.

III. The important care of a strong church, to trace all blessing to Zion's God. - W. B. H.

Psalm 147:14, Psalm 147:15. - See "Spurgeon's Sermons,'" No. 425 "Peace at Home, and Prosperity Abroad."

Psalm 147:14, Psalm 147:15. - Church blessings.

I.Peace.

II.Food.

III. Missionary energy.

IV. The presence of God, the source of all blessing.

Psalm 147:15 (second clause). - See "Spurgeon's Sermons," No. 1607: "The Swiftly Running Word."

Psalm 147:16. - The unexpected results of adversity: snow acting as wool.

Psalm 147:16-18. - See "Spurgeon's Sermons," No. 670: "Frost and Thaw."

Psalm 147:19. -

I. God's people.

II. God's Word.

III. God's revelation to the soul.

IV. God's praise for this special revelation.

Psalm 147:20. - Electing Grace inspires the Heart with Praise.

I. God's love has chosen us. Hallelujah.

II. God has entrusted us with his truth. Hallelujah.

III. God has made us almoners of his bounty. Hallelujah.

IV. God through us is to save the world. Hallelujah. - W. B. H.

Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings

Whole Psalm

1 Praise ye the Lord, for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely.

2 The Lord doth build up Jerusalem, he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.

3 He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.

4 He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.

5 Great is our Lord, and of great power, his understanding is infinite.

6 The Lord lifteth up the meek, he casteth the wicked down to the ground.

Psalm 147:1

"Praise ye the Lord," or Hallelujah. The flow of the broad river of the Book of Psalms ends in a cataract of praise. The present Psalm begins and ends with Hallelujah. Jehovah and happy praise should ever be associated in the mind of a believer. Jove was dreaded, but Jehovah Is beloved. To one and all of the true seed of Israel the Psalmist acts as choir-master, and cries, "Praise ye the Lord." Such an exhortation may fitly be addressed to all those who owe anything to the favour of God; and which of us does not? Pay him we cannot, but praise him we will, not only now, but for ever. "For it is good to sing praises unto our God." It is good because it is right; good because it is acceptable with God, beneficial to ourselves, and stimulating to our fellows. The goodness of an exercise is good argument with good men for its continual practice. Singing the divine praises is the best possible use of speech, it speaks of God, for God, and to God, and it does this in a joyful and reverent manner. Singing in the heart is good, but singing with heart and voice is better, for it allows others to join with us. Jehovah is our God, our covenant God, therefore let him have the homage of our praise; and he is so gracious and happy a God that our praise may best be expressed in joyful song.

"For it is pleasant; and praise is comely." It is pleasant and proper, sweet and suitable to laud the Lord Most High. It is refreshing to the taste of the truly refined mind, and it is agreeable to the eye of the pure in heart, it is delightful both to hear and to see a whole assembly praising the Lord. These are arguments for song-service which men who love true piety, real pleasure, and strict propriety will not despise. Please to praise, for praise is pleasant, praise the Lord in the beauty of holiness, for praise is comely. Where duty and delight, benefit and beauty unite, we ought not to be backward. Let each reader feel that he and his family ought to constitute a choir for the daily celebration of the praises of the Lord.

Psalm 147:2

"The Lord doth build up Jerusalem." God appears both in the material and spiritual world as a Builder and Maker, and therein he is to be praised. His grace, wisdom, and power are all seen in the formation and establishment of the chosen seat of his worship; once a city with material wall, but now a church composed of spiritual stones. The Jews rejoiced in the uprising of their capital from its ruins, and we triumph in the growth of the church from among a godless world. "He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel"; and thus he repairs the waste places, and causes the former desolations to be inhabited. This sentence may relate to Nehemiah and those who returned with him; but there is no reason why it should not with equal fitness be referred to David, who, with his friends, was once an outcast, but ere long became the means of building up Jerusalem. In any case, the Psalmist ascribes to Jehovah all the blessings enjoyed; the restoration of the city and the restoration of the banished he equally traces to the divine hand. How clearly these ancient believers saw the Lord present, working among them and for them! Spiritually we see the hand of God in the edification of the church, and in the ingathering of sinners. What are men under conviction of sin but outcasts from God, from holiness, from heaven, and even from hope? Who could gather them from their dispersions, and make citizens of them in Christ Jesus save the Lord our God? This deed of love and power he is constantly performing. Therefore let the song begin at Jerusalem our home, and let every living stone in the spiritual city echo the strain; for it is the Lord who has brought again his banished ones, and builded them together in Zion.

Psalm 147:3

"He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds." This the Holy Spirit mentions as a part of the glory of God, and a reason for our declaring his praise: the Lord is not only a Builder, but a Healer; he restores broken hearts as well as broken walls. The kings of the earth think to be great through their loftiness; but Jehovah becomes really so by his condescension. Behold, the Most High has to do with the sick and the sorry, with the wretched and the wounded! He walks the hospitals as the good Physician! His deep sympathy with mourners is a special mark of his goodness. Few will associate with the despondent, but Jehovah chooses their company, and abides with them till he has healed them by his comforts. He deigns to handle and heal broken hearts: he himself lays on the ointment of grace, and the soft bandages of love, and thus binds up the bleeding wounds of those convinced of sin. This is compassion like a God. Well may those praise him to whom he has acted so gracious a part. The Lord is always healing and binding: this is no new work to him, he has done it of old; and it is not a thing of the past of which he is now weary, for he is still healing and still binding, as the original hath it. Come, broken hearts, come to the Physician who never fails to heal: uncover your wounds to him who so tenderly binds them up!

Psalm 147:4

continued...

7 Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God'

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

9 He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.

10 He delighteth not in the strength of the horse - he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man.

11 The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.

Psalm 147:7

In this paragraph the contrast announced in the former section is enlarged upon from another point of view, namely, as it is seen in nature and in providence.

"Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving;" or rather, "respond to Jehovah." He speaks to us in his works, let us answer him with our thanks. All that he does is gracious, every movement of his hand is goodness; therefore let our hearts reply with gratitude, and our lips with song. Our lives should be responses to divine love. Jehovah is ever engaged in giving, let us respond with thanksgiving.

"Sing praise upon the harp unto our God." Blend music with song. Under a dispensation of ritual the use of music was most commendable, and suitable in the great congregation, those of us who judge it to be less desirable for public worship, under a spiritual economy, because it has led to so many abuses, nevertheless rejoice in it in our privacy, and are by no means insensible to its charms. It seems a profanation that choice minstrelsy should so often be devoted to unworthy themes' the sweetest harmonies should be consecrated to the honour of the Lord. He is our God, and this fact is one choice joy of the song. We have chosen him because he has chosen us; and we see in him peculiarities which distinguish him from all the pretended deities of those among whom we dwell. He is our God in covenant relationship for ever and ever, and to him be praise in every possible form.

Psalm 147:8

"Who covereth the heaven with clouds." He works in all things, above as well as below. Clouds are not caused by accident, but produced by God himself, and made to assume degrees of density by which the blue firmament is hidden. A sky-scape might seem to be a mere fortuitous concourse of vapours, but it is not so: the Great Artist's hand thus covers the canvas of the heavens. "Who prepareth rain for the earth." The Lord prepares clouds with a view to rain, and rain with an eye to the fields below. By many concurrent circumstances all things are made ready for the production of a shower; there is more of art in the formation of a rain-cloud and in the fashioning of a rain-drop, than appears to superficial observers. God is in the vapour, and in the pearly drop which is born of it. "Who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains." By the far-reaching shower he produces vegetation where the hand of man is all unknown. He cares not only for Goshen's fertile plains, but for Carmel's steep ascents. God makes the heavens the servants of the earth, and the clouds the irrigators of the mountain meadows. This is a kind of evolution about which there can be no dispute. Nor does the Lord forget the waste and desolate places, but causes the lone hills to be the first partakers of his refreshing visitations. This is after the manner of our God. He not only causes rain to descend from the heavens to water the grass, and thus unites the skies and the herbs by a ministry of mercy; but he also thinks of the rocky ledges among the hills, and forgets not the pastures of the wilderness. What a God is this!

"Passing by the rich and great,

For the poor and desolate."

Psalm 147:9

continued...

12 Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion.

13 For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates; he hath blessed thy children within thee.

14 He maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat.

15 He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly.

16 He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes.

17 He casteth forth his ice like morsels' who can stand before his cold?

18 He sendeth out his word, and melteth them, he causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow.

19 He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel.

20 He hath not dealt so with any nation - and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the Lord.

Psalm 147:12

"Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion." How the poet insists upon praise; he cries praise, praise, as if it were the most important of all duties. A peculiar people should render peculiar praise. The city of peace should be the city of praise; and the temple of the covenant God should resound with his glories. If nowhere else, yet certainly in Zion there should be joyful adoration of Zion's God. Note, that we are to praise the Lord in our own houses in Jerusalem as well as in his own house in Zion. The holy city surrounds the holy hill, and both are dedicated to the holy God, therefore both should ring with hallelujahs.

Psalm 147:13

"For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates." Her fortifications were finished, even to the fastenings of the gates, and God had made all sound and strong, even to her bolts and bars: thus her security against invading foes was guaranteed. This is no small mercy. Oh, that our churches were thus preserved from all false doctrine and unholy living! This must be the Lord's doing; and where he has wrought it his name is greatly to be praised. Modern libertines would tear down all gates and abolish all bars; but so do not we, because of the fear of the Lord. "He hath blessed thy children within thee." Internal happiness is as truly the Lord's gift as external security. When _he Lord@blesses "thy sos in the midst of thee," thou art, O Zion, filled with a happy, united, zealous, prosperous, holy people, who dwell in communion with God, and enter into the joy of their Lord. When God makes thy walls salvation thy gates must be praise. It would little avail to fortify a wretched, starving city; but when the walls are strengthened, it is a still greater joy to see that the inhabitants are blessed with all good gifts. How much our churches need a present and abiding benediction.

Psalm 147:14

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