Let's go to Psalm 147. Start with our summary statement here for this Psalm. Psalm 147. Praises the God of creation. Who is the God of Israel? Go over that again, Psalm 147. praises the God of creation Who is the God of Israel a Simple outline for the psalm would be in two parts verses 1 to 11 God will rebuild Jerusalem Verses 12 to 20 Jerusalem will rejoice in Him. So I'll go over that one more time. Verses 1 to 11, God will rebuild Jerusalem. And verses 12 to 20, Jerusalem will rejoice in Him. Alright, so we'll go to our observations here. Psalm 147 is what we call an anonymous psalm. You can see there's no superscription there. There's no author attribution in the text of the psalm. There is some slight tradition that connects it with Haggai and Zechariah, just like Psalm 146. Not really any compelling evidence for that. There's no musical direction for the singing of the psalm, but throughout the psalm there's just the envisioning of the singing of praises and the singing of praises with instruments in the restoration of Israel. There's no occasion that is given for the writing of the psalm. Some of the language once again suggests that post-exile, that later date of writing for this psalm. To categorize Psalm 147, it is a praise psalm, more in particular a halal. So it's the second of the final five halal psalms, and that group of psalms closes Book 5 and the entire collection of the psalms. All five of these, they begin and end with Hallelujah, which again is pretty unique in the whole collection of the Psalms. But as far as the conventions of a praise psalm, you can see it starts out in verse 1. There's this opening call to praise. And then as you go through the psalm, you're going to find alternating calls to praise and reasons to praise. And then the psalm does conclude on a final call to praise. So very, very much fits within the praise psalm type. There are some minor elements. Once again, it is a Zion psalm. There's mention of Zion in Jerusalem and Israel once again. Also, there are some creation elements in this psalm as essentially God's sovereignty over creation is really what's referred to. And there's also some wisdom elements, some references to God's wisdom as well as just a couple of references to the fate of the wicked, and so you get this contrast between the righteous and the wicked and their fates, their destinies, God as judge of the wicked and so on. Now, Psalm 147 does have some connections. Obviously, it connects with Psalm 146 and really the rest of this halal group because they have a number of themes that connect these final psalms together, one of those obviously being praise. They are all praise psalms. And so the praise, the singing, the music, the instruments, like I said, there's even dancing that's referred to in some places. So you have different attributes and acts of God that are referred to in these Psalms that again is thematic through this collection. God is creator, God is sustainer, God is redeemer, God is judge, and you also have references to the kingdom on earth and we get that here with Zion and Jerusalem. some other references. So it does connect with Psalm 146 and these others, references to Israel and Jacob. Again, some of the common thematic elements that we see in these Psalms. It does also have some external connections. I mean, and again, you could connect it to a number of other Psalms outside of this Hallel group. None that, I mean, most of them are sort of one here and there. Nothing that I would consider real prominent. And the external connections, with places like Isaiah 61 and some of 62 as well, pertaining to the gathering and the restoration of Israel and Jerusalem with the kingdom conditions. And so you get that again once again in this psalm, and you get that in places like there in Isaiah. The poetic features of Psalm 147 is obviously this movement, and I talked a little bit about how there's this alternating between a call to praise and reasons to praise, but there's also sort of alternating in the subject matter as you move, and so there's a lot of movement, kind of some alternation, some back and forth, and so As I thought about how to describe this and the effect that it has on the psalm, it's sort of like a zooming in and zooming out. And so, this may or may not be helpful to you, but really what I thought of was an hourglass. And so if you think about an hourglass that has the sand in it, and so you have a large opening at the top, a large container, and then it's sort of funneled into this very small, focused, central place, and then it flows back out into large container again. And so that's sort of the way that I see this psalm working, because you have these large, grand reflections on God as creator and as sustainer of the universe. And then you get the zooming in, you get the focusing, the focusing on even little baby birds and to very small aspects of the creation. And more particularly, that focus comes down to Israel and God's fulfilling of His covenant promises to the people of Jacob. And so the hourglass effect is sort of like you have God overall and his sovereignty over creation, and then you see that focused to the bringing to fulfillment the promises to Israel. And then it flows through that and then spreads again because those promises fulfilled to Israel are going to be a channel of blessings that are going to flow to all of the earth in those kingdom conditions and stuff. So it's a very interesting structure that may not be a literarily correct way of saying that. But anyway, it's just sort of what I thought of as I was trying to capture the movement and the effect of this psalm. You do have You do have some imagery and poetic type expression. It's not real prominent in the psalm. And as far as structure, once again, you get that beginning and that ending with hallelujah, which outside of this group, you have only two other psalms that have that particular feature. All right, so we want to work our way through here. We do have 20 verses. So I guess, well, it looks like really the longest of these final Psalms. But I'll go ahead and read this and we'll work our way through this Psalm. Praise ye the Lord, for it is good to sing praises unto our God, for it is pleasant and praise is comely. The Lord doth build up Jerusalem. He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. He healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds. He telleth the number of the stars. He calleth them all by their names. Great is our Lord and of great power. His understanding is infinite. The Lord lifteth up the meek. He casteth the wicked down to the ground. Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving. Sing praise upon the harp unto our God, who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains. He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry. He delighteth not in the strength of the horse, he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man. The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy. Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem! Praise thy God, O Zion! For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates, he hath blessed thy children within thee, he maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat. He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth, his word runneth very swiftly. He giveth snow like wool, he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes, he casteth forth his ice like morsels. Who can stand before his cold? He sendeth out His word and melteth them. He causeth His wind to blow and the waters to flow. He showeth His word unto Jacob, His statutes and His judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation. And as for His judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the Lord. So verse one is that opening call to praise. We get this, that it's good, and that word, it takes in the idea of this, the widest sense of good, good in every possible way. And the word for pleasant, as they're used in conjunction here, has the idea of being delightful or even like something sweet to the taste. And the singing of praises here, the word is used in the psalm, again it indicates the striking of the fingers and so it's taken as a plucking of the strings of an instrument and singing these psalms of praise like this. This praise for God is described as comely. That would be a pretty old usage. We probably don't really use that word that way anymore, but it has the sense of being fitting or of being becoming, we might say. You get to verses 2 to 6 and we get this reference to building Jerusalem and gathering Israel. So the future gathering of Israel from exile, This is the gathering that is being referred to, the building of Jerusalem referring to the restoration of that nation. So the building of Jerusalem in the language that's used here can indicate the idea of rebuilding, or in a little bit more figurative way, it can refer to the establishing of a house. So the rebuilding of Jerusalem is obviously a reference again to the restoration of the nation when the king is going to reign from Zion and such. So we get other references to this, like Psalm 89, 4. Other places like Isaiah 62, 10-11. Ezekiel 39, 27-28. So really there's a lot of places in the prophets and other places in the Psalms that refer to these things as well. Now, when you look at these verses here, it can appear to be general, like if you just take verse 3, where He heals the broken in heart and binds up their wounds, and that can just seem to be like a general sort of statement, but actually it's specific. because this is what is specifically prophesied as blessings to Israel in the Restoration. So, binding up of the broken in heart, like in Isaiah 61.1, Isaiah 30.26. So, again, we have the context set for us that He's building Jerusalem and gathering Israel. And then we have these other references that appear in multiple places in the Old Testament, the writing of the prophets, These are specific promises, specific blessings that are being referred to to the nation of Israel. And so this is where you sort of get that zooming in. And then verses 4 and 5 zoom out again because you're looking at God's incomprehensible greatness. He's numbering and naming the stars. There's no end to His wisdom. But once again, this does focus back down because these are seen in the context of the blessings to Israel. So in a place like Isaiah chapter 40 verses 25 to 28, Israel is being exhorted to confident trust in the Lord because He knows the stars. He calls them by name. He numbers them and that sort of thing. So again, this is something that we see in use in different places in the Old Testament and is employed here in this psalm. And so the infinite greatness of God's power that is directed to the fulfilling of his promises to the nation that he chose. So it's sort of like a great to small type of argument. If you can do this really great thing, then the small thing, well, that should not be any trouble for you, right? That's sort of the idea. These great things that God has done, well, therefore, he's going to fulfill his promises. It's the same God, and it's even the same word, and we get that sort of interplay a little later in the psalm. And though God is of great power on a cosmic scale, Again, we get this zooming in. He lifts up the lowly. So it's like he bends down to pick up the lowly. And then in turn, he brings the wicked down to the ground or the dirt or the dust. Same word that was used in Psalm 146 in verse number four that's used back in Genesis chapter number three. And it's a common expression of bringing down to the ground is essentially like saying down to the grave. It is a reference to death, and in this case, it is judgment that God is bringing on the wicked. Verses 7 to 11 give us another call to praise and more reasons to praise. So there's a command to sing here under the Lord, like in what we get in reference to Moses' song of victory back in Exodus 15 and verse 21. Of course, we've looked at this numerous times, and we still have some reference to go before we end the psalms, but Exodus 15 is the old psalm, and this psalm is trending toward the singing of the new psalm. Now, the new psalm doesn't appear here. It will. We'll get to it, but we've already seen that a number of times as we've been going through the psalms. Verses 8 and 9 sort of zoom back out again, and we're talking about God's care and governance of the creation. And then we get from sort of these lofty grand things, we get God feeding animals, and even these young ravens or these baby birds. that's obviously displaying God's goodness, but it's also, again, giving reason to trust. And so think about how Jesus, I don't believe he was necessarily quoting this verse, but he said essentially the same thing in Matthew 6 and verse 26. And we looked at that as part of the Sermon on the Mount not too awful long ago. And when he's talking about God's care of these seemingly small and insignificant parts of his creation, He was making the argument, then why are you worried and fretting? If God sees to it that these baby birds are taken care of, then why are you worrying and fretting over tomorrow and being anxious and such? So again, it's the same effect. that Jesus used, and it appears other places as well in the Bible. He has this reference to horses and men, or the legs of men, and this is some of the subtle imagery that's in the psalm. This would be sort of more of a military type of reference, like what we get in Psalm 33, verses 16 and 17. So it's not It's not the strength of nations in their manpower, in their technology, in their weaponry, in their armies, and all of those sort of things. That's not what delivers Israel or brings God's kingdom to the earth. And we see this reference again a number of times. But rather, God says He delights in those who fear Him. And you can see that Those who fear Him, there in verse 11, it's put parallel with those that hope in His mercy, and that is chesed there, His mercy, His covenant mercy, His covenant loyalties, covenant faithfulness. So, in other words, those that fear God are those who have taken refuge in Him, and we've seen that language and imagery a lot in the Psalms in reference to trusting in God, being in covenant relationship with Him. Again, mercy is God's covenant faithfulness, and that is the hope of all those who take refuge in Him. And it was just contrasted with what? It was just contrasted with the strength of the nations on the earth. Their hope is in God's covenant faithfulness. And ultimately, this is Israel's hope. It's not in manpower. It's not in United Nations. It's not in allies. It's not in anything like that. It is in God's covenant faithfulness. And His arm alone is going to gather them and restore them to their land and nation. Verses 12 to 14. We get more call to praise, and we get call to praise particularly for God's blessings to Israel. And these are spelled out really from here to the end of this psalm. We get this call for Jerusalem, for Zion to praise the Lord. Jerusalem, Zion, that's the center of God's kingdom on earth. This is where Messiah will restore and reign over the kingdom promised to Israel that will extend over all of the kingdoms and nations of the earth. And verses 13 and 14 then sort of begin to point toward these blessings to Israel in the restoration. So what we're seeing again are those kingdom blessings, those kingdom conditions, those things that have been promised to Israel when Messiah comes to establish his kingdom on earth. And we get a very similar type enumeration of this in Psalm 132 verses 13 to 18. Now verses 15 to 18, zoom back out. You've got God's universal reign over the creation. And His universal reign, we've seen it referred to a number of times in the Psalms. And when I say universal reign, I know it can get confusing because sometimes we use that when probably really we shouldn't. Universal reign refers to God on His throne in the heavens ruling over the entirety of His creation, not just the earth. The entirety of His creation extends to the earth, yes. And then we have His kingdom that will come to the earth to be ruled over by His Son, Jesus Christ, and that reign, that kingdom will be global. It will take in all of the earth, and so that's just some difference there. But when we get these references to God's universal reign over creation, it's indicating the power that God has for the redemption and the restoration of Israel in this psalm in particular. So in other words, he can make everything, he can rule over everything, then he can redeem Israel according to his words of promise. Now this power of God in these particular verses is expressed through His word of command, and particularly His word of command to the elements of creation, the wind and the water and all of this thing. We get reference like in verse 15 that His word runs very swiftly. In other words, You know, the idea is that God speaks it, it is done. God speaks it, it is done. So, His command over all these elements of creation, not only did God create all these things, but actually governs them. And then we get verses 19 and 20 that finish out the psalm, and we get a return of focus again on Israel in particular, and we get this interplay as we start talking about God's Word again, but this time it's not God's Word that's sending the snow and causing the waters to run and all of those kind of things, but it's God's Word, His statutes, His judgments, which refers particularly to the revelation of His covenant to Israel. And it establishes Israel as a nation, which was before not a nation, according to his promise to Abraham. And we get this reference to Jacob and to Israel. So again, it's clearly identified who he's talking about. And then we get this last verse in verse 20 where we get this explicit contrast. he has not dealt with any nation." In other words, he has not dealt with any other nation on the face of the earth the way he has Israel. That's what's being stated. Now this word for dealt here, actually it means to make or to do, and it refers to the fact that God has not made a covenant with any other nation like he has with Israel. And you can get references like Jeremiah chapter 31 verses 35 to 37 where God speaks of that covenant and that His promises are not going to fail. So whether you're talking about the United States of America, or you're talking about Italy, or Egypt, or Germany, or any other country that you want to think of, God has not made a covenant with that nation like he has Israel. They are alone God's chosen nation of people. And then, of course, we get this concluding hallelujah. All right, so let's go to interpretation. Well Psalm 147 obviously teaches the acts and the attributes of God. So particularly, we see God as creator and sustainer, we see God as redeemer and judge, we see God as covenant maker in this psalm. And really, when you're talking about these references to God's acts and attributes, again, they're very large-scale, they're very grand, and it would be easy to sort of just see them as general statements, but the psalm makes clear that these are made in reference to Israel and what God has promised and the blessings that He will bring to Israel. And that is the focus of the Psalm, and so as you sort of get that effect, you're sort of zooming out and you're zooming in. When you zoom in, it's brought right back to Israel and to the blessings that flow because of God's promises to them. So it's not just necessarily that we can look at this and we can see God's acts and attributes, but we can also see God's acts and attributes to fulfill His covenant promises. Now, the messianic hope of Psalm 147 is certainly seen through the future fulfillment of these promises to the nation of Israel. So, by this point in the psalm, and you don't get reference to the king or to the Messiah directly, But by this point in the Psalms, it is clear that these blessings, these conditions that are described, the binding of the brokenhearted, the healing of the wounds, all those kind of things, those only come through the reign of God's anointed Son King in Zion. just like the judgment of the wicked. And so you can think about Psalm 2, you can think about Psalm 132 verses 13 to 18, you can think about Psalm 110, and there's others we can go to, we can go to places in the prophets, but it's clear that these blessings, these conditions are only going to be realized through the reigning of God's Son from Jerusalem. So the return from exile that you get referenced to here, the gathering of Israel, that that was promised all the way back beginning in the books of Moses. You know, there's references to that gathering, that future gathering and restoration. Psalm 107 and verse 3 refers to it. You get this reference to God building Jerusalem, and when we were going through those Psalms of ascent, and we were looking at sort of what are these Psalms telling us? What's the story that's being told in these Psalms? In Psalm 127, God is going to build Jerusalem. and others attempting to build it are just laboring in vain. God is going to do it. So the kingdom blessings and conditions that we get described here, like in verse number 3 and in other places, again echo Isaiah chapter 61 and verse 1. And again, Jesus read Isaiah 61 at verse 1. In Luke 4 and verse 18, Luke reports that He read those verses and said that they were being fulfilled in Him, and so on. So it's much like we saw in Psalm 146. These blessings and conditions are also what we see when we start reading the Gospels, and we see these messianic signs that are just little previews, little glimpses. We don't have those signs with us today. We don't have them, but they were here for a time. They were little previews offering the kingdom to Israel, but ultimately what they point us to is their greater fulfillment when they will be fulfilled, when these conditions will prevail over the entire earth, including the separating out and the ridding of the earth of the wicked." And again, we get reference to that in this psalm. And when you think about the final note of this psalm, as it talks about God's word to Israel, the whole psalm has talked about all these things, about God's great power and how his word governs the creation. And then the psalm ends with this reference to God's word to Israel. And God's word to Israel is unlike God's word to any other nation on the face of the earth now or in history or in the future. And this final note that comes back to this word shows the assurance that all of these promises will be fulfilled. God's word to Israel. And you can see places like Peter actually referring to this word of Israel. So Acts chapter 10, I want to read just a few verses here where Peter was preaching to Cornelius in Acts chapter 10, verses 36 to 43. preaching peace by Jesus Christ, He is Lord of all. That word, I say, you know, which was published throughout all Judea and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with Him. And we are witnesses of all things which He did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they slew and hanged on a tree. Him God raised up the third day and showed Him openly, not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us who did eat and drink with Him after He rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach unto the people and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead. To him give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins." And again, Peter is pointing to the fact that this word that was given to Israel results in the coming of the Messiah. and ultimately, as Jesus revealed at the end of this age, His return to finally gather and restore Israel and establish His kingdom on this earth. All right, let's go to application. All right, I have three sort of applications here. So understanding Psalm 147, helps us understand the goodness of God even to an individual and a personal level. So you get this zooming in and zooming out in this psalm talking about great matters. And if you think about maybe like the book of Job when God finally speaks to Job and he starts talking to Job about all these aspects of creation that Job essentially knows nothing about. And sort of in a way, on one hand, it sort of silences Job, but on another, it shows God's care again down to that very small level. And so the meek and the lowly, we get this referenced. And again, they're a part of those sort of the group that take refuge in the Lord. But even though things are on a large scale, and even when you get to Israel, you're essentially, you're talking You're talking of a restoration of a nation, but that nation is made up of individual descendants from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that God is going to gather. And these blessings, the giving sight to the blind, the binding of the broken hearts, and the healing of the wounds. So, we don't want to walk away thinking that, well, this is just all large-scale, it's all grand. This zooming in and zooming out does show us, I mean, yes, this is the God of creation, but this is the God that bends down to pick up that lowly one from the dust and to lift them up. And so we do get comfort and strength. And that's, again, that's sort of the design of what you see with these references. The individual Israelite was not to lose hope. They were to receive comfort and they were to receive assurance. And we can as well, reading this psalm, knowing because God doesn't change. just because you may not belong to the descendants of Jacob doesn't mean that God's goodness and God's power is not employed in blessing you if you believe in Him, because it absolutely is. So we do get that. Number two, Understanding Psalm 147 does help us understand that it's not only Israel that is redeemed and blessed by His covenant faithfulness. There are and there will be, through them, God's blessing to all the nations of the earth. And this is what He promised to Abraham and to that nation that He chose of Abraham. So once again, Just like Paul, you know, Paul uses that language in Romans chapter 11, and he says, you know, if the setting aside of the Jews, which is what is the reality in this age, if their temporary blindness and setting aside has meant riches to the Gentiles, he says, then what shall their gathering mean? In other words, Paul says, he acknowledges that the setting aside of the Jews has brought great blessings and great richness to those of us that are not of Jewish lineage and have believed in Jesus Christ. And he says, if it has meant that much, think about what it's going to mean when they're gathered. And when they're gathered, what that's going to mean is this entire earth is going to be redeemed. That's when these conditions are going to come to be. So, again, this blessing flows through Israel. There are specific promises to Israel, yes, that are not given to any other nation, absolutely. But these blessings also flow through them and out to all the nations of the earth. Number three, which is sort of an application, sort of like a footnote, Reading through this psalm and thinking about it, I could see that understanding Psalm 147 helps us understand how to read the Bible. It's actually quite a good illustration of that. Because on the one hand, you could read through this psalm and fly through it very quickly, and you could come away with some great statements about the sovereignty of God. And if you read maybe a book or something about the sovereignty of God, or maybe you hear some sermon, there very well could be some verses plucked out of this psalm to talk about the sovereignty of God. And that's in this psalm certainly. But if that's as far as you go, you're actually missing the message of this particular psalm. This psalm is not just a psalm generally about the doctrine of God's sovereignty. That's not what this psalm is about. What does God's sovereignty mean in this psalm? What is the message? So, in one way of saying it, you read through there and then start looking, well, yeah, it does talk about God's sovereignty, but Jerusalem? Israel, Jacob, Zion, all these references that you get as you're reading through this psalm, well, wait a minute, what's this about? So, it's a good illustration of understanding the Bible contextually, not just turning here and plucking out a verse because it sounds great and would look good on a coffee mug or a t-shirt or whatever else, and there's certainly truth in it, there is. But what's the message of this psalm as a whole? And then we've also talked about how things that are mentioned, like the gathering of Israel, well, that's not explained in this psalm. So how are you going to understand that? Oh, well, we could just say, well, you know, generally, God just sort of generally gathers his people, maybe keeps them from being lost. And I've actually heard and read those sort of things. Well, no. You go to other places that promise the gathering of Israel. Again, starting all the way back in the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, and coming forward through the prophets, and even other references to the Psalms. So, in other words, We do understand what these things mean. They may not be explained in this particular psalm, but they're explained in other places in the scripture, and we see it all working together, and you get to the New Testament, you see references back to it, and all those sort of things. So it is a very good illustration, I thought, of how we are reading the Bible. We want to understand, you know, what does this psalm mean? And then we could also talk about its placement. where it's at. It's at the end of the Psalms. And it's grouped with some other Psalms together that have all of these themes going through it. And at the very least, if you read these five Psalms all together, you're going to get a much bigger picture of what's being talked about and what's being said. So again, that's kind of an application. That's kind of maybe just a footnote. But I just was particularly struck with How good that this psalm is an illustration of how we are reading the Bible. We don't just come to the Bible and find a word or a phrase and then think about, well, what can I make out of that? But we want to know what it means. Why is that here? Why is he talking about God's sovereignty in this particular psalm? What's that got to do with Israel and Zion and all of that? Anyway, that was just sort of an extra, just sort of a bonus, really. So, take it or leave it.