Psalm 147:12-20

Hallelujah to the God of Zion

Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion, the summons going out to the entire congregation of Yahweh.

V. 13. For He hath strengthened the bars of thy gates, Nehemiah 7, 1-4, protecting His Church against all invaders and enemies; He hath blessed thy children within thee, for rich spiritual blessings are dispensed by the Lord through the means of grace in the Church.

V. 14. He maketh peace in thy borders, enabling His congregation to be built up without the disturbing and distracting influences of steady warfare, and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat, with the richest of blessings, Ps. 81, 16.

V. 15. He sendeth forth His commandment upon earth, as He did at the time of creation, Gen. 1; Ps. 33, 6-9; His word runneth very swiftly, in order to accomplish His purposes as speedily as possible. The effect of His almighty commands is now shown.

V. 16. He giveth snow like wool, the snowflakes coming down like small particles of wool; He scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes, all objects being powdered with the congealed dew or fog.

V. 17. He casteth forth His ice like morsels, namely, in the form of hail; who can stand before His cold? All these are small things for the almighty power of Yahweh.

V. 18. He sendeth out His word, His command, and melteth them, the ice, snow, and hail; He causeth his wind to blow, as in the case of the foehn of the Alps or the chinook of the northwestern prairies, and the waters flow, the congealed masses dissolving beneath the warmth of the spring breezes. But all these manifestations of His almighty power, great as they are, nevertheless are but secondary to the revelations of God’s kindness and mercy to His people.

V. 19. He showeth His Word unto Jacob, the Gospel of His salvation revealed in Law and prophecy, His statutes and His judgments unto Israel, thereby separating and distinguishing this people as a peculiar nation, even as the spiritual Israel is holy to Him through the Gospel.

V. 20. He hath not dealt so with any nation, that is, no heathen nation was chosen by Him in this same manner; and as for His judgments, the precepts of His divine justice, as laid down in His written Word, they have not known them. It was Israel’s privilege to possess the historical, written revelation of the one true God, to this people alone were entrusted the oracles of the Lord, whose gist are the Messianic promises.

Praise ye the Lord! “The joyful hallelujah is not sounded because these other nations do not possess such a positive knowledge of God’s judgments, but because Israel does possess it. It is declared abundantly in other places that this knowledge of Israel shall be the means of making salvation the common property of the whole world of nations.” (Delitzsch.)