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Psalm 147

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

He heals the brokenhearted

1 Praise Yah! For it is good to sing praises to our Elohim; for it is pleasant, and praise is fitting. 2 Yahweh builds up Jerusalem; He gathers the outcasts of Israel. 3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. 4 He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name. 5 Great is our Adon and mighty in power; His understanding is beyond number. 6 Yahweh upholds the humble; He brings the wicked down to the ground.

7 Sing to Yahweh with thanksgiving; sing praises on the lyre to our Elohim, 8 who covers the heavens with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who makes grass grow on the mountains, 9 who gives to the livestock its food, and to the young ravens when they cry. 10 He does not delight in the strength of the horse; He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man. 11 Yahweh takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His lovingkindness.

Praise your Elohim, O Zion

12 Extol Yahweh, O Jerusalem! Praise your Elohim, O Zion! 13 For He has strengthened the bars of your gates; He has blessed your children within you. 14 He makes peace in your borders; He satisfies you with the finest of the wheat.

15 He sends out His saying to the earth; His word runs very swiftly. 16 He gives snow like wool; He scatters frost like ashes. 17 He casts out His ice like crumbs; who can stand before His cold? 18 He sends out His word and melts them; He makes His wind blow, and the waters flow.

19 He declares His words to Jacob, His statutes and His judgments to Israel. 20 He has not dealt so with any nation; and as for His judgments, they have not known them. Praise Yah!

Notes

  • 147:1 The psalm praises Yahweh who builds up Jerusalem, gathers Israel's outcasts (verse 2) and strengthens the bars of her gates (verse 13), and many think it was sung after the return from exile, when the walls were rebuilt and dedicated "with thanksgivings and with song, with cymbals, harps and lyres" (Nehemiah 12:27); the Greek title names Haggai and Zechariah (see the note at 146:1). The Greek translation divides it into two psalms, the second beginning at verse 12, and from Psalm 148 to the end the Greek numbers agree again with the Hebrew. "Praise is fitting" is the phrase of 33:1, "Praise is fitting for the upright."
  • 147:5 One word ties verses 4 and 5 together: Yahweh counts the "number" (mispar) of the stars, but His understanding is literally "without number." The One who names every star stoops to bind the wounds of the brokenhearted (verse 3). "Our Adon" is adonenu, the title given to Yahweh in 8:1, "Yahweh, our Adon" (see the note at 114:7).
  • 147:9 From the whirlwind Yahweh asked Job, "Who provides for the raven its prey, when its young ones cry to El and wander about for lack of food?" (Job 38:41); here the psalm gives the answer. Yeshua pointed to the same birds: the ravens neither sow nor reap, and yet Elohim feeds them (Luke 12:24).
  • 147:15 "His saying" is imrato, the word rendered "saying" throughout Psalm 119 (see the note at 119:1), and "His word" is devaro. The word is pictured as a swift messenger: Yahweh speaks, and winter comes (verses 16-17); He speaks again, and the thaw follows (verse 18). As in 107:20, "He sent His word and healed them," His word does what He sends it to do.
  • 147:19 The written Hebrew text (ketiv) has "His word," and the reading tradition (qere) "His words"; the TRB follows the qere, and the sense is the same. After snow, ice and thaw, the psalm turns to Yahweh's greatest gift: He has spoken His Torah to Israel. Moses had asked, "And what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as all this Torah which I set before you today?" (Deuteronomy 4:8). Paul counts this first among Israel's advantages: to them were entrusted the words of Elohim (Romans 3:2; 9:4).
  • 147:20 The Greek translation reads "and He has not made His judgments known to them." The verse speaks of Israel's privilege, not of contempt for the nations: the same book calls every nation to praise Yahweh (117:1), and the next psalm calls the kings of the earth and all peoples to join Israel's praise (148:11-14).

Psalm 146 · Psalm 148

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