Hey there! I’m so happy you stopped by to read this post about Psalm 147. If you haven’t had a chance to read through all of the wonderful posts during the Summer of Psalms, I hope you will go back and read them. I always hate being the bearer of bad news but y’all this is the last post in our series of the Summer of Psalms. It has been so eye opening to break down some beautiful Psalms. But the good news is that we are starting NEW content!! And I CAN’T WAIT!
What I love about Psalm 147 and why I chose it is that it begins and ends with the words “Praise the Lord”. I couldn’t see any better way to end a series with a little praise to the Lord! So let’s get to it.
147:2- How did God build up Jerusalem?
So the actual date this Psalm was written is actually unknown but it was probably written after the Babylonian exile. If so, then this verse may express thanks to God for bringing his people back to Jerusalem and enabling them to reconstruct the walls around the city. We can see some documentation of this rebuild in Nehemiah 2:11-20.
147:4- A Sam favorite
I LOVE verse 4 “He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.” When I reread this verse to break it down I wondered how many stars there are?? So I did a little searching and read that , “Astronomers estimate there are about 100 thousand million stars in the Milky Way alone.” CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?? 100 thousand million!! And God knows each and calls them by name just like he knows US and calls US by name! I mean how glorious is that? I get goosebumps just thinking about it.
147:11- Does God want us to be afraid of him?
To answer this I’m going to jump to Proverbs 1:7. The phrase “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of...wisdom” is found throughout Proverbs. And Fear is actually another word for reverence or worship, suggesting that wisdom begins when we properly acknowledge who God is and offer him the worship he deserves. I know that may be hard to follow but the person that fears God, who daily worships and honors him, has nothing to fear in life or death.
147:14- If God gives peace to Jerusalem, why have there been so many battles there?
So again going back to not knowing when this Psalm was written this Psalm could either be an expectation of peace or a celebration of peace the Israelite's had after the exile. Either way God was praised as the bringer of peace. Historically the Israelite's viewed the lack of peace as a sign of God’s displeasure with his people and their turning away from him resulted in battles.
147:20- Does God play favorites?
Yes and no? So this is a question I had a bit of a hard time with, I had to look through several pieces of scripture to really get a kind of answer. God did have a chosen group of people. But he does want all people saved. He did choose some to become leaders over others but loved those that were “so low” in society. I think the problem with trying to understand this question is that we have such a limited understanding of God’s reasoning's. I think as humans we see such a small aspect of God’s wisdom and we really can’t answer it.
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