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Psalm 147: God of the High and Low

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INTRODUCTION

On the one hand, we know that God is far above us, higher than the highest heaven. But we must also confess that He is beneath our feet, supporting us in every possible way. He is the God of the macrocosm, but He is also an infinitely skilled miniaturist, folding enormous libraries of information into trillions of cells—and that is just in one body. He is the God of general, natural revelation, and He is the God who reveals Himself in the propositions of human language.  

THE TEXT

“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 . . . Praise ye the Lord” (Psalm 147:1-20). 

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The one thing we can say about praising the God of Heaven is that such praise is fitting (v. 1). The builds up the city where He has set His name, and He does it by gathering up the riff raff (v. 2). He heals the broken-hearted, and binds their wounds (v. 3). He knows how many stars there are, and He names each one (v. 4). The Lord is truly great; His knowledge is infinite (v. 5). He lifts the meek, and throws down the wicked (v. 6). Sing to Him; play the harp for Him (v. 7). He fills the sky with clouds, and gives rain to the earth (v. 8). He feeds all the beasts of the field; He feeds the young ravens as they cry (v. 9). He is not impressed by horse power, or by man power (v. 10), probably a reference to cavalry and infantry. When people fear Him, the Lord is pleased. He is pleased by those who look to Him for mercy (v. 11). Again, praise from Jerusalem and Zion is fitting (v. 12). God has built up her defenses, and given lots of blessed children (v. 13). He gives peace along the border, and He bestows abundant crops (v. 14). The world does not run on impersonal natural law, but rather God sends forth His commandment, which runs swiftly (v. 15). He gives us snow; He gives us rime, or hoarfrost (v. 16). He scatters ice, and brings in the freezing cold (v. 17). After giving the ice, He melts the ice (v. 18). He grants the chinook, and everything melts (v. 18). He reveals His laws to Jacob, His commandments to Israel (v. 19). He hath not dealt so with any nation: And as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the Lord” (v. 20). 

A HALLELUJAH SANDWICH

The first and last word in this psalm is hallelujah—“praise Yah.” Each hallelujah is a piece of bread, and one goes on the top and the other one on the bottom. But in some circles, Christians want to sing hallelujah over and over, like a Hindu mantra. But in biblical terms, this is like making a bread sandwich, bread on each side and bread in the middle. Biblical praise is modeled for us in this psalm—we have here a biblical Dagwood. There is the bread, then salami, then ham, then cheese, then onions, then prosciutto, then a different kind of cheese, and then the other piece of bread. There is substance in the middle. The bread frames the praise, but the actual praise is the content of what we say. And if you look carefully at this psalm, you see all different kinds of content.   

DISTINCTION WITHOUT SEPARATION

One of the perennial temptations that theologians have is that of thinking that the necessary distinctions they must make are distinctions that somehow create a division or separation. For example, we may distinguish the love and justice of God, but these two attributes are not separated in Him. We distinguish them for our sake, because Scripture does, but a distinction does not require separation. Here would be another example. A small child can distinguish height and breadth and depth. It is easy to distinguish them, but impossible to separate them. If you remove the height of this pulpit, you do not have a very flat pulpit, but rather no pulpit at all. 

The reason for addressing this is that theologians are fond of distinguishing natural revelation and special revelation. Natural revelation is the way in which the created order reveal the majesty and nature of God. Special revelation is given to us in the words of Scripture. We distinguish them, and it is good that we do so. But look at the two together in this psalm. He speaks through the stars, through agriculture, through His providential care of ravens, and He shouts whenever He gives us rime. But woven through all of this, He is also the one whose commandments run swiftly (v. 15), and He reveals His laws and commandments to Israel (v. 19).

THE WORLD IS NOT IMPERSONAL

Too many Christians assume that the world is just the kind of impersonal place that Voltaire thought it was, only we believe that God is at the top, along with some angels, and we are down here at the bottom, with our souls tucked away under the sternum. Everything else, we think, is just atoms banging around. Or, if we are more Deistic than materialist, we think it is a cold, impersonal clock, following its pre-programmed routine. But the world is not like that at all. Christ is the one who holds all things together, not gravity (Col. 1:17-18). What we call natural law is simply God being kind to us. Most of the time the car keys are right where we left them yesterday. But the universe does not have an autonomous or independent existence apart from God. In Him, we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). 

WHY GOD IS PLEASED WITH YOU

We are evangelical and Calvinistic enough to know that everything I am about to say is all of grace, and nothing but grace. We have not earned or deserved anything on our own. But because of Christ, and through Christ, and in Christ, what does God think of you? You have fled to Christ for mercy, and what is God’s disposition toward those who do this? “The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.” (Psalm 147:11). You come to Him for mercy because you sinned. God takes pleasure in receiving you. You look to Him as a God-fearing woman or man, or girl, or boy. And what is God’s response? Because of Christ, He takes pleasure in it. 

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Psalm 146: Put Not Your Trust in Princes

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INTRODUCTION

On the one hand, people have every reason to not put their trust in princes. The princes let them down over and over, again and again. You would think that people would stop doing that. Every promised wave of reforms is promising to fix all the problems that were caused by the previous wave of reforms. We are like that woman in the gospels—the more the doctors treated her, the more the problems continued (Luke 8:43). But the reason we keep resorting to these “princes” is that we assume, in our faithlessness, that we have no other options. We must either trust in this prince or that one, musn’t we? And the answer presented by this psalm is a clarion no.  

THE TEXT

“Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; In that very day his thoughts perish. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God: Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: Which keepeth truth for ever: Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: Which giveth food to the hungry. The Lord looseth the prisoners: The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind: The Lord raiseth them that are bowed down: The Lord loveth the righteous: The Lord preserveth the strangers; He relieveth the fatherless and widow: But the way of the wicked he turneth upside down. The Lord shall reign for ever, even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the Lord.” (Psalm 146). 

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

We have here another glorious psalm of praise. Praise the Lord, O my soul (v. 1). As long as I am above ground, I will continue to sing praises to God (v. 2). The next sentiment seems like a lurch, but it really is not. If you are God-centered as you ought to be, you will not look to men, or to the princes of men, for your help and aid (v. 3). When you trust in man, what is your object? You are trusting in someone who is going to stop breathing sometime, and then go into the ground. All his thoughts go with him (v. 4). By way of contrast, the one who has the help of the God of Jacob, who hopes in the Lord his God, he is the happy man (v. 5). You are trusting in the one who made heaven, earth, and everything the sea contains (v. 6), and not in someone who is going to decompose somewhere in the earth or sea. He is the truth forever. This Creator God is active in human affairs—he executes justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry, and sets prisoners free (v. 7). He opens the eyes of the blind, He raised up those who are weighed down, and He loves the righteous (v. 8). He protects aliens, and He relieves orphans and widows (v. 9). But He comes up to the wicked and flips them upside down (v. 9). He is the one who will reign forever (v. 10)—your God, O you people of God, forever and ever. Praise Him (v. 10).  

WHILE I LIVE

The psalmist promises to praise the living God as long as he has any breath. And we know that when the breathing stops, the singing will improve, and go on forever. 

When we go to a concert, a moment comes when we are almost about to start, and the orchestra starts tuning up. Someone strikes an A, and the musicians begin noodling around with that A. It is not a song exactly, but it is very pleasant, and it is full of promise. The concert is about to start. All our praises in this earth are nothing more than the orchestra tuning up, adjusting their instruments. As long as God gives you the instrument you have, and you have any breath remaining, then continue with the preparation. “Tune my heart to sing thy grace.”

HALLWAY OF HALLELUJAHS

“Praise the Lord” here in v. 1 is hallelujah. We are now in a long hallway of hallelujahs, extending all the way out of the book of Psalms and into eternity. This is a stretch of true praise, indicating that the Psalms, like human history itself, is a comedy. It ends with a wedding. It ends with everything resolved. It ends on a high note, and the psalms of imprecation, and desperation, and penitence, are all behind us now. A time is coming when the judge of the whole earth will do right (Gen. 18:25), and He will set everything to rights. This means that absolutely everything is going to come into focus. Nothing will be disjointed, and we will finally be given the complete perspective. “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). 

JESUS AS OUR GREAT JEHOVAH

What is said here about Jehovah God is all fulfilled in the life of Christ. Jesus is Jehovah (Joel 2:32; Rom. 10:13). He make “heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is” (John 1: 3; Col. 1: 16; Heb. 1:2). He “keepeth truth forever” (John 14:6). He executes “judgment for the oppressed” (Luke 20:47). He gives “food to the hungry” (Matt. 14:19). He sets prisoners free (Luke 4:18). The Lord opens the eyes of the blind (John 9:32). He raises up those who “are bowed down” (Luke 13:16). The Lord “loveth the righteous” (John 13:23). Jesus preserves the stranger (Mark 7:26). He relieves “the fatherless and widow” (Luke 7:12). The way of the wicked . . . well, He flips their tables upside down (Matt. 21:12). He, the Lord Jesus, will “reign forever” (Rev. 11:15). 

MESSIAH THE PRINCE

Charles de Gaulle once said that graveyards are filled with indispensable men. One time Alexander the Great saw Diogenes the Cynic looking carefully at a heap of bones. Asked what he was doing, Diogenes said that he was looking for the bones of Alexander’s father, but he could distinguish them from the bones of a slave. Princes are but men, and they go into the ground just like everybody else. There are times when they want to help, but their armies and navies still come to nothing. They are but the shadow of smoke. And you should also budget for the fact that they are fickle. Why do princes and rich men act like a weather vane on a gusty day? Because they are “powerful” and they can. But that also comes to nothing.

There is one Prince, however, who is not in this position at all. He died once for all, and rose, and so death no longer has dominion over Him (Rom. 6:9). Not only that, He is not fickle at all. He is the same—yesterday, today and forever (Heb. 13:8). He is Messiah the Prince (Dan. 9:25).

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