Psalms 147:20

He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. 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. The same reference to God's 'statutes and judgments' occurs in the parallel history, Nehemiah 9:13; - the distinguishing glory of Israel. The revelation of God to her at Sinai raised her above all peoples as the only one who knew the will of the one true God. (Deuteronomy 33:2; ; Romans 3...

12-20 The church, like Jerusalem of old, built up and preserved by the wisdom, power, and goodness of God, is exhorted to praise him for all the benefits and blessings vouchsafed to her; and these are represented by his favours in the course of nature. The thawing word may represent the gospel of Christ, and the thawing wind the Spirit of Christ; for the Spirit is compared to the wind, John 3:8. Converting grace softens the heart that was hard frozen, and melts it into tears of repentance, and makes good reflections to flow, which before were chilled and stopped up. The change which the thaw makes is very evident, yet how it is done no one can say. Such is the change wrought in the conversion of a soul, when God's word and Spirit are sent to melt it and restore it to itself...

Verse Psalms 147:20. _AND_ AS FOR HIS _JUDGMENTS_] The wondrous ordinances of his law, no nation had known them; and consequently, did not know the glorious things in futurity to which they referred. ANALYSIS OF THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SEVENTH PSALM The parts of this Psalm are _two_: - I. An exhortation to praise God, Psalms 147:1, which is repeated, Psalms 147:7; Psalms 147:12. II. The arguments to persuade to it: God's bounty, wisdom, power, providence, justice, and mercy, dwelt on through the whole Psalm....

HE HATH NOT DEALT SO WITH ANY NATION - He has favored Israel more than any other people by giving them his revealed truth. This was so. There was no nation in the ancient world so favored as the Hebrew people in this respect. There is no nation now so favored as the nation that has the revealed will of God - the Bible. The possession of that book gives a nation a vast superiority in all respects over all others. In laws, customs, morals, intelligence, social life, purity, charity, prosperity, that book elevates a nation at once, and scatters blessings which can be derived from nothing else. The highest benevolence that could be shown to any nation would be to put it in possession of the word of God in the language of the people. AND AS FOR HIS JUDGMENTS, THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN THEM - Other nations are ignorant of his laws, his statutes, his revealed will. They are consequently subjected to...

EXPOSITION This psalm is generally assigned to the time of the dedication of the city wall (Nehemiah 12:27-16), when the gate-towers had been set up, and the gates and bars put in their places (see Psalms 147:13; and comp. Nehemiah 7:1). It is, more manifestly than any of the others, a Return joy-song (Psalms 147:2, Psalms 147:12). Its delicate appreciation of the grandeur and beauty of nature, and of God's closeness to nature (Psalms 147

HE HATH NOT DEALT SO WITH ANY NATION,.... Or "every nation" b; or all the nations under the heavens; only with the Jewish nation: these only for many hundreds of years were favoured with the divine revelation, with the word and ordinances of God; with the law, and with the Gospel, and with the service and worship of God; as well as with promises and prophecies of Christ, and good things to come by him. These were not communicated to anyone nation or body of people besides them; only now and then, to one here and there among the Gentiles: the Gospel was first preached to them at the coming of Christ, and after them to the Gentiles, when rejected by them; AND [AS FOR HIS] JUDGMENTS, THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN THEM; by which are meant, not the providential dispensations of God, which are unsearchable, and past finding out, till made manifest; nor punishments inflicted on wicked men, unobserved by...

Psalms 147:1. _Praise ye the LORD:_ This Psalm begins and ends with Hallelujah. So may this service, and so may our lives, commence and conclude with Hallelujah! Psalms 147:1. _For it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely. The LORD doth build up Jerusalem:_ Oh, that the Lord would do so here tonight! Psalms 147:2. _He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel._ We want that blessing, too. Oh, that some outcasts might be gathered together! It shall make our hearts cry «Hallelujah!» indeed, if there be a building up of the church and an ingathering of the outcasts....

PSALM 144-150 THE HALLELUJAH CHORUS The five Psalms with which this marvellous book closeth are all Psalms of praise. The word “praise” is found in the Hebrew thirty-seven times. Each one of these Psalms begins and ends with a hallelujah; there are ten hallelujahs. First is a hallelujah which celebrates Himself, He who is the God of Jacob. Precious vision of Him who delights to call Himself “the God of Jacob,” the God who loves the sinner and has redeemed His people. Who is He? The Creator of all, by whom and for whom all things were made (Psalms 146:6). The Lord of judgment and redemption; the Lord who looseth the prisoners, openeth the eyes of the blind, raiseth them that are bowed down--and He will reign for ever. Hallelujah. Psalms 147:1 is the hallelujah for what He has done for Hi

CXLVII. The LXX, perhaps rightly, divides the Ps. into two, Psalms 147:1 and Psalms 147:12. PSALMS 147:1. An invitation to praise Yahweh for His almighty power and His kindness to Israel. Observe how the two thoughts are intertwined. After Psalms 147:8 c the LXX has, and herbage for the service of men. In Psalms 147:10 the legs of a man is curious. Swift running is a characteristic of the Homeric heroes, but the emendation, armour of a man, is tempting....

NOT DEALT SO, &C. The reference is to Exodus 20. Compare Deuteronomy 4:7; Deuteronomy 4:8. and see App-15. THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN THEM. Septuagint and Vulg, read "He maketh not known to them"....