147:1 Praise ye the LORD: for [it is] good to sing praises unto
our God; for [it is] a pleasant; [and] praise is comely.
(a) He shows in which we ought to exercise ourselves
continually, and to take our pastime: that is, in
praising God.
147:2 The LORD doth build up b Jerusalem: he gathereth
together the outcasts of Israel.
(b) Because the Lord is the founder of the Church, it
cannot be destroyed, though the members of it are
dispersed and seem as it were for a time to be cut
off.
147:3 He healeth the c broken in heart, and bindeth up their
wounds.
(c) With affliction, or sorrow for sin.
147:4 He d telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them
all by [their] names.
(d) Though it seems incredible to man, that God should
assemble his Church, being so dispersed, yet nothing
can be too hard to him that can number and name all
the stars.
147:6 The LORD lifteth up the meek: he casteth the wicked down
to the e ground.
(e) For the more high that the wicked climb the greater is
their fall in the end.
147:8 Who f covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth
rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the
mountains.
(f) He shows by the example of God's mighty power,
goodness, and wisdom, that he can never lack just
opportunity to praise God.
147:9 He giveth to the beast his food, [and] to the young ravens
which g cry.
(g) For their crying is as it were a confession of their
need, which cannot be relieved, but by God alone, then
if God show himself mindful of the most contemptible
souls, can he suffer them to die with famine, whom he
has assured of life everlasting?
147:10 He delighteth not in the h strength of the horse: he
taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man.
(h) Though to use lawful means is both profitable and
pleases God, yet to put our trust in them is to
defraud God of his honour.
147:13 For he hath i strengthened the bars of thy gates; he
hath blessed thy children within thee.
(i) He not only furnishes his Church with all that is
necessary but preserves also the same, and makes it
strong against all outward force.
147:15 He sendeth forth his k commandment [upon] earth: his
word runneth very l swiftly.
(k) His secret working in all creatures is as a command
to keep them in order and to give them moving and
force.
(l) For immediately and without resisting all things obey
him.
147:19 He sheweth his m word unto Jacob, his statutes and his
judgments unto Israel.
(m) As before he called God's secret working in all his
creatures his word: so he means by this his word the
doctrine of life everlasting, which he has left to
his Church as a precious treasure.
147:20 He hath not dealt so with any nation: and [as for his]
judgments, they have not n known them. Praise ye the
LORD.
(n) The cause of this difference is God's free mercy,
which has elected his in his Son Christ Jesus to
salvation: and his just judgment, by which he has
appointed the reprobate to eternal damnation.
