Psalm 147:12-20 (NRSV)
Read Psalm 147:12-20 on biblegateway.com
Verse 12Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion!
Verse 13For he strengthens the bars of your gates; he blesses your children within you.
Verse 14He grants peace within your borders; he fills you with the finest of wheat.
Verse 15He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly.
Verse 16He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes.
Verse 17He hurls down hail like crumbs- who can stand before his cold?
Verse 18He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow, and the waters flow.
Verse 19He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and ordinances to Israel.
Verse 20He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know his ordinances. Praise the Lord!
Devotion
There is no difficulty in catching the psalmist’s message: Praise the Lord! But it may be a bit difficult for us to catch the psalmist’s enthusiasm. In case we aren’t quite ready to praise, or in case we have forgotten, the psalmist joins those who like to make lists and both invites and instructs us with some reasons. The items on the list range from children, to weather, to harvest, to the affairs of the nation. Like all lists, there may be items I would rank higher or lower, but at the center stands God’s creative and effective “word,” which occasions it all—and even promises to melt the bitter snow and cold with the refreshing water of God’s special blessing and peace (shalom, 14).
Prayer
O God of finest wheat and blowing snow, by your word you invite us to imagine the extravagant generosity of all your creation. Teach us to make lists as reminders when we forget of reasons to sing your praises. Amen.