Psalm 147:1-11, 20
(NRSV)Psalm 147 is a hymn from the period of exile or immediately. The collection of the last psalms of the Bible has received the name Hallel. These prayers establish the basic framework of worship as having its root in the human experience of life as a created being. Theologians have an expression for thinking of God this way. They talk about the transcendence of God. This word is from the Latin meaning, "to surpass," and it refers to the "beyondness" or "otherness" of God and to God being above creation and outside of human comprehension. God is wholly other than what we are. Yet, Christian theology will balance this theological affirmation with the notion of the immanence of God.
The psalm has a theme like II Isaiah. The theme of the psalm is the power of God and human weakness. While human beings search for power and avoid weakness, we realize here that there is only one power, while all other power is temporary. To accept this power is to accept one’s dependence on the creator and sustainer. The psalm is an exuberant giving of reasons why we should praise the Lord -- in each section, reminders of specific actions of God become a call to offer praise. We find the understanding Israel had of its relationship with its God to be analogous to and grounded in the relationship of nature with that same God. Thus, the psalm combines two of the most prominent Old Testament themes of creation and election.
The first section, Psalm 147: 1-6, presuppose a calamity. God is the savior of the afflicted. These verses have a note of comfort. It begins with Hallelujah, or 1 Praise the Lord! The Psalmist points to how good it is to sing praises to our God; for God is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting.[1] It offers a general introduction to the theme of the psalm: the suitability of praise to God. The next two verses provide the first explanation for the appropriateness of praise, and the reasons are pointedly historical. 2 The Lord builds up Jerusalem; the Lord gathers the outcasts of Israel. This statement makes most scholars think of the psalm as coming from the exilic or post-exilic period. The Lord 3 heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds. In other psalms, the broken heart parallels the contrite heart (Psalm 51:17) and the Lord is a companion to the broken-hearted (Psalm 34:18). The psalmist has confidence in such redemptive power of the Lord due to the affirmation of faith that the Lord is the source of creation. The Lord 4 determines the number of the stars; the Lord gives to all of them their names. Although this notion is rare, Isaiah 40:26 and II Esdras 15:56 have the same notion. The rarity of naming the stars suggests the Old Testament is vigilant against the ever-present danger of nature-based idolatry (Isaiah 47:13; Amos 5:26). The Torah explicitly prohibited worship of the stars (Deuteronomy 4:19; 17:2-5). In fact, the counting and naming of the stars by Yahweh is a statement of divine power, intimate sovereignty, and matchless compassion ("not one of them is missing," Isaiah 40:26). All of this testifies to a reality of faith. 5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; the understanding (tevunah, or insight, intelligence, and wisdom) of the Lord is beyond measure. Further, as evidence of divine wisdom, 6 The Lord lifts up the downtrodden; the Lord casts the wicked to the ground. The same God, who knows the precise number of stars in the universe, also knows us, as well as the things that concern us. The psalmist tells us that God is both transcendent and immanent. God is God of both the skies and the earth. The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, and the carbon in our apple pies has their origin in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of star stuff.[2]
Creator of the stars of night,
your people's everlasting light,
O Christ, redeemer of us all,
we pray you, hear us when we call.
When this old world drew on toward night,
you came; but not in splendor bright,
not as a monarch, but the child
of Mary, blameless mother mild.[3]
The second section, Psalm 147: 7-11, is a thanksgiving expecting fertility in the coming year. The Lord cares for all creation, and the psalmist derives a sense of security in knowing about the care of God. It begins as the psalmist encourages the congregation to 7 sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; make melody to our God on the lyre. The Psalmist returns to the theme of the care of the Lord all the creatures of the earth. The Lord 8 covers the heavens with clouds, prepares rain for the earth, and makes grass grow on the hills. Next, in this variation of referring to nature, the psalmist uses nature as a foil rather than exemplar. Thus, the Lord 9 gives to the animals their food, and to the young ravens when they cry. We have here a special expression of the Old Testament view of creation. It refuses to link the creative power of the Lord to pre-existent matter. Like the thought of creation by the Word in Genesis 1, they imply the unrestricted freedom of the creative action of the Lord that the phrase “creation out of nothing” would later express. In this respect, the statements in the Psalms are not in tension with the account in Genesis 1:1.[4] 10 The delight of the Lord is not in the strength of the horse, nor is the pleasure of the Lord in the speed of a runner. Rather, 11 the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear the Lord, and therefore in those who hope in the steadfast love of the Lord. The poet expresses the union of transcendence ad immanence so well.
Meanwhile apart, in the twilight gloom of a window's embrasure,
Sat the lovers, and whispered together, beholding the moon rise
Over the pallid sea, and the silvery mists of the meadows.
Silently one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven,
Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels.[5]
[1] JPS's, "It is good to chant hymns to our God; it is pleasant to sing glorious praise," probably comes closer to the mark of the original.
[2] --Carl Sagan, Cosmos (Ballantine, 2013).
[3] --Latin hymn, ninth century, trans. John Mason Neale, 1851
[4] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 2, 17.
[5] --Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "Evangeline," lines 348-52.
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