Psalm 147:1-11
Praise the Lord!
For it is good to sing praises to our God;
for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.
The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
He determines the number of the stars;
he gives to all of them their names.
Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
his understanding is beyond measure.
The Lord lifts up the humble;
he casts the wicked to the ground.
Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;
make melody to our God on the lyre!
He covers the heavens with clouds;
he prepares rain for the earth;
he makes grass grow on the hills.
He gives to the beasts their food,
and to the young ravens that cry.
His delight is not in the strength of the horse,
nor his pleasure in the legs of a man,
but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him,
in those who hope in his steadfast love.
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The psalm for Sunday, February 4 is Psalm 147, verses one through 11. Praise the Lord, for it is good to sing praises to our God, for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting. The Lord builds up Jerusalem, he gathers the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars he gives to them all of their names. Great is our Lord and abundant in power. His understanding is beyond measure. The Lord lifts up the humble, he casts the wicked to the ground, Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving, make melody to our God on the liar. He covers the heavens with clouds, he prepares rain for the earth, He makes grass grow on the hills, he gives to the beasts, their food, and to the young ravens that cry. His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man. But the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him in those who hope in His steadfast love. Here ends the reading. Let's dig in, shall we? Praise the Lord, for it is good to sing praises to our God, for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting. This is of course, a great statement about how worthy it is to sing praises to our God. But we know that we know why God needs to be praised, because of all his blessings that He gives us in Christ. But the psalmist is going to go on and explain a little bit about the blessings that God gives Jerusalem. He says, the Lord builds up Jerusalem, he gathers the outcasts of Israel, He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. So this passage begins focused on Jerusalem and Israel, that God builds up Jerusalem and his people gathering together. Jerusalem is a bit of a synecdoche, key for all of Israel. It's the capital city is representative of the whole country. And God gathers the people in, and he heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. And then it shifts to talking about his power. And they're connected. He determines the number of the stars he gives to them all their names, great is our Lord and abundant in power. His understanding is beyond measure. The Lord lifts up the humble, he casts the wicked to the ground. So he it says he binds people up, he gathers together, he heals their wounds, and he can do it because he has abundant and mighty power. He numbered the stars, he gives them names, he has power to save. And he lifts up the humble and cast the wicked to the ground. The idea here of the humble, we use the word humble to mean an attitude that you have the attitude of humility, like, I'm not all that great. But that's not really what the humble means. Just like when Jesus says, Blessed are the meek, he doesn't mean somebody who has an a meek attitude, or is is humble when they're complimented. What he means is the lowly, the outcasts, the broken, the needy, the hurt the people who are who are truly on the bottom rung. This doesn't always mean economically. But it can be just anybody who is just crushed by something. And in particular, I think it's people who are crushed by the reality of sin and death. And by the judgment of God's law. He lifts them up through Christ, but he cast the wicked to the ground. The people who don't need God, the people who are, who believe they can do things on their own. The people who commit great and grievous evil and don't care, God lifts up the lowly and he cast down the crowd. It's a common theme throughout Scripture. And we see it especially in the Magnificat where Mary sings about this, how he scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts, and he lifts up the lowly. He fills the humble with good things and the rich he sends away empty then it moves on singing to the Lord with Thanksgiving make melody to our God on the liar. Of course we respond to that with praises, right? If God is the God who builds up Jerusalem who heals the brokenhearted who comes to us through Christ, and lifts us up from our lowly estate to give us salvation, what else can we do then sing with thanksgiving, make melody to our God on the liar. Then it goes, he covers the heavens with clouds, he prepares rain for the earth, He makes grass grow on the hills, he gives to the beasts, their food, and to the young ravens that cry, and so now moves on to other blessings of God, not just his focus on healing the outcasts of Jerusalem and gathering them together. But now it's the general provision that God gives to the world, the rain, the grass, the food for the beasts and the Ravens, and of course, for his people, a food that is for us as well. And if he cares about the ravens and the grass, and as Jesus says the sparrow, of course, how much more does he care for us? His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of man. But the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, and those who hope in His steadfast love. Our delight is in the strength of the horse or in the legs of a man. I mean, we are just about ready to have the Super Bowl. And all sorts of church programs get cancelled, to make way for the Super Bowl, like youth groups in church activities and meetings. And our second service is probably going to be a little light because everybody wants to make sure that we get to see all the strong legged men whack each other, and throw a football around, right. God doesn't care about these things. What God cares about is, the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him in those who hope in His steadfast love. And that's what the humble and the lowly do. We know that we have nothing that we can bring to our God. We know that our only hope is to wait for him for salvation for the day that Jesus returns to raise us up and give us new life. What a joy that will be. That's all I have for today. We'll see you next Sunday. Bye.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai