Why Should We Praise God? (Psalm 147)

In this psalm, there are several references to God’s activities as the Creator, although we should regard them as descriptions of his providence, detailing what he does regularly with features of the world he made at the beginning. These references encourage us to expect God to work regularly in his world most of the time. The unknown psalmist also used those divine activities to encourage himself about how God cared for his people, and of how he has the power to express his care for them regularly.

The psalmist not only mentions why we should sing in the sense of giving praise to God, he also explains why we should sing as humans who possess certain abilities. He gives his explanation in verse 1, and we shall think about it briefly before moving on to reflect on three other themes that occur in the psalm.

With regard to his explanation, we can see that he says three things about praising God. It is good, pleasant and fitting. There are some things in life that are good, but they are not pleasant and fitting. For example, it is good when an intellectual person engages in study, but there will be times when to do so may not be pleasant and there will be times when he should be doing something more fitting, such as getting some sleep. A thing is good when it helps a person and others, a thing is pleasant when it gives them joy, and a thing is fitting when it suits who they are.

Praising God is good because it reveals we are thankful to him, praising God is pleasant because it gives a sense of his presence, and praising God is fitting because we are made in his image as his creatures and we have received his blessings as members of his family.

Why should we sing? God is the powerful restorer (vv. 2-6)

The psalm seems to have been composed after the exile in Babylon was over and the people of Israel were able to return to their own land. What had seemed impossible had occurred – they had been restored to the place they loved and although they were weak they had the Lord on their side. There are several details we can consider about the psalmist’s description.

First, why were they brokenhearted at such a time? If the psalm was composed after the exile, we get an answer in the book of Haggai where we are informed that the returnees who could remember the glory of the former temple wept at the poverty, in comparison, of the rebuilt temple. How did God comfort them? He reminded them that this smaller rebuilt temple would have the privilege of being the place where the Desire of all nations would come and bring peace. In other words, he comforted them by reminding them of the promised Saviour. Focussing on the past may not bring spiritual comfort, especially if what God is doing in the present seems to smaller in scale. Yet in our concern, the Lord comes along with reminders of what Jesus will do in the future, and those reminders bring great comfort into our sad souls.

Second, how do we know that he can care for all of us? The psalmist turns to how God works in his creation with regard to the stars (vv. 4-5). He never forgets what any one of them is called and he never forgets to ensure that each one of them is enabled by him to fulfill its function. The author deduces from that regular divine activity that the Lord’s power and grasp of all situations is unlimited and perfect. Since God does take care of the innumerable stars, he will also take care of his weak people, each one of whom he knows personally.

Third, what will he do to our opponents? When the people returned from the exile, they encountered one hindrance after another from determined opponents. Yet this opposition was not a sign that the Lord was uninterested in the situations faced by his people. The psalmist reminds them of the Lord’s intention to elevate his people and bring down those who opposed him. This change of circumstances happens to a degree in this life and will happen to its utmost degree after the Day of Judgement.

The way the psalmist describes believers is important – they are the humble. Such think little of themselves but they think a lot about their God and praise him for what he has done for them and will yet do. It is the humble who offer praise that is good, pleasant and fitting. It was good because such praise expressed their gratitude for what he had done for them, it was pleasant because it led them to a source of joy that their opponents could not understand, and it was fitting because they were residents of the new Jerusalem living temporally in the old Jerusalem after leaving Babylon.

Why should we sing? God is the organised Creator (vv. 7-11)

In this second section of the psalm, the psalmist mentions the methodical way the Lord provides for his lower creatures. Imagine a sheep thinking to itself, ‘My Creator covered the heavens with clouds, sent rain, and made the grass grow in order for me to be able to eat it. I don’t know how many sheep he does this for, but I know he does it for all of them.’ If that sheep could speak, and if it could really understand the process, do you think it would be thankful? But it cannot. Yet the psalmist says that a higher creature should give thanks to God for that process, and those higher creatures are his redeemed people (v. 7). It looks as if the psalmist here is saying that Christians should take account in their thanksgiving the good that the Lord does for the lower creatures. That is very fitting for his highest creatures to do.

Although God does a great deal continually for the lower creatures, they are not his greatest delight. It looks as if the psalmist is referring to persistence in verse 10, be it in the ability of a strong horse to keep going or in the capability of a fit man to keep on running. Instead, the form of persistence that pleases him occurs when his people continue to reverence him whatever the circumstance and continue to hope in his covenant commitments regarding the future. We can understand why those who returned from the exile would have to exercise persistence as they waited for God to fulfil his promises. And so do we, as we wait for him to respond to our prayers as well as to fulfill his many other promises.

It is important to know that our perseverance in trusting the Lord pleases him greatly. Sometimes we wonder whether it is more beneficial for us to live in spiritually prosperous times or in times like today. While the former has its own benefits, it is important to remind ourselves that on the Great Day we may discover that the Lord thought more of his people’s faithfulness in dark times than when the going was easier.

Why should we sing? God is present with his people (vv. 12-20)

In the third section of his psalm, the composer notes what the Lord was doing for his people. As they would sing the list, they would realise that although things seemed not as good as what previous generations had known, nevertheless he was doing a great deal for them. What does the psalmist include in his list?

First, the Lord would keep the enemies out. I think that is the point of saying that he strengthens the bars of their gates (v. 13). Of course, they had to make the gates and put the bars in place. This is a reminder that we have to take all the appropriate means that God requires in order to keep out our spiritual enemies, and when we have done so, we can look to him to strengthen our fortifications.

Second, the Lord was giving them living signs that they had a future. This is the significance of saying that the Lord is blessing their children (v. 13). In a physical sense, if there are no children, then there is no future. Although the present may not have been bright, there were signs of a bright future. And we can say that spiritual children (converts) are always pointers to a great future for the kingdom, small samples of what can happen on a large scale.

Third, the Lord who was with them was giving them peace, even although they were surrounded by strong opponents (v. 14). We can read about some of those opponents in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. And what they experienced in a national way we can experience in a spiritual way. We can have the peace of God even when our spiritual enemies – the world, the flesh and the devil – are active. The world cannot take away our peace because Jesus has overcome it; the flesh, although it wars against the spirit, cannot prevent the fruit of the Spirit developing, and one aspect of the fruit is peace; and the devil cannot defeat us as long as we have on the shoes of peace as part of our spiritual armour.

Fourth, in his providence the Lord ensured that they had the best of food to eat (v. 14). They may have worried about their harvests as they tried to recover the city that had been so humbled for its sins. Yet they had the same degree of goodness in what they ate as their forefathers had in their best days. What was true of them physically can also be true of us spiritually. God is capable and willing to give us as much of Jesus to satisfy our souls as he gave to those who lived for him in better days.

Fifth, they had to remember that God sent everything they experienced in the natural world, whether in winter or in spring. There was a strong lesson for them in this realization. He had sent the winter of Babylon and now he had sent the spring of restoration (vv. 15-18). Ahead of them was the summer when it would come.

Sixth, they were still a privileged people; in fact, they were the only privileged people (vv. 19-20). They had been given his Word and he had not given it to any other nation as a whole. His Word told them how to worship him, how to live for him, and what to expect from him. Yet all they had was parts of the Old Testament – we don’t know when it was all completed and available for them to read in its entirety. We have the entire Bible, and that is a great privilege.

So all these reasons tell us why praise of our God is good, pleasant and fitting.