12 Glorify the Lord, OÂ Jerusalem! Praise your God, OÂ Zion! 13 For he has strengthened the bars of your gates and blessed your children within your walls. 14 He sends peace across your nation and satisfies your hunger with the finest wheat. 15 He sends his orders to the world- how swiftly his word flies! 16 He sends the snow like white wool; he scatters frost upon the ground like ashes. 17 He hurls the hail like stones. Who can stand against his freezing cold? 18 Then, at his command, it all melts. He sends his winds, and the ice thaws. 19 He has revealed his words to Jacob, his decrees and regulations to Israel. 20 He has not done this for any other nation; they do not know his regulations. Praise the Lord !
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Psalm 147:12-20
Commentary on Psalm 147:12-20
(Read Psalm 147:12-20)
The church, like Jerusalem of old, built up and preserved by the wisdom, power, and goodness of God, is exhorted to praise him for all the benefits and blessings vouchsafed to her; and these are represented by his favours in the course of nature. The thawing word may represent the gospel of Christ, and the thawing wind the Spirit of Christ; for the Spirit is compared to the wind, John 3:8. Converting grace softens the heart that was hard frozen, and melts it into tears of repentance, and makes good reflections to flow, which before were chilled and stopped up. The change which the thaw makes is very evident, yet how it is done no one can say. Such is the change wrought in the conversion of a soul, when God's word and Spirit are sent to melt it and restore it to itself.