The God Who Speaks and Governs Text: Psalm 147:12-20
Introduction: Two Books, One Author
We live in an age of radical disintegration. Men want to separate things that God has joined together, and the consequences are all around us. They want to separate sex from marriage, children from the womb, and morality from law. But the most fundamental separation they have attempted, the one that makes all the other follies possible, is the separation of God from His world. They want a world without a governor, a creation without a king. They want the natural world to run on its own steam, according to its own impersonal laws, and they want the world of morality and meaning to be a private affair, a matter of personal taste. In short, they want God to be silent.
But the God of Scripture is not silent, and He is not distant. He is the great Communicator, and He is the meticulous Governor. He speaks, and He rules. This psalm is a powerful antidote to the poison of Deism that has seeped into the modern Christian mind. Deism is the belief that God wound up the clock of the universe and then stepped back to watch it tick. But the Bible teaches us that God is not a retired watchmaker; He is an active, speaking, sustaining King. He is intimately involved in every snowflake and every statute. He governs the weather and He governs His people, and He does both by the same instrument: His Word.
This passage in Psalm 147 beautifully weaves together God's sovereignty over the natural world with His special, covenantal care for His people. We are called to praise God for both. We are to look at the snow and frost and see the hand of God. And we are to look at the Scriptures and see the heart of God. These are not two different deities. The God who commands the ice is the same God who gives His judgments to Israel. This is a profound truth. If we get this wrong, we will either end up with a sentimental god who only whispers sweet nothings to our hearts, or a sterile god of natural law who is ultimately impersonal. The Bible gives us the God who is both Lord of the blizzard and Lord of the covenant.
The psalmist calls Jerusalem and Zion to praise Yahweh. This is not a suggestion; it is a summons. And the grounds for this praise are specific. God is to be praised for His work of protection, His provision, His power over creation, and His precious gift of revelation. He is a God who builds walls and blesses children, who makes peace and provides wheat, who sends snow and sends Scripture. Let us therefore attend to this summons and learn to praise Him rightly.
The Text
Laud Yahweh, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion! For He strengthened the bars of your gates; He blessed your sons within you. He is the One who sets peace in your borders, He satisfies you with the finest of the wheat, The One who sends forth His command to the earth; His word runs very swiftly, The One who gives snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes, Who casts forth His ice as fragments; Who can stand before His cold? He sends forth His word and melts them; He causes His wind to blow and so the waters flow, Who declares His words to Jacob, His statutes and His judgments to Israel. He has not done so with any nation; So as for His judgments, they have not known them. Praise Yah!
(Psalm 147:12-20 LSB)
Praise for Covenant Security (vv. 12-14)
The psalm begins with a call to corporate praise, directed to the people of God in their central place of worship.
"Laud Yahweh, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion! For He strengthened the bars of your gates; He blessed your sons within you. He is the One who sets peace in your borders, He satisfies you with the finest of the wheat." (Psalm 147:12-14)
Jerusalem and Zion are, in this context, synonymous with the covenant people. This is a call for the church to praise her God. And the reasons begin with security and blessing. "He strengthened the bars of your gates." In the ancient world, a city with weak gates was a city ripe for plunder. Strong gates meant security, safety, and the ability to flourish. God is the one who secures His people. This is not just about physical fortifications; it is a picture of His divine protection. The Church is a city, and her ultimate defense is not her programs or her political savvy, but the sovereign protection of God Himself. Jesus promised that the gates of Hell would not prevail against His church.
Within these secure gates, "He blessed your sons within you." Protection is for the purpose of propagation and flourishing. God secures the perimeter so that life can thrive on the inside. He blesses the children of the covenant. This is a multigenerational vision. God's blessings are not just for us as individuals; they are for our households, for our children, and for our children's children. This is why we baptize our infants. We are acknowledging that they are "within the gates," part of the covenant community, and recipients of God's promised blessing.
This security leads to peace and provision. "He is the One who sets peace in your borders." Peace is not the absence of conflict; it is the presence of shalom, of wholeness and right order. God establishes this peace. It is His doing. And where there is peace, there is prosperity. "He satisfies you with the finest of the wheat." This is not bare subsistence. It is abundance. It is the best. Our God is not a stingy God. He delights in the prosperity of His people. This is a picture of a healthy, thriving Christian civilization. When a people honor God, He secures their borders, establishes their peace, and blesses their bread. To seek these blessings while ignoring the God who gives them is the central folly of our secular age.
Praise for Sovereign Power (vv. 15-18)
From the security of the city, the psalmist lifts his eyes to the wider world and sees the same divine hand at work in the raw power of nature.
"The One who sends forth His command to the earth; His word runs very swiftly, The One who gives snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes, Who casts forth His ice as fragments; Who can stand before His cold? He sends forth His word and melts them; He causes His wind to blow and so the waters flow." (Psalm 147:15-18)
Notice the instrument of God's power: "He sends forth His command... His word runs very swiftly." God governs the cosmos by speech, just as He created it by speech. His Word is not a suggestion that the universe considers. It is a decree that is instantly and powerfully executed. The picture of His word "running" is one of unstoppable, energetic purpose. When God speaks, things happen. There is no lag time, no hesitation.
And what does this swift Word do? It orchestrates the weather. We are given a series of beautiful and potent images of winter. He "gives snow like wool." Snow is not a random meteorological event; it is a gift. It covers the ground like a protective, white blanket. He "scatters the frost like ashes." Frost appears as if sprinkled from His hand. He "casts forth His ice as fragments." The word for fragments can mean crumbs or morsels. Hail is like bread cast from heaven, but a bread of judgment. The psalmist then asks a rhetorical question that drives the point home: "Who can stand before His cold?" The answer is obvious. No one. God's power in creation is absolute and irresistible. Man, for all his technological arrogance, is utterly helpless before a blizzard decreed by God.
But the same Word that brings the cold is the Word that removes it. "He sends forth His word and melts them." The freeze comes by His command, and the thaw comes by His command. "He causes His wind to blow and so the waters flow." The seasons turn at His bidding. This is a direct assault on all pagan nature worship. The elements are not gods to be appeased. They are servants who jump at the command of their Master. And it is a rebuke to the modern materialist who sees only impersonal forces. The Bible sees a personal God, speaking and directing every particle in the universe. This is the doctrine of providence. God is not a spectator; He is the sovereign.
Praise for Covenant Revelation (vv. 19-20)
The psalm now brings the two themes together in a stunning conclusion. The God who speaks to the weather speaks in a far more intimate and gracious way to His people.
"Who declares His words to Jacob, His statutes and His judgments to Israel. He has not done so with any nation; So as for His judgments, they have not known them. Praise Yah!" (Psalm 147:19-20)
The same verb is used. God "sends forth" His command to the earth, and He "declares" His words to Jacob. The same God is speaking. But the content is different. To the earth, He speaks commands that create cold and heat. To His people, He speaks "statutes and judgments." He reveals His character, His will, His plan of redemption. He gives us His Law. This is an incalculable privilege.
The psalmist emphasizes the radical particularity of this gift. "He has not done so with any nation." The pagan nations can look at the snow and see God's power (Romans 1). They have the book of general revelation. But they do not have the book of special revelation. They have not been given the Scriptures. "As for His judgments, they have not known them." This is not a statement of arrogance, but of profound gratitude. To be given the Word of God is the highest of all covenant blessings. It is a greater blessing than peace in our borders and the finest of the wheat. It is a greater wonder than the snow and the ice. Why? Because in this Word, we not only see God's power, but we come to know His heart. We learn of sin and grace, of judgment and mercy, of the cross and the crown.
This is why the psalm ends as it began, with a call to praise: "Praise Yah!" Hallelujah! We are to praise God for the bars on our gates, but we are to praise Him even more for the Bible on our laps. We are to praise Him for the snow on the ground, but even more for the statutes in our hearts.
Conclusion: The Word Made Flesh
This psalm finds its ultimate fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Word who runs swiftly. John tells us that "In the beginning was the Word... and the Word was God... All things were made through Him" (John 1:1-3). The same Word that commanded the snow and the ice is the Word that took on flesh and dwelt among us.
In Christ, we see the ultimate expression of God's power over nature. He commanded the wind and the waves, and they obeyed Him. He is the one who can stand before the cold, and indeed, He endured the ultimate cold of the grave and broke its power.
And in Christ, we see the ultimate expression of God's special revelation to His people. He is not just the one who declares the words of God; He is the Word of God. "He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature" (Hebrews 1:3). The statutes and judgments given to Israel were a shadow; Christ is the substance. God has not just given us a book; He has given us His Son.
And the glorious exclusivity of the old covenant has, in Christ, thrown its gates wide open. The promise is now to all nations. The blessing of Abraham is for all the families of the earth. God is now declaring His words, not just to Jacob, but to the ends of the earth. And that Word, the gospel of Jesus Christ, is still running swiftly. It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. It is the only Word that can melt a frozen heart. It is the only Word that can bring true peace to our borders, the peace that surpasses all understanding.
Therefore, let us praise Him. Let us praise Him for His meticulous care over creation. Let us praise Him for His fatherly care over us, His Church. But above all, let us praise Him for the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is both the power of God and the wisdom of God. Praise Yah!