Psalm 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20

“He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly.” (Psalm 147:15)

The selection is not an arbitrary excerpt. In the Greek and Latin tradition the Hebrew Psalm 147 was divided in two, and verses 12-20 stood as a psalm in their own right, which is why the reading begins at the address to Jerusalem and holds together as a complete poem. Psalm 147 belongs to the closing Hallelujah psalms (146-150), and this half praises God for a particular city: barred gates, children blessed within them, borders at peace, the finest wheat. The lens then widens to the elements (vv. 15-18), where the word is an agent sent running to the earth, scattering snow like wool and frost like ashes, and melting them again at another word. The last two verses draw the two scales together and make the point the season needs: the same word that orders the weather has been entrusted, as statutes and decrees, to Jacob alone.

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