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Christmas Season · Second Sunday after Christmas Day · Year A

Psalm 147:12-20 or Wisdom 10:15-21

Psalm 147

Hunters in the Snow (Winter), Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Hunters in the Snow (Winter), Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1565Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna · public domain

Overview & Insights

“He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes.” (Psalm 147:16)

Psalm 147 is a hymn that celebrates in particular the restoration of the exiles (v. 2). The reference to “the bars of your gates” implies a date after the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem by Nehemiah. As noted below, many phrases in Psalm 147 are echoed elsewhere, especially in Isaiah 40–66, which addresses exilic and postexilic Judah. Its threefold structure is established by the three calls to praise in verses 1, 7, 12. It also contains three themes: the restoration of Jerusalem in the first and third sections (vv. 2–3, 12–14), Yahweh’s providence over creation in all three sections (vv. 4–5, 8–9, 15–18), and three contrasts of whom Yahweh favors (vv. 6, 10–11, 19–20). While each verse, section, and topic is profound in its own right, the total meaning that results from their combination is even more profound.

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What joins the two halves of this psalm?

One God does both. He strengthens the bars of Jerusalem’s gates and he sends out his command to the earth, and the psalm treats the snow and the frost and the word given to Jacob as the same kind of act: the maker of winter is the one who has declared his statutes to Israel.

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