Psalms 147:14

(vv. 12-20) For the third time in the psalm, the people are called to praise the Lord. They have already praised Him for the restoring grace that gathered the outcasts and rebuilt Jerusalem. Now they praise Him for His preserving care. It keeps the gates of the city, maintains peace, and satisfies the needs of His people (vv. 13-14). It commands the seasons for their blessing (vv. 15-18). It reveals His mind, and gives His statutes and judgments to Israel (vv. 19-20).

Psalm 147 — Jerusalem, Israel, and creation are the subjects of praise, and of the display of Jehovah's grace… That grace matches the vastness of His power in creation, for the One who bound up their wounds counted the number of the stars. The psalm mentions government only in verse 6, and the emptiness of human strength in verse 10. Apart from these, it sets out grace toward Israel and power in creation.

Jehovah has built up Jerusalem and gathered the outcasts of Israel (verse 2) (cp. Isa. 11:12). Zion knows Him as her God. By His power He has silenced the enemies, and set a border of lasting peace around the beloved inheritance He chose. He has blessed the children of Jerusalem inside her, and He keeps her gates safe from violence in the lasting strength of His salvation (verses 13, 14) (cp. Isa. 60).

Jerusalem is told to praise the Lord. What a change for that city, which today is "spiritually called Sodom and Egypt" (Rev. 11:8), and which nearby enemies attack bitterly and without pause. At last they will realize that the Lord Jesus is both their Lord and their God (v. 12), and they will have found the bars of their gates strengthened and their children blessed in the safety of a secure home… The constant pressure of hatred and war is gone forever. In its place come peace within their borders, and the finest wheat given to them.

If Israel had only submitted to the Lord, He would have fed them with the finest of the wheat. No land would have been left waste to stunt the growth of the wheat. Instead there would have been everything it needed to grow well… Yet what Israel has missed for many centuries they will enjoy at last, when they turn to the Lord after the Great Tribulation.

In this way the Anointed One offered Himself to the people as their Saviour King, and He proved to be exactly that to everyone who had eyes to see. In this small picture of the Messiah's own rule, anyone could see that Jehovah was among the people as the Shepherd of Israel. He was seeking the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and leading His flock into the "green pastures" of that ancient prophetic song of praise: "He makes peace in your borders; he fills you with the finest of the wheat" (Ps. 147:14).

And here the believing citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem finds the right words for the worship of his own heart toward the God of His salvation. What Israel will taste in their Messiah in the coming day, the Christian finds in Jesus now.

What a change — from the husks the world offers, to feeding on the finest of the wheat. He who offered Himself by the Eternal Spirit without spot to God is alive from among the dead, and He is our peace. (Eph. 2:14).