Psalm 147:15

He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(15) Psalms 33 is still in the poet’s thought, and Psalm 147:6-7 especially; but some extraordinary season of frost seems to have kindled his inspiration, so that he not only elaborates but improves on his model. The word of God is personified as a messenger who runs swiftly forth to do his bidding, at first in binding the earth and sheaves up with frost, and then (Psalm 147:18) in suddenly thawing and releasing them.

Benson Commentary

Psalm 147:15. He sendeth forth his commandment, &c. — Which is sufficient, without any instruments, to execute whatsoever pleaseth him, either in the works of nature or of providence. For, as the world was first made, so it is still upheld and governed by the almighty word of God’s power. His word runneth very swiftly — The thing is done with out delay or difficulty, for nothing can oppose or retard the execution of his counsel. As the lightning, which passeth through the air in an instant, such is the word of God’s providence, and such the word of his grace, when it is sent forth with commission, Luke 17:25.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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, Joh 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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth - That is, with reference to the productions of the earth; to the changes which occur; to the seasons; to snow, frost, ice, cold, heat, wind; and he is universally and immediately obeyed. Nature everywhere yields a ready acquiescence to his will.

His word runneth very swiftly - As if it hastened to obey him. There is no delay. Compare the notes at Psalm 33:9 : "He spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast." Snow, and frost, and ice, and cold, and heat, and wind, are entirely obedient to him. There is no reluctance in obeying him; there is no delay.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

15-18. God's Word, as a swift messenger, executes His purpose, for with Him to command is to perform (Ge 1:3; Ps 33:9), and He brings about the wonders of providence as easily as men cast crumbs.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

His commandment; which is sufficient without any instruments to execute whatsoever pleaseth him, either in works of nature or of providence. His word runneth very swiftly; the thing is done without delay or difficulty.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth,.... Which Kimchi interprets of rain, which causes the wheat to grow; since afterwards mention is made of snow, and of hoar frost and ice. Aben Ezra understands it of the decree of God, which he executes on earth. The Targum, of the "Memra", or Word of the Lord; the essential Word, the Messiah; whom the Lord sent on earth to perform the great work of redemption and salvation; and who came speedily, and tarried not when the fulness of time was come, as follows. It may design God's word of providence, which answers to his word of power in the first creation of all things; and which orders everything done in the earth, and is instantly obeyed; which agrees with Psalm 147:18. Or rather the word of the Gospel; the doctrines and ordinances of divine revelation, agreeably to Psalm 147:19; and so may have respect to the mission of the apostles of Christ, and ministers of the word, to go into all the earth, and preach the Gospel to every creature;

his word runneth very swiftly; so the Gospel did in the first times of it, like lightning, from one end of the heaven to the other; the words of it went into all the world, and the sound of it unto the ends of the earth; it had a free course, and was glorified: and so it will in the latter day, when many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased; see Romans 10:18.

Geneva Study Bible

He sendeth forth his {k} commandment upon earth: his word runneth very {l} swiftly.

(k) His secret working in all creatures is as a command to keep them in order and to give them moving and force.

(l) For immediately and without resisting all things obey him.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

15, 16. A reminiscence of Isaiah 55:10-11. As in Psalm 107:20 the Word or command of God is personified. The word for commandment (lit. ‘saying’) is cognate with the verb spake in Psalm 33:9; Genesis 1:3, &c.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 15. - He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth. Heavy crops, good harvests, abundant food, result from God's providential ordering of his world, to which he gives commands that are obeyed instantly, since his word runneth very swiftly. Psalm 147:15

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

In the lxx this strophe is a Psalm (Lauda Jerusalem) of itself. The call goes forth to the church again on the soil of the land of promise assembled round about Jerusalem. The holy city has again risen out of its ruins; it now once more has gates which can stand open in the broad daylight, and can be closed and bolted when the darkness comes on for the security of the municipality that is only just growing into power (Nehemiah 7:1-4). The blessing of God again rests upon the children of the sacred metropolis. Its territory, which has experienced all the sufferings of war, and formerly resounded with the tumult of arms and cries of woe and destruction, God has now, from being an arena of conflict, made into peace (the accusative of the effect, and therefore different from Isaiah 60:17); and since the land can now again be cultivated in peace, the ancient promise (Psalm 81:17) is fulfilled, that God would feed His people, if they would only obey Him, with the fat of wheat. The God of Israel is the almighty Governor of nature. It is He who sends His fiat (אמרתו after the manner of the ויּאמר of the history of creation, cf. Psalm 33:9) earthwards (ארץ, the accusative of the direction). The word is His messenger (vid., on Psalm 107:20), עד־מהרה, i.e., it runs as swiftly as possible, viz., in order to execute the errand on which it is sent. He it is who sends down snow-flakes like flocks of wool, so that the fields are covered with snow as with a white-woollen warming covering.

(Note: Bochart in his Hierozoicon on this passage compares an observation of Eustathius on Dionysius Periegetes: τὴν χιόνα ἐριῶδες ὕδωρ ἀστείως οἱ παλαιοὶ ἐκάλουν.)

He scatters hoar-frost (כּפור from כּפר, to cover over with the fine frozen dew or mist as though they were powdered with ashes that the wind had blown about. Another time He casts His ice

(Note: lxx (Italic, Vulgate) κρύσταλλον, i.e., ice, from the root κρυ, to freeze, to congeal (Jerome glaciem). Quid est crystallum? asks Augustine, and replies: Nix est glacie durata per multos annos ita ut a sole vel igne acile dissolvi non possit.)

(קרחו from קרח; or according to another reading, קרחו from קרח) down like morsels, fragments, כפתּים, viz., as hail-stones, or as sleet. The question: before His cold - who can stand? is formed as in Nahum 1:6, cf. Psalm 130:3. It further comes to pass that God sends forth His word and causes them (snow, hoar-frost, and ice) to melt away: He makes His thawing wind blow, waters flow; i.e., as soon as the one comes about, the other also takes place forthwith. This God now, who rules all things by His word and moulds all things according to His will, is the God of the revelation pertaining to the history of salvation, which is come to Israel, and as the bearer of which Israel takes the place of honour among the nations, Deuteronomy 4:7., 32-34. Since the poet says מגּיד and not הגּיד, he is thinking not only of the Tra, but also of prophecy as the continuous self-attestation of God, the Lawgiver. The Ker דּבריו, occasioned by the plurals of the parallel member of the verse, gives an unlimited indistinct idea. We must keep to דברו, with the lxx, Aquila, Theodotion, the Quinta, Sexta, and Jerome. The word, which is the medium of God's cosmical rule, is gone forth as a word of salvation to Israel, and, unfolding itself in statutes and judgments, has raised Israel to a legal state founded upon a positive divine law or judgment such as no Gentile nation possesses. The Hallelujah does not exult over the fact that these other nations are not acquainted with any such positive divine law, but (cf. Deuteronomy 4:7., Baruch 4:4) over the fact that Israel is put into possession of such a law. It is frequently attested elsewhere that this possession of Israel is only meant to be a means of making salvation a common property of the world at large.