Psalms 147:1 - Homilies By S. Conway

In praise of praise.

This psalm carries on and gloriously sustains the great Hallel of adoring gratitude and glad thanksgiving with which the Book of Psalms ends. This first verse contains a threefold laudation of the Lord's praise.

I. BECAUSE " IT IS GOOD ." And this is most true.

1. In reference to God. For it ministers pleasure to him. Do not the experiences of many a parental heart bear witness to this truth? Are not we delighted with the loving utterances of our children, by which they testify their heart's affection towards us? It may be but the prattle of childish lips, or the lispings of such as are hardly more than babes, but it is delightful all the same; and our children's affection, when it has become older and more thoughtful,—what would our homes be without it? And right sure are we that our poor praise delights the Lord to whom it is rendered; he recognizes in it that response to his own love, for which all love, and emphatically his, cannot but crave. And it is good in his sight, further, because it wins him glory from men.

II. BECAUSE " IT IS PLEASANT ."

III. BECAUSE " IT IS COMELY ."—S.C.