Psalms 147:4
He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names.
English Standard Version (ESV)
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{ "themes": [ "Divine knowledge of creation", "God's personal care", "Immensity beyond human grasp" ] }
This psalm is celebrating God's power and goodness, particularly as He restores His people and rebuilds Jerusalem. The verses immediately preceding this one speak of God gathering the scattered Israelites and healing the brokenhearted. This powerful image of God knowing and naming every star is presented as a profound assurance that the One who orchestrates the cosmos can also personally attend to and gather His dispersed people.
Understand the original words
kockavim · Hebrew Noun
The celestial bodies created by God, often serving as symbols of His vastness, order, and majesty in the cosmos.
This passage directly parallels the idea that God knows and names the vastness of the stars, highlighting His immense power and care.
Genesis 15:5This verse connects to the promise made to Abraham, using the countless stars as a metaphor for his numerous descendants, underscoring God's faithfulness to His promises, even amidst seeming impossibility.
Job 38:31-33Here, God challenges Job about the mysteries of the cosmos, including the constellations, emphasizing humanity's limited understanding compared to God's complete knowledge and control over celestial bodies.
Nehemiah 9:6This prayer echoes the theme that God created the heavens and their hosts, and that He is the sovereign Lord over them all, reinforcing His supreme authority.
ellicottPsalms 147:4: "He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names."
(4) Stars.— This proof of God’s power to help, by reference to the stars of heaven, which are beyond man’s power to count, much more to name, but which the Almighty both numbers and names, seems rather abruptly introduced, but the train of thought is clear. To assemble the dispersed of Israel, however numerous and scattered, was easy to the ruler of the hosts of heaven. The original promise to Abraham was, o…
clarkePsalms 147:4: "He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names."
He telleth the number of the stars - He whose knowledge is so exact as to tell every star in heaven, can be under no difficulty to find out and collect all the scattered exiles of Israel.
{ "themes": [ "Divine knowledge of creation", "God's personal care", "Immensity beyond human grasp" ] }
This psalm is celebrating God's power and goodness, particularly as He restores His people and rebuilds Jerusalem. The verses immediately preceding this one speak of God gathering the scattered Israelites and healing the brokenhearted. This powerful image of God knowing and naming every star is presented as a profound assurance that the One who orchestrates the cosmos can also personally attend to and gather His dispersed people.
This psalm is celebrating God's power and goodness, particularly as He restores His people and rebuilds Jerusalem. The verses immediately preceding this one speak of God gathering the scattered Israelites and healing the brokenhearted. This powerful image of God knowing and naming every star is presented as a profound assurance that the One who orchestrates the cosmos can also personally attend to and gather His dispersed people.
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"He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names." — { "themes": [ "Divine knowledge of creation", "God's personal care", "Immensity beyond human grasp" ] }
