Psalms 147
Psalm 147 covers a wide scope of the provisions God has made through His creation:
Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; sing praises to our God on the lyre, who covers the heavens with clouds, who rain for the earth, who makes grass to grow on the mountains. He gives to the beast its food, and to the young ravens which cry. He does not delight in the strength of the horse; he does not take pleasure in the legs of a man. The LORD favors those who fear Him, those who wait for his lovingkindness.
Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion! For He has strengthened the bars of your gates; he has blessed your sons within you. He makes peace in your borders; he satisfies you with the finest of the wheat. He sends forth His command to the earth; His word runs very swiftly. He gives snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes. He casts forth His ice as fragments; who can stand before His cold? He sends forth His word and melts them; He causes His wind to blow and the waters to flow. He declares His words to Jacob, His statutes and His ordinances to Israel. He has not dealt thus with any nation; and as for His ordinances, they have not known them. Praise the LORD!
(Psalm 147:7-20, NASB)
It is interesting to note that the LORD does not take pleasure in the strength of a horse or in the legs of a man, that He rather takes pleasure in those who fear Him and wait for His lovingkindness. That is a serious point, as revealed by the number of times the LORD makes this point in His Word. For instance, in Psalm 33:16-19, we learn that no matter how strong a horse may be, it cannot deliver or save a person; that a warrior cannot escape by his own strength; that a king cannot be saved by dint of the size of his army; and that the LORD watches after those that fear Him, delivering them from death and keeping them alive through the tumult of famine. Similarly, in Amos 6:12-13, Amos implies that even though horses don’t run on crags and oxen aren’t used to plow on crags, nevertheless the house of Israel foolishly turned justice into poison and turned the fruit of righteousness into bitterness when it took Israel’s victories to be the result of Israel’s own strength. The point is that the LORD hates it when a people prance around after a military victory, admiring their own strength when they should be thanking the LORD! Put another way, horses don’t run on crags and oxen don’t plow on crags, therefore these animals should stay off the crags: in the same way, men don’t win battles by their own strength so they should stay off the cliffs of pride and arrogance, ambling instead into the plains of humility. The prideful people of Israel took the original justice of their military victory and poisoned it by prancing; they took the fruit of righteousness (military victory) and made it bitter by prancing.
Neither does the LORD take pleasure in the legs of a man. In other words, if a man is fast or strong, he needs to remain humble and thank the LORD, not strut all over the place. How many strong boxers have bounced around on their God-given legs only to talk endlessly about their own personal greatness after winning a bout? How many strong football players have powered into the end-zone on their God-given legs only to do a jig in celebration of themselves? And how many lean tennis players have sprinted around the court on their God-given legs, hitting aces and down-the-line winners and impossible volleys only to pump their fists in fits of self-jubilation?
At the end of the day, we are to sing praises to the LORD and worship the God of Israel. We are to praise the LORD with thanksgiving—giving thanks for the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, the friends and loved ones we have, and the love and hope that we enjoy. The Pilgrims thanked the LORD God of Israel, even holding a feast and ceremony of thanksgiving, and still America has food in the stores. The Pilgrims didn’t have fancy grocery stores, but they had praises for God on their lips; now we have fancy grocery stores that all but overflow with food stuffs, but too many of our people no longer praise God. Let us endeavor to avoid being like the strong man who gazes at his own strong legs instead of gazing on the Maker of those legs, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us not glory in our own strength, but let us bow down to the Holy One of Israel, the One who can save and deliver.