Amidora

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Psalm 147

Ashkenaz · Weekday · Shacharit · Pesukei Dezimra · Psalm 147

Nusach
Ashkenaz
Edition
Translation based on the Metsudah linear siddur, by Avrohom Davis, 1981

Psalm 147

Praise God! for it is good to sing to our God; for [His] praise is pleasant, befitting. The builder of Jerusalem is Adonoy; the banished ones of Israel He will gather. [He is] the Healer of the broken-hearted and [also] binds up their wounds. He fixes the number of stars; He calls all of them by names. Great is our Master and abundant in power; His understanding is beyond reckoning. Adonoy causes the humble to stand firm; He casts down the wicked to the ground. Cry out to Adonoy in thanksgiving; sing to our God with the harp. [He] Who covers the heaven with clouds, Who prepares rain for the earth; Who causes grass to grow upon the hills. Who gives the animal its fodder; [also] to the young ravens which call. Not the power of the horse does He desire, nor the thighs of man does He want. Adonoy wants those who fear Him, those who hope for His kindliness. Jerusalem, praise Adonoy; Zion, extol your God. For He has fortified the bars of your gates; He has blessed your children in your midst. He established peace at your border; with prime wheat He satisfies you. He dispatches His command earthward; His word races swiftly. He provides snow like fleece, He scatters frost like ashes. He hurls His ice like crumbs; who can withstand His cold? He dispatches His word and melts them; He blows His wind, they flow as water. He declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and His laws to Israel. He did not do so to any [other] nation; and of His laws they were not informed. Praise God.

Others render “their sorrows.” Both translations co-exist! God not only heals their physical pains but also abbreviates their sorrows as well.

Not one of the myriad stars was created accidentally; each has a unique purpose and function.—Siach Yitzchok

Each musical instrument has its unique function. In the times of King David, the harp was used to arouse those who slept. The psalmist may be indicating that the harp arouses the sleeping soul of man to recognition of the miraculous ways in which God shows His Divine Providence for us every day.—Siach Yitzchok

God does not delight in those who place their trust in the strength of horses or in their own strength.—Tzelosa d’Avrohom

The Psalmist addresses the dwellers in Jerusalem and Zion, not the city itself.—Tzelosa d’Avrohom

Israel is the receiver and preserver of God’s divine Law, the Torah, which includes chukim, statutes which confine the physical, sensual aspects of man within the bounds of moral purity, and also mishpotim, laws which govern communal life. Among the nations, law is determined by the views they hold at a given time and place concerning the needs of a society, and so their laws are based on expediency.—S.R. Hirsch

Where it comes in the siddur

Texts and sources

Every prayer text in Amidora comes from openly licensed editions published on Sefaria. Only editions released under CC-BY, CC0 or the public domain are included.