Psalms 147 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
After the exile, most likely near the rebuilding of Jerusalem's walls under Nehemiah around 445 BC
Location
Jerusalem, with its gates barred again and its wall standing, set against a winter landscape of frost, hail and snow
Audience
The returned community in Judah, rebuilding a damaged city and a scattered population
Situation
Praise for a God who both counts the stars and heals broken hearts, who has rebuilt Jerusalem and gathered its exiles home, and who sends snow like wool and then a warm wind that melts it.
Key Background
Jerusalem sits about 2,500 feet above sea level, high enough for genuine frost and occasional snow, so the winter imagery describes weather the first hearers actually saw. The lines about strengthening the bars of the gates make most sense in the years right after the wall was repaired, when a city without defenses had just become defensible again. The dismissal of pleasure in the strength of a horse is a jab at imperial armies, since cavalry and chariot horses were the prestige weapon of the great powers and something a small province like Judah could never afford.