“Praise Yahweh!
O Jerusalem!
Praise your God!
O Zion!
He strengthens the bars of your gates.
He blesses your sons within you.
He grants peace in your borders.
He fills you with the finest of wheat.
He sends out his command to the earth.
His word runs swiftly.
He gives snow like wool.
He scatters frost like ashes.
He hurls down hail like crumbs.
Who can stand before his cold?
He sends out his word.
He melts them.
He makes his wind blow.
He makes the waters flow.
He declares his word to Jacob.
He declares his statutes and ordinances to Israel.
He has not dealt thus with any other nation.
They do not know his ordinances.
Praise Yahweh!”
The end of this alleluia psalm naturally has the phrase “praise Yahweh,” another way of saying the Hebrew “Hallelujah.” This section begins and ends with that phrase. This is a long description of what Yahweh is doing in the current time to help Israel with the use of the present tense. He keeps the bars strong on the gates into the town. He blesses them with children. He grants them peace at home. He fills them with a good harvest of wheat. Yahweh commands the whole earth. His word controls the climate as snow, frost, and hail follow his command. He sends out his wind to make the snow melt and the waters flow in the various rivers. He has given his word, his statutes, and his ordinances to Jacob or Israel. No other nation is like Israel. Notice that this is not the Mosaic code but the ordinances of Jacob.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 