He hath strengthened the bars of thy gates.
Piety exulting in Divine goodness
I. In the general prosperity of society. He recognizes the good hand of God--
1. In the rebuilding of the city (verse 13).
2. In the restoration of peace and prosperity (verse 14).
II. In the beneficent mutations of the weather (Psalms 147:16-18). Men are in the habit of complaining of the weather as too hot or too cold, too wet or too dry, too stormy or too calm, but in these very changes there is mercy. They are required in order to make the earth fertile and fruitful, and to stimulate humanity to a thousand industries. Whilst men of science ascribe meteorological changes to what they call laws, and the multitudes are ever grumbling with the weather, true philosophy ascribes all not only to the agency of God, but to the benevolence of that agency.
III. In the moral revelations to mankind (verse 19).
1. God’s word not only acts on material nature, originates, fashions, sustains and controls it, but on human souls. In the one case it conveys His resistless energy, in the other His moral reason and influence.
2. He reveals His moral laws to men--
(1) By the retribution of history,
(2) By the intuitions of conscience,
(3) By His written Word, and
(4) By His blessed Son. To some His moral revelations are fuller than to others. (David Thomas, D. D.)