What Does God Value?
God doesn’t need anything you have to offer him, but he does invite you to walk in loving relationship with him. So make that your aim today. Less doing to prove your worth to others and more loving as one who has been and remains deeply loved.
Psalm 147-150
Today's Scripture Passage
A Few Thoughts to Consider
Have you ever tried to impress God?
Psalm 147 is a hymn of praise celebrating God's care for his people and his creation. It highlights how he rebuilds Jerusalem, heals the brokenhearted, and provides for all living things. The context is a post-exilic celebration of God's restoration and provision for Israel, likely composed after the return from Babylonian exile and the rebuilding of Jerusalem.
As John Goldingay writes, “The city has been devastated and denuded of its people, and against all the evidence the psalm declares that Yahweh is the builder of Jerusalem and the gatherer of exiles, the healer of broken spirits and the nurse who bandages people’s wounds, the one who lifts up the lowly and puts down mighty superpowers.”[1]
“Psalm 147 alternates between two broad categories of the praise of God. On the one hand, the God of Israel is the one true God who has made and who rules the heavens and the earth….On the other hand, this same God, the Creator and providential Ruler of all, is also the God of his own people, Israel.”[2]
But amid this flurry of worship for God’s various attributes, the psalmist pauses and shifts his focus from what humanity should value in God to what God values in humanity. In verse 10, the psalmist says that God “is not impressed by the strength of a horse; he does not value the power of a warrior.” In the words of Eugene Peterson, “The size of our muscles means little to him.”[3]
So, what does God value?
