Psalms 147:20
He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the Lord.
Study Note
Study Note
The climactic verse 'he hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the Lord' expresses Israel's theological particularity — the extraordinary privilege of possessing Torah revelation — in comparison with all other nations. The statement does not imply other nations are beyond God's care (Amos 9:7; Deuteronomy 32:8 show God's providential dealings with all nations) but rather that the specific covenantal knowledge of divine statutes and judgments is Israel's unique endowment. Paul cites this Psalmic logic in Romans 3:1-2 — 'what advantage then hath the Jew? much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God' — acknowledging the privilege while reconfiguring it through the Christ event. The psalm forms the literary culmination of the Psalter's final doxological collection.
Other Translations
He hath not dealt so with any nation; And as for his ordinances, they have not known them. Praise ye Jehovah.
He hath not done so to any nation, As to judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye Jah!
He has not done these things for any other nation: and as for his laws, they have no knowledge of them. Let the Lord be praised.
Cross References
Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by …
For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man …
And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I …
For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is …
Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant …
Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard …
King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest.
To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, …
Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.