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Psalm 147:13
For he has strengthened the bars of your gates. He has blessed your children within you.
11The LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his loving kindness.
12Praise the LORD, Jerusalem! Praise your God, Zion!
13For he has strengthened the bars of your gates. He has blessed your children within you.
14He makes peace in your borders. He fills you with the finest of the wheat.
15He sends out his commandment to the earth. His word runs very swiftly.
Notice
Strong gate bars and children blessed within them draw attention to the shared gifts of safety and life for which Jerusalem owes God praise.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What protection in your community tends to go unnoticed until you imagine its absence?
Write on thisHow does Jerusalem’s praise for its children shape what you want to thank God for?
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Where else Scripture says this
12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Psalm 128:3–6Your wife will be as a fruitful vine in the innermost parts of your house, your children like olive shoots around your table.Both passages picture blessing through children, within Jerusalem’s gates in one and around a household table in the other.
Isaiah 44:3–5For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and streams on the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on your offspring;Both passages name God’s blessing upon children or descendants, with Isaiah also promising the gift of his Spirit.
Psalm 115:14–15May the LORD increase you more and more, you and your children.Psalm 147 celebrates God’s blessing already given, while Psalm 115 asks for increase for the people and their children.
Jeremiah 30:19–20Thanksgiving will proceed out of them with the voice of those who make merry. I will multiply them, and they will not be few; I will also glorify them, and …Both passages connect the good God does for his people with their praise or thanksgiving.
Psalm 144:12Then our sons will be like well-nurtured plants, our daughters like pillars carved to adorn a palace.Both passages portray children flourishing among the people, with Psalm 144 describing sons as plants and daughters as carved pillars.
Psalm 125:2As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people from this time forward and forever more.Both passages describe God’s protection in connection with Jerusalem, through strengthened gates or the surrounding mountains.
Nehemiah 12:30The priests and the Levites purified themselves; and they purified the people, the gates, and the wall.Both passages mention gates and people, though Nehemiah describes their purification while the psalm celebrates God’s strengthening and blessing.
Lamentations 2:8–9The LORD has purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion. He has stretched out the line. He has not withdrawn his hand from destroying; He has made …Both passages attribute the condition of Zion’s defenses to the LORD, with strengthening in the psalm and destruction in Lamentations.
Nehemiah 3:1–16Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brothers the priests, and they built the sheep gate. They sanctified it, and set up its doors. They sanctified …Both passages concern city gates, with Nehemiah describing their construction and the psalm crediting God with strengthening their bars.
Zechariah 8:3–5The LORD says: “I have returned to Zion, and will dwell in the middle of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called ‘The City of Truth;’ and the mountain of the LORD …Both passages concern God’s care for Jerusalem, expressed through blessing in the psalm and his promised presence in Zechariah.
Lamentations 4:12The kings of the earth didn’t believe, neither did all the inhabitants of the world, that the adversary and the enemy would enter into the gates of Jerusalem.Jerusalem’s gates feature in both passages: strengthened by God in the psalm and entered by enemies in Lamentations.
Nehemiah 6:1Now when it was reported to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arabian, and to the rest of our enemies that I had built the wall, and that there was no breach left …Both passages attend to city defenses, though Nehemiah reports unfinished gate doors while the psalm celebrates strengthened gate bars.
Where this verse fits
Gratitude. praise and worship. parenting.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
Jerusalem’s gates and the people within them both matter to God. The praise here rests on what he has done: strengthened the city’s defenses and blessed its people.
Now put it in your words.
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).