Snow In Jerusalem?

Psalm 147:12-20

12Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem!

Praise your God, O Zion!

13For he has fortified the bars of your gates

and blessed your children within you.

14He sends peace across your nation

and satisfies you with plenty of the finest wheat.

15He sends his orders to the world—

how swiftly his word flies!

16He sends the snow like white wool;

he scatters frost upon the ground like ashes.

17He hurls the hail like stones.

Who can stand against his freezing cold?

18Then, at his command, it all melts.

He sends his winds, and the ice thaws.

19He has revealed his words to Jacob,

his principles and laws to Israel.

20He has not done this with any other nation;

they do not know his laws.

Praise the LORD!

What did people in Bible lands know about ice, snow, and cold (see verses 16-18)?

We tend to think of Palestine as a semitropical land, but Mount Hermon is snowcapped much of the year. And the cold and snow were not confined only to Mount Hermon. In 2 Samuel 23:20 we read of one of David’s mighty men killing a lion in a pit “despite the snow and slippery ground,” and in Joshua 10 we read of a hailstorm that helped Joshua defeat the Amorites. During the winter months, worshipers in the Temple courts might have their faces pelted with icy drops, and even in April on the eve of Christ’s crucifixion, Peter warmed himself at a fire in the Temple courtyard.

To the psalmist, snow was an amazing creation of God—as it is today. In the book of Job, when God boasts about all he has made, he includes snow (Job 38:22). Many of us marvel that no two snowflakes are made exactly alike, and we should, but snow is not just decorative. God also uses snow to purify the air, to insulate the ground, and to provide a slow supply of water to percolate to underground water reserves.

But even more remarkable is the fact that God can make us “as clean as freshly fallen snow” (Isaiah 1:18). Impurities fill our world and even our own heart, but God blankets us with his grace, covering us with a blanket of white wool donated by the Lamb of God.

Lord Jesus, for this I most humbly entreat,

I wait, blessed Lord, at thy crucified feet;

By faith, for my cleansing, I see thy blood flow,

Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

JAMES NICHOLSON

Bible Networking

Snow and wool (verse 16) are used together elsewhere as images of a heart cleansed by God. See Isaiah 1:18.

Notable Quotable

“So it was on the day of Pentecost. The winter of spiritual captivity was thawed and dissolved by the soft breath of the Holy Ghost.”

F. B. MEYER