Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.

PSALMS 147:8KJV
Know the Bible

Psalms 147:8 (KJV)

What does Psalms 147:8 mean?

Psalms 147:8 describes God as the one who provides the conditions for plants to grow. The verse presents clouds, rain, and grass as connected parts of his care for the earth, reaching even the mountains.

The speaker is a singer calling people to praise God, as the invitation in verse 7 shows. The three phrases move from the sky to the ground: clouds cover the heavens, rain reaches the earth, and grass appears on the mountains.

The Hebrew behind Psalms 147:8

  • “prepareth” — כּוּן (kun): This word can carry the sense of making something ready or establishing it. Here, it presents rain as something God makes ready for the earth.
  • “grow” — צָמַח (tsamach): This word means to sprout or spring up. It gives a picture of grass emerging from the ground.

Why Psalms 147:8 matters

  • God’s care extends beyond places where people plant crops. The grass grows “upon the mountains,” an image of provision across the landscape.
  • The growth in verse 8 leads into a picture of food for animals. Verse 9 speaks of God giving food to beasts and young ravens, connecting what grows on the land with the creatures that live there.

Where else these words appear

“grass” Hebrew H2682 · used in 20 verses

  • Numbers 11:5 We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick:
  • Psalms 90:5 Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.
  • Isaiah 35:7 And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

“clouds” Hebrew H5645 · used in 32 verses

  • Exodus 19:9 And the LORD said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever. And Moses told the words of the people unto the LORD.
  • Job 30:15 Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind: and my welfare passeth away as a cloud.
  • Ecclesiastes 11:3 If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth: and if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.

“grow” Hebrew H6779 · used in 32 verses

  • Genesis 2:5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
  • 2 Samuel 23:5 Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow.
  • Isaiah 43:19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

“rain” Hebrew H4306 · used in 36 verses

  • Exodus 9:33 And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the LORD: and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth.
  • 2 Samuel 23:4 And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain.
  • Job 37:6 For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth; likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his strength.