Psalm 147:7-11: Does God Prohibit the Kilt?

 7 Sing to the Lord with grateful praise;

    make music to our God on the harp.

 

8 He covers the sky with clouds;

    he supplies the earth with rain

    and makes grass grow on the hills.

9 He provides food for the cattle

    and for the young ravens when they call.

 

10 His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,

    nor his delight in the legs of a man [or ‘the warrior’];

11 the Lord delights in those who fear him,

    who put their hope in his unfailing love.

 

Psalm 147:10: “His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man.” I thought this was an appropriate passage to look at on Robbie Burns Day. For Christmas one year Susan bought me some Bible Commentaries on Psalms. In one of these books the author, Peter C. Craigie, from Scotland, writes:

 

…. It was the custom in Scotland for boys to wear the kilt to church on Sunday; to this day I can recall singing the words of Psalm 147:10 ‘Neither delighteth he in any man’s legs’. I pondered at that time the question of whether scripture condemned the kilt.[1]

 

Now, of course, this poem/psalm isn’t speaking about the kilt. When it says God doesn’t delight in the legs of a man (many translations actually say ‘warrior)’ or the strength of horse, it is talking about infantry and cavalry. That was something God has spoken about lots: we can’t put our faith in the military or in anything else but him – everything else will let us down.

 

Canada is really worked up right now. Canada, for decades, we mistakenly put our faith in free trade with the US. It didn’t ever work great but now that we are no longer economically self-sufficient the US looks like it is declaring a trade war on us, as was always inevitable from the time we signed the agreement. We can’t put our faith in foreign countries. We can’t put our faith in their militaries, their economies or ours.

 

Even more so in our own day to day life – not just countries and politicians, people let us down all the time. We believe someone when they tell us something. We trust someone when they say they are going to do something. We rely on someone when maybe we know better. The truth is we do need to work well with each other, support each other, trust and love one another but there is only one who will never let us down – and that one is God. And really if everyone and everything else in life does let us down, God promises that He will never leave us or forsake us.