Psalm 47: 1 – 9
Now what was the name of that song?
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
1 Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph! 2 For the LORD Most High is awesome; He Is a great King over all the earth. 3 He will subdue the peoples under us, and the nations under our feet. 4 He will choose our inheritance for us, the excellence of Jacob whom He loves. Selah 5 God has gone up with a shout, The LORD with the sound of a trumpet. 6 Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! 7 For God is the King of all the earth; Sing praises with understanding. 8 God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne. 9 The princes of the people have gathered together, the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God; He Is greatly exalted.
After I go through of week of visiting people who are dying and dealing with people with all kinds of mental, emotional, and physical problems it is good for me to kick back and watch something on TV that will get me laughing.
I flipped the remote to the old program of Married with children and came across an incident where Al cannot remember the name of a certain song that was played on the car radio.
He tries to ask his family about the song, by humming "hmm, hmmm, hiimmm", to which he is met with mockery.
Still trying to figure out where else he could have heard it from, he starts to think it might be on the B-side of one of his records and asked Peg where his record collection is at, who tells him that is in the basement next to the furnace, which causes him to sarcastically remark "...nothing brings out the luster of original records better than intense, siring heat" as he heads to the basement.
Al comes up from the basement looking disappointed and holding his now melted record collection, saying "Well I just poured through my record collection...literally" as black liquid pours out.
Al is still thinking about the song and wants to find someone who might know the name of the song. Then their next-door neighbors Marcy and Jefferson come in looking for the newspaper that Al took so they can go see what's playing in the movie theater. He decides to ask them as well, but neither of them has an idea of what it could be. But he is still determined to find out the name of the song. So, his daughter’s new date tells him his dad knows all the oldies.
Then suddenly the radio station plays his song and hears "Go with Him. Ahhh Ahhhh" causing Al to dance and be happy about the discovery. As DJ Rick Cool comes on, he tells the audience that the song isn't called "Go with Him", but instead tells him, to Al's dismay, that it’s the 3rd song of 5,000 in a row in attempt to set a record by playing songs for 2 full years without any interruption.
Al is told that he should go to a record store called "Final Vinyl" to see if he can find the name of the song there.
At the record store Al sees the employee named Dave at the register telling everyone the right name of their songs Al thinks the employee is a music genius, so he tries to sing "Go with him" to Dave, but he just looks at him bizarrely and tells him he's never heard of it.
Depressed, Al starts looking up to the ceiling and asking why God hates him that much. (Al gets down on his knees) All I wanted was a forty-five, a stinking forty-five...the record or the gun... I'd even settle for the malt liquor. Just this once, can you show that you can love even Al Bundy?"
Suddenly the song starts playing on the jukebox and a now excited Al starts dancing and saying "That's my song" repeatedly. He thanks God and says that he'll just have one more request that involves a thunder bolt and Peg.
So, as I was going over today’s chapter the Psalmist kept repeating the name of the song the Israelites and all of us should be singing is ‘Sing praises.’ My light heartedness however turned to dismay when I realized that our Precious Holy Spirit had to remind all of us over and over to do what should come naturally to all of us believers. Thank You, Lord, for counseling and directing us in the right way.
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
The Psalm divides easily into two as indicated by ‘Selah’. The first half describes Who and What God is as YHWH Most High, King over all the earth, and the One Who has chosen out, and acted on behalf of, His people in the past. The second half has in mind the acclamation of YHWH because of the signal deliverance that He has wrought for His people, which has demonstrated His worldwide Kingship and glory, and has resulted in the nations of the world acknowledging His Kingship and becoming His people too. It is a depiction of God as Lord over all and is a foretaste of God’s final triumph in Christ.
1 Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph! 2 For the LORD Most High is awesome; He Is a great King over all the earth.
The clapping of hands and the shouts of acclamation were how people normally acknowledged their great king and overlord. Here then they are called on to acknowledge YHWH Most High, the great King over all the earth, in the same way, because of His recent triumph. For thereby He had revealed His awesome power.
The description is in direct contrast with the title that Sennacherib claimed for himself as ‘the great king’ (Isaiah 35.4, “ay to those who are fearful-hearted, “Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God; He will come and save you.”). YHWH had now put Sennacherib firmly in his place demonstrating Who really was the Great King, YHWH Most High. His worldwide dominion has been demonstrated.
Here then His people are to clap their hands and shout in triumph because He has come down and wrought a mighty deliverance and is now returning to His heavenly abode, having achieved the victory.
We also should clap our hands and shout in triumph as we consider how our Lord Jesus Christ came down and wrought our deliverance, and has now ascended into Heaven as the great Victor, and as our everlasting King, having commenced His rule over the earth (Matthew 28.18, “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.) even though many are still in rebellion against Him. That kingship will be even more firmly established wen He commences to reign over His people in the heavenly kingdom (on the new earth in which dwells righteousness - 2 Peter 3.13) at His second coming.
3 He will subdue the peoples under us, and the nations under our feet. 4 He will choose our inheritance for us, the excellence of Jacob whom He loves. Selah
And that worldwide dominion that is His, and has now been demonstrated, had already been previously demonstrated by the fact that in earlier times He had subdued peoples under Israel, and had brought nations under their feet. He had done it when Israel had entered Canaan to take their inheritance. Indeed it was He Who had chosen that inheritance for them, that choicest of lands in which they gloried as the people (Jacob) whom He loved (Deuteronomy 7.6-8, “6 “For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. 7 The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; 8 but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”). And it was He Who had enabled them to possess it.
Please notice their recognition that it was because He had chosen to love them that they had experienced His salvation and blessing. It had not been their doing. It had been all His goodness.
And the same is true of us as the people of God today. We love because He first loved us (1 John 4.9-10), and He has given us a glorious inheritance (Ephesians 1.11, 14; 1 Peter 1.4), because He chose us in Christ before the world began (Ephesians 1.4).
Next we are introduced to the triumph ceremony following the defeat and humiliation of Sennacherib and the Assyrian army. We are probably to see that the Ark of the Covenant of YHWH has been brought out of the Holy of Holies and is now leading a great procession up the Mount back into the Temple, accompanied by clapping, shouting and singing, and this as a portrayal of His own rise to heaven after having gloriously come down and disposed of the enemy.
It is probable that representatives of the nation’s round about who had seen the humiliation of Sennacherib had come to Jerusalem and were joining with them in the ceremony. (Hezekiah had been one of the leaders in a coalition against Assyria). They too were grateful for what had been wrought by Israel’s God (2 Chronicles 20.29, “And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries when they heard that the LORD had fought against the enemies of Israel”).
5 God has gone up with a shout, The LORD with the sound of a trumpet. 6 Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
As the Ark, the symbol of God’s earthly presence, is borne triumphantly upwards towards the Temple, it is seen as depicting the greater reality of YHWH returning to His heavenly throne having dealt with the Assyrians (1 Kings 8.27,“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built!”). The shouting and the blowing of the ram’s horns greet His victory, while the people are called on to sing praises to Him as their God and King. It is bringing home their recognition of the supreme Sovereignty of God as Lord over both Heaven and earth.
7 For God is the King of all the earth; Sing praises with understanding. 8 God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne.
This is more so because He has now unquestionably proved Himself to be the King of all the earth. (Who else could have defeated the Great King of Assyria who ruled over ‘all the earth’?). Thus, as they praise they are to understand the significance of what they are doing. They are to see that they are praising the One Who reigns over the nations, and Who sits on His holy throne, both in Heaven and on earth.
When Jesus came to His disciples after His resurrection and declared that ‘all authority has been given to Me in Heaven and on earth’ (Matthew 28.18) He was revealing the same, and it represented an even greater victory, which we too should constantly celebrate with clapping and shouting and singing, and the blowing of trumpets (Acts 2.32-36, “32 This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. 33 Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.
34 “For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself: ‘The LORD said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, 35 Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”? 36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”).
9 The princes of the people have gathered together, the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God; He Is greatly exalted.
As they looked at the nations from round about who had gathered with them to celebrate the victory it must have brought to mind the great promises of Isaiah about the nations submitting at His feet. And they saw in this a portrayal of that day when the peoples of the nations would become the people of the God of Abraham, through whom all nations would be blessed (Genesis 12.3, “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”). And they knew that that day was inevitable. For what God had done had demonstrated that the shields of the earth belonged to Him. It had demonstrated His great exaltation.
Today as we look around and see how His true church has become established around the world, how much more should we be shouting His praise as His conquest of the nations continues because of His even greater victory gained at the cross. For He has truly gathered men from the nations of the world, and is still doing so, in order that they might be the people of the God of Abraham (Galatians 3.29, “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.).
