PSALM 47
TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A PSALM OF THE SONS OF KORAH.
Clap your hands, all peoples!
Shout to God with loud songs of joy!
For the LORD, the Most High, is to be feared,
A great king over all the earth.
He subdued peoples under us,
And nations under our feet.
He chose our heritage for us,
The pride of Jacob whom he loves Selah
God has gone up with a shout,
The LORD with the sound of a trumpet.
Sing praises to God, sing praises!
Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
For God is the King of all the earth;
Sing praises with a psalm!
God reigns over the nations;
God sits on his holy throne.
The princes of the peoples gather
As the people of the God of Abraham.
For the shields of the earth belong to God;
He is highly exalted!
Joy ricochets through this psalm, the joy of triumph and strength. In these few verses several times we’re summoned to celebration. Loud. Wholehearted.
And to a merriment that accesses both the rational and beyond rational parts of ourselves… as happens with singing. Really! Consider this great God…think about who He is…but then eventually also just let your spirits and voice take off in joy – – SING!
Tonight, as we gather to ask God for stuff, let’s come into His presence with singing! Sheer joy!
These psalmists of Israel named “sons of Korah” call the peoples – the nations that aren’t Israel – to celebrate. Celebrate God! Enjoy our King. Why? Jehovah, this God of Israel, the Highest God, is a God to be feared.
Gentiles, rejoice in our Most High God because He is to be feared. Hmmm. What that means – this God is scarily important. Next to Him, all other powers…even threats…become inconsequential; beside Him nothing else is actually frightening… because He is King over all the earth. Sure, there are other princes and expressions of power…but He’s the Most High. So bypass those lesser powers and head right to the top and fear Him.
But wait, Sons of Korah, why should all the men, women, boys, and girls of the world rejoice in this Absolute Sovereign – whom you just reminded us is scarily all-powerful?
The answer of the sons of Korah in vv. 3,4 is strange. Rejoice, Gentiles, because the King of the earth has given Israel control over Gentiles (peoples/ nations), and has given their territory to Israel as Israel’s inheritance.
Wait, wut? Peoples of the earth, rejoice that our God is scarily powerful. Er…ok, what’s He doing with all that power? He’s taking land from some of you and giving it to Israel, whom He favors. (Favors over you!) Now it’s become a land for them – Jacob – to take pride in.
But hold on, the plot thickens: God has gone up with a shout/ the LORD with the sound of the trumpet. So sing praises to our King…the king of all the earth.
In seizing from the Gentiles that little land – which is less than 1% of the size of the USA – and giving it to the descendants of Jacob, God declared Himself the King of all the earth. After settling His people in their new land, God – Jehovah of Israel – ascends to His throne with victorious shout and trumpet blast.
This is crazy! Why should the peoples of the earth celebrate when Israel succeeds, especially at cost to them? And how does this small-scale action establish God’s reign over the earth?
And how could this possibly lead us into good prayer???
ANSWER: From Abraham up until the time of this psalm’s writing (and beyond), God had decided to crush evil, defeat Satan, save all of humanity, through Israel. If Israel is established and preserved, humanity will be saved, the Satan will be defeated, evil will be crushed.
God’s salvation runs through history along a particular course. He doesn’t hide what that course is.
Which meant, all of the energies and stratagems of Satan and the powers of darkness, including their insidious work through the governments and peoples of the world, were concerned to destroy and displace Israel. The shades and legions of darkness gathered against Israel – not simply to wipe her out, but through her destruction to destroy all the image bearers of the Most High.
So what does it mean for the peoples of the earth – even for those who are displaced – when God plants Israel in their land? Salvation! Clap your hands! What does it indicate when – against all the gathered darkness – God subdues peoples under Israel? Victory! God sits on His holy throne!
There’s a special saving victorious power of God that shows itself not by the splashy immensity of victory but in the magnitude of what it (often quietly) signifies.
We move forward a few hundred years: what does it mean when just one Man is resurrected from the dead? Well, as the apostles point out in Acts 4, if you perceive that all the powers of the earth were gathered together, intent on stopping Him and arrest the salvation of God, you’ll see in His resurrection the salvation of the world and the victory of God!
Here’s the point: God’s power is always on display distributed throughout the world, but there’s a particular saving, victorious power concentrated in specific peoples and times.
God’s power is always on display distributed throughout the world, but there’s a particular saving, victorious power concentrated in specific peoples and times.
Which brings us to Paul writes to the Ephesians: I’m praying that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know…what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named not only is this age but also in the one to come…
That special, saving, victorious power of God Psalm 47 refers to is trained on those in Jesus Christ = the Church. Brothers and sisters, we have access to God’s special saving power tonight!
With that assurance, we’re set to grasp what it means when a Walker, a Ziccardi, a Carvalho, a Motisi get baptized in the name of the Triune God – as these Italians and Portugese and English testify their loyalties to the God of Abraham? It means that the shields of the earth belong to God. The Father of Jesus Christ, the Most High, is highly exalted!
Brothers and sisters, as we come to God tonight, let the sons of Korah remind you of God’s Sovereignty. Rejoice in it. Let it out, sing to the God who uses His power to save. Clap your hands O peoples!
But…we say: look at our church’s financial need! But look at my son’s attitude! Look at long, unanswered prayers!
Well, let the apostles remind us tonight that that saving victorious power of God is trained on the people of Jesus Christ. Stretch out your hand to help us, O God!
But where’s the spectacular display? This special power of God won’t normally show itself in splashy immensity, but in the magnitude of what it (often quietly) signifies.
I have an example of that in our son, Kai…
Church, as we gather… Husbands and wives, as you pray together… – Pray like God is powerful. Pray like He’s a Savior. Pray like He favors you, as He does in the new covenant in the blood of Christ. Pray for small things that mean big.
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