Psalm XLVII
To the chief Musician. A Psalm for the sons of Korah.
1 O CLAP your hands, all ye people! shout unto God with the voice of
triumph!
2 For the Lord most high is terrible: lie is a great King over all the earth.
3 He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet.
4 He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob, whom he
loved. Selah.
5 God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet!
6 Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises.
7 For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding.
8 God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness.
9 The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the
God of Abraham: For the shields of the earth belong unto God: he is greatly exalted.
Some have applied this Psalm to Christ’s ascension; but it speaks of his Second Coming. The Mighty One is seated peacefully on his throne. We are referred back to Psalm xlv. 9. His happy people stand around, exulting in his coronation, as Israel (to use a feeble emblem) rejoiced till earth rang again, when Athaliah, the usurper, was deposed, and the King of David’s line was manifested after his long concealment. Then they clapt their hands (2 Kings xi. 12) to shew their rapturous joy, as here all earth is invited to do; for even woods and trees and rivers are elsewhere represented as joining in this ecstacy of bliss (Isa. Iv. 12); Psa. xcviii. 9), when our King sets the New Earth in its regenerated order.
Verses 2, 3, 4, shew what the King has come to do, viz., to choose the “excellency,” or the excellent Land, “of Jacob.” Resting over this blissful scene, the Psalmist inserts his “Selah” — a pause of meditation. But verse 5 breaks the thoughtful silence with a shout to our Immanuel — for he it is who is celebrated as “God” —
“Sing praises to God!
Si7ig yyaises!
Sing praises to our King!
Sing praises!
For God is King over all the earth!
Sing praises with widerstanding.
God reigneth over the nations!
God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness!”
Around our Incarnate God and King are gathered Israel’s princes — “princes of the Ood of Abraham” — Abraham’s seed now receiving in full the blessings promised to their father, and all earth blest in him. Everywhere, “the shields of earth” earth’s princes, who once, like “the shields” mentioned in Hosea iv. 18, instead of defending their people, robbed and preyed on them, now gather round our God to receive authority
The pla from him and use it for him. He is King of kings. He is Lord of lords. And this is the enthusiastic celebration of The Mighty One on the throne of earth.