Commentary - Psalm 47:5-9

Bird's-eye view

This second half of Psalm 47 is a triumphant celebration of God's universal and absolute sovereignty. The psalmist has already called for all peoples to clap their hands and shout to God with a voice of triumph, recognizing Him as a terrible and great King over all the earth. Now, the psalm moves from the general call to worship to the specific event that grounds it: the ascension. This is a coronation psalm. God has gone up, He has taken His throne, and the only proper response from all the inhabitants of the earth, from the common man to the nobles and princes, is worship. Loud, skillful, intelligent, and unceasing worship.

The movement is clear. Verse 5 describes the ascension event itself, a noisy and glorious affair. Verses 6 and 7 are the required response, a five-fold fusillade of praise, grounded in the fact that God is not a tribal deity but the King of all the earth. Verse 8 describes the present reality of His reign; He is not waiting to become king, He reigns now and is seated on His holy throne. And verse 9 gives us a prophetic glimpse of the result of this reign: the gathering of the nations, the princes of the peoples, to the God of Abraham. The psalm concludes by asserting that all authority and power, the "shields of the earth," belong to Him. He is not just exalted; He is highly exalted. This is a profoundly Christological and missiological psalm. It is about the ascension of Jesus Christ and the subsequent discipling of the nations.

Outline

The Ascension of the King

(5) God has ascended with a loud shout, Yahweh, with the sound of a trumpet.

The psalm pivots here on a historical event. "God has ascended." The Hebrew is perfect tense, indicating a completed action. This is not something we are waiting for; it is something that has happened. In its original context, this may have referred to the Ark of the Covenant being brought up to Zion, a visible representation of God's presence ascending to His throne. But the Holy Spirit is a better commentator than that, and He tells us through the apostles that this is about the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. 4:8-10). After His work on the cross and His resurrection from the dead, Jesus ascended into the heavenly places, into the court of the Ancient of Days, where He was given universal dominion. This was His coronation.

And it was not a quiet, somber affair. It was accompanied by a "loud shout" and the "sound of a trumpet." This is the noise of victory, the sound of a conquering king returning to his capital city. The shout is a battle cry of triumph. The trumpet, the shofar, is the sound of coronation, of a public proclamation that the new king is on the throne. This is not some invisible, ethereal, "spiritual" reign that has no bearing on the real world. This is a noisy, public, cosmic event. The universe has a new emperor, and his name is Jesus. All the pretenders to the throne, all the petty tyrants and demonic principalities, heard that trumpet blast, and they have been in a state of panicked retreat ever since.

The Royal Anthem

(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 a skillful psalm.

What do you do when a king is crowned? You sing. The response to the cosmic event of verse 5 is a torrent of praise. Five times in two verses, the command is given: "Sing praises." This is not a suggestion. It is an imperial command, and the repetition is for emphasis. It is as though the psalmist is trying to get our sluggish hearts into gear. Don't just stand there, sing! Sing to God! Sing to our King!

The reason for this outburst is given in verse 7: "For God is the King of all the earth." Our praise is not parochial. We are not singing to the god of the West, or the god of our particular tribe. We are singing to the monarch of the planet. His jurisdiction is total. Every square inch of this globe belongs to Him, and so the praise must be global. The nations He subdues under His feet (v. 3) are the same nations that are commanded to sing His praises.

And notice the kind of singing we are called to. "Sing praises with a skillful psalm." The Hebrew word is maschil, which means a skillful or instructive psalm. This is not mindless, repetitive chanting. This is not sentimental, syrupy emotion. This is thoughtful, intelligent, robust, and well-crafted worship. It requires skill. It requires our minds as well as our hearts. Our worship is to be theologically rich and artistically excellent, because our King is worthy of nothing less. We are to sing with understanding, because we are celebrating a reality, the kingship of Jesus Christ over all things.

The Conquered World

(8) God reigns over the nations, God sits on His holy throne.

The psalmist continues to drive the point home. The ascension was not the beginning of a process by which God might one day reign. The ascension was the public announcement that His reign had begun. "God reigns over the nations." Present tense. He is doing it now. From His vantage point, the outcome of history is not in doubt. He is not wringing His hands in heaven, hoping we can hold the line down here. He is ruling. He "sits on His holy throne." To be seated on the throne is to be in the position of ultimate authority and rest. The work of conquest is, from one perspective, finished. He has sat down. All His enemies are being made His footstool (Heb. 1:13).

This reign is "over the nations." The word is goyim, the Gentiles. The God of Israel is the God of everyone else too, whether they acknowledge it yet or not. His throne is not in Jerusalem in a geopolitical sense, but is a "holy throne," which means it is transcendent. It is in the heavenly places, from which He governs all the affairs of men. This is the central confession of the Christian faith: Jesus is Lord. Not Caesar, not the state, not our own autonomous reason. Jesus is the one on the throne.

(9) The nobles of the peoples have assembled themselves with the people of the God of Abraham, For the shields of the earth belong to God; He is highly exalted.

Here is the fruit of His reign. This is what it looks like when the nations are discipled. "The nobles of the peoples have assembled themselves." The word for nobles is nadib, meaning the princes, the rulers, the willing and voluntary leaders. This is a prophecy of the conversion of the Gentile rulers. They are not just conquered; they are converted. They gather with the people of the God of Abraham. The wall of hostility has been broken down (Eph. 2:14). There is one new man, one people of God, comprised of both Jew and Gentile, from the lowest to the highest stations in society.

And why does this happen? "For the shields of the earth belong to God." The shields are a metaphor for rulers and protectors, the instruments of power and authority. All earthly authority is delegated authority. Every king, every president, every prime minister holds his office as a grant from the ascended Christ. They are His deacons (Rom. 13:4). Whether they know it or not, their power belongs to God. And the progress of the gospel in history means that more and more of them will come to know it, and to bow the knee willingly.

The psalm ends where it must. "He is highly exalted." This is the ultimate reality. The ascension of Christ resulted in His ultimate exaltation. All things are under His feet. Our task is not to make Him king. Our task is to live in the reality that He is King, and to call all men everywhere, from the peasant to the prince, to acknowledge that reality with joyful and skillful praise.