The King's Victorious Ascent Text: Psalm 47:5-9
Introduction: A Prophecy of Coronation
The book of Psalms is the songbook of the Church, and it is a songbook for wartime. These are not sentimental ditties for a quiet, private spirituality that bothers no one. These are declarations of cosmic victory. They are battle cries. They are coronation anthems for a King who has conquered and is conquering. And Psalm 47 is one of the clearest and most explosive of them all. It begins with a call for all peoples to clap their hands and shout to God with a voice of triumph. This is not the quiet hum of a meditation society; it is the roar of a stadium after a championship victory.
This psalm is a prophecy. While it may have been written to commemorate a historical event, like bringing the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem, its ultimate fulfillment is found in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The language here is too big, too universal, to be contained by any one event in the life of Israel. This psalm describes the central event of all human history, the event that secures the subjugation of all nations and the establishment of an everlasting kingdom. It is a song about the ascension and enthronement of Jesus Christ. When we read these verses, we are not looking back at a quaint tribal ceremony; we are looking up at the right hand of the Father, where our King has taken His seat.
Our problem in the modern church is that we have domesticated our King. We have made His kingdom an invisible, "spiritual" reality that has no bearing on the dirt and grit of politics, culture, and history. We are happy to say Jesus reigns in our hearts, but we get nervous when the psalmist says He reigns over the nations. But this psalm will not allow for such a timid faith. It forces us to reckon with a King whose authority is total, whose victory is public, and whose reign is expanding until it fills the whole earth. This is the confidence that fuels our worship and our mission in the world.
The Text
God has ascended with a loud shout, Yahweh, 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 skillful psalm.
God reigns over the nations, God sits on His holy throne.
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.
(Psalm 47:5-9 LSB)
The Shout of Ascension (v. 5)
We begin with the central event that this psalm celebrates.
"God has ascended with a loud shout, Yahweh, with the sound of a trumpet." (Psalm 47:5)
This is the ascension of Jesus Christ, described in Old Testament language. After His work on the cross was finished, after He had disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it, He ascended into heaven. This was not a quiet retreat. It was a victory parade. The "loud shout" and the "sound of a trumpet" are the sounds of a conquering king returning to his capital city to be enthroned. This is military language. This is the sound of total victory.
Think of Daniel's vision. "I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him" (Daniel 7:13-14). This is what Psalm 47 is singing about. The ascension was not Jesus leaving the world behind; it was Jesus taking charge of the world from the command center of the universe. He went up so that He could fill all things. He sat down at the right hand of the Father, which is the control room of history. Every event, every ruler, every molecule is now subject to His authority.
We shout in our worship (v. 1) because God shouts in His victory (v. 5). Our praise is a responsive echo of His triumphant entrance into the heavenly places. The trumpet blast announces His coronation. He is now King of kings and Lord of lords, and this is not a pious fiction. It is the central political fact of the cosmos.
The Unrestrained Worship (v. 6-7)
The only proper response to such a victory is unrestrained, intelligent worship.
"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 skillful psalm." (Psalm 47:6-7 LSB)
The command to "sing praises" is hammered down five times in just two verses. This is not a suggestion. It is an urgent, emphatic imperative. The joy of this reality cannot be contained. This is not the time for quiet, dignified restraint. This is the time for loud, frequent, vocal praise. When your team wins the championship, you don't hum quietly to yourself. You shout, you cheer, you sing. How much more when our King has conquered sin, death, and Hell?
But notice the qualifier at the end of verse 7. We are to sing praises "with a skillful psalm," or as some translations put it, "with understanding." This is not mindless, emotional effervescence. This is not a content-free mantra. Our worship must be intelligent. We are to know why we are singing. We sing because of the truth of who God is and what He has done. We sing because, as verse 7 states plainly, "God is the King of all the earth." Our praise is grounded in theological reality. We are not trying to work up a feeling; we are responding to a fact. The fact is that Jesus is Lord of all. Therefore, we sing. Our singing is a declaration of this fact to the world, to the principalities and powers, and to our own hearts.
This is why we sing the psalms. The psalms are a God-given songbook that is thoroughly masculine, robust, and theological. It teaches us how to praise God with understanding, covering the full range of human experience in submission to the facts of God's covenantal reign.
The Universal Reign (v. 8)
The psalm now elaborates on the reason for our praise: the universal extent of God's kingdom.
"God reigns over the nations, God sits on His holy throne." (Psalm 47:8 LSB)
The Hebrew here says God reigns over the "goyim," the heathen, the Gentiles. This is a direct statement about God's political authority over every tribe and nation, not just Israel. His throne is not a local throne. It is a "holy throne," meaning it is set apart, transcendent, and utterly sovereign over all other thrones. From that position of ultimate authority, He governs all the affairs of men.
This is a profoundly postmillennial statement. The reign of God over the nations is not something we are waiting for in a future millennium after a great escape. It is a present reality that began at the ascension and is now being extended throughout history by the preaching of the gospel and the discipleship of the nations. The Great Commission is the marching order for the citizens of this King, to go and announce to all the nations that their rightful king has been crowned and to call them to bow the knee in faith and obedience.
When we confess this, it means we do not believe that any corner of the earth is neutral territory. There is no square inch in all the universe over which Christ does not say, "Mine!" This includes the halls of government, the classrooms of universities, the boardrooms of corporations, and the studios of Hollywood. He reigns over them now, whether they acknowledge it or not. Our job is to call them to acknowledge it.
The Conquered Nations (v. 9)
The final verse gives us a glorious picture of the ultimate success of the Great Commission.
"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." (Psalm 47:9 LSB)
Here is the gospel in the Old Testament. The "nobles of the peoples," the princes of the Gentiles, are gathered together not in opposition to God, but "with the people of the God of Abraham." This is the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed. This is the mystery of the gospel revealed: that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:6). The nations are not just conquered; they are converted. They are brought into the covenant family.
And then we have this final, stunning declaration: "For the shields of the earth belong to God." Who are the shields of the earth? They are the rulers, the magistrates, the protectors of the people. The shield is a defensive, noble weapon. It represents the God-given authority to govern and protect. And this verse tells us that all of that authority, every last bit of it, belongs to God. Civil rulers do not have autonomous power. They are God's deacons (Romans 13:4), and they are His shields. One day, all these shields will be brought into the City of God, not as vanquished foes, but as trophies of grace, submitted to the King of kings. The kings of the earth will bring their glory and honor into the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:24).
Because of all this, "He is highly exalted." His exaltation is not a private, spiritual feeling. It is a public, historical, and cosmic fact. It is the central truth around which all of history revolves. Christ has ascended. Christ is King. And His kingdom is growing, and it will continue to grow until it fills the whole earth, as the waters cover the sea. This is the reason we sing. This is the reason we have unshakable hope. This is the reason we clap our hands and shout for joy.