Psalm 47- Christ Is Enthroned Over All The Earth

A few weeks ago I read Psalm 47 and it was like an unexpected visitor who knocked on the door of my heart and invited himself in. I invited this stranger in with little expectation it seems small with only nine verses.

However, as I began to listen to this visitor I discovered that he was not shy or bashful. This visitor did not use many words but the ones that were used are powerful and they landed upon my conscience with great conviction. As this psalm began to speak its words overshadowed all the other vain voices. Ever since that day I have often invited this stranger back to speak God’s Word to me.

The words of this Psalm were like Jesus’ words when He spoke to the crowds early on in His ministry in Matthew 5-7. After Jesus had finished speaking to these large crowds we read these words, “...The crowds were astonished at His teaching, for He was teaching as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.” (7:28-29)

Jesus’ words made an impact upon these crowds because Jesus was not like any other man and His teaching was no ordinary message. They were listening to their Glorious King and His message was about His glorious Kingdom.

I chose this particular Sunday to speak on Psalm 47 because tomorrow is the inauguration of a new president; before that happens I wanted to allow Psalm 47 to have an opportunity to speak to us. It does not use many words but they are chosen carefully. This psalm has a focused message that will help to turn our attention away from all the other distractions in life and get us to consider our exalted King who sits on the throne in glory.

Psalm 47:1-9: to the choirmaster. Of the Sons of Korah. According to Almaoth. A song.

Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy!

2 For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth.

3 He subdued peoples under us, and nations under our feet.

4 He chose our heritage for us, the pride 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 a psalm (maskil)!

8 God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne.

9 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!

I told you that the psalmist who has been invited to speak to us today is not shy or bashful. The first words out of his mouth is a call to worship the LORD, and to worship the LORD with loud shouts of joy! He says, “Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy!” He repeats this call to worship in verse six when he says, “Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises!”

Question: Why does the psalmist have such a passion that all people should worship the LORD?

To answer this question we should consider the structure of this Psalm. In verse one there is a call for all peoples to praise the LORD. This praise, if it is to be genuine and sincere, is to be given only to the LORD and grounded upon certain truths and facts. Therefore verse 2 begins with the word ‘For’ or ‘Because’. Verses 2-4 gives reasons why we are to ‘Clap our hands and shout to God with loud songs of praise!’

The first reason that the psalmist gives us for praising the LORD is because ‘the LORD, the Most High, is to be feared, He is a great king over all the earth.’ (2)

The message here is simple. The LORD, the Most High, is not some territorial or regional God. No, he is the LORD who is enthroned over all peoples. The LORD is not one of many deities who say that they can provide a way to God; no, He is the only Savior of the World. (1 John 4:14; Hebrews 1) Therefore, the LORD is to be feared and all other god’s are to be forsaken. (Exodus 20:1-11)

As we consider the words, ‘the LORD, the Most High, is to be feared’, we should consider them in view of the super-script, “To the choirmaster. Of the Sons of Korah.”

This psalmist is a descendant of Korah. Korah was an Israelite who, along with a couple other men, led a rebellion against Moses. Because of this God’s wrath broke out against Korah and we read these words in Numbers 16:32-33, “And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the people who belonged to Korah and all their goods. So they and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol, and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly.”

When God judged Korah, he and all his household perished. And yet, there must have been some godly and faithful members of Korah’s household who did not stand with Korah in his sin. Instead, they removed themselves from their family and forsook all of their earthly possessions to stand alongside Moses. (Luke 14:26) Because of this act of faith they were saved and the line of Korah was not totally removed and forever blotted out from the genealogy of God’s people.

The psalmist understood from personal family experience what it means that the LORD, the Most High, is to be feared. Question: If God would defend His servant Moses with such a judgment, will He not defend the honor of His Son who is enthroned in heaven even more? (Psalm 2:10-12)

Now let’s consider verse 3, “The LORD subdues people under us, the pride of Jacob whom He loves.” Throughout Israel’s history God has proven that He can conquer all His enemies.

• The LORD gave Abraham victory over the four kings who abducted Lot. (Genesis 14)

• The LORD displayed His power over Egypt and all of their gods. (Genesis 7-12)

• The LORD delivered His people from the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Caananites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. (Joshua 24:11-13)

Question: What about us? Christians have been delivered from our greatest enemies: sin, death, and the devil! (John 10:10) Jesus is enthroned in heaven and the Father is in the process of making all of His enemies His footstool. (Hebrews 1) As we read this Psalm we realize that we are living in a time of tension where there is the ‘Already and the Not Yet’. But we have this encouragement from the Apostle Paul in Romans 16:20, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” Christ is our head, we are His body, and we get to share in the victory that he has achieved. (Joshua 10:24)

However, the fact that we have this victory over our enemies should not make any of us prideful. No, consider verse 4, “He chose our heritage for us, the pride of Jacob whom he loves.” We are all beneficiaries of God’s sovereign mercy and grace. Psalm 2 tells us that the nations rage against God and the peoples plot against Him. In our sin the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against His anointed. (Psalm 2:1-2)

What hope did we have in this rebellious condition? None, except that the Father answered a request by the Son.

• We read in Psalm 2:7-8, “The LORD said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations Your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.’”

• Or we read of this in Isaiah 49:6, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob (47:4) and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

The LORD chose Israel even though they were the smallest and most insignificant people. (Deuteronomy 7:7) Similarly, Romans 5:6 says, “For while we still weak, at the right time Christ died for us.” Therefore, we can say with the Psalmist in Psalm 16:5-6, “The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.” (47:4)

Question: After having been given these reasons to support the ‘call to worship’ in Psalm 47:1, is there anyone who will not immediately respond as the psalmist has asked?

No, but we must understand that the flow of this psalm is not back towards verse 1. These things point us forward to the next verse which expresses the main point of this psalm, “God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.” In verses 1-4 we saw the LORD overcome His enemies, and the enemies of His people, and now He ascends victoriously to His throne.

Imagine that you are you are there in this moment and you are witnessing the ascension of Jesus Christ to His Throne. The only appropriate response would be for every person from every nation, tribe, tongue to, “clap their hands and shout to God with loud songs of joy!” (1) The exaltation of Christ upon His throne cannot be ignored or successfully protested by anyone! 

Those who will do this with the most joy will be those, like Mary, who know just how many sins Jesus has forgiven them of. (Luke 7:47) Those who praise the LORD with the most joy will know Ephesians 2:1-6 which says, “You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” That is the bad news, but listen to the good news, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love which He loved us, (47:4) even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved-and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (47:4)

Every four years we witness something special as we watch the inauguration of a new president. Yet, this pales in comparison to what we celebrate every Sunday- the resurrection and ascension of Jesus to His Glorious Throne. As the psalmist considers this he says in verse 6, “Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises!” Like verse 1, this is another verse that calls God’s people to worship the LORD.

As if we do not have enough reasons to do this with great joy we are given even more reasons to do so.

This is how the Christian life ought to be! We will never run out of reasons to worship the LORD. Psalm 119:17-18a states, “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand.” How foolish it would be for any person to say that they no longer have any reason to praise the LORD. If at one time you have been given just a crumb of a reason that would be enough to praise God for a lifetime. (Matthew 15:27)

Consider Psalm 45:1 where we read, “My heart overflows with a pleasing theme (singular); I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.” Notice that the psalmist considers just ‘one pleasing theme’. Yet, that is enough to make His heart begin to overflow and his heart is made busy composing many verses which will be addressed directly to the King!

In verse 7 we are reminded that God is King over all the earth and He is sovereign over all peoples, all nations, all rulers, and governments. His people are among every tribe and tongue. And yet, in the midst of this diversity we see that we are made into one people who are ruled by Christ.

All of us from all these places are unified because of something we see at the end of verse 7 when we read, “...sing praises with a psalm!” The psalmist uses the word ‘maskil’ for the word translated ‘psalm’. Some translators translate the word ‘maskil’ into the word, ‘psalm of praise’. This is an acceptable translation but it can leave us thinking that these songs can be any number of things: fluffy, emotional songs, cultural songs, silly songs, diverse songs, etc. A ‘maskil’, however, speaks of a psalm of wisdom, a skillful psalm, psalm with understanding.

Question: What will unify such a diverse multitude of people who have been saved by God’s sovereign mercy and grace?

According to this psalm the focus of our worship is to be upon our Sovereign King and His Word. We are not free to worship the LORD according to our human traditions, our worldly understanding, our cultural/generational preferences, our personal fancies. We are to worship the LORD in fear. (2) We are to praise the LORD with songs that teach us, instruct us, and give us God’s wisdom, and which help us to better understand the Scriptures.

• God’s word is to be in our songs. Ephesians 5:19- “...addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the LORD with your heart.”

• God’s Word is at the center of our teaching and songs. Colossians 3:16- “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns in your hearts to God.”

Before we read Psalm 47:8-9 I would like you to consider again some things that are found in Psalm 2. At the beginning of that psalm we saw that the nations raged and plotted against the LORD. We saw that the rulers of this world take counsel together against the LORD and His Kingdom and they say, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their chords from us.”

The LORD had every reason to judge us all for treason and show no one any mercy. But in response to these things the LORD says, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” (6) God determines to be merciful.

These words remind us that the path that Jesus would take to the Throne would first lead to a cross. The Father had said to the Son, “Ask of me, and I will make the nations Your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.’” (27:7-8) To grant this request, the Son would have to suffer and die for the sins of His people. It pleased the Son to do this very thing.

Since that time the call for repentance has gone out which says, “Now, therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.” (Psalm 2:10-12)

Psalm 47:8-9 is a beautiful picture of the Father fulfilling the request that His Son has made, “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!”

Tomorrow we will witness the inauguration of the President of the United States and we will pray that all our leaders will be among those mentioned in our text today in verses 8-9. Some governments are wicked and some are just. However, every worldly government, even the best of them, ought to always make us look to God and say, “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Mt. 6:10) May our desires tomorrow be in line with the Scriptures. That our leaders will provide peace so we can fully devote ourselves to God and His Mission. (2 Timothy 2:2; Matthew 29:19-20)