My wife and I are reading through the Psalms in our evening reading and occasionally a nugget of the Psalms jumps out of the page. Don’t you love it when, after years of reading the “Old Book” passages become alive, reinforcing old teachings or simply warming your heart.
This is the book of Psalms, and it is rich.
I pray I can communicate a portion of the blessing we receive from this wonderful book. Let’s take a few seconds to read this psalm, before we enter into our considerations.
1 To the choirmaster. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. 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!
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!
In our last post we spoke of how the Lord is over all the peoples and how the psalmist opens his eyes to the truth that God is not restricted to the national boundaries of Israel. This thinking is “out of the box” thinking for an Old Testament saint, for it was common to consider the nation of Israel as the favored nation, and that somehow, this restricted God to their cause.
This became a trap for the nation, as it does for our modern church, to the point we actually attribute God as being on our political side, as One who would defend our national interests no matter what, and that would protect our way of living, since He loves us (more than others?). You see, if we read the Word carefully, we find out that He is not on our side politically, nationally, or religiously. We are to be on His side! There is quite a difference!
Also, it is very easy to consider Him to be our servant for our interests! He has stooped down to our place! He has washed our feet! He has suffered for our sake! There is no denying the tremendous humbling the Savior has entered into to connect with His people, to provide life and love to us, to give us the Spirit for guidance, comfort and conviction.
Yet He is the King of Kings, and His position is described beautifully in our next portion of Psalm 47.
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!
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!
Our first phrase catches my attention.
God has gone up with a shout
The psalmist informs us that upon the victory over the Israeli enemy, God ascended with a shout. The term “shout” may be understood as a battle cry, or a trumpet blast. This is a repetition of the next phrase in our psalm, and we must remember that Hebrew poetry consists of synonymous thoughts, unlike our modern way of writing poetry, in which we merely rhyme the last word. The Hebrews “rhymed” thoughts. In other words, they often provided a thought, and then said it in another way. In this instance, the Psalmist rephrased his thoughts by writing…
the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
I am so tempted to link this with the New Testament, where the apostle speaks of the trumpet blast as Lord descends at the second coming.
1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.
I say tempted, since my temptation is based on associating of the idea of a trumpet blowing in both passages. I have often ignored context and favored word links like this to create a connection in Bible passages, but now see that as unwise.
The reference to God ascending should make us consider this to be an event that is not associated with the second coming. The ascension spoken of here, directly by the psalmist, is of the Lord returning to His throne after He brought devastation on the Assyrians, rescuing His people, and displaying His authority for all the nations to see.
This reference of ascension speaks of His returning to His throne, and as the psalmist describes this action, the fallout is the retelling of the fact that He is the King over all the earth, that He reigns over all the nations. Again, the psalmist drives home the point that our God is not some local deity that is restricted to a lone culture, a geopolitical region or some people group.
As believers in the Messiah, we understand that the Old Testament provides shadows of greater truths revealed in the bright shining light of the Messiah. This passage explodes with a truth that is the capstone of the Messiah’s victory, for in the telling of this victory over the Assyrians, the psalmist foreshadowed the victory Christ attained in His resurrection, and His subsequent ascension to the throne. He ascended into heaven with a shout, a trumpet blast, indicating the war for the souls of all men had been initiated through His ascension, declaring of His ruling over all.
He is over all, and upon this truth Jesus speaks to us, as the risen King over all, the exalted One who is ruling over all nations.
Matthew 28:18
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
In summary, there is one fitting response to this truth.
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!
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion.
Considering the Bible 
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