Psalms 47
What Happens in This Chapter
This psalm calls all peoples to clap and shout in praise to God as the great King over the whole earth. It says God chose Israel's inheritance for them and brings nations under them, and it pictures God going up with shouting and horn blasts, and seated on his holy throne. It ends with the leaders of the nations gathered with the people of the God of Abraham, since the shields of the earth belong to God.
Clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with a loud, ringing cry!
1O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.
Clapping and shouting were how a crowd acclaimed a king at his coronation in the ancient Near East, a formal public act of recognition, not spontaneous applause. The Hebrew word behind "shout" is the cry raised at a coronation or a battle.
2For the LORD Most High is awesome. He is a great King over all the earth.
2For the LORD most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth.
"Most High" (Hebrew *Elyon*) is a title, not a description, one of the standing names for God in the Psalms. "Awesome" translates a word meaning "to be feared, inspiring dread"; the King James "terrible" carried that older sense of something that fills you with terror, not the modern sense of "very bad."
3He brings peoples under our power, and nations under our feet.
3He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet.
4He chooses our inheritance for us, the pride of Jacob, whom he loved. Selah.
4He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Selah.
"Inheritance" here is the land of Canaan, thought of as the family property God allotted to Israel (the same word used for a plot of land passed down within a family. "Jacob" stands for the whole nation descended from him, and "the pride of Jacob" is that allotted land, the thing Israel could boast of. "Selah" is a word of uncertain meaning that appears throughout the Psalms, probably a direction to the musicians) a pause, or a swell of instruments. No one knows for certain, so translators leave it untranslated.
5God has gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a horn.
5God is gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet.
"Gone up" means ascended, as in a procession climbing to a temple on high ground; many readers of this psalm would have pictured the ark of the covenant being carried uphill into Jerusalem amid shouting. The "horn" is the shofar, a ram's horn blown as a signal, used to announce a king, call an assembly, or sound an alarm, not as a melodic instrument.
6Sing praises to God, sing praises. Sing praises to our King, sing praises.
6Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises.
7For God is King of all the earth. Sing praises with understanding.
7For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding.
"With understanding" translates the Hebrew word *maskil*, which appears in the headings of several psalms and may mean a skillful piece of music, an instructive one, or a song sung with comprehension. The instruction is genuinely ambiguous in the original.
8God rules over the nations. God sits on his holy throne.
8God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness.
9The leaders of the peoples are gathered together as the people of the God of Abraham, for the shields of the earth belong to God. He is lifted very high.
9The 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.
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