Psalms 47

Psalms 47. ALL the nations of the earth are called upon to unite in joyful praise to the Lord, ver. 1, because he is terrible, and the al-mighty ruler of the whole earth, ver. 2, according to the clear testimony of the events that had just taken place, the victory which he had accomplished for his people over many enemies, the protection which he afforded to his endangered land, ver. 3, 4. The Lord returns, after he had successfully managed the affairs of his people, to his heavenly habitation: the Psalmist exhorts to the singing of praises to him on his ascent, as to the king of the whole earth, who had manifested himself as such, ver. 5-7. God reigns over the heathen, God sits upon his holy throne, this the occurrent transactions teach, and thereby impart a prophetic sense to the Psalmist: he sees how the princes of the peoples gather themselves, in order to acknowledge God, as their God, and to have themselves received into his church, ver. 8 and 9. The Psalm falls into two equal strophes (including the super-scription), which are separated by a Selah, ver. 1-4, and 5-9. Both contain a call to praise the Lord, with its grounding. In the first, this call is addressed to the heathen, in the second, to Israel.

In the second, there is appended, besides, a general conclusion. The whole is completed in the number ten.

The name Elohim occurs seven times. The occasion of the Psalm was, according to verse 3, an over-throw of many heathen peoples, accomplished by the visible in-terposition of God, who had leagued themselves against Israel, and who, according to verse 4, had set out with the purpose of expelling Israel from his land. If we keep in view this distinc-tive mark, we shall easily be convinced of the untenableness of the hypothesis of Ewald, according to which the Psalm belongs to the time after the return from the exile, and must represent Jehovah’s sovereignty going out of Zion to the conversion of the heathen, (verse 3 manifestly speaks of a constrained subjection, to which also the terrible points in verse 2), as also that of Hitzig, who refers it to the victory of Hezekiah over the Philistines, 2 Kings 18:8,-to say nothing of older hypotheses, which refer-red the Psalm to the occasion of removing the ark of the cove-nant, in the time of David or Solomon, or even to the ascension of Christ. The only thing that suggests itself as a fit reference is the victory of Jehosaphat over the combined Moabites, Am-monites, Edomites, and Arabians, in 2 Chronicles 20. Many na-tions were thus united against Israel; they were set upon no-thing less than driving Israel wholly out of his land, comp. 2 Chron. 20:11; the overthrow of the enemies followed under circumstances, which caused the hand of God to be clearly dis-cerned. Surprised by an attack in the rear from a host of free-booting sons of the wilderness, the enemies fled in a panic, and as the spirit of mistrust fell upon them, and each people thought itself betrayed by the other, they turned their arms one against another.

So Israel obtained a victory without a battle. The reference to that event is favoured by the circumstance that then, according to 2 Chronicles 20:19, the Korahites are expressly mentioned as having been present in the army, that the imme-diately following Psalm refers to the same event, as also Psalms 83. (these three Psalms perfectly suffice for a defence of 2 Chron, 20. against the attacks of modern criticism), finally, that on this supposition we obtain a suitable situation for verse 5, from 2 Chronicles 20:26, “On the fourth day they assembled themselves together, in the valley of praise, for there they praised the Lord.” Before the people left the field of slaughter, to re-turn back to Jerusalem, they held a solemn service in that val-ley of praise: from there God made as it were, his ascent to heaven, after having achieved redemption for his people. As the army into the holy city, so the leader of the host returned to heaven. In the valley of praise was this Psalm sung, as the following one in the service of the temple.-The objection a-gainst the reference to the victory of Jehoshaphat, that then the ark of the covenant was not in the field, as here according to verse 5, would have some force, if verse 5 really presupposed the presence of the ark. For notwithstanding all that Movers says upon the Chron. p. 289, there is not a single passage that certainly bespeaks the presence of the ark with the host, after the time of David. But verse 5, rightly understood, says no-thing of the ark of the covenant.

Psalms 47:1-4

To the chief musician, of the sons of Korah, a Psalm. Ver. 1. Exult with hands all peoples, shout to God with jubilee-voice. Ver. 2. For the Lord, the Most High, is terrible, a great King over all the earth. Ver. 3. He constrains peoples under us, and nations under our feet. Ver. 4.

He chooses our inheritance for us, the pride of Jacob, whom he loves. Selah. The clapping of the hands in verse 1 is a gesture of joy, Nahum 3:19, comp. Psalms 98:8, Isaiah 55:12. They must exult to the Lord with heart, mouth, and hands. Of homage there is no trace; this is only dragged in by Stier. The ground of joy to the heathen is an-nounced in ver. 2-4. In the victory which Israel had just gained, the glory of the Lord manifested itself, and since he is the God of the whole earth, this glory belongs also to the hea-then.

What was done primarily for Israel, must be a just occa-sion of living joy for the whole world. For even those, to whom immediately it brings no salvation, have still therein a matter-of-fact promise of this, a pledge of their obtaining it in the time to come. While it shews the greatness of God, it shews also what they may expect from this God in the future. The call of the Psalmist could certainly not be responded to by the heathen at that time, just because they were still heathen. But while he declares what they properly ought to do, he stirsup all the more powerfully the heart of Israel to praise. Simi-lar calls to the heathen, to praise the Lord on account of his wonderful doings for Israel, are found also in Psalms 66 :anPsalms 117.

The original passage is Deuteronomy 32:43 : “Rejoice ye nations, rejoice his people, for he avenges the blood of his servants,” comp. on Psalms 18:49. In ver. 2, the Psalmist points to the attributes of the Lord, which justify the call to the hea-then to praise him.

Then in ver. 3 and 4 he brings forward the proof of these attributes from his doings. Terrible-so has God shewn himself in the destruction of the enemies of his peo-ple, comp. Psalms 68:35. He has proved himself to be a great king over the whole earth, as opposed merely to being king of Israel, by the victory over huge masses of people, who threaten-ed to devour Israel.-Ver. 3 and 4 might of themselves be re-ferred to the active operation of God, as appearing in the whole history, in conquering the enemies of his people, and preserv-ing his inheritance. But ver. 5 shews, that the question is about a particular act of God, and indeed one that had recently occurred, in which the truth declared in ver. 2, furnishing an oc-casion for triumphant joy to the heathen, had just brilliantly shone forth. “The mild, friendly sense,” maintained by Stier in 3, is excluded by הדביר, to drive, to force one’s self, which imports a violent subjugation; by a comp. of the parall. pass. Psalms 18:47 : “The God, that avengeth me, and subdueth, the peoples under me,” (comp. on, “under our feet” of the second member, “they fall under my feet,” in Psalms 18:38,) and by the terrible in ver. 2, the proving of which is furnished by this verse.

Calvin’s objection, repeated by Stier, against the exposition we have given, that we cannot suppose persons, who had been con-strained to serve by fear and violence, would exult with joy, is removed by the remark, that the peoples here are different from those in ver. 1,-there the whole heathen world, here the par-ticular peoples, whom Israel conquered,-and that a bitter shell can very easily conceal a sweet kernel. How far the victory over Israel should be the object of joy to the peoples, is express-ly declared in ver. 2.

It is not the particular in itself-this was either a matter of indifference to the peoples, or the occasion of ruin-but the general unfolded in the particular, the proof for the being of God in the large sense, which that furnished for joy to every human heart longing for help, consolation, and sal-vation. If in ver. 4 the discourse is simply of the inheritance of Jacob, we can only understand by that the holy land, which is frequently so described, comp. Isaiah 58:14, Deuteronomy 4:38; Deuteronomy 15:4, etc.; and it is arbitrary, with Stier and others, upon the groundof a false meaning of ver. 3, to think of the promised fulness of the gentiles," which can just as little, without any thing fur-ther, be designated as the pride of Jacob. This can only mark a preference, which Israel already enjoyed. Against this exposi- tion also is the בהר, which, according to it, must mean, he will give us. The sense of the first member is simply this: God has by his conduct distinctly shown, that the holy land, the inheri-tance of his people, lies near to his heart, just because it is the inheritance of his people.

The expression: he chooses, is to be explained by considering the inheritance to be chosen, as it were, anew, when a signal proof is given of the choice. לנו denotes those, out of love to whom the choice of the inheritance is made. In the second member, the inheritance of the Lord is epexegetically described as the pride of Jacob, that for which Jacob might be proud, comp.

Nahum 2:3, Amos 6:8, because it had been rendered glorious by so many proofs of the might and grace of his God, which Amos himself, in ch. 8:7, designates the pride of Israel, his glorious possession. The expression: whom he loves, indicates, what was merely implied in the us of the first member, that the preference the Lord gives to the land, has its ground in love to the people. If this were not parall., we could still refer the אשר to the pride, by comp. Amos 6:8, and Psalms 78:68. But so, Malachi 1:2 is rather to be comp. The verse stands in close connection with the preceding one. The vanquishing of the peoples, which Israel would drive out of his inheritance, comp. 2 Chronicles 20:11, is that which forms the con-dition of the choosing = the delivering of the inheritance.

Psalms 47:5-9

Ver. 5. God goes up with rejoicing, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Ver. 6. Sing praise to God, sing praise, sing praise to our king, sing praise. Ver. 7. For king of the whole earth is God, sing a song with edification. Ver. 8. God reigns over the heathen, God sits upon his holy throne. Ver. 9. The princes of the peoples are gathered together to the people of the God of Abraham, for the shields of the earth are God’s, he is greatly exalted. That in ver. 5, the going up of God to heaven, is his return to his heavenly throne, his invisible procession to heaven, which takes place after he had displayed on earth by outward deeds his almightiness and love, and carried there the interests of his people, as a prelude to the ascension of Christ, appears from ver. 8, and the comparison of all other passages, in which the going up of God is mentioned, Genesis 17:22, Judges 13:20, Psalms 7:7, and especially Psalms 68:18, which, having a typical reference to the ascension of Christ in the New Testa-ment, has at the same time an important bearing on our verse. The call to praise the Lord on his ascension to heaven is based in ver. 7 on the circumstance, that he, the king of Israel, has, by the very deeds of his almightiness, shown himself to be king overall the earth. On משכיל comp. on Psalms 32. super. Every song in praise of God, on account of his glorious deeds, con-tains a rich treasure of instruction and improvement. Here the instruction, which shall be drawn out of the foregoing deeds, has been expressly declared. It is this, that God is king over the whole earth, that he reigns over the heathen, that these shall also sometime own his sovereignty.

This great truth is particularly set forth in the two closing verses, as the special lesson of the particular transactions. The holy throne of God is as much as, “the throne high and lifted up,” in Isaiah 6:1, comp. on the idea of holiness in Psalms 22:3.

The consequence of God’s sitting on the throne of his holiness, is his universal sovereignty, comp. Psalms 103:19, “The Lord has prepared his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom ruleth over all,” Isaiah 66:1. In ver. 9 the עם, is to be taken as accus., as it is commonly with verbs of gesture and motion, comp. Ew. § 477. This idea is con-tained in the expression: they gather themselves. To gather themselves = to come gathered. With a poet, we certainly can-not regard this accusative as “somewhat hard.” We are not, with others, to explain: the princes of the people are gatheredas a people of God. For אברהם אלהי עם, cannot mean one, but only the people of the God of Abraham, comp.

Ew. § 510, neither can the princes be called a people, and after the con-version of the heathen there is not properly many peoples of God, but there is everywhere only one people, into which theconverted heathen are received. The Psalmist beholds thefuture as the present, which many expositors failing to perceive,have erred. lie prepares for himself from the manifestation ofthe true godhead of Israel, which he has before his eyes, a lad- der by which he first rises up to this true godhead, and thenproceeds to its recognition over the whole earth. He sees, how the heathen princes hasten, that they may be received amongthe people of the Lord, comp. in the Korahite Psalms 87:4, Zechariah 9:7, and the Christol. there. The designation of God as the God of Abraham, points, as appears, to the promise of blessing on all peoples.-The words: for the shields, etc., resume the subject of ver. 8. God is the rightful Lord of all the mighty ones, and this his right, which has been impaired by their rebellion, must be again re-established. Nature must force for itself a way through what is against nature, comp. on Psalms 22:28. The Princes are called the shields of the earth, as protec-tors of their peoples, comp. Hosea 4:18.