GLEANINGS IN THE PSALMS

(Psalm 47)

Verse 1. “O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.” This little psalm speaks strongly of our Lord's Sovereignty in subduing all things under His feet and bestowing on His people those graces and gifts that they stand most in need of. “Our life and our breath are in His hands,” is the sentiment of the psalmist, and may we all learn it to the good and the advantage of our spiritual well-being. When we learn to believe that the “hands” of the Lord are great enough, and large enough, and safe enough to hold all the issues of our life, then we will confidently commit all the issues of our life into His hands. The outcome will then be plain; we will be free to “clap” our hands in praise of our God, as the psalmist exhorts us: “O clap your hands, all ye people …”

Verse 2. “For the Lord most high is terrible; He is a great King over all the earth.” Let us never make the mistake of believing that the Lord only becomes a great King when the believer crowns Him King in his life; or that He is only the King of those who believe. He is their King in a special sense, but whether or not one son of Adam's race had ever believed and crowned Him King would have made not one iota of difference to His eternal and everlasting sovereignty. “The Lord most high … is a great King over all the earth.”

Verse 4. “He shall choose our inheritance for us …” It may be thou art godly and poor. 'Tis well; but canst thou tell whether if thou wert not poor, thou wouldst be godly? Surely God knows us better than we know ourselves, and therefore can best fit the estate to the person.

Giles Fletcher

Verse 4. “He shall choose our inheritance for us …” A man of some wealth and position once took a friend of his to the front door of his house and began to survey the length and the breadth of his possessions. “This is my estate,” he said; and then with a flourish of his hand pointing in every direction, indicated the farms and the fields, the houses and the homesteads that belonged to him. “But,” said his friend,“ I know an old lady who lives on one of those farms and she can claim more than you could ever have shown me today, for she can say 'Christ is mine.'” “He shall choose our inheritance for us.”

Verse 5. “God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.” And this same Jesus, says the Word of God, shall descend again with “a shout”, with the voice of “a trumpet.” No fact so universally ignored and neglected than this greatest fact of all, that, “This same Jesus whom ye have seen go into heaven, shall so come again in like manner as ye have seen him go.”

Verse 7. “… sing ye praises with understanding.” Sound doctrine praises God, but from the great attention paid by some to the mere music, we feel sadly sure that the sense has no effect upon them. Is it not a sin to be tickling men's ears with sounds when we profess to be adoring the Lord? What has a sensuous delight in organs, anthems, etc., to do with devotion? Do not men mistake physical effects for spiritual impulses? Do they not often offer to God strains more calculated for human amusement than for divine acceptance? An understanding enlightened of the Holy Spirit is only fully capable of offering worthy praise.

C. H. Spurgeon

Verse 7. “… sing ye praises with understanding.” Let sense and sound go together. Let your hearts and heads go with your voices. Understand what you sing, and sing what you understand.

A. Clarke

Verse 8. “God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness.” God has a throne of holiness, for which He is to be feared by all men. He also has a throne of grace, for which He is to be loved by His redeemed. He also has a throne of glory, for which He is to be praised by His whole creation.

Hits to the Village Preacher

Verse 9. “The princes of the people are gathered together … for the shields of the earth belong unto God …” It is God alone who defends and preserves the world. The sacred writer expressly uses the word “shields” in the plural number, for, considering the various and almost innumerable dangers which unceasingly threaten every part of the world, the providence of God must necessarily interpose in many ways, and make use, as it were, of many shields and bucklers.

John Calvin