Psalm 47 - Our God Reigns
INTRODUCTION:
Interest:
I know I've used this idea before, but since we never seem to tire of the experience I do not believe it is a problem for me to repeat the idea over and over. We love to experience victories. We love two see our sports team win a championship. We love to see our country when a battle. We love to see our children win a competition. We love to conquer a challenging problem that has arisen in a project. Whatever it might be, we love to experience victories. And when we have a victory, we tend to celebrate it. We talk about our victories. And then we talk about them some more. And then we find ways to fit them into conversations so that we can talk about them more even beyond that. We just love to celebrate victories.
Similarly, we love to be in the presence of greatness. If we happen to have an opportunity to be near someone who the world seas as a great person, we will tell the story over and over again.
I’m sure that you have caught me doing such things as part of the stories I tell in sermons. It is natural for us to celebrate victories and to celebrate greatness.
Involvement:
This morning, as we look at another psalm, we are going to see that we have both victory and greatness to celebrate in our God.
Context:
The psalm that we are looking at this morning does provide any information as to a context. It is simply a celebration of our God. A celebration that was turned into a song that was sung by the choirs of Israel as part of worship.
Preview:
As we will see by looking at this Psalm this morning, though, there are reasons given for why we should celebrate our God, reasons that are as applicable today as they were when the psalm was first written.
Our God is a great God. We experience His greatness now in many ways, but we also know that our experience of His greatness will increase when we see Him ourselves. That really is the main idea that we find in this psalm; we are called to Celebrate God’s greatness while yearning for His visible rule.
Celebrate God’s greatness while yearning for His visible rule.
Application
I trust that every week as you have joined together for worship from your homes over the past few weeks, your goal, at least in part, is to celebrate the greatness of God. I trust that prior to this time and once this is past, your goal in worship will still be to celebrate God’s greatness. Celebrating God's greatness is part of true worship. Many of the hymns that we sing are hymns celebrating God's greatness. Scripture after scripture tells us of the greatness of God. Our prayers proclaim his greatness as we come into His presence.
Still, every time our celebration of God's greatness should be coupled with a yearning to see it expressed in its fullest. We know that a day is coming that will far surpass our current day. We yearn for the day when the world will no longer be in rebellion against God. We yearn for the day when the world will not longer be in this broken condition. We yearn for the day when God will be ruling His creation directly in righteousness. We yearn for the day when we will be able to praise Him in His very presence. So, while we celebrate within our worship each week, our worship also causes us to yearn for that to which it points—the day of God’s visible rule.
Transition from introduction to body:
Celebrate God’s greatness while yearning for His visible rule.
Our psalm this morning naturally breaks into two sections as twice we are called to celebrate God's greatness. After our writer calls us to celebrate, he gives us several reasons to do that.
The first section is found in verses 1–5 as we are called to…
BODY:
I. Celebrate God’s greatness
Let’s read these verses…<read Ps 47:1–5>
“Clap your hands.” “Shout to God.” These are expressions of celebration. God is pictured is a victorious King arriving to the loud acclaim of his people. There's a celebration beginning has the people see him arrive. it is a joyful time. This is not a reserved occasion; It is a celebration.
Illustration
Probably the best biblical illustration of this that we are all familiar with would be when our Lord arrived at Jerusalem on the day we know as Palm Sunday. the people thought He was coming as the Messiah to immediately set up His kingdom and they greeted Him accordingly; they greeted Him as their King arriving and celebrated the anticipated victory that they thought would throw off their hated Roman occupation. Of course, they were right that He was the Messiah, but He was not coming to set up His kingdom at that time. Rather, as we well know, He was coming to give His life as a sacrifice for us as sinners. Still, we know how the people greeted Him; how they sing “Hallelujah” and laid coats and branches before Him on the road so He could walk across them.
This is the kind of excited picture that we should have in mind as we read this opening section of this Psalm. The peoples are celebrating God as their King.
One thing to notice in the very first verse is that the invitation to celebrate God's victorious arrival is extended to “all peoples”…plural. This is the most common and broadest Hebrew term used for groups of people and here it is used in the plural. It is the most general term that the psalmist could have used to make the point that he is calling on everyone worldwide to celebrate God’s greatness. All the peoples of the world are called to joyfully celebrate the great King’s arrival.
Application
I would hope that all of us are filled with incredible joy that the invitation to celebrate God's greatness has been extended to all peoples. After all, we are not from the people of Israel, we are of other peoples. But we are still included in the invitation to clap our hands and to shout with our voices, joyfully celebrating that God is a great God.
I trust that one of the reasons you have missed the opportunity to assemble as a church during the past couple of months is because you have been unable to hear each other celebrating how great God is. Even though we are not together this morning, let’s still rejoice that we can celebrate God’s greatness.
Transition:
Our psalmist gives us three reasons in these first 5 verses as to why we should celebrate God's greatness. First,…
A. Because He is the King over the earth
Verse 2 begins with the word “for.” that word tells us that the psalmist is starting to lay out the reasons for the joy being expressed in verse 1. Not only is God pictured in this Psalm as a victorious King, He is proclaimed as being a great King over all the earth.
In 2 Kings 18:19, the king of Assyria was referred to as a “great king.” In the time referenced in 2 Kings 18, the Assyrian Empire controlled a vast portion of the known world; it was the mightiest kingdom on earth. That meant that the king of Assyria was the greatest man on earth at that time. But the title that was given to the Assyrian king is here given to an even greater King, “the Lord Most High.” God himself is the great King and He will rule over all the earth.
God is the great King over all the earth. He is to be “feared.” What does it mean to fear God? The idea of fear in the Bible is that of reverential awe. It is the respect that would bring terror to anyone who opposes Him, but that same respect brings joy and adoration to those who revere Him.
Illustration
At a quite simple level, the various ways this Hebrew idea of “fear” might work out is seen in the difference that we might see in a young child when his father comes home from work and first enters the house. If the child has had a good day and been well behaved, he will have great joy when dad walks through the door. He will run and greet his father with a big hug welcoming him home. If, on the other hand, there has been a problem during the day and mom has said, “I will let dad deal with you when he comes home,” the sound of the garage door going up indicating that dad has arrived will not be a welcome sound. It is likely that the moment the child hears that garage door opening, he will take off for his room to try to hide from dad. In the one case his “fear”—his reverential awe—of dad brings joy, but in the other case the same reverential awe of dad brings terror.
In a much greater sense, God is a King to be feared; He is to be held in reverential awe. Those with the proper relationship to Him have great joy in His presence, but those who do not have a right relationship to Him will find His presence to be terrifying.
Transition:
Celebrate God's greatness, first of all, because He is the King over the earth. This is the point our psalmist makes in verse 2. In verses 3 and 4 we see a second reason to celebrate God's greatness,…
B. Because He subdues the nations
The impression we get from these two verses is that the nation of Israel had apparently been attacked by some foreign enemy. Israel was able to fend off the attack and defeat the nation that attacked them. In what had transpired, the psalmist recognized that Israel’s victory was really due to the fact that God was fighting for them. God was the One who had subdued the other nation. God was the One who had protected their inheritance—the promised land. God had given the land to Israel during the Conquest under Joshua. God, the great God that He is, had the right to bestow the land to whomever He chose; and He had chosen to give it to Israel by subduing any nation that rose against Israel.
Of course, our psalmist also recognizes that this particular victory by God is indicative of all victories that He brings to His people. God can subdue all the nations and He will always be able to subdue any nation that challenges His people. The particular victory points to the universal ability that God has to be victorious at all times and over all people. God is victorious in this way because He is great.
Application
It is important for us to remember this truth. At times we are prone to discouragement when it seems like the various nations of the world are gaining the upper hand, especially nations that are openly in rebellion against God. We must not get discouraged. God is great. He is able to subdue the nations and will do so whenever He chooses.
The second reason to celebrate God's greatness is because he subdues the nations. In verse 5 we're given a third reason to celebrate God’s greatness in this first half of our psalm,…
C. Because He is seated on His heavenly throne
The picture that verse 5 creates is that God had left His throne to fight on behalf of the nation but has now returned to His throne in victory. In other words, God had come down from heaven to earth to wage war for His people, but now He had returned to heaven, greeted with the shouts and trumpet of victory. Certainly, God, being omnipresent, did not actually leave heaven, but our writer is creating that picture because it helps us visualize God as the King who had fought for His people. Similarly, the psalmist was hearing the sounds of celebration on earth in the city of Jerusalem, but he recognized that the same celebration would be echoed in the courts of heaven.
Application
When I read a verse like this it makes me think of Habakkuk 2:20, “But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.” It is so easy to think that things are out of control when we look at the circumstances of our life through our human eyes. Things are certainly not going the way we expected them to be going at the moment. But we need to remember that our circumstances have not changed the reality of God's greatness one bit. God is still seated on His heavenly throne. He is still ruling the universe as its absolute Sovereign, its King. He is able to intervene whenever He chooses. He is able to rule in any way He wishes. He is in absolute, complete control. I need this reminder frequently because whenever I remember this truth the circumstances of life begin to fade in terms of importance. I need my gaze to be reset on God by being reminded that He is seated on his Heavenly throne and for that reason alone, He is great.
Transition:
We are to celebrate God’s greatness, thirdly, because He is seated on His heavenly throne. Three reasons for celebrating God’s greatness: He is King over the earth, He subdues nations, and He is seated on His heavenly throne.
Remember, though, our celebration of God’s greatness is to provoke a yearning in our heart as well. Celebrate God’s greatness while yearning for His visible rule. Celebrate God’s greatness while yearning for His visible rule.
In the second section of our psalm, we are called a second time to…
II. Celebrate God’s greatness
Let’s read the rest of the psalm, picking up in verse 6…<read Psalm 47:6–9>.
The people are encouraged to continue singing praises to the Lord. In verses 6 and 7, five times we are told to “sing praises.” Singing praises to God is the only appropriate response when God's sovereignty is recognized. Still, the repetition of the command to give God this appropriate praise stresses the urgency by which we are to respond to His Lordship over us...<reread v. 6>.
Notice, I said “we are to respond to His Lordship.” Lordship means His right to rule as our Master, the One who governs our lives. Look carefully at verse 6. Do you see where it says “our King” in that verse? The psalmist has personalized the relationship between those who are commanded to sing praises and God. There is a personal relationship that exists. He is our King. He is our Lord. We are to be singing to one with Whom we have a personal relationship. One we are celebrating as great through our songs of praise.
Application
God has created us as people who love to sing. Singing praises is a way we naturally display joy. It is a way we celebrate grand events.
Illustration
There is a reason that we sing happy birthday to celebrate each year of life for those we love. We rejoice that God has granted the year that has just past because we value the person we are singing for. In fact, it seems as if pretty much every culture in the world has a form of happy birthday, or at least all of the countries that I've traveled to have such. I have been part of forms of happy birthday being sung in several languages and to various tunes.
We sing to celebrate. While many of you may not be willing to admit it, I suspect that quite often you break out into song when you are all alone; maybe it’s in the kitchen or maybe when you're driving, or maybe even when you're in the shower.
This is such a common phenomenon that I was given a project back in college to design a shower that would maximize its acoustical element. The challenge was to figure out what shape of a shower stall would be most conducive to singing. I won't bore you with the mathematics, but we basically found that the more the shower became tube-like, the better it was for singing.
We sing praises to celebrate significant events. Acknowledging the greatness of our God is an event worthy of song. That is why songs are such a central part of our worship. We sing praises to celebrate God's greatness.
Transition:
Verse 7 begins again with that little word “for” indicating that we are about to be given additional reasons to celebrate God's greatness. There is fair amount of overlap in the reasons found in these last verses when compared with the first section but there is also some significant progression. The first reason we were given to celebrate God’s greatness is…
A. Because He reigns over the earth
This is a repeat of what we were told in verse two. Repetition, though, is always important. So, the fact that we are told twice that God is the King of all the earth is important. The psalmist is placing an emphasis on the fact that God has universal dominion over the earth. In fact, this truth--the knowledge that God reigns over the earth—is, in part, what is to cause us to sing. We are to sing because God reigns over the earth. We are to sing praises to our great Ruler.
There is one thing I want to note in passing here in verse 7. Notice that we are told in the second line that we are to sing praises with a “skillful psalm.” That word “skillful” indicates that the praise should be well thought out, the song that we sing should be skillfully written.
Application
Without going off on too much of a tangent here, let me just say that this means that we need to think carefully about the songs we sing when we offer praises to God. God does not want empty words of praise. He wants skillfully, thought out words of praise. It's easy to pick on much of the so-called praise and worship music of the past few decades for the shallow lyrics found frequently in those songs. It is true that many of those praise and worship songs are extremely shallow and do not stand up to the test of a skillfully written song; they are not worthy praise for our God. But honestly, we also have a lot of weak music in our own hymn book. I know I've mentioned that Pastor Aaron, Gerry, and I are going through our hymn book and analyzing our songs so that we can be more intentional in what we select for worship. One thing that has surprised me, and I think the same may be true for the other two as well, is how many weak songs we have in our hymnbook. Now fortunately, part of the reason that I can say that I'm surprised is because the majority of the weak songs are in the category of songs we simply never sing from our book. I was not aware they were even there. But we also have found a few songs that we have sung at times which are rather shallow as well. One of the products of much of the early revivalism of the early half of the twentieth century is that it produced quite a few songs that became well-loved through frequent use but are really quite shallow when analyzed for theological depth. When we celebrate our great God, we must do so with songs that are skillfully written so that our minds as well as our hearts are stirred by the wonder of the One to whom we are singing praise.
Transition:
Celebrate God's greatness, first, because he Reigns over the earth. A second reason to celebrate His greatness is…
B. Because He will incorporate the nations
Most of the progression in the psalm is found in the final verse. The first phrase of verse 9 is an exciting phrase, “The princes of the people have assembled themselves as the people of the God of Abraham.” This is pointing to an event that clearly had not occurred at the time this psalm was written. In fact, this event has not occurred to this day. But our psalmist was able to look forward even beyond today and anticipate the moment in which all the leaders and nations would freely submit to God’s sovereignty. And most exciting, he saw that all of these various peoples from all over the earth would be joined as “the people of the God of Abraham”. In other words, he is picturing the time when the Gentile nations will come voluntarily and unite with the Jews, submitting themselves to the reign of God Himself.
Application
This is exciting because we know that we will be part of this great gathering. Living as we do on the post-cross side of history; we know that the way in which God will draw the nations together and form a single people is through the cross work of Jesus Christ. We know that it is through faith in Christ that men and women from all tribes and tongues—all nations that is—will be joined together as one new nation—the Church of Jesus Christ, the people of God.
Let me ask you, are you part of the people of God? Do you know that you will be part of this great assembly that our psalmist is envisioning? The only way is through Jesus Christ. You must place your faith in Jesus for salvation to be part of this great assembly. You cannot acknowledge God as King if you will not submit to His means of coming before Him. God has said that the only one who can enter His presence is the one who is righteous. None of us would meet that condition. But God has also said that He will accept the righteousness of Jesus Christ, His own son, in our place if we trust that Jesus died for us personally. If we give up trying to come to God on our own terms and accept His terms instead, then we will be incorporated with the people of God. This is how we submit to the Great King. If you would like to know more about how to have salvation through Jesus, please send me an email through the contact information you can find on our church website.
Transition:
Celebrate God's greatness, secondly, because He will incorporate the nations. The third reason we are given to celebrate is…
C. Because He will reign over everyone and everything
The psalm makes this point in the final two lines. The phrase, “the shields of the earth” is a way of picturing that everyone and everything belong to God. Shields visually represent the most powerful warriors of the earth. If these, the most powerful that the world has to offer, belong to God, then so does everyone else. God reigns over all.
Similarly, the final phrase affirms that God is over everyone and everything. All of creation is moving to the point in which God is highly exalted. History will end with God being highly exalted.
Application
Again, we can see the fulfillment of Gods dominion coming even more clearly than our psalmist because we know that it comes through Jesus Christ. Every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Even though this is still future, every spiritual victory and every turn of events that magnify Christ that we see now should cause us to yearn more for the final victory to arrive. Every minor victory and every major victory from our perspective that we see God claim for Himself now should cause us to proclaim that our God is great. It should cause us to celebrate His greatness. It should cause us to rejoice that He will reign over everyone and everything.
Transition from body to conclusion:
We celebrate God's greatness because He will reign over everyone and everything. Celebrate God's greatness. That's our responsibility. Three reasons: 1) because He reigns over the earth, 2) because He will incorporate the nations, and 3) because He will reign over everyone and everything.
Celebrate God’s greatness while yearning for His visible rule.
CONCLUSION
Celebrate God’s greatness while yearning for His visible rule.
We celebrate when our team wins a victory. We celebrate whenever we have an opportunity to be near someone who is thought of as great. This morning we've been reminded that our God is the ultimate Victor. Our God is the ultimate in greatness. And our God is our God because we have a relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus Christ. This is why we rejoice along with our psalmist this morning. That is why we also yearn along with our psalmist for the culmination to which each victory points, the final visible rule by our great God.
Celebrate God’s greatness while yearning for His visible rule.