1 > Oh clap your hands, all you nations. Shout to God with the voice of triumph!
2 For Yahweh Most High is awesome. He is a great King over all the earth.
3 He subdues nations under us, And peoples under our feet.
4 He chooses our inheritance for us, The glory of Jacob whom he loved. Selah.
5 God has gone up with a shout, Yahweh with the sound of a trumpet.
6 Sing praise to God, sing praises. Sing praises to our King, sing praises.
7 For God is the King of all the earth. Sing praises with understanding.
8 God reigns over the nations. God sits on his holy throne.
9 The princes of the peoples are gathered together, The people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God. He is greatly exalted!
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Commentary on Psalms 47 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
PSALM 47
Ps 47:1-9. Praise is given to God for victory, perhaps that recorded (2Ch 20:20-30); and His dominions over all people, Jews and Gentiles, is asserted.
1. clap … hands … people—literally, "peoples," or "nations" (compare De 32:43; Ps 18:49; 98:9).
2, 3. His universal sovereignty now exists, and will be made known.
3. under us—that is, His saints; Israel's temporal victories were types of the spiritual conquests of the true Church.
4. He shall … inheritance—the heathen to be possessed by His Church (Ps 2:8), as Canaan by the Jews.
excellency of Jacob—literally, "pride," or, that in which he glories (not necessarily, though often, in a bad sense), the privileges of the chosen people—
whom he loved—His love being the sole cause of granting them.
5-7. God, victorious over His enemies, reascends to heaven, amid the triumphant praises of His people, who celebrate His sovereign dominion. This sovereignty is what the Psalm teaches; hence he adds,
sing … praises with understanding—literally, "sing and play an instructive (Psalm)." The whole typifies Christ's ascension (compare Ps 68:18).
8, 9. The instruction continued.
throne of … holiness—or, "holy throne" (see on Ps 2:6; Ps 23:4).
9. princes—who represent peoples. For—
even—supply, "as," or, "to"—that is, they all become united under covenant with Abraham's God.
shields—as in Ho 4:18, "rulers" [Margin].