And for our New Testament reading, please turn to the gospel according to Luke chapter 24. And the reading will be verses 36 through 53. Luke 24, verses 36 through 53. Listen to this. This is the very word of God. As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, peace to you. But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, why are you troubled and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see. For spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, have you anything here to eat? They gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and ate it before them.
Then he said to them, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and said to them, thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer, and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.
And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple, blessing God.
And then for our Old Testament reading and the text for this evening’s message, please turn to Psalm 47, which we have lately sung. Psalm 47. To the choir master, a psalm of the sons of Korah. Clap your hands, all peoples. Shout to God with loud songs of joy. For the Lord, the most high, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth. He subdued peoples under us and nations under our feet. He chose our heritage for us, the pride of Jacob, whom he loves. He has gone up, God has gone up with a shout, the Lord, with the sound of a trumpet.
Sing praises to God. Sing praises. Sing praises to our King. Sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth. Sing praises with a psalm. God reigns over the nations. God sits on his holy throne. The princes of the peoples gather as the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God. He is highly exalted. That is the reading of God’s word.
Let’s pray for his blessing upon it now. Heavenly Father, as we come to consider this great psalm, this evangelistic psalm, we pray that we would hear the gospel afresh and that you would apply it afresh to us. We pray that Christ would be exalted before the eyes of our faith and here in our very midst. We pray that your spirit would be at work And we pray that you would receive all the glory for it and you’d build us up in our most holy faith through these means of grace. We pray it in Jesus name. Amen.
It was in First Kings chapter one, which we considered together some months ago, that Solomon was anointed King of Israel. which was a very noteworthy occasion, not only because the throne had been transferred from David, the great king, to his son Solomon, but also that over on the sidelines, another one who had presumed to be king had presumed to have himself anointed.
And there had been a little party, a little gathering, a little celebration where Adonijah, the brother of Solomon, had been supposedly anointed king. But as that little party was winding up, everybody heard a noise. And the noise was the great celebration taking place in Jerusalem, because Solomon had been anointed king.
And in that passage, we’re told that there was a blast of a trumpet. There were shouts of long live King Solomon. And there was music and much celebration, playing of instruments and rejoicing. And in that chapter, the first chapter of 1 Kings, verse 40 says that the sound of the rejoicing and of the celebration was so great that, quote, the earth was split by their noise, as it’s put in the English Standard Version. So you have this loud, exuberant celebration of the installation of a new king.
And the Lordship of Jesus Christ is worthy of just such a celebration, and that’s what Psalm 47 is about. A noisy, exuberant, loud celebration of the Lord Jesus Christ and his kingship. It’s a short psalm, but it teaches us that all mankind is summoned to the exuberant worship of our victorious and ascended King, the Lord Jesus Christ. Because this psalm is ultimately about him.
There are, in a number of these psalms, especially in book two of the Psalter, it’s difficult to, with any certainty, pin down what historical event may have been the catalyst for the original composition. And that’s, to some extent, equally so with this. However, there is an event that very closely corresponds to some of the wording of Psalm 47, and that’s when the Ark of the Covenant, under David, as he was ruling over Israel, when it was brought up into Jerusalem, into the city of David, as the text says, and it was placed in this tent that David had pitched for it. And some of the very same words we see in Psalm 47 are found in that passage, and we’ll touch on that in a moment here.
But the message of this psalm is that not just Israelites, not just Jews, not just the people of Judah, but all mankind is summoned to the exuberant worship of our victorious and ascended King, the Lord Jesus Christ. There are three themes that resound in this psalm.
The first is a global call to worship. The three themes will be our three points tonight. So the first is a global call to worship. Secondly, a King who rules all nations. And finally, an international community of faith. So first of all, there’s a global call to worship in this psalm. It’s not local, it’s not national, it’s global. The text begins with these words of exhortation, clap your hands, all peoples.
And the clapping of hands for us naturally sometimes, but in scripture as well, can be, and often is, sort of an emotive outburst when some emotion or other overtakes us. Sometimes the natural reaction is to clap our hands. In this context, that emotive outburst is an outburst of joy. It’s not always that. We’ll touch on that in a moment as well.
But here, it’s a joyful clapping of hands to which all peoples are called. And in the second half of verse one, it says, shout to God with loud songs of joy. So we know joy is in view here. Joy is the context of that clapping of hands. And all people, not just some, not just certain nationalities, not just Jews, all peoples are called to worship loudly, to worship joyfully. And then if we jump ahead to verses six and seven, we see this directive to sing praises. And in a way, that could be the central theme of this psalm. Sing praises to God.
I had a friend, a fellow chaplain, some years ago, and he and some colleagues had spent some extensive time studying the Psalms. And after reading through them multiple times together and really meditating on them deeply, they came up with, among other things, this list of what they called nicknames for all the Psalms, just sort of a few words or a one-sentence summary of each of the Psalms throughout the whole Psalter. The nickname that I think he gave Psalm 47 was the Great King. If I had to come up with a nickname on my own for this psalm, maybe it’s a little bit too generic and could apply just as easily to some other psalms. But my nickname for this one would be, sing praises to God, because that admonition occurs five times, just within a verse and a half, we’re told five times, sing praises, sing praises.
And those five occurrences of it, take place in rapid succession. And in fact, in Hebrew, it’s not two words, it’s one. And so that makes that rapidity of the exhortation even much more accentuated. And the imperative force that we find in Psalm 47 is right here.
Sing praises to God. It’s something we’re all called to do. It’s something people of faith do. which made me think of Abraham, who’s called the man of faith. And I can’t help but wonder if maybe Abraham was the kind of man who, as he just went about, was singing praises to God. But we’re called to do that.
Note, as you just glance over the Psalm in your Bibles, the prolific use of the words peoples, nations, and the earth, or in several cases, all the earth. Those terms are used over and over. So what it teaches us, what that makes so clear, is this Psalm, this call to worship, is not intended for a narrow audience. It’s not aimed at a small focus group. It’s for all the peoples. It’s a global call to worship.
The structure of this psalm is such that verses one through four are parallel in several respects to verses six through nine. And in that second section, six through nine, the nations are incorporated even more clearly, even more conclusively into the people that are being called to worship God. In verse 1, and then again in verse 6, you have a calling of the nations to worship the one true God. And these invitations in verse 1, clap your hands, all people, shout to God with loud songs of joy. And then the beginning of that five-fold admonition, exhortation to sing praises to God.
These are invitations to worship. And they’re joyful, but they’re also solemn. And in addition to all that, they’re mandatory. This isn’t just an invitation that God wants an RSVP to let me know if he can’t make it. No, we’re all called and commanded to worship our God. It’s mandatory. It’s mandatory for all the people of the earth, which got me to thinking about the fact that anytime a local congregation of the people of the Lord Jesus Christ meet, and a minister or an elder or someone stands up before the congregation and proclaims, makes the call to worship, that call to worship extends beyond the doors of wherever you’re meeting.
It’s not just for the people that are present. It’s a call that is actually intended for everyone out there as well. They might not be able to hear it, but the call is for them. It’s for all people. Maybe we can incorporate that into our evangelism. Did you know, my friend, that you’re obligated to worship the true and living God? He commands it. Just a thought there.
Then when you have verse 2, which is parallel to verses 7 and 8, you have the heralding of the king of the nations, a king who is not just a local king, not just the king of one people or nation, but he’s king of all the nations of the earth. And then verses 3 and 4 are parallel to verse nine, and they celebrate the chosen people of God. They celebrate what God has done for his people. And this psalm culminates in verse nine there.
Look at it with me again. The princes of the people, the princes of the peoples gather as the people of the God of Abraham, for the shields of the earth belong to God. He is highly exalted. So here you see all the nations united in holy convocation. All the nations of the earth doing what we seek to do here in this place every Lord’s Day. All the nations gathered in worship to God. Hold your place there in the Psalms and turn with me to the prophecy of Isaiah.
Or no, excuse me. We’re still in the Psalms. Hold your place at Psalm 47. But flip over to Psalm 61. Because this idea of a call to the nations of the world to worship God isn’t unique to Psalm 47. Look with me at Psalm 66. Verse one, shout for joy to God, all the earth. Or flip ahead to Psalm 98, verse four. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Break forth into joyous song and sing praises. And then one of the best known, of course, just two Psalms afterwards, Psalm 100. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. or as we often sing it in our metrical psalms, all people that on earth do dwell, sing to the Lord with cheerful voice.
See, this is a message and a command for all the peoples. It’s a universal thing. And how does the Psalter come to a close? Psalm 150, verse six, the very last verse in the entire Psalter says, let everything that has breath praise the Lord. So you see the universality, the global nature of the scripture’s call to worship. The psalmist in this psalm here summons everyone to praise God along with him. So the worship of the triune God, the true and living God, is an obligation laid upon every man, woman, and child. That’s our global call to worship.
But then we have, in this psalm, a king who rules all nations. Verse two explains why we should praise the Lord. And the reason is, The Lord Most High, Yahweh El Elyon, is to be feared. He’s a great king over all the earth. We’re also told in this psalm that the Lord God, God Most High, is a conquering king. Look at verse three.
He subdued peoples under us and nations under our feet. Now, clearly, that could be historical reference. We can take it as a historical reference to the conquest of Canaan, when God brought the people into the land that he had promised to their fathers, gave them victory over the nations within that land, and they were able to drive them out. And then that reference to subduing peoples under us and nations under our feet, that idea of nations being subdued under our feet has to do with something that’s rather violent. But in Joshua 10, 24, one of the earliest victories that Israel had over the former inhabitants of the land, Joshua, had the people bring the kings of these territories and these cities that they had just conquered.
And he made them lie down on the ground. And he called the elders of the people and said, come, put your feet on the necks of these kings. That apparently was a normal practice. After a battle, if a city or a nation was conquered, their king could be brought out and the victors would place their feet on the neck of the vanquished and conquered king. And you might wonder, well, what did they do?
Did they did they just step on his neck and kill him that way? In some cases, I’m sure that happened. But even if it didn’t, the point was, you are now completely subject to me. If you do anything to displease me, all I have to do is put some weight on that neck of yours and you will die, I’ll kill you.
This is a way of showing complete victory. That’s what Joshua had the elders of Israel do to the kings that they’d conquered. And that’s what God has done for his people. And for us, that of course, there’s a spiritual application of that, not a literal physical one. But hear what the Psalm says. He subdued peoples under us and nations under our feet. How does it really apply? How does it most directly and fully apply to Christians? Well, the New Testament teaches us that the Lord will crush Satan under our feet.
Jesus Christ was the dragon fighter. He was the one who was to be raised up, the seed of the woman who was going to crush the head of the serpent. But we participate in that crushing of the head of the serpent. which is why the apostles could say, the Lord will soon crush Satan under your feet because he gives us the victory through Christ. And so verse three speaks of that.
It looks ahead to the conquering of Satan. It looks ahead to the victory of Christ over sin and over the devil. So, this king who rules all the nations is to be feared. He’s a conquering king. Verse 5 shows us that he’s an ascended king. Verse 5, God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
And that’s where the similarities to David and the ark come in in 2 Samuel 6, verse 15. 2 Samuel 6, 15. Remember, the ark had been elsewhere. David wanted to bring it in to the city of Jerusalem, to the city of David. He had pitched a special tent for it, and they brought it in, and there’s tremendous celebration, joyful, noisy celebration. And verse 15 of 2 Samuel 6 says, so that David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn. just as we see here in Psalm 47.
So you see that close parallel, that close similarity, but there’s a much, much greater ascension in view prophetically and as a sort of a type and shadow, and that’s the ascension of Christ into heaven. We read about it, we profess our belief in it every time we say the creed, Third day, he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven. That’s very important. It’s very theologically important. It’s important for our faith. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 1.
And follow along as I read, starting in verse 20. speaking about the his great power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named not only in this age but in the one to come and he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church which is his body the fullness of Him who fills all in all. So our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, our great King, is risen and He has ascended. He has gone up with a shout, with the sound of a trumpet, victory over sin and death.
And this king who rules all the nations is a universal king, as we’ve seen already several times. Verse 7 and 8 says, For God is the king of all the earth. We’re back in Psalm 47 now, verse 7. For God is the king of all the earth. Sing praises with a psalm. God reigns over the nations. God sits on his holy throne.
You’re probably aware that ancient concepts of deity assumed that gods were territorial. So if you invaded a country, you invaded a nation or a city, their god might defend them, but their god doesn’t have any power outside the walls of their city or beyond the borders of their land. That was the ancient superstitious concept. You even see it in the book of Kings, where some of Israel’s enemies thought, well, their gods are the gods of the hills, and that’s why we couldn’t fight them.
But if we fight them on the plain, we’ve got them. And they’ve discovered to their chagrin and to their defeat that the Lord God is God both of the hills and of the valleys and the plains. And that’s what this psalm teaches us as well. The Lord God, Yahweh, is king of all the earth. He reigns over all the nations. We don’t necessarily see it right now, but he providentially governs even unbelievers. He providentially works out his purposes, even among those who oppose him, even among those who hate him.
And so in verse nine, at the end of the verse where it says, for the shields of the earth belong to God, that term shields What does that mean? It’s a reference to leadership. It’s a reference to magistrates. The metaphor there of the shield refers to those people who are entrusted with the responsibility to defend a city or a nation. And this psalm tells us that they all belong to the Lord, the shields of the earth. belong to him, the princes of the peoples. It’s parallel to that in the beginning of verse nine.
And before we move on to the final point, it’s important that we notice that this idea that God has gone up has an important implication. And that implication is that he first came down. He came down to fight and win a battle. And he went up victoriously after winning in that battle. And our Lord Jesus Christ, as this applies to him, sat down at the right hand of God. He sits, as it says in verse eight, he sits on his holy throne. That’s what Christ did for us, isn’t it?
He came down. He came down to earth from heaven. He became man. And as a man, ministering on earth, waged war against Satan and defeated him in a mighty victory. Then he ascended into heaven. And now he’s seated at the right hand of the Father as a king who rules all nations.
Well, then finally, our third point is this psalm speaks so clearly and in several different ways, of an international community of faith. It’s previewed in verse one, where all peoples are commanded to worship. It comes through strongly again in verse four. Verse four, he chose our heritage for us, the pride of Jacob, whom he loves.
Now, the word that’s translated heritage there in our ESV Bibles, the meaning of that word is more like an inheritance. And as soon as you hear that word inheritance, it should bring to mind this rich New Testament gospel concept of our inheritance from God through Jesus Christ.
Israel’s inheritance was that land that had been promised to their fathers. But that land, the land of Canaan that God did give to them, that he did bring them into was a shadow. It was a type of the new covenant and of the inheritance of God’s people in Christ Jesus. And our inheritance in Christ Jesus is not a land out of which we can ever be driven. It’s an inheritance that’s imperishable. It’s an inheritance that’s unfading.
And it’s for Jew and Gentile alike. because God, through Christ and his gospel, is forming an international community of faith. That’s what verse nine is all about. The princes of the peoples gather together as the people of the God of Abraham. That speaks of God being honored by all the nations of the world. It speaks of the fact that Gentiles, such as you and I are, are being called into the church of Jesus Christ. That’s what it means when it says they’re gathered as the people of the God of Abraham. This was foretold throughout the Old Testament. It’s a little bit perplexing when even after the Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost, it came as such a shock. more than once to the Jewish Christians that God is saving the Gentiles too.
I can’t believe it. But look with me at Isaiah chapter 19. You know, what I find to be one of the most heartwarming references to God drawing not just Israel, but all the nations to himself and making them into a people for his name and to serve and glorify him. Isaiah 19, verses 23 through 25. This is speaking eschatologically. This is speaking of the gospel era.
In that day, there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. In that day, Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, Blessed be Egypt, my people, and Assyria, the work of my hands, and Israel, my inheritance. God’s claiming them all. Not just one people, but all the nations.
Flip ahead to Isaiah 60, verse three. Speaking of the Messiah, speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ, Isaiah 60, verse 3, nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising. So, it’s not as if the God drawing the nations to himself through his Messiah was some novel idea or some obscure truth buried somewhere in Scripture. It’s on display. Praise God that it is.
This is all a fulfillment of the promise that God spoke to Abraham in Genesis 12, 3. In you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Or as it says in Galatians 3, 7-9, Paul writes, Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, In you shall all the nations be blessed. So then, those who are of faith are blessed, along with Abraham, the man of faith.
And so as one commentator put it, Psalm 47 depicts one God, one king, one people. Christopher Ashe describes this psalm as, quote, passionately evangelistic. It calls the whole earth to worship and serve the one true God. And that one true God will welcome anyone who comes to Him in faith.
And so, as I suggested earlier, this can be used in our evangelism. If we learned anything yesterday at West Coast Witness, we learned that there’s a There are a lot of different approaches you can take, a lot of different ways you can engage in conversation, a lot of different ways you can seek to generate gospel conversation and to proclaim Christ to people. But here’s one that maybe we don’t think of as often as we could.
People need to know. People need to know that they are warmly invited, joyfully encouraged, but also solemnly commanded to sing praises to God. If they’re sons of Adam or daughters of Eve, they are obligated to praise the God of the universe. He is to be feared. He is the King, and He will have our allegiance. He demands our fealty.
Quoting Christopher Ashe again, he said, thinking about those countries that are closed, those countries that say, you may not preach Christ in this land. And we know some of them. Ash makes this comment, Christ needs no permission from a repressive government. He needs no permission from a repressive government. No power can make a country truly a closed country to the reign of Christ. Consider what this means for missionary boldness. Close quote. Consider what that means regarding our prayers for missionaries in closed countries. I love the fact that the gospel is spreading in closed countries.
God requires the nations of the earth and their princes to serve him. Leaders of the nations are responsible to Yahweh to direct their people to worship him. And it will be a terrible day of reckoning, won’t it, when the Lord Jesus Christ comes to judge the living and the dead, and the shields of the earth will answer to him for persecuting his church. King Jesus reigns over all the earth, and all the people therefore must submit to his lordship.”
Brothers and sisters, as that statement attributed to John Calvin, we are not our own. We are not autonomous. Rather, we belong to God and we owe him our love, our allegiance, and our worship. So in closing, I just direct your glance to verse one, one last time. Clap your hands, all peoples.
That emotive outburst sometimes expressed in the clapping of hands, but not always a joyful emotive outburst. It’s used in the context of joy in the Old Testament. It’s used in the context of mourning, several times in the prophecy of Ezekiel, for instance, where the clapping of hands can be an expression of dismay. or anger. But it’s used in the context of joy, with reference to the created order, several times in the Old Testament. We read about in Isaiah 55, all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Or in Psalm 98, it speaks of the rivers clapping their hands.
And if even the inanimate world owes praise to God, and is summoned to rejoice in Him. How much more are we, the pinnacle of His creation, men and women and children made in the image of God, how much more are we obligated to render worship to Him, to sing His praises?
Our duty is clear, brothers and sisters, and it’s that we’re summoned to exuberant worship of our victorious and ascended King, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s pray. Father, how we thank you that you have called us to worship you. We thank you for the grace of your Holy Spirit to respond to that call. Lord, may we daily, exuberantly worship you. May we joyfully walk with you and heed this call to sing your praises. And may we invite many others to do as well. Lord, help us to give us grace unto these ends throughout this week to come. And we pray all this in Christ’s name, the name of our great King. Amen.