Psalm 47 “A Messianic Psalm”
Introduction:
The great central theme of the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation is the Messiah our Lord Jesus, the Living and Eternal Word of God Himself (John 1:1-2) (1 John 1:1-2) (Revelation 19:13). The psalms themselves in many places not only reveal Him as the suffering servant but also as the all-conquering King of Israel who will one day rule the nations of the world after He has returned to this planet having destroyed all opposition to the Kingdom of God. In fact the whole Bible itself is a prophetic book. Psalm 47 is a prophetic Messianic Psalm that speaks about what will happen when the Messiah King our Lord Jesus rules over the nations of the world from the Millennial Temple located on the original geographical sight of Mt Zion. Let’s now look at this Psalm.
Exposition:
(Vs.1) “Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy.
It is hard to imagine in this age what the next age under the reign of the Messiah our Lord Jesus will be like when we see in this present age all of the terrible things occurring around the world in most of the nations. We see the whole world engulfed by wars, disease, famine, and poverty, displaced multitudes in nations racked with ethnic conflict and corrupt governments. We see immorality, sodomy, injustice, unrighteousness, violence, wickedness out of control, people’s imaginations constantly set on evil all of the time. We see leaders of nations not really knowing the way out of the rising friction between them. We see legislation being passed that is moving towards a totalitarian dictatorship over the masses through Artificial Intelligence. We also see the great apostasy gaining momentum globally. Most of all we see no regard for God or for the Salvation He has provided in the Messiah our Lord Jesus.
It is a world on a collision course with the bowls of God’s wrath that will be poured out on a Messiah hating, Messiah rejecting world at the very end of this present age. The prophet Joel describes it in this way when he writes that the vine is dried up, referring to a spiritually bankrupt Christendom that on the whole has no capacity to bear spiritual fruit for the Kingdom of God. He mentions the fig tree is withered referring to the spiritual condition of the nation of Israel which as a nation by and large are still aliens and strangers to their own covenants of promise and still looking to the Egypt of this world for their security instead of looking to the LORD. He speaks about all of the trees of the field, being the nations that they are spiritually dry and that real and genuine joy is absent (Joel 1:12).
Now in the Messianic kingdom to come the nations that have survived the judgements of God will bring forth a generation of people that will experience the reign of the Messiah. Multitudes annually will go up to Jerusalem to worship the Messiah in the Temple on Mt Zion to be taught His ways and how to walk in His paths. The Torah will be going forth into the nations. Disputes will be solved globally. The nations will beat their instruments of war into productive farming tools that will produce an abundant harvest of nutritious food for all of the people of the world eliminating poverty, famine, starvation and disease. Nations will no longer fight with each other or train soldiers to fight their battles with each other. The nations in these days will walk in the light of the LORD and of His Messiah (Isaiah 2:1-5). People will clap their hands with delight shouting to God with great joy for the glorious and marvellous conditions the Messiah has established on earth. Of course all of the redeemed saints from the previous age will also be clapping their hands and shouting out with cries or joy because of the salvation they have received through the cross and because the desires and longings of their hearts in the previous age have been fully realised and fulfilled in this new age and even beyond anything they could have ever imagined. This will be the reward of all those who have been redeemed by the blood of the Messiah and that had received by faith the atonement made on their behalf by faith in the Messiah our Lord Jesus in the previous age. Indeed as it is written of the redeemed; “And the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (Isaiah 51:11).
Added to this, the redeemed Israel of God, the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, along with these patriarchs will be co-reigning with the Messiah over the nations as they constantly sing the new song of their eternal redemption (Revelation 5:9-10). These cries of joy will resound across the globe under the reign of the Messiah our Lord Jesus. As it is also written of Him; “The sceptre (of the King to come) will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his (Judah’s) feet, until He (the Messiah) to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his” (Genesis 49:9-10). And then we read…
(Vs.2) “How awesome is the Lord Most High, the great King over all the earth!
The Lord Most High we are told is awesome and the original Hebrew language describes one who is to be feared or reverenced, one to stand in awe of and one to be respected and honoured. He is one who causes astonishment, who inspires and who terrifies and frightens. The whole world in fact and everything in it belongs to Him. As it is written; “The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it” (Psalm 24:1). As the Eternal Triune God who is king and creator of the universe He is to be held in the highest honour and worshipped in the beauty of His Holiness. His kingship will be clearly perceived and honoured in the Messiah the King of Israel. Our Messiah the Lord Jesus, being the visible image of the invisible God, the second person within the Tri-Unity of God in whom all of the fullness of God dwells in bodily form, will be king over the whole earth and His law the only law. His power will, be awesome as the reigning King of all Kings and as the Lord of all Lords! And then we read…
(Vs.3) “He subdued nations under us, peoples under our feet.”
Right now in this present age we have seen Israel as a nation time and time again suffering terribly at the hands of godless nations. Israel’s history has for the most part has seen the Jewish people suffer terribly. The curse for disobedience to God as set forth in the Law has been at work over the centuries because of Israel’s rejection of God’s laws and commandments and ultimately because of their rejection of the Messiah. However, at the cross the blood of the Lamb of God the Messiah broke the power of this curse and when any Jewish man, woman or child repents and receives the Messiah as their personal saviour and Lord, and as their perfect Passover Lamb who was sacrificed for their sins, the curse described in the Law is broken in and over their life. The Messiah Himself was made that curse (Galatians 3:13).
While Israel as a nation is yet to pass through the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, a dire situation that God has allowed because of their present rejection of the Messiah King, a remnant will come forth who will be reconciled with the Messiah as Joseph was reconciled with his wayward brothers who betrayed him (Zechariah 13:8-9) (Genesis 50:15-21). This remnant will see Him and we are told in the prophet Zechariah that in that day when the King of Israel returns to claim His rightful throne that God will pour out upon them the Spirit of His unmerited favour without restraint causing them to respond to their long lost Messiah and brother in the flesh with ardent affection and prayers of homage to their rightful king.
They will look upon Him whom they have pierced with their sins and will mourn for Him as one mourns for and only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son and on that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be great. Every clan or tribe will wail and lament with tears of repentance mixed with an inexpressible joy full of the glory and praises of God. In that day every Jew living on earth will be washed clean by that fountain of the Messiah’s atoning and cleansing blood opened for them at the cross (Zechariah 12:10-13:1). In that day all Israel will be saved and they will become the head and not the tail as they co-reign with the Messiah as a nation ruling over the nations of the earth (Romans 11:25-29).
As it is written also in the prophet Zechariah; ““Thus says the Lord of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, even the inhabitants of many cities. The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the favour of the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts; I myself am going.’ Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favour of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you’” (Zechariah 8:20-23). Now let’s continue…
(Vs.4) “He chose our inheritance for us, the pride of Jacob, whom He loved. Selah.”
God chose Israel to be His special people, set apart to Him as their one and only God. He wanted to have a nation free from idolatry, a nation He could be proud of that revered Him as the One and Only true God as the creator of the entire universe. He started with Abraham a moon-worshipper, who, after having encountered God, became a true worshipper of the One who had created the moon. God also gave Abraham an inheritance in that through one of his descendants the Saviour of the World would come. Abraham would have physical and spiritual descendants as numerous as the stars in the heavens and as the sand on the sea shore (Genesis 26:4). These would be Jews and Gentiles who would come to salvation as one people through the redeeming work of the Messiah our Lord Jesus, one flock under one shepherd, one new man in the Messiah (John 1016) (Ephesians 2:14-16). This inheritance also included the Land of Israel that was to be for Abraham’s descendants through Isaac and Jacob’s lineage being the Jewish people, “an everlasting possession” (Genesis 17:7-8). As for Jerusalem it has been the eternal capital of Israel since the time of King David around 3,000 years ago and ratified as such by God Himself (2 Samuel 5:9-10). In the Messianic kingdom Jerusalem will be the capital of the whole world with the King of Israel sitting on throne in the millennial temple on the original site of Mt Zion.
As Isaiah the prophet writes; “The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain (kingdom) of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains (kingdoms), and shall be lifted up above the hills (all rulers and kings); and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us His ways and that we may walk in His paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law (the Torah) and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:1-3). And then we read…
(Vs.5)”God has ascended amid shouts of joy, the Lord amid the sounding of trumpets.”
When the Messiah our Lord Jesus, having provided redemption for Israel and for the whole world, ascended to heaven the trumpets of joy and triumph resounded throughout the whole universe and spread in and through the entire unseen spiritual realm in the heavens, and on the earth and under the earth. It was the procession of a victory which would last for all of eternity. He brought with Him out of the compartment known as paradise in Sheol all of the saints who had physically died before He went to the cross. Added to this, He poured out gifts upon men, upon those whom He had ordained to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, whom He would use to equip His people on earth for the work of ministry and to enable them to grow spiritually as His redeemed Body (Ephesians 2:7-13). Heaven itself in eternity where the past, the present and the future do not exist, is full of the praise and worship of the myriad of heavenly beings and angels, and of all the redeemed saints of God being the spirits of Just men and women made perfect (Revelation Chapters 4 & 5) (Hebrews 12:22-24).
(Vs.6-9) “Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises.” For God is the King of all the earth; sing to Him a psalm of praise. God reigns over the nations; God is seated on his holy throne. “The nobles of the nations assemble as the people of the God of Abraham, for the kings of the earth belong to God; he is greatly exalted.”
Heaven is filled with unending praise and in the Messianic kingdom this will be a continuous mark of the nations that come up every year to worship the Messiah King in His Millennial temple on the original site of Mt Zion in Jerusalem. The praises that are being given in heaven will also be seen on earth in the Messianic Kingdom of God on earth. In that day God the Son will be the king of Israel and the ruler of the whole earth and even psalms and hymns and spiritual songs will be constantly being composed in His honour. There will singers, musicians, composers and instruments of every kind as there was in the Temple Worship in the previous age.
As it is written in the psalms; “Mighty is Your arm; strong is Your hand. Your right hand is exalted. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; loving devotion and faithfulness go before You. Blessed are those who know the joyful sound, who walk, O LORD, in the light of Your presence” (Psalm 89:13-14).
God’s right hand mentioned throughout the scriptures is His eternal Son who now sits at the right Hand of His Father where He ever lives to intercede for us as His blood redeemed saints. He who as God the Son, from all of eternity dwelt in God as God, and equal with God, and the one who appeared in human form before His incarnation as a flesh and blood human being, who was fully man and fully God in the one body. God had prepared a body for Him to dwell in from all of eternity (Hebrews 10:5). The Messiah and King of Israel our Lord and Saviour is the Living and eternal God who proceeded out from, and came forth from God (John 8:42 NASB); the one who became flesh and tabernacled among us (John 1:14).
Those leaders who have survived the judgements of God in the previous age and those who are born in the Millennium who become leaders of nations will assemble annually at Jerusalem to receive instructions from the Messiah concerning how to administer Righteousness and justice and to celebrate the Feasts of Tabernacles. The peoples of the earth will have to celebrate this festival at Jerusalem and if they don’t then there will be penalties imposed by Messianic Law (Zechariah 14:16-19). There will be sacrifices offered in the Millennial Temple, not to atone for sin, but as memorials to the King Messiah on the throne whose pure and undefiled blood as the Passover Lamb provided an eternal redemption now heralded throughout the entire universe. His is the everlasting covenant sealed forever in the New Covenant of His blood shed for us at the cross.
Epilogue:
In the Millennial Messianic kingdom of God the very foundation of the King Messiah’s throne will be Righteousness and justice for all on earth. It is almost beyond ones comprehension or imagination to see what things will be like for us in the Messianic Kingdom as the redeemed saints of God, spiritually grafted into the Olive Tree being restored Israel. Trips to Israel will be common place and it will be a sheer and pure delight beyond human comprehension to live in our immortal, indestructible, glorified bodies in a world where every need and desire will be fully met and where peace, justice, and righteousness will reign supreme for a thousand years of peace under our chief Shepherd King and Messiah as one flock under one shepherd in the Kingdom of God as the redeemed Israel of God, seated with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and with all of the saints of the previous age. There is a heavenly banquet coming which will happen in the Messianic Kingdom on earth overseen by the Messiah Himself with myriads of angels waiting on us at this awesome table of the Lord. The Lord Jesus Himself said in Matthew’s gospel; “I say to you that many will come from the east and the west to share the banquet with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 8:11).
Luke also writes what Jesus said and refers to the Kingdom of God which is a heavenly kingdom that will be fully revealed on earth during the Messianic age. Luke writes; People will come from east and west and north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God” (Luke 13:29). This is our glorious future hope in the Messiah King of Israel as His blood redeemed people and of all who have loved His appearing on earth to save us from the power and penalty of our sins, and who gave Himself up to pay the penalty for our sins, and to ultimately deliver us out of this present evil age according to the will of God our Father in Heaven (Galatians 1:4).
