Psalm 47

Psalm 46, 47 & 48 are all tied together.  They are Psalms of celebration.  It just so happens that these Psalms are celebrating God's deliverance and victory over a common enemy.  The enemy was most likely from 2 Kings chapters 18 and 19, the Assyrians. Sennacherib the king of the Assyrians began making his way up to Jerusalem conquering every city he passed a long the way with brutal attacks. Hezekiah the king of Israel was filled with fear and worry for what could happen to the Israelites. The prophet Isaiah came to his side to comfort him with the Words of the Lord. Isaiah gives a prophecy to Hezekiah telling him what God was going to do with the Assyrians who are mounting up and attack.  As usual God comes through as He always does and the people of Israel are amazed at what God just delivered them from.  What seemed to be the impossible, immanent brutal death, God delivered them. God is faithful and always does what He promises He will do.  One of my favorite versus in this story is found in 2 King 19:35.  In the middle of the night the angel of the Lord went out and killed 185,000 Assyrians!  ONE ANGEL IN GOD'S ARMY OF ANGELS KILLED 185,000 MEN!  Wow!  We worship the God of Angel Armies. What seemed SO HUGE!  So insurmountable for Hezekiah and the people of Israel was so small to God that He only had to send one angel... So in Psalm's 46-48 many believe Hezekiah is writing these Psalms based on this story.

Verse 1 commands us to, "Clap your hands all peoples!  Shout to God with a loud songs of joy!" In the King James Version it says, "Shout to God with a voice of triumph!" Who should do this? ALL PEOPLES.  Not just those who are outgoing?  Not just those who feel like it today?  Not just those who are Charismatic or Pentecostal background? No.  ALL PEOPLES.  I love this because the writer clarifies this even more for those I just mentioned. It's almost as if he goes ahead and answers the question of why should I do this? He answers the why should we clap, sing and shout for joy in verses 2, 3 & 4. We should clap, sing and shout because HE is a GREAT KING! Because HE gave us great victory over our enemies! He put our enemies underneath our feet.  He gave/gives us victory!  He also chose our heritage!  God chose us to be His children!  That is why we clap, shout and sing and that is a good enough reason for me!

When we clap our hands, we clap our hands in victory.  We clap in derision of our enemy!  When a army would defeat and conquer a city they would take the captives and parade them through the street. All the towns people would line the streets to see the conquered and bound up captives.  And as they would walk down the streets people would applaud and clap in derision because they had conquered the enemy!  How many of you know and believe that Jesus has conquered the enemy for all of us?  We should clap in worship not because the worship team did a good job but because the enemy has been defeated! We shout for the same reason.  Shouting is a sign of victory!   God doesn't need our expression.  He isn't insecure.  It isn't for His affirmation it is for our LIBERATION!

Verse 5-7 is a beautiful instruction and song for us!  The word praise that you see 5 times in these verses is the Hebrew word ZAMAR which literally translates to touch the strings, to play upon, to make music and accompany with voice. They are having a celebration with instruments and singing because God has delivered them!  I love how this section of verses end and it is really the whole reason I wrote this blog.  Verse 7 in the King James ends with "sing praises (Zamar) with understanding." How easy is it for us to come to church or to be worshiping Jesus and singing a song and be thinking about everything else but Jesus and the enemy He conquered on our behalf.  Lord help us be engaged with our minds not just flippantly singing songs on a screen.  Help us sing with understanding.  Help us comprehend and know why we are singing.  Don't let us sing songs that we have no clue what we are singing about. The prophet Isaiah challenged people for singing with their mouths without engaging their hearts.  So the exhortation for us is to clap, sing and shout, but to do it with understanding!