Psalm 47

1 Clap your hands, all ye nations; shout to God with a voice of exultation.

2 For the Lord most high is terrible; he is a great king over all the earth.

3 He has subdued the peoples under us, and the nations under our feet.

4 He has chosen out his inheritance for us, the beauty of Jacob which he loved. Pause.

5 God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with a sound of a trumpet.

6 Sing praises to our God, sing praises: sing praises to our King, sing praises.

7 For God is king of all the earth: sing praises with understanding.

8 God reigns over the nations: God sits upon the throne of his holiness.

9 The rulers of the people are assembled with the God of Abraam: for God’s mighty ones of the earth have been greatly exalted.

Psalm 47 Meaning and Commentary

To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah. Thus psalm is thought by some to be written on occasion of the ark being brought from the house of Obededom to the city of David, to the place he had prepared for it; which was attended with singing and dancing, with shouting, and the sound of a trumpet, 2 Samuel 6:12; but it rather seems to be penned on account of the ascension of Christ to heaven, prophetically spoken of in this psalm; and of the spread of the Gospel, and the conquests it made in the Gentile world upon Christ's ascension; as the whole psalm shows: and even Aben Ezra and Kimchi apply it to the times of the Messiah; and so do some of their most ancient writers, who particularly interpret Psalm 47:5 of him, as may be seen in the note upon it.