Episode 103 Psalm 47 God is King Over All the Earth

Dan: (00:00)
Hi everyone and welcome to Training for Life Redeemeded. I’m Dan here with my father David Jackson going through the Psalms at the moment. We’re up to Psalm 47. Let’s, cut across now to Dad reading a psalm.

David: (00:14)
Psalm 47 0 For the director a composition belonging to the sons of Korah. 1 All peoples thrust a hand. Raise a shout to God with a resounding voice. 2 For Yahweh Most High is feared, Great King over all the earth. 3 May he speak people under us, and peoples under our feet. 4 He chooses our inheritance for us, The pride of Jacob whom he loves. Selah 5 God goes up with a blast, Yahweh with the sound of a ram’s horn. 6 Make music for Yahweh. Make music! Make music to our King. Make music! 7 For God is king over all the earth. Play a maskil. 8 God reigns over nations. He sits on a throne of his holiness. 9 Chiefs of peoples gather, People of the God of Abraham, For to God belongs the shields of earth. He is supreme.

Dan: (01:12)
Well, Dad, thank you for reading the psalm so beautifully. , , these are your own translations, which is obviously makes ’em not sound as familiar to people as they listen to them now. Now this psalm is, seems to be very much about God being king over everyone. And basically like you underline this section in verse three where he speaks people under us. It’s so, so famous. Just get these images in my head of armies and stuff, getting ready for war and God just comes and goes: “You lose, you lose, you lose. You are there under my feet and you are serving my people over here. Thank you very much.” Yeah. Without no battle, like, which is very much what happens in Revelation. But just like you underline, I’m just like, yeah, it’s cool. Go. Like he speaks people under us. He doesn’t fight and defeat people to go under us. He just says a word. Yeah.

David: (02:01)
It’s, it’s a wonderful, it’s a wonderful thing that the word of God does the work that weapons and tanks and everything else can’t do. I’ve been reading a book recently, it’s not here is it, by Mangalwadi. and he talks about the, the way William Carey changed the culture in India. And it obviously wasn’t by armies or you know, parliaments and all the rest of it. He simply translated the Bible into their languages and taught people to read it. And in the process introduced them to the ideas of the word of God. And the word of God brought people out of a world where that ha where life has no meaning. yeah, a a world of fantasy, and a world of cruelty, great cruelty and so “to speak people,” it’s not so much under my feet, but under the feet of Yahweh. This is about bringing in his kingdom. so as we as Israel of Old Go forward, the idea was that people would sign on as vassals, as God’s loyal servants, and allies. And that’s, that’s what Christians do, isn’t it? We sign on as a vassal of Yahweh, of Jesus, but to speak the, but to do it by a word, not by some military campaign or another. Mm-hmm. I think that this is a different kingdom.

Dan: (03:40)
Yeah. And I think as if Samm continues to go through God being able to choose our inheritance and all that kind of stuff, which, you know, in Israel is very basic, you know, you get your land allotment for us, it’s really cool too, where he’s actually choosing our inheritance for us and well, you know, Jesus is making rooms, all that kind of stuff, who gets to sit where at tables, whatever it is. But then it, like, it, it talks about this whole, yeah. God goes up with a blast and there’s all these horns being done up and it’s kind of like he’s riding down his chariot while all these horns are going. Like the battle is there’s no battle. There’s just, we’re just celebrating him because it’s God

David: (04:15)
And it’s wonderful, isn’t it? You think, I mean, let’s go back to Sennacherib surrounding the city, right? They’re blowing horns and they’re yelling and they’re shouting and Rabshakker standing at the wall mocking Yahweh and telling you you’re an idiot for following. Hezekiah, throw your king over the wall and you know, we’ll only skin three of three out of four of you . you know, it’s just a horrendous scene. And this song is singing straight back into the face of that, the idea that Yahweh’s in his palace.

Dan: (04:46)
Mm-hmm.

David: (04:47)
He only has to speak a word and you are all dead. We are up here trusting in him and we are going to celebrate your overthrow because Yahweh is going to say one word and you are all gone. And this is written after Yahweh spoke the word and they all were gone. Yep. and so, you know, you have this army looting Judah and the next thing you know, there’s a bunch of, I think there were lepers who went out the city gate in desperation cuz they were starving and they looted the as Syrian camp and thought, oh, we better not keep it to ourselves. We’ll go and tell the king, and brought it back. And everybody went out and there was food for everyone. So Yahweh speaks, it’s done. How do you react to a victory like that/ music?

David: (05:42)
So music song. So, you know, I’ve, I love the, there’s a little video clip. when World War II ended, the Australian people were just terrified. My mother was traumatized by World War 2. She lived on the North Shore. She could hear the guns go off. when the Japanese subs came into Sydney and shelled Sydney, My father was, in a truck, you know, racing to get, 25 pounder guns into action against the submarines on the day. it was all happening. They were, you know, Darwin was bombed, everybody was terrified. And then the day Japan surrendered, you got this beautiful video in it, Martin place of, the Dancing Man. and he’s got his suit and time, but he’s leaping around like a complete idiot in front of this tram, . And, Dad, Mum used, Mum told me that on that day when that was happening, they were in Martin place.

David: (06:45)
Everybody went to Martin Place to celebrate. The war was over and the crowds were so thick that dad put her against the wall of the GPO in Martin place and put his arms around her and his back to the crowd. And it was all he could do from her getting squashed. people were dancing and thronging and singing and carrying on and this, that, that was World War 2. This is the song of the victory of the Kingdom of God. Mm. And we are, it’s a victory over the most horrendous cruelty and injustice and abomination, everything we could ever be terrorized by. And there you are, dancing and singing. He spoke the word all over.

Dan: (07:28)
Yeah. And that ends here with this whole idea of Yeah. People from all tribes and nations belonging to the people of God. I mean, verse nine, here you’ve got Yeah. Chiefs and peoples cause it’s plural. Mm-hmm. Gather, and then you have your singular people of the, of the God of Abraham. So these chiefs and these peoples are the people of God.

David: (07:49)
Yeah. So out of all of this horror, you have these people from every nation, tribe and language, who’d come and they are now welcomed and identified as children of Abraham. Hmm. Heirs of the covenant promises to Abraham. You can look that up in Romans nine to 11. so last night, just so happens last night, I’m at, you know, we’re at church inducting our new minister, and there’s this guy standing around looking lonely. So I strike up a conversation with him. He’s a Japanese student over here, and he’s running around visiting and visiting our churches. And you go, there it is. One minute you’re at war. The next minute your brothers and sisters sitting at the king’s table, this is the word that is spoken that brings peace and redeems these people and puts it all back together again. reverses Babel. so this is a great song to sing, when you, when you know that in Christ is our victory, and we have nothing to fear.

Dan: (08:55)
That sound like a good place to end this episode. If you would like to grab the study notes for this episode, please head over to trainingforliferedeemed.com/103 and make sure you hit subscribe wherever you are. Make sure you come back and join us again Next week we’ll be looking at Psalm 48.