Verse of the Day 12-11-22

The Source of Joy and Praise: Psalm 47:1

Come, everyone! Clap your hands!

Shout to God with joyful praise! (NLT)

            The overall theme of Psalm 47 is: God is still King of World. And all nations of the earth will eventually recognize his lordship. With that in mind it is largely believed that Psalm 47 was written about the Assyrian invasion of Judah by Sennacherib (2 Kings 18:13-19:37). Keeping in mind the fact that it was not the armies of Judah who turned back this invasion, but was instead the hand of God operating through a plague that turned back this invasion; let’s then take a look at a Psalm 47:1, which tells us the source of our joy and praise.

            The first line says “Come, everyone! Clap your hands!” The clapping of hands was used elsewhere in the Old Testament (Psalm 98:8 and 2 Kings 11:12) as an expression to praise a new king. Who then is this “new king” that the people of Judah are praising? It is not Hezekiah, who was the king during the Assyrian invasion. But it is God, who had delivered the people of Judah from certain death and destruction at the hands of the Assyrians.

            The second and last line says, “Shout to God with joyful praise!” To really understand what that line means we need to read it in the CSB (Christian Standard Bible) which translates that line as, “shout to God with a jubilant cry.” The term jubilant means celebratory. And what were the people of Judah celebrating: their deliverance from the Assyrians not by Hezekiah, but by their “new/old” king God.

            This is what we need to remember when we are going through those hard and troubling times, like the people of Judah during the Assyrian invasion: God is still King of the world, and, therefore, he is still the source of our joy and our praise. When we remember this we will be able to “clap your hands” at the work that your King has done and we will be able to “shout with a jubilant cry” for what our King has done for us.

Today’s Bible Readings:

Amos 4-6, Revelation 2:18-3:6, Psalm 130:1-8 and Proverbs 29:21-22