Psalm 47 - God is King of All the Earth!

Psalm 47 with commentaries by Dennis Edwards

Psalm 47:1-2 O clap your hands, all you people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph. For the Lord most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth.

Here we seem to be picking up from where the last psalm left off. Jesus has come back and the Millennium period of Christ’s rule on earth has begun. God’s word tells us that the resurrected saints shall rule and reign with Christ for a thousand years. They will have received their resurrected bodies which we assume are similar to those of angels. Angels in the Bible seem to be able to appear and disappear. They seem to be able to appear as humans and interact with the human population or at least with those humans who are sensitive to God.

Psalm 46:3-4 He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet. He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom He loved. Selah.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are the fathers of faith. If we are Christ's, then we are Abraham’s and Jacob’s seed, and heirs of their inheritance, Galatians 3:29.

Some expositors believe that at the time of the rapture 1/3 of the Jewish nation will come to God. In Zechariah we find,

“And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on My name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is My people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God,” Zechariah 13:9.

Elsewhere in Zechariah we find the collaborating verses.

“And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem,” Zechariah 12:9.

If you remember from our study of Ezekiel 38-39, God first brings the Antichrist confederacy against Israel and her allies to chastise them for their sins and iniquities. What they have sown to the Palestinian people, they shall reap. Then as Israel repents, or at least 1/3 of Israel repents, God is able to come to Israel’s defence and chastise her Antichrist enemies. 2/3 of the nation of Israel shall die during the Antichrist’s wars.

Israel’s repentance seems to take place at the time of the rapture, at the end of the 3 ½ years of Great Tribulation. The Great Tribulation is found in the trumpets of Revelation 8-10 and expressed in other imagery in Revelation 11,12, and 13.

During the 3 ½ years of tribulation, we remember that the two end-time prophets have been prophesizing in Jerusalem and preforming miracles.

“And I will give power unto My two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days (3 ½ years), clothed in sackcloth…And if any man will hurt them, fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth will all plagues, as often as they will,” Revelation 11:3,5-6.

These two prophets will some how be working with God in the sending down the plagues found in Revelation 8-10. Maybe they will be coordinating with the angels who are sounding the trumpets found in those chapters.

“And when they (the two end-time prophets) shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome the, and kill them,” Revelation 11:7.

The Devil possessed Antichrist will make war against them and kill them at the end of the 3 ½ year tribulation period.

“And their dead bodies shall be in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified,” Revelation 11:8.

Obviously, they will be slain in Jerusalem. The Antichrist and his confederacy will fight an extended war with Israel. He first seems to be involved with the implementing of the Holy Covenant that allows the Jewish nation to begin sacrificial worship in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount. That takes place at the beginning of the last 7 years.

He then invades Israel at the 3 ½ year mark and places the abomination in or on the Temple Mount, and stops the Jewish sacrificial worship. It is at that point when the great tribulation begins, spoken by Jesus in Matthew 24:15&21.

At the end of the 3 ½ year period of tribulation, he makes a further invasion of Israel to wipe the Jewish people off the face of the earth, Psalm 83:4. It is at that point, that He seems to be able to kill the two end-time prophets.

“And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and a half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth,” Revelation 11:9-10.

It seems these two prophets were connected with the 6 trumpets of plagues that fall upon the earth during that 3 ½ years of tribulation. The people see them as such and are glad they have died. But then, just as the world is making merry, and believe they have defeated the forces of God, that they perceive as evil, the end-time prophets are resurrected.

“And after three days and a half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood on their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them,” Revelation 11:11-12.

The two end-time prophets will be raptured up after the tribulation of those days, as Jesus prophesized.

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from the heaven, and the powers of the heaven shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other,” Matthew 24:29-31.

Remember, the Jewish people will have been suffering under the Antichrist for 3 ½ years. They will have heard and seen the two end-time prophets. Some of them will convert and become Christian and be raptured at the coming of the Lord. But it seems from Scripture, that it is at the time of the rapture event, and seeing the Lord in the heavenlies, that 1/3 of the Jewish nation repent of their apostacy and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of their true repentance, God will be able to justly intervene and once again fight for Israel, as in the days of old. We will read from Zechariah once again.

“And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem,” Zechariah 12:10-11a.

God will save a remnant of the Jewish people who repent of their unbelief in Christ at the time of the rapture. He will then fight for them against the Antichrist and his confederacy. Ezekiel 38-39 and Revelation 19:11-21 show the terrible outcome of that war. Evil will be defeated and Christ shall reign on earth for a thousand years.

Psalm 47:5 God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.

“For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord,” 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17.

At that point in time, Christ does not initiate His earthly rule. He comes in the heavens and raptures His elect and then escapes with them to a heavenly realm. It is after appearing before the judgment seat of Christ and receiving our rewards at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, that we return with Christ during the Battle of Armageddon to take physical control of the earth and begin the 1000-year Millennium period.

“And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years,” Revelation 20:4b.

Psalm 47:6-8 Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth: sing praises with understanding. God reigns over the heathen: God sits upon the throne of His holiness.

It is during that thousand-year period that men will no longer learn to war.

“And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountains of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore,” Isaiah 2:2-4.

Psalm 47:9 The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham: for the shields (or leaders of the nations) of the earth belong unto God: He is greatly exalted.

As the Millennium begins, the peoples that have survived it, shall be given their opportunity to know and love the Lord. These nations were unbelieving at the time of the rapture. God in His extended mercy gives them another chance to come to faith and learn of the love, and mercy, and fear, and knowledge of the Lord.

“And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain,” Zechariah 14:16.

These unbelieving nations will be given their chance to come to faith in Christ. But as the Scripture shows, even after all that has happened some will be slow to believe. God will have to use the weather to chastise them and convince them to believe in Him. Even here we see that God does not force conversion. He lets man’s free will decide for himself. Eventually, slowly, but surely, all will come to believe. Those that do hold out and refuse God’s calling to faith, will, of their own volition, choose the second death.

“And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death,” Revelation 20:15&14. 

The choice is ours. Like Moses spoke to the descendants of Israel 3,500 years ago, we choose our own destiny. “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore, choose life, that both you and your seed may live. That you may love the Lord your God, and that you may obey His voice, and that you may cleave to Him: for He is life,” Deuteronomy 30:19-20a.

Are you choosing life or death? Jesus said, “I am the resurrected and the life: he that believes in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

That’s the question we all need to answer. Jesus is the door to eternal life. There is no other. “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man goes unto the Father, but by Me,” John 14:6. Are you entering in through the door? Or trying to climb up some other way?

Jesus said, “Enter in at the straight gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in there at: because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it,” Matthew 7:13-14.

If you have not found Him yet, call out to Him today. He says, “Call upon Me, and I will answer you,” Jeremiah 33:3a. We’ve got to do the calling. We’ve got to do the searching. But He tells us, “Seek and you shall find,” Matthew 7:7b. “And you shall seek Me, and find Me, when you shall search for Me with all your heart,” Jeremiah 29:13. He leaves it up to us. But His Spirit is calling, “Come, everyone that thirst, come to the waters and drink…Incline your ear, and come unto Me: hear, and your soul shall live,” Isaiah 55:1-3 abbreviated. It’s just that simple. It’s up to each one of us to answer the call and come.

“Come unto Me, all you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly of heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light,” Matthew 11:28-30.