The Psalms I was inspired a little while ago when some of our faith formation students shared with Fr. Stiles and I some verses of the psalms they had memorized. I thought it was such a good thing that they can now pray those inspired verses of scripture wherever and whenever they want. The psalms are beautiful prayers that contain the whole spectrum of the human experience. The trouble for many, though, is that they can be hard to understand. To help a little bit, I’d like to give a commentary on psalm 47 which is the psalm for next Sunday for the feast of the Ascension. Psalm 47
For the leader. A psalm of the Korahites.
This verse is the psalm title. Psalm titles are sometimes obscure. In this case it seems to indicate that the “Korahites” wrote this psalm. The Korahites are mentioned in 2 Chronicles 7:19: “Levites from among the Kohathites and Korahites stood up to sing the praises of the Lord, the God of Israel, their voices ever louder.”
All you peoples, clap your hands; shout to God with joyful cries.
This verse invites all people to praise the Lord. The clapping of hands indicates a superabundant, overflowing sort of praise.
For the LORD, the Most High, is to be feared, the great king over all the earth,
Why praise the Lord? This verse gives two reasons: First, because he “is to be feared.” This refers to his power and might. When we are in the presence of something overwhelmingly powerful, we experience fear. In the case of God, what we should fear is offending him. Second, we praise the lord because he is “the great king over all the earth.” In other words, his authority is over everything.
Who made people subject to us, nations under our feet,
This is another reason given to praise the Lord. In its original context this referred to how God gave victory to the people of Israel over their enemies around them. We can read this in a spiritual sense though too. We can interpret this psalm as poetically referring to the authority God will give just over the unjust in the next life. As St. Paul says, “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? Do you not know that we are to judge angels?” (1 Cor 6:2,3)
Who chose our heritage for us, the glory of Jacob, whom he loves.
“The glory of Jacob” is another way of saying “the people of Israel” since they descended from Jacob.
God has gone up with a shout; the LORD, amid trumpet blasts.
This verse is why this psalm is used on the feast of the Ascension. Jesus (who is God) has “gone up” (i.e. ascended) to heaven as all the inhabitants of heaven celebrate.
Sing praise to God, sing praise; sing praise to our king, sing praise.
More invitations to praise God.
For God is king over all the earth;sing hymns of praise.
“Sing hymns of praise” could be translated “sing psalmsof praise.” Perfect! That’s what we’re doing!
God rules over the nations; God sits upon his holy throne.
This applies again to the Ascension. In the Ascension, Jesus, in his human nature, has gone up to take his place on the “holy throne” at the right hand of the Father.
The princes of the peoples assemble with the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God, highly exalted.
“Princes” = Rulers. “of the peoples” = of the gentiles (i.e. non-Jews). This verse is especially fulfilled in the preaching of the gospel to all the nations which many earthly rules have accepted in history.