The Heart of the Bible—The Book of Psalms · Pastor Adam Wood · Psalm 47 · October 29, 2025

Transcript:
Alright, let's go to Psalm 47. Psalm 47. I just want to look, basically, take a kind of a devotional view of Psalm 47 tonight. I'll kind of give you some background of the Psalm. It's a very brief Psalm, only nine verses, but we'll just look at basically one thing that's kind of a running theme throughout the Psalm and use it kind of as a devotion this evening. Psalm 47, the subtitle begins, The chief musician, a Psalm for the sons of Korah. O clap your hands, O all ye people, and shout unto God with the voice of triumph. For the Lord most high is terrible. He is a great king over all the earth. 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, say la. God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises, sing praises unto our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth. Sing ye praises with understanding. God reigneth over the heathen. God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness. The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham, for the shields of the earth belong unto God. He is greatly exalted. Would you pray with me tonight? Our Father, we thank you for your word and the truths that your word constantly reminds us of. Lord, indeed we grow by the sustenance that your word gives us. Lord, I pray that you would bless our time in your word and you would help our hearts to be receptive and willing to hear and to see what your word says. Lord, help me to say what your people need tonight. Lord, we trust you. We look to you. Our eyes are upon thee. In Jesus' name, amen. So you have this you have this song, just so you know, verse number two, for the Lord most high is terrible. That sounds sounds terrible, doesn't it? The idea being the Lord strikes terror. He produces, incites terror in us. That's what the word terrible means. The thing I want to point out to you is I want you to see this this frequent mention. There's three times, maybe four, depending on how you count, of the mention of God as a king. Did you notice that? In verse number two, for the Lord most high is terrible, he is a great king over all the earth. In verse number six, sing praises unto sing praises to God, sing praises, sing praises unto our king, sing praises. For God is the king of all the earth. Sing he praises with understanding. And then the fourth partial mention is God reigneth over the heathen, implying a kingdom, implying that God is a king. Now when you read this, you know, there's actually at least two different ways that you can view this psalm, that you can read it. Okay? The first way is just to look at the psalm in its context, written, you know, about a thousand years before Christ. So right around maybe the time of David, David's name is not on the psalm, but if we assume that it's written around the time of David, you're talking about a thousand years before Christ about. Now at that, let me ask you a question, I want you just to think think this through with me. At that time, there was basically one nation that recognized and acknowledged God as their king. Right? There was just one nation, and that was the nation of Israel. Now, obviously Israel was not the only nation on earth, so on earth there were many, probably thousands of nations at that time in various parts of the world then that that had their own gods and their own religion and their own faith and their own all of that that did not, some of them probably didn't even know about God, at least as he's revealed in scripture, but they definitely did not recognize or acknowledge God as king. Everybody understand what I'm saying? So the question I have for you is how then can the psalmist say in verse number three, or verse number two, he is a great king over all the earth? Or in verse number seven, for God is the king of all the earth. Because in the time in which this was written, there were many many places in the earth that did not acknowledge God as the king. So here's what I want you to, this is the first way to look at it. This psalm has a prophetic element to it. Right? It has a prophetic element to it. Like many of the psalms, like Psalm 22, Psalm 23, Psalm 24, definitely all have a prophetic element. In other words, there's a way that you can look at it in its time, thousand years BC, right? And then there's also, it speaks to that time, but it also has a broader meaning that speaks to a time in the future. Because when you take this psalm not devotionally like we're gonna do tonight, but when you take it literally, and I think there's grounds to do that, when you take it literally, there will actually be a time in which the Lord rules and reigns over the heathen. Not only that he rules and reigns over them, but they acknowledge and submit themselves to his rule. The scriptures are replete with different verses and passages that deal with that. That God is not just going to be the God of a small group of people like he is now, where we acknowledge him and worship him. Or in the Old Testament, like Israel acknowledged him and worshiped him, but no, he will rule over everyone. He will rule over everyone. Now that's one way to look at it, right? That's one way to look at it. So there's a prophetic view. In other words, it's pointing to something future, a greater, broader fulfillment. But there's another way to look at it, and this is where the theology kind of, your theology really matters. Because of course we hold a pre-millennial position. That means we take the scriptures literally in almost every case. And that means, and I say that not to say, well we hold the pre-millennial position and so because we hold the position it's right. No, no. The pre-millennial position is the position that seeks to, where possible, interpret scriptures literally in their grammatical and historical understanding. In their basic understanding. So that's the reason why we read this psalm in other places like it. We take it at face value. We don't spiritualize it automatically. But you can do that. You can read this in a way and draw from it principles, which we're going to do tonight. But these principles, the fact of this psalm tells us that even though this was not literally fulfilled at this time, yet there will be a time when it will be fulfilled. Where Christ will literally reign over this world. And I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to that day. I'm looking forward to that day. But sometimes people that that tend not to take the scriptures literally come to a psalm like this and find trouble. Because it says, God reigneth over the heathen, and there's a seeming contradiction. Because when you read it you know he doesn't. So what kind of the default reaction to that is to spiritualize it. And to say, well this is God's spiritual reign over the world. This is God's spiritual reign over the world. Now the truth is there are verses in scripture where you can see that. Where the Bible does say that indeed. That God rules and God reigns. I mean just because people do not acknowledge God, that doesn't mean he doesn't reign. It doesn't mean somehow that because I thumb my nose at God and ignore him that somehow he doesn't rule. No, he rules. But when we talk about God is king, the fullest expression of that is not only that he holds the position but that we acknowledge that. Right? That's where they go together. And one day again that will be fulfilled. That will come to fruition. But without a question, God is king now. God is king. There's never been a time that he's not been that. He's king by virtue of his reign, by virtue of his creation. And he does rule. He does rule from heaven over the sons of men. Whether people acknowledge it or don't acknowledge it. He does his will whether people...