O clap your hands, all ye people - Let both Jews and Gentiles magnify the Lord: the Jews, for being delivered from the Babylonish captivity; the Gentiles, for being called to enter into the glorious liberty of the children of God. read more
For the Lord most high is terrible - He has insufferable majesty, and is a great King - the mightiest of all emperors, for he is Sovereign over the whole earth. read more
He shall subdue the people under us - He shall do again for us what he had done for our forefathers - give us dominion over our enemies, and establish us in our own land. I would rather read this in the past tense, relative to what God did for their fathers in destroying the Canaanites, and giving them the promised land for their possession, and taking the people for his own inheritance. This is also applied to the conversion of the Gentiles who, on the rejection of the Jews, have become his... read more
God is gone up with a shout - Primarily, this may refer to the rejoicing and sounding of trumpets, when the ark was lifted up to be carried on the shoulders of the Levites. But it is generally understood as a prophetic declaration of the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ; and the shout may refer to the exultation of the evangelists and apostles in preaching Christ crucified, buried, risen from the dead, and ascended to heaven, ever to appear in the presence of God for us. This was the... read more
Sing praises - זמרו zammeru : this word is four times repeated in this short verse, and shows at once the earnestness and happiness of the people. They are the words of exultation and triumph. Feel your obligation to God; express it in thanksgiving: be thankful, be eternally thankful, to God your King. read more
For God is the King of all the earth - He is not your King only, but the King of the universe. He has no limited power, no confined dominion. Sing ye praises with understanding - משכיל זמרו zammeru maskil , sing an instructive song. Let sense and sound go together. Let your hearts and heads go with your voices. Understand what you sing; and feel what you understand; and let the song be what will give instruction in righteousness to them that hear it. Sing wisely - Anglo-Saxon.... read more
God reigneth over the heathen - Though this is literally true in God's universal dominion, yet more is here meant. God reigns over the heathen when, by the preaching of the Gospel, they are brought into the Church of Christ. God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness - He is a holy God; he proclaims holiness. His laws are holy, he requires holiness, and his genuine people are all holy. The throne of his holiness is the heaven of heavens; also the temple at Jerusalem; and, lastly, the... read more
The princes of the people are gathered together - עמים נדיבי nedibey ammim . The voluntary people - the princely, noble, or free-willed people; those who gladly receive the word of life; those who, like the Bereans, were of a noble or liberal disposition; and, when they heard the Gospel, searched the Scriptures to see whether these things were so. It is a similar word which is used Psalm 100:3 ; and I believe both texts speak of the same people - the Gentiles who gladly come unto his... read more
Verse 1 1.Clap your hands, all ye peoples As the Psalmist requires the nations, in token of their joy and of their thanksgiving; to God, to clap their hands, or rather exhorts them to a more than ordinary joy, the vehemence of which breaks forth and manifests itself by external expressions, it is certain that he is here speaking of the deliverance which God had wrought for them. Had God erected among the Gentiles some formidable kingdom, this would rather have deprived all of their courage, and... read more
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John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 47:9
The princes of the people are gathered together ,.... Not against Christ, as at his first coming, but to him, and to his church and people; even the great men of the earth, the kings and princes of it, as they will in the latter day; see Isaiah 49:23 ; or this may mean the saints in general, who are all of them the princes of people, and are set among princes, yea, are kings priests unto God; some render it, "the willing" or "voluntary ones of his people" F7 נדיבי עמים "voluntarii... read more