Psalms 47:5 - Exposition

God is gone up with a shout; the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. As God "comes down" when he interposes for the relief or deliverance of his people ( Psalms 144:5 ), so after the relief or deliverance is effected, he is viewed as "going up"—returning to his glorious abode, reoccupying his seat in the heaven of heavens, and there remaining until some fresh call is made upon him. If the interposition has been one of a striking and unusual character, if the relief has been great, the deliverance signal, the triumph accorded to his people extraordinary, then he "goes up with a shout"—amid the exulting cries and loud jubilations of rescued Israel. When the occasion is such as to call for a public manifestation of thanksgiving at the house of God ( 2 Chronicles 20:28 ), then he "goes up" also "with the sound of the trumpet," which was always sounded by the priests on great occasions of festal joy and gladness (see 2 Samuel 6:15 ; 2 Kings 11:14 ; 1 Chronicles 13:8 ; 1 Chronicles 16:42 ; 2 Chronicles 5:12 ; 2 Chronicles 7:6 ; 2 Chronicles 29:27 ; Ezra 3:10 ; Nehemiah 12:35 ).