Tonight we are in Psalm 47. You can find our passage on page 472 in the Pew Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. Clap your hands, all peoples, shout to God with loud songs of joy. For the Lord, the most high is to be feared, a great king over all the earth. He subdued peoples under us and nations under our feet. He chose our heritage for us, the pride of Jacob, whom he loves. God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises. Sing praises to our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth. Sing praises with a psalm. God reigns over the nations. God sits on His holy throne. The princes of the people gather as the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God. He is highly exalted. Thus ends the reading of God's holy and inerrant word. Psalm 47 is a part of the Jewish New Year Liturgy, which means that they begin the year by singing Psalm 47. And the question we ought to ask here is why? Why is it that the Jews feel it appropriate or necessary to begin the year singing this song? They got their pick of 150 of them. Why this particular song? Well, then we need to look at the psalm and ask ourselves, well, what is this psalm about? And it is about the kingship of Yahweh. And it begins to make sense when you realize that, because there are circumstances in our lives which may lead us to doubt the kingship of God. You think of Israel, even, while under the period of the judges. Before they had a king, they went from one oppressor to another, and when they weren't being oppressed by a Gentile ruler, they usually had a bad ruler themselves. Even the United Monarchy, as glorious and wonderful as it was, only lasted three generations. It's remarkably brief. Saul, David, and Solomon, and then it's done. And after that, all that's left is many, many more years of what one author called division, disobedience, and decline. And so the Jewish people found it necessary to sing this psalm even as they were ruled over or even persecuted by their Gentile rulers and hostile neighbors. For the Jewish people, the kingship of God was what you began with. Why? Well, because the kingship of God was not something ad extra to the life of the people of God. The kingship of Yahweh was definitional to who they were and how they lived in the world. And so it is with us. The kingship of God is something that we need to be desperately reminded of today. Something that we need to begin our year with now because of what God's kingship means for us as His people. For as we see in this text, to sing of God's kingship is to sing of His power, His ascension, and His reign. But it is also to sing of our salvation, our assurance, and our security. And so when we sing about our King, we first of all sing of His power and our salvation. We see that in the first four verses, that we sing of His power and our salvation. We see in these verses the King who delivers His people. Verse 2 tells us who this King is. He is Yahweh, the Covenant King, the Most High, a great King over all the earth. He is the king of kings. There is no one who compares to this covenant-keeping, almighty ruler. Therefore, the psalmist says, he is to be feared, for he will not tolerate competition. No one can stay his hand. No one can overcome him. Verse 3 tells us then, next, what this king has done. He has conquered the enemies of his people, and in doing so brought them freedom. He subdued their enemies, placed them under their feet. It's that picture of having your foot on the neck of your enemy. That's what that means, to put under your foot. He defeated all that opposed and oppressed His people. He defeated all that caused them harm and caused them to suffer. He removed their shame, taking those who had been brought low and exalted them high. Further, the psalmist says he chose the heritage for the people, what he calls the pride of Jacob. This is a reference to the promised land. There's multiple references to the pride of Jacob in the prophet Amos in a negative light, but he's referring to the promised land up to and including the people in it. Not the Canaanites, but the Israelites at the time. And what he's saying here is that the Divine King exercised His sovereign choice and power to deliver His special people into a special place of blessing. And then at the end of verse 4 it tells us why He did it. Because He loves them. The greatest king is motivated ultimately for his own glory to be sure, but the scriptures are at pains even here to make clear that his covenantal love is bound up with his glory. That is that God acts towards his people because he loves them. I'm paraphrasing a scholar at this point who argued that the Bible doesn't spend much time telling us or answering the question why God loves Israel or why God loves us, for that matter. If we're paying attention, then we'll see the Bible does seek to respond to the wrong ways we try to answer that question. It seeks to answer the doubts that we have about the love of God. The Bible seeks to answer the problem of the betrayals we commit against God's love. In all of this, we need to see that the people praising their God in song, the God who has delivered them, who has provided a place for them because He loves them. And in Jesus, we truly have the Savior who delivers us through His cross in order to bring us into our heavenly home. There is no greater expression of love that the Father has given us than that which we have in Jesus Christ. Because Jesus has delivered us from the power of the devil and the death of the flesh by His cross. He has secured for us His righteousness. And He has secured in that righteousness safe passage into our heavenly home, even the new heavens and the new earth in eternal glory. And so we sing at the beginning of this year of the Savior King who has delivered us, who is delivering us, and who will deliver us in the end. Secondly, in verses five through seven, when we sing this song, we sing of God's ascension and our assurance. The psalmist says that God has gone up to his throne with a shout and with the sound of the trumpet. The verses here describe the enthronement of a king who is walking up ceremonially into his palace, into the throne room, and taking possession of his throne. If you ever read or watched Return of the King, the third installment of the Lord of the Rings series, where Aragorn is finally being crowned king, and everyone's celebrating, and everyone's just so happy and excited, it's that kind of a picture. Biblically, we could call to mind the time when David was bringing the ark up into Jerusalem and how much celebration was going in all the way up into the temple where the ark would rest. And so we see in verses 5-7 that in this, essentially an enthronement ceremony that praise is a fitting gift to bring. Verses 5-7 are incredible simply in how repetitive they are. You might look at them and say, there's not a whole lot of substance here. But the repetition is not boring, it is striking to both the eye and the ear. Five times in quick succession, we are told, we are commanded, exhorted, sing praises. So consider the cause of the praise in verse 7. For God is king over all the earth. How often has that very idea passed our minds to our lips without stirring any affection in our hearts? Where we were not enraptured by the idea that our God reigns and rules over all the earth. We just go, yeah, he's king over all the earth. And now tell me something I don't know yet. But why is the psalmist not, I mean, why is he overflowing with praise? Why is he so desperate that we join in and sing and celebrate with him? Well, you think about kingship. What does kingship bring? Well, kingship can bring many things, especially under evil and cruel kings. It can bring terror, deprivation, death, and sorrow. But under this king, light and glory and joy come with His reign. But also, let us not miss the fact that praise here is commanded. It's not threatened, but it is commanded. Philip Melanchthon, Luther's right-hand man, he pointed out that this worship isn't optional, yet it is joyful. Because it's not a burden to praise a good king. It's not a burden to praise the one you love. Like, oh, again, I have to tell you how much I love you. Oh, so tired of this. And here is the king, God himself. And the praise that is called for is a praise that doesn't just involve the lips or the mind, it goes down to the very recesses of the soul. But why all this celebration, all this praise, essentially for a metaphor, a picture of a guy with a crown taking seat in his fancy chair? Like, even then, why is this metaphor of God sitting down on the throne so important? I mean, we don't have... I mean, praise the Lord, we don't have kings in America. Right? Thank you. And so we don't have this idea of this importance of enthronement, the significance of it. And because it means for the king to sit on the throne, it means that his rule is taking public effect. That all those towards whom the king is favorably disposed, good things are to follow. Good things are to come upon whom the king shows favor. And so we need to, first of all, understand that there's the knowledge of living under a good and gracious ruler that is encouraging and inspires praise. But secondly, with his reign come all the benefits that flow from the ruler to the people because Yahweh is the king and he has ascended to the throne. Now blessings are sure to come upon his covenant people. And in the New Testament, we see that our King is ascended to the throne for us. To sing this song, this psalm, Psalm 47, to sing this song is to sing of Christ's victory and His ascension into heaven. Normally, we Christians can explain why Christ died on the cross and why He was resurrected. But why did He ascend into heaven? that will stump many a good and faithful church member. He ascended into heaven to usher in the next stage of his ministry. The second person of the Trinity, the Eternal Son, took on flesh, uniting a divine nature with a human nature in one person. He came in the flesh, took the curse of sin and death upon himself while establishing a record of righteousness to cover his people with. And then in his cross, in his burial, he took on the judgment his people deserved so that the wrath of God would be exhausted and satisfied for the sin of his people. That means if you're one of the people that Jesus died for, That if you have trusted in Jesus Christ, then that means all your sin has been paid for. That there is no more wrath of God waiting for you. That it was exhausted upon the cross. There's nothing left. And then, Jesus was resurrected in a decisive victory over death and sin to secure forgiveness and eternal life in the promises of the gospel that would be offered to those in the future. Such that, and it was of such a nature that Christ himself became the place where eternal life is to be found. You don't accept the words of Jesus. You accept Jesus. Right? You receive Jesus. You pray to Jesus. You're united to Jesus. You're not united to his promises. You're united to Jesus in the gospel because Jesus is the grace of God. And then what does Jesus do? After all that, what does he do? He ascends into heaven. In taking His throne, Christ secures forever the treasures of the gospel for His people. The promise of an advocate, the promise of forgiveness, the promise of unmerited righteousness, the promise of undeserved favor, the promise of unending grace, of future resurrection, of victory over the enemy, of eternal glory in the kingdom of God. And once He took His throne in heaven and began His reign as the resurrected Redeemer, He sent His Spirit to impart the blessings of His reign to His people. Sing praises. To God, sing praises. Sing praises to our King. Sing praises. for Jesus is king of all the earth. So I like to quote Spurgeon a lot, but then I found somebody that Spurgeon quoted, so he's gotta be good, right? So a guy named Isaac Ambrose. He put it this way. He said, You have great cause, O my soul, to praise Him and to rejoice before Him, especially if you consider that Christ ascended not for Himself, but also for you. It is God in our nature that has gone up to heaven. Whatever God acted on the person of Christ, He did so in your behalf. And He means to act the very same to you. The King ascends for His people. Jesus ascended bodily into heaven for you so that when the time comes, you will ascend to be with Him. His ascension is our assurance because we are united to Him. Third, when we sing this song, we sing of His reign and our security. Verses 8 and 9. We see in this psalm that the Lord reigns over all. The beginning of this psalm calls all people to clap and shout with loud songs of joy. And here it's declared that God reigns over the nations as He sits upon His throne. That the princes or rulers of the peoples gather together in submission to Him. And thus God is the sovereign one over all the world, whether they acknowledge it or not. There's something else going on in these verses, because it says that these rulers, these princes, they gather as the people of the God of Abraham. It means that these princes, these rulers of the peoples, belong to God, as the people of God. And even back in verse 1, the peoples are called to sing songs of joy. That goes beyond Israel. Israel is a people. Peoples. This includes Gentile nations. Jew and Gentile alike are called upon to praise the Lord. This is covenant talk. Fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise to bless the peoples of the earth through His line. And while at this point we may be tempted to appeal to Paul's words in Philippians 2, where one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess the Lordship of Christ, I would actually argue what we are seeing here is more in line with what we see in Revelation 7. And John's glorious vision of the countless multitude of nations attending the throne of the Lamb, declaring His praises. It's important for the people of God to remember that God reigns even when we are ruled over by gentile kings. Because the shields of the earth belong to God, the psalmist says. No one can snatch his people from his hand or prevent him from fulfilling his promises. He is the king and he himself is the security of His people. As He said to Abraham in Genesis 15, Fear not, for I am a shield to you. We also know that in the advent of Christ, that Jesus reigns today. The beautiful thing about our understanding of the Scriptures is that we are not waiting for Jesus to become king. Jesus is the king. Depending on what day of the week, though, you might forget that. And there is nothing the devil would love more than for you to forget it. Than for you to live as if Satan is king. To live as if the cross hadn't happened. to live as if the Savior's tomb is still occupied or that the heavenly throne remains vacant. But the cross cannot be undone. The tomb is the only thing that is empty because Christ rules from His throne. Christ is with His people right now, this moment, in this room, dwelling in our very selves by His Spirit. He is exercising His rule now, tomorrow, and forever. There is nothing the enemy can do to take away the victory of Jesus. The devil and the world and the flesh can rage, but Christ will reign until the Father has put all His enemies under His feet. And then, there will be that day in Philippians 2, when all believer and unbeliever alike will acknowledge the Lordship of Christ. But for us today, let us remember that our Lord reigns, reigns right now in this very moment, and especially in those moments where we feel so anxious and so uncertain and afraid. He reigns and no one will thwart His rule. So going back again to this idea of the Jewish New Year liturgy is beginning the year with this thought of the kingship of the Lord. And what a wonderful providence that we're in January and the psalm comes up. I'd like to say I planned it, but yeah, we'll just say I planned it. No, okay. Well, I'll do my honesty sermon next week. But as we think about this year that awaits us with all its challenges, joys, sorrows, and victories and defeats, we may be tempted to procrastinate our praise until we, you know, see how it goes, right? Just see how things turn out a little bit before we get into the, we don't want to get overconfident. But if we wait till June to remember that God is King, then our praise is going to wait as well. And as Charles Spurgeon said, sound doctrine praises God. And so let's praise God today. Let's praise God tonight, remembering that He reigns over the world and He reigns over us. That Christ is ascended, not for Himself, but for us. And He now reigns over us. And therefore, let's clap our hands. I know we're Presbyterian, but let's clap our hands and shout with loud songs of joy. Let's pray.