Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 2 · Psalm 47
The Forty Seventh Psalm.
TO the chief Musitian, A Psalm for the sonnes of Coreh.
Paraphrase. The forty seventh is a summons and invitation to all to bless and acknowledge God in his power and mercy, exprest remarkably to the Jews in subduing the heathen nations about them, but mystically to the Christian Church, in bringing the Potentates of the world to be members of it. It was committed to the Prafect of the Musick, to be sung by the posterity of Coreh, and probably to be sung at the solemn feasts when the whole nation of the Jews assembled to the house of God at Jerusalem.
1. O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of trumpet.
Let all the servants of God praise and magnifie him, recount his acts of power and mercy afforded to us, solemnize the victories which he hath wrought for us with triumphs and ovations and jubilees.
2. For the Lord most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth.
For the God of Israel is the only powerfull God, most formidable to all his, and his Churches enemies, the only Ruler of all the world.
3. a.He‖or hath subdued. shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet.
It hath been his immediate and peculiar work, to subject the Canaanites and the rest of the seven nations, and give us possession of their lands, and to suppress the Philistims and the other adjoyning nations also.
4. He†or hath chosen— shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Selah.
It hath been his free act of mercy, grace and goodness, to seek out and espy Ezek. 20.6. for us of the seed of Jacob so rich a portion, and withall to afford us the benefit of his sanctuary, that excellence of our strength, Ezek. 24.21. and herein to advance us above all other people of the world, out of his meer love and favour to us.
5. God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
He hath a peculiar presence in that place where his people assemble to his service. And so the serving him there is another matter of triumphant joy to the pious man; the shout and the trumpet call men together thither, and so attend that, as they doe the triumphs of a conqueror.
6. Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises to our King, sing praises.
Let us therefore all joyne in the continual magnifying of him, as of our God, which hath chosen us to himselfe, and as of our King that hath most prosperously fought all our battels for us, and now in peace expects our offerings of peace, to be honoured and praised by us.
7. For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praisesb. with understanding.
He is the supreme Governour of all the world, and is therefore duly to be acknowledged and glorified by all.
8. God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness.
He hath signally subdued the Idolatrous heathen nations, subjected them to the throne of David, and among his own people the Jews he exhibits himself in a divine and powerfull manner in the Sanctuary, the place of our assembling, and his constant residence. (In the mystical sense, He will subject the heathen world to the faith of Christ, and exercise a spirituall dominion in their hearts.)
9. The Princes of the c people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham: for the shields of the earth‖are the Lords. belong unto God; he is greatly exalted.
And thither do the rulers of the tribes, and all the people of Israel assemble at the appointed times of his service, the solemn feasts, so many times a year: and though at such times the countrey be left naked, and in a manner desolate, no company remaining at their houses to guard them from the violence of the neighbouring nations; yet hath God undertaken to protect them from all invasion, having promised that none should desire their land, when they went up to the place that he should choose, Exod. 34.24. And this he hath signally made good, working in the hearts of all the adjacent heathen a great dread and awe of us. (In the mystical sense is further contained a prediction, that the Jews that stood out against Christ should at length come in, many of them, and receive the faith, some before the destruction by Titus, others in Adrians time, at which time the whole nation became Christian (see note on Revel. ii. f.) and not only they; but the heathen nations also, who should universally come in to Christ, become Christian) And this both in the first literal, and sublimer mystical sense, is to be lookt on as a signal act of Gods power and providence, and so to be acknowledged by all.
Annotations on Psalm XLVII.
V. 3. He shall subdue] 'Tis so frequent for the future to be used in the preter tense, and the matter doth so signally direct it to do so here v. 4. and 5. that it is strange any interpreters should retain the future sense in their rendring. The place belongs evidently to Gods giving the land of Canaan to the Israelites, and that sure was past at the writing of the Psalm; and accordingly the Lxxii. render it in both verses,foreign foreign he hath subdued v. 3. and foreign he hath chosen v. 4. There is nothing then of farther difficulty to be here explicated, unless it be, that foreign foreignexcellence, magnificence, pride, from foreign being high or excellent, doth here denote that excellent portion, that fat and fruitful land, which God had chosen for the Israelites to possess, they and their posterity; but especially the place of Gods publick worship among them, which is styled the excellence of their strength, that which secured to them all their victories over their enemies, and the desire of their eyes, Ezek. 24.21. a priviledge which of all others ought to be most pretious, and desirable to them.
V. 7. With understanding] 'Tis ordinarily resolved that foreign foreignhere signifies with understanding: foreign with a good understanding, saith the Chaldee; foreign, intelligently, say the Lxxii. and sapienter, wisely, the Latine. But the word being a noun, is not elsewhere to be found adverbially, and is therefore by the interlinear rendred intelligens. But neither will that without much streining be fitted to accord with foreign foreignsing ye, in the plural. It is not therefore improbable, that foreign being so oft used in the titles of the Psalms, for the name of a tune or key in Musick (See note on Psal. xxxii. a) should here also be taken in that sense, being joyned with foreign sing praises to God in that tune or key, which was then well known by that title. But this being only a conjecture, 'tis sufficient here to have thus mentioned it, and no more.
V. 9. People] This last verse is thought capable of some variety of rendring, first in respect of the word foreign foreignthe people. This the Lxxii. appear to have read with Chirec foreign, and so have rendred it foreign, with: and the Latine follows them, cum Deo Abraham, with the God of Abraham. But passing by this, and taking foreign for a noun, 'tis yet not improbable, that it should be read in the notion of foreign, as in the Dative case, thus, the Princes of the people foreign foreignwere aggregated or joyned foreign to the people of the God of Abraham, populo, saith the Interlinear, i. e. to the Jews. And then still the Lxxii. their rendring will be as to the sense expressive enough, foreign, The Princes of the people have been joyned with the God of Abraham: for that is in sense exactly the same with joyning with the Jews, who worshipt that God; as it was all one to be a proselyte to God, and a proselyte to the Jews, and as i… is all one to associate and joyn with Christ, and with Christians. Lastly, it may be read foreign, as in the nominative, or perhaps the genitive case, and joyned by opposition either to the Princes or the people foregoing, as in our English, The Princes of the people, even the people — And so the Chaldee render it, The Princes of the people are assembled foreign the people that are faithful to the God of Abraham; and thus 'twill note the whole nation of the Jews, as many as continue constant to that obedience, and that worship which God hath by law established among them. And thus will the words fitly and literally be understood, in reference to the universal assembling of all the nation of the Jews at the feasts at Jerusalem, Princes and people together, the whole people of Israel, or children of Abraham: and to that will belong what follows, concerning the shields of the earth, or land, howsoever we understand them. The words seem capable of a double interpretation. If foreign foreignthe shields of the earth] be taken literally, for the instruments of protection and preservation, then foreign to the Lord] will signifie, that all such means of safe-guard, wherein the whole land can be concerned, are in Gods power, and at his command or disposing, so that he can surely give what he hath promised, the most perfect defence and safety to them that in obedience to him resort to Jerusalem to worship, and leave no number of men at home to defend their countrey from invasions. But both the Jewish-Arab interpreter, and Abu-Walid, by foreign the shields of the earth, will have here meant foreign the noblest of men, and chief of them. And so also Aben Ezra, and Kimchi; and so the word is used, Hos. iv. 18. foreign her shields: foreign her great men, say the Chaldee; and we rightly render it, her Rulers. And so here, though the Chaldee render it literally foreign shields, yet the Syriack hath foreign which their Latine doth not rightly render territoria, the territories of the earth: it signifies the dominions or powers (foreign power or principality, from foreign or foreign to hold, to possess) and so the Lxxii. read foreign, the mighty of the land are God's; not as the Latine, dii fortes terrae, the strong Gods of the Land (sure it should be Dei, answerable to foreign, and foreign) but the mighty of the land are God's, in the sense as Rev. xi. 15. we read, foreign, the kingdomes of the world became our Lords, i. e. were converted to Christ (see note on Rev. xi. f.) And then, as there it follows, foreign, and he, i. e. God or Christ, shall reign for ever and ever; so here foreign he, i. e. God, is highly exalted: not foreign in the plural, as the Lxxii. and Latine, and others from thence; but as the Chaldee and Syriack, in the singular, God is exalted, as ver. 8. God reigneth over the heathen, and ver. 7. God is the King of all the earth; God being then said to be exalted and to reign, when men come in to acknowledge and obey him. And this will be most fully understood in the prophetical meaning of the words, as they had a larger completion under Christ, at the conversion of the Jews and Gentiles also, for that is the assembling both of, and to the people of the God of Abraham, that Father of the faithful, whose mystical or spiritual Children are styled the people of God, by way of eminence, and the conversion of heathens or incredulous Jews into such, is the reigning of God or Christ among them.