Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 30 July 2023
Imagine going to a K-State football game or basketball game, and when you walk in, everybody is just quietly looking at their smartphones or chatting with their neighbor. The scoreboard lights are off, and there are no loudspeaker-announcements. The team suddenly bursts in through the gate to the field/court, but nobody stands up and cheers. There aren’t even any cheerleaders.
If you were sitting there in the coliseum or the grandstand observing how the crowd was acting, what would you think of the K-State Wildcats? “This team must be a real dud if that’s how its fan base is acting!” Right?
But when the cowbells are clanging and the airhorns are honking and the lights are flashing and the people are whooping and doing the Wabash Cannonball, and the band is playing and the cheerleaders are jumping up and down and the speakers are blaring, you feel quite differently about the team, don’t you? You want to join in the excitement and cheer the team on!
Now, if that’s how we gauge the importance of a sports team to our community, how might we gauge the importance of God to our community?
Every year, on the first day of the seventh month in the Jewish calendar, horns and trumpets were supposed to be blown to announce the beginning of the new year, when God’s people would remember God’s creation of the world, their freedom from slavery in Egypt, the giving of the law, and their atonement from sin. And every 70 years, the sound of those trumpets would also mean that every debt was canceled and every slave was free. This was how the ancient Jews made a big deal of how important God was to their community. In fact, some of them still do that – I’ve got a neighbor that goes out into his backyard and blows on a sheeps-horn every new moon!
We are picking back up in the middle of Psalm 47 now. The Selah at the end of v.4 divides the psalm into two stanzas of 10 lines each, both stanzas containing a command to praise, a statement of the kingship of God over all the earth and of the subjection of the peoples to Him, and both using the verb “go up” in regard to God. Although there is much in common between the stanzas, the theme of bringing the nations together to worship God really comes out in the second half.
Verse 5 of Psalm 47 looks back to describe a particular occasion when the people cheered and blew shophar-horns to celebrate God ascending. When was that?
2 Samuel 6:15 “So David and all the house of Israel were bringing up the ark of Yahweh with fanfare and with the sound of the shophar-horn.” (NAW) They were celebrating moving the ark of the covenant into David’s new capitol city and establishing a new place to worship God there!
That was during the glory-days of Israel when the nation was united, when King David was in his prime, when the military was conquering all the enemies and the people were at peace, and when God was the only one worshiped by the king and his men.
About 150 years later, Jehoshaphat was king in succession to David, and “the people of Moab with the people of Ammon, and others with them... came to battle against Jehoshaphat... And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah... [and prayed, and the LORD answered through the Prophet] Jahaziel.... Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the LORD... So they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat ... appointed those who should sing to the LORD... Now when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated... So when Judah came to a place overlooking the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude; and there were their dead bodies, fallen on the earth. No one had escaped... Jehoshaphat and his people... returned... go back to Jerusalem with joy, for the LORD had made them rejoice over their enemies. So they came to Jerusalem, with stringed instruments and harps and trumpets, to the house of the LORD. And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries when they heard that the LORD had fought against the enemies of Israel. (2 Chron. 20:1-29, NKJV)
About a thousand years later, the Lord Jesus1 ascended the same hill in Jerusalem, first on a donkey, then on His own two feet while carrying a cross. But Jesus didn’t stop at the top of the hill like David and the ark of the covenant did; Jesus died and rose from the dead and ascended even higher into heaven (Eph. 4:10). Now, none of Jesus’ “goings-ups” were accompanied by the kind of heraldic trumpet blasts described in Psalm 47, but the Bible tells us that there will be that kind of fanfare when He returns: 1 Thessalonians 4:16 “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God...” (NKJV)
All this fits with the picture of the importance of God. He is a great God and greatly to be praised.
For those of us who do not live in a monarchy, the implications of God also being the King may be easy to miss:
In a monarchy, the King is the one who makes the laws, the King is the one who enforces the laws, and the King is the ultimate judge of the laws. All authority comes down to him, and there is no way to appeal the decision of the king; he is where the buck stops.
Now, can you see why so many kings throughout history have felt threatened by believers proclaiming God to be king? It is tantamount to telling every earthly king, “You are not where the buck stops. You are not the final authority on what is lawful. There is someone over your head to whom your people can appeal, and you can’t do anything about it!” It takes humility to be a civil magistrate who supports Christianity!
For every Christian living under an oppressive government, that is good news! Your earthly government doesn’t have the final say on what is right and wrong; God in heaven does.
And this Psalm predicts a time when every earthly government will be brought under the jurisdiction of God’s government and there will be such joy and peace and prosperity and glory and justice and unity, that “we the people” will want nothing more than to “sing praises” to this Divine “King” and “exalt” Him! Zachariah 14:9 also describes that future: “And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.” (NKJV)
Revelation 11:15-16 “Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!’ And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God” (NKJV) Oh how I long for that day!
The making of music to worship our God and King is emphasized in verses 6-7 through the command to “make music/sing praise.” This command is issued, not once, not twice, not three times, but FIVE times in a row! Do you think maybe that is important?!!
Isaac Watts got it right in his hymn, “Come, we that love the Lord, and let our joys be known; Join in a song with sweet accord, and thus surround the throne. Let those refuse to sing that never knew our God; But children of the heav'nly King will speak their joys abroad!” It’s really not an option not to sing!
And, for what it’s worth, the command to sing is in the plural, so this doesn’t mean, “Listen to the worship leader sing;” it means “All of you, Sing!” It’s what we sing in the Christmas carol: “All dominions, bow before him, And extol our God and King; Let no tongue on earth be silent, Ev'ry voice in concert ring.”
The last word in v.7 about what kind of music to sing to God is only used 13 other places in the Bible, and every one of them in the title of a Psalm. Psalms 32, 42, 44, 45, 52-55, 74, 78, 88, 89, and 142 are all called “Maskils,” which are a kind-of wisdom-psalm that is “thought-provoking/takes certain skill/contemplative.”
Matthew Henry related it to the principle in 1 Cor. 14:15 “... sing with the spirit… also sing with the mind.” (NAW)
This tells us that being loud and celebratory is not the only way to worship God; being wise, skillful, and contemplative is also an appropriate way to show respect to the highest authority in the universe.
Some cultures, like the Mexicans and Sub-Saharan Africans really lead the way in being loud and celebratory, and other cultures like the Mayan Belizians and Northern Europeans lead the way in being solemn and reverent, but both kinds of worship – both the contemplative Maskill kind in v.7 and the clapping & cheering kind in v.1 – are commanded by God of us, so if you naturally gravitate toward one end of the worship spectrum, put some effort into incorporating the other end of the spectrum into your worship as an act of obedience to King Jesus.
v.7 tells us the reason we are to make music & sing praises: God is “King over all the earth.”
Abraham Kuyper, prime minister of the Netherlands in the early 1900’s, famously put it this way, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!”
v.8 adds “God reigns over the nations” – not only is He king, He is also acting like a king, positively reigning, making laws, enforcing His laws, and judging.
The Deistic idea that God is some divine watchmaker who set the world in motion, then left it to run its own course is foreign to the Bible.
When a king sat on his throne in David’s day, he was not relaxing, he was conducting business, taking council and making decisions.
And that throne is the “throne of His holiness.” English versions obscure this phrase a bit by putting the “his” before the word “throne,” but in the original language of this Psalm, the word “his” is attached to the word “holiness.” The throne itself is not holy; It is the holiness of His person which makes everything around Him holy. That becomes evident when you string together the previous instances of that phrase in the Psalms:
Psalm 3:4 “...I will call to Yahweh, and He will answer me from the mountain of His holiness.” (NAW)
Psalm 11:4 “Yahweh is in the temple of His holiness. As for Yahweh, His throne is in the heavens. His eyes see; His gazes will test Adam's descendants.” (NAW)
Psalm 20:6 “Now I know that Yahweh causes to save His anointed one; He will answer him from the heavens of His holiness with the saving mightinesses of His right hand.” (NAW)
Psalm 24:3 “Who will go up on Yahweh's mountain, and who will rise up in the location of His holiness?” (NAW)
Psalm 30:4 “Make music for Yahweh, you His godly ones, and respond to [the] remembrance of His holiness” (NAW)
Psalm 33:21 “for it is in Him that our heart is happy, because we have trusted in the name of His holiness.” (NAW)
Much as it was in David’s day, so it is still, that God’s reign is currently being conducted from heaven, so we do not see all the outworkings of it, but we can take courage that God is not ignoring what is going on down here; He is intimately aware of the problems we are facing, and He is actively working to make things right; it is just mostly invisible to us, and He is doing it on His own timescale, which is not in as much a hurry as ours. Our role is to enter into relationship, by faith, with this God who can’t be seen, using the directions from the Psalms: calling upon Him, accepting His judgments, participating in His holiness, remembering Him in prayer, singing praise to him, and joining His people in worship.
In the last verse of the psalm, God is being exalted by an assembly of personages. Two or three phrases are used to describe the congregation:
first is “The noblemen/princes of the peoples,”
then most English translations add a parallel phrase about “the people of the God of Abraham,”
and then there is the “shields/kings of the land.”
The “noblemen/princes” are those who are active in society and who have wealth that they give generously. They come to church to worship, and they support its ministry.
But note, that these are not just Jews; they are from the “peoples” (plural)! They are some of those of whom Jesus spoke when he said in Matthew 8:11 “...many from East and West will come and will be pulled up to the table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.”
The “shields” (erroneously translated “kings” in the NIV) are soldiers who carried shields as part of their armor2.
When these men came off the battlefield and lived in their hometowns, they would hang their shields up on a wall. Ezekiel 27:10 "Those from Persia, Lydia, and Libya Were in your army as men of war; They hung shield and helmet in you; They gave splendor to you.” (NKJV)
So when you walked into a palace, you could see how many warriors were guarding the king by how many shields were hanging on the wall. In Solomon’s palace were 500 shields (1 Kings 10:16-17) – approximately the number of his father David’s guard of Cherethites and Pelethites (2 Sam. 15:18). And he says to his beloved in Song of Solomon 4:4 “Your neck is like the tower of David, Built for an armory, On which hang a thousand bucklers, All shields of mighty men. (NKJV)
King Rehoboam, his son, instituted a ceremony with the shields in his palace which may relate directly to Psalm 37: 1 Kings 14:28 says that “King Rehoboam made bronze shields... and committed them to the hands of the captains of the guard, who guarded the doorway of the king's house. And whenever the king entered the house of the LORD, the guards carried them, then brought them back into the guardroom.” (NKJV) Perhaps the sons of Korah had seen this ceremony of the 500 royal guardsmen entering the house of the Lord with the king and were impressed at how these mighty men, who served their country, also worshipped God, carrying their bronze shields to show respect and honor to God.
Such pomp and ceremony can be taken too far, but it is worth considering whether the way you worship adorns the glory of God or detracts from it.
There is an ambiguous Hebrew word in the middle of the verse, translated “people” in most English versions, or “with” in a few English versions.
Putting it into context with the rest of the phrase, most English versions read “the nobles assembled as the people of the God of Abraham,” but a few read, “the nobles assembled together with the God of Abraham.”
The reason for this difference of interpretation is that, in Hebrew, the word for “people” and the word for “with” is spelled exactly the same except for one vowel difference, and vowels were not written into the Hebrew text until about 900 AD.
Prior to 900 AD, most folks considered the word to mean “with,” so that’s what the Eastern Syriac, Roman Vulgate, and Greek Septuagint, all translate the word as.
But the Enlightenment-era Masoretic scribes put the vowel for the word for “people” in their edition of the Hebrew Old Testament, so the modern versions based on that read “people.”
I am a traditionalist, so I lean toward the older tradition, and it also makes more sense to me in terms of the parallelism of the verse which equates the “noblemen” who are “with God,” with the “shields” who “belong to God.”
But either way, the logic of the sentence is that it is because the mighty-men belong to God that they assemble on God’s side, or gather as the people of the God of Abraham.
This is also the case for you and me. We worship God because we belong to Him.
1 John 4:19 “As for us, we love Him because HE first loved us.” (NAW)
1 Corinthians 6:20 “For y’all were bought at a price; therefore glorify God with your body and with your spirit, both of which belong to God.” (NAW)
1 Peter 1:18-19 “...knowing that it was not with perishable things – silver or gold – that y'all were ransomed out of your empty lifestyle... but rather it was with the precious blood from Christ...” (NAW)
That’s one reason why Jesus’ disciples called Him “Lord.” When He saves us, He becomes our master, and we belong to Him. We demonstrate that in the here-and-now by assembling with His people, the church.
We are also worshippers of the “God of Abraham,”
as the Apostle Paul explained in Galatians 3:6-14 “...Abraham ‘believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’ Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed.’ So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith…. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” (NKJV)
“When the doctrine of the Gospel was manifested and shone forth, it did not remove the Jews from the covenant which God had long before made with them. On the contrary, it has rather joined us to them. As then the calling of the Gentiles was nothing else than the means by which they were grafted and incorporated into the family of Abraham, the prophet justly states, that strangers or aliens from every direction were gathered together to the chosen people, that by such an increase the kingdom of God might be extended through all quarters of the globe.” ~J. Calvin
Thus God is exalted. “Exalted” is the same verb as the one in v.5 “God has gone up,” but in v.5, it is active, with God doing the “going up,” and here it is passive, meaning that He is lifted up by His people. Is this something you are participating in doing?
Back when this Psalm was written: “We know that there was a long interruption of the splendor of the kingdom of God’s ancient people, which continued from the death of Solomon to the coming of Christ. This interval formed, as it were, a gulf or chasm, which would have swallowed up the minds of the godly, had they not been supported and upheld by the Word of God. As, therefore, God exhibited in the person of David a type of the kingdom of Christ, which is here extolled, although there followed shortly after a sad and almost shameful diminution of the glory of David’s kingdom, then the most grievous calamities, and, finally, the captivity and a most miserable dispersion, which differed little from a total destruction, the Holy Spirit has exhorted the faithful to continue clapping their hands for joy, until the advent of the promised Redeemer.” ~J. Calvin
But for us now, “Psalm 47 offers a perspective of hope for those of us who may be enmeshed in… the contemporary world and all its brokenness… The foundation of the psalmist’s hopefulness is a vision of God as king… ‘God is king of all the earth!’ He has already become king … He has already taken a seat on his royal throne… God’s purposes move unhindered to their completion despite the chaotic brokenness of our world.”
Summary
Do you acknowledge this God as your God?
Do you relate to Him as your King?
Does He have your fear and respect?
Do you see Him as your master who purchased you with His blood and has all rights over you?
Will you praise Him and make music for Him, happy-clappy or thoughtfully-sober as is appropriate?
Will you gather with His people to worship Him?
Let us exalt God!
LXXB
|
Brenton (Vaticanus)C |
Vulgate (Ps. 46)D |
KJVE |
NASBF |
NIVG |
ESVH |
NAW |
Masoretic TxtI |
PeshittaJ |
1
Εἰς
τὸ τέλος·
ὑπὲρ τῶν υἱῶν Κορε ψαλμός. |
1
For the end,
a Psalm for the sons of Core. |
1
in finem
pro filiis Core psalmus |
1
To
the chief
Musician,
A Psalm for the sons of Korah.
|
1
For
the choir
director.
A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
|
1
For the director
of
music.
Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm. |
1
To
the choirmaster.
A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.
Clap [your]
hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud
|
1
For
the concertmaster,
by the sons of Korah. A
psalm. |
א
לַמְנַצֵּחַ
לִבְנֵי
קֹרַח מִזְמוֹר. |
|
3 ὅτι κύριος ὕψιστος φοβερός, βασιλεὺς μέγας ἐπὶ πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν. |
2 For the Lord most high is terrible; he is a great king over all the earth. |
3 quoniam Dominus excelsus terribilis rex magnus super omnem terram |
2 For the LORD most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth. |
2 For the LORD Most High is to be feared, A great King over all the earth. |
2
|
2 For the LORD, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth. |
2 because Yahweh the Most-High is to be respected. He is the great king over all the earth! |
ג כִּי יְהוָה עֶלְיוֹן נוֹרָאO מֶלֶךְP גָּדוֹל עַל כָּל הָאָרֶץ. |
3 מטל דמריא מרימא ודחילא הויו מלכא רבא על כלה ארעא |
4 ὑπέταξεν λαοὺς X ἡμῖν καὶ ἔθνη ὑπὸ τοὺς πόδας ἡμῶν· |
3 He has subdued the peoples under us, and the nations under our feet. |
4 subiecit populos X nobis et gentes sub pedibus nostris |
3 He shall subdue the peopleX under us, and the nations under our feet. |
3 He subdues peoples under us And nations under our feet. |
3 He subdued nations under us, peoples under our feet. |
3 He subdued peoples under us, and nations under our feet. |
3 He decrees peoples to be beneath us, and nationalities to beneath our feet. |
ד יַדְבֵּרQ עַמִּים תַּחְתֵּינוּR וּלְאֻמִּיםS תַּחַת רַגְלֵינוּ. |
4 דשׁעבד לן עממא תחותין ואמותא תחות רגלין |
5
ἐξελέξατο ἡμῖν
τὴν κληρονομίαν |
4
He has
chosen out |
5
elegit nobis hereditatem |
4 He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Selah. |
4 He chooses our inheritance for us, The glory of Jacob whom He loves. Selah. |
4 He chose our inheritance for us, the pride of Jacob, whom he loved. Selah |
4 He chose our heritage for us, the pride of Jacob whom he loves. Selah |
4 He chooses for us to be His inheritance, the majesty of Jacob whom He loves. Selah |
ה יִבְחַר לָנוּ אֶת נַחֲלָתֵנוּU אֶת גְּאוֹן יַעֲקֹב אֲשֶׁר אָהֵבV סֶלָהW. |
5
אגבין
ירתות |
6 ἀνέβη ὁ θεὸς ἐν ἀλαλαγμῷ, κύριος ἐν φωνῇ σάλπιγγος. |
5 God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with a sound of a trumpet. |
6 ascendit Deus in iubilo Dominus in voce tubae |
5 God is gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet. |
5 God has ascended with a shout, The LORD, with the sound of a trumpet. |
5 God has ascended amid shout[s of joy], the LORD amid the sounding of trumpet[s]. |
5 God has gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet. |
5 Yahweh-God went up with fanfare - with the sound of a shofar-horn! |
6
סלק
אלהא |
|
7 ψάλατε τῷ θεῷ [ἡμῶν], ψάλατε, ψάλατε τῷ βασιλεῖ ἡμῶν, ψάλατε, |
6 Sing praises to [our] God, sing praises: sing praises to our King, sing praises. |
7 psallite Deo [nostro] psallite psallite regi nostro psallite |
6 Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises. |
6 Sing praises to God, sing praises; Sing praises to our King, sing praises. |
6 Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises. |
6 Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! |
6 Make music for God; make music! Make music for our King! Make music, |
ז זַמְּרוּZ אֱלֹהִים זַמֵּרוּ זַמְּרוּ לְמַלְכֵּנוּ זַמֵּרוּ. |
7
זמרו
לאלהא
|
8 ὅτι βασιλεὺς πάσης τῆς γῆς ὁ θεός, ψάλατε συνετῶςAA. |
7 For God is king of all the earth: sing praises with understanding. |
8 quoniam rex omnis terrae Deus psallite sapienter |
7 For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding. |
7 For God is the King of all the earth; Sing praises with a skillful psalm. |
7 For God is the King of all the earth; sing to him a psalm of praise. |
7 For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm! |
7 because God is the King of all the earth! Make music thoughtfully. |
8
מטל
דמלכא דכלה ארעא אלהא הו
זמרו לה
|
|
9 ἐβασίλευσεν ὁ θεὸς ἐπὶ τὰ ἔθνη, ὁ θεὸς κάθηται ἐπὶ θρόνου ἁγίου αὐτοῦ. |
8 God reigns over the nations: God sits upon the throne of his holiness. |
9 regnavit Deus super gentes Deus sedit super sedem sanctam suam |
8 God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness. |
8 God reigns over the nations, God sits on His holy throne. |
8
God reigns over the nations; God is seat |
8 God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne. |
8 God has become king over the nations; it is God who sits upon the throne of His holiness. |
ט מָלַךְCC אֱלֹהִים עַל גּוֹיִם אֱלֹהִים יָשַׁב עַל כִּסֵּא קָדְשׁוֹ. |
9 אמלך אלהא על עממא אלהא יתב על כורסיה קדישׁאDD |
10
ἄρχοντες λαῶν
συνήχθησαν |
9
The rulers
of the people are assembled |
10
principes populorum
congregati sunt |
9 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. |
9 The princes of the people have assembled themselves as the people of the God of Abraham, For the shields of the earth belong to God; He is highly exalted. |
9
The nobles
of the nations assemble [as]
the people of the God of Abraham, for the
|
9 The princes of the peoples gather [as] the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God; he is highly exalted! |
9 The noblemen of the peoples have been gathered together with the God of Abraham, because the military-offficers of the land belong to God. He is greatly exalted. |
י נְדִיבֵי עַמִּים נֶאֱסָפוּ עַםGG אֱלֹהֵי אַבְרָהָם כִּי לֵאלֹהִים מָגִנֵּיHH אֶרֶץ מְאֹד נַעֲלָה. |
10
שׁליטנא
דעממא |
1John Gill noted that even the Jewish commentary, Bemidbar Rabba, s. 15. fol. 218. 1, saw this as a Messianic prophecy.
2Other Bible verses which use the word “shield” to represent a “soldier” are Judges 5:8, 2 Kings 19:32, 1 Chron. 5:18, 2 Chron. 14:8, 17:17, Psalm 76:3, Proverbs 6:11. It seems to represent a “ruler” in Hosea 4:18 and Psalm 89:19.
AMy
original chart includes the NASB, NIV, and ESV, but their copyright
restrictions force me to remove them from the publicly-available
edition of this chart. (NAW is my translation.) When a translation
adds words not in the Hebrew text, but does not indicate it has done
so by the use of italics (or greyed-out text), I put the added words
in [square brackets]. When one version chooses a wording which is
different from all the other translations, I underline it.
When a version chooses a translation which, in my opinion, either
departs too far from the root meaning of the Hebrew word or departs
too far from the grammar form of the original text, I use strikeout.
And when a version omits a word which is in the original text, I
insert an X. (I also place an X at the end of a word if the original
word is plural but the English translation is singular.) I
occasionally use colors to help the reader see correlations between
the various editions and versions when there are more than two
different translations of a given word. The only known Dead Sea
Scroll containing Psalm 47 is 4Q83 Psalmsa, which
contains only a fragment of v.1 (highlighted in purple). Where the
DSS or Vulgate and Peshitta support the LXX with text not in the MT,
I have highlighted with
yellow the LXX and its translation into English. Where the
Peshitta adds words, I greyed out those words.
BThis Greek New Testament is the 1904 "Patriarchal" edition of the Greek Orthodox Church. The Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine majority text of the GNT and the Textus Receptus are very similar. The Westcott-Hort, Nestle-Aland, and UBS editions are a slightly-different family of GNTs developed in the modern era as a break from the traditional Greek Bible by compiling just a few of the oldest-known manuscripts, but even so, the practical differences in the text between these two editing philosophies are minimal.
CEnglish translation of the Septuagint by Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton, 1851. “based upon the text of the Vaticanus” but not identical to the Vaticanus. As published electronically by E-Sword.
DJerome's Latin Vulgate w/ Deuterocanon using Gallican Psalter, 405 AD. As published electronically by E-Sword.
E1769 King James Version of the Holy Bible; public domain. As published electronically by E-Sword.
FScripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
GScripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
HScripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
IFrom
the Wiki Hebrew Bible
https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%AA%D7%94%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%9D_%D7%9E%D7%96/%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%AA
.
DSS text comes from
https://downloads.thewaytoyahuweh.com/pdf/dead_sea_scrolls/DSS_-_4Q83Psalmsa.pdf
JThe Leiden Peshitta, Copyright © 2012 by The Peshitta Foundation c/o Leiden University Institute for Religious Studies, as published electronically in BibleWorks. I have greyed out words that are added to the MT text and colored orange words which are different from the MT.
KBasic
meaning is to hit/strike/pitch something so that it goes into
something else, whether a tent-peg going into the ground, a peg for
hanging things on a wall, or a weapon into a man’s body, or a
trumpet-blast that enters the consciousness of persons, or a
striking of hands that seals a contract and binds business parties
together. Most of the incidences of this word in the Bible refer to
“blowing” a horn, but, of the five other passages which mention
“hands” along with this verb, four (Job 17:3, Prov. 6:1, 17:28,
22:26) put this phrase in synonymous parallelism with the verb ערב
“bind in pledge, become surety,” and the
fifth is in Nahum 3:19 “Your injury has no healing, Your wound is
severe. All who hear news of you Will clap their hands over
you, For upon whom has not your wickedness passed continually?”
(KJV)
“Hands” appears with other verbs also translated
“clap” in Psalm 98:8 and Isa. 55:12 (both of which use the
synonym מחה
for “clap” in parallel with “shout for
joy” רנן),
and in 2 Kings 11:12 (the synonym נכה
for “clap” in parallel with “saying ‘Long live
the king’” ) There is much similarity here to Psalm 98.
LThis kind of “cheering” occurs in three contexts in the Bible: 1) Religious (1 Sam. 4:5 – when the ark entered the camp, Ezra 3:11 – when the temple foundation was finished), 2) Political (1 Sam. 10:24 – at a coronation, cf. 2 Ki. 11:12), and 3) Military (1 Samuel 17:20 - cheering about the battle, Psalm 41:12 – not getting to cheer in victory)
MThe previous two uses of this noun referred to singing: Psalm 30:5 & 42:4 (cf. 118:15 and Isa. 14:7; 35:10; 44:23; 48:20 – one of the three other passages in the Bible which uses the same phrase “sound of singing”; 49:13; 51:11; 54:1; 55:12).
NPeshitta reads “all you peoples” instead of the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin “all the peoples.” The definite article can be interpreted pronomially, however, so the Peshitta is not wrong, and that is also how the KJV and NIV interpreted it.
OKJV and NIV follow the Syriac, Septuagint, and Vulgate in translating this participle as an attributive adjective in parallel with “most high,” but NASB and ESV interpret it as a verb in the chain of imperatives from the previous verse. Either is a reasonable interpretation.
PKJV, NASB, and ESV attempt to carry over the absence of a definite article before “king” in the Hebrew with the English indefinite article “a,” but when a king reigns over “all the earth,” there is only one such king, and it is appropriate to use the definite article “the” to describe Him, as the NIV did. KJV, Brenton, and ESV start the sentence with “He is” which is explicitly in the Peshitta, but merely implicit in the Hebrew grammar.
QThis verb (and the next which opens v.4) is in the Hebrew Imperfect tense, normally translated into the English Present or Future tense, but the Peshitta, Vulgate, Septuagint, NIV, and ESV all translate it as though it were Perfect/Aorist/Past tense. I would agree if it were in a chain with a perfect-tense verb, but it follows two imperatives and a participle, and seems to start a new direction of thought, so I see no grammatical reason to translate it in the past tense. Keil & Delitzsch’s reason for translating it in past tense was particularly weak (“choosing is … not a continued act, we are therefore driven to regard the futures... as a statement of historical facts”). Interpreting it as future is ruled out by logic, which leaves the habitual sense of the imperfect as the most likely interpretation. Calvin preferred to interpret it “set in order” (range in his native French); Matthew Henry explained it as “bring in.”
RCf. same phrase in Psalm 18:47 “This God is the One who deals out retributions for me and decrees [most English translations read “subdues”] peoples to be under me,” (NAW) It is the only other place where this Hebrew verb DBR is in the Hiphil stem, and it is the only other place in the O.T. where this word (the root meaning of which is to “speak”) is commonly translated “subdue” in English versions. It appears to me that English translators have transferred the prepositional phrase “under me/us” to the meaning of the verb and ignored its original meaning. The harm is not great, but it does appear to be somewhat careless.
SThis word is less-common than its synonyms עַמִּים (used synonymously here and Gen. 27:29, Ps. 7:7, etc) and גוים (used synonymously in Gen 25:23, Ps. 44:2, etc.), and all 3 occur synonymously in Psalm 67. TWOT explained its distinctive meaning in terms “togetherness, i.e. the common people considered as a whole... definable groups.” Gerald Wilson defined it as “heritage.”
TAquilla and Symmachus both translated ημων (“of us”) instead of “of Him,” demonstrating that the MT variant was around as early as the second century A.D., but the Vulgate and Peshitta both read “of him.”
UThe Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Syriac versions read “chosen us to be his inheritance” instead of the MT “chosen for us our inheritance.” This would mean interpreting the penultimate nun as euphonic rather than as part of the pronomial suffix, both common functions of that Hebrew letter. The only other verse in the Bible which contains this Hebrew verb bhr and noun nhl is Psalm 33:12 “... He chose for an inheritance for Himself!” The NT does not contain this combination of the Greek verb and object here, but Ephesians, which contains the most references to “inheritance” of any NT book reads in chapter 1 vs. 14 & 18 “Who is a down-payment of the inheritance of us into redemption of His possession into praise of His glory… what the wealth of the glory of His inheritance in the saints is…” (NAW) This supports the reading of the ancient versions.
VThis is a perfect verb which follows an imperfect in sequence, so takes on the same meaning as the imperfect.
WGerald Wilson, in his commentary, noted that this divides the psalm into two stanzas of 10 lines each. Each stanza containing a command to praise, a statement of the kingship of God over all the earth and of the subjection of the peoples to Him, and both using the verb “go up” in regard to God.
XThe only other place in the Bible that “voice of shophar” appears is Amos 2:2 which also has the same verb for “shout:” “...Moab shall die with tumult, With shouting and trumpet sound.” (NKJV) The verb “went up” is past tense in Psalm 47, so it can’t be referring to the same event in Amos; Amos must have borrowed the language from the Psalm. Most likely, this is a reference to David bring the ark to Jerusalem in 2 Samuel 6:15/1 Chron. 15:28 (cf. King Asa’s later replication of this in 2 Chron. 15:14). Other occasions involving both “fanfare/shout” and “shofar/trumpet” are Lev. 25:9 (Jubilee holiday announcement); Josh. 6:5 & 20 (attack on Jericho), Job 39:25 (characteristics of the warhorse); Jer. 4:19 (war-lament); and Zeph. 1:16 (day of wrath). Augustine, in his analogical style of interpretation, connected this sound with that of the angels who affirmed the ascension of Christ in Acts 1, and John Gill was emphatic that this verse was about the ascension: “the passage here refers to the times following the ascension of Christ to heaven, when he went forth in the ministry of his apostles conquering and to conquer; and which he made use of to cause the people to fall under him, and to be willing to be saved by him… who through the Gospel preached by them became obedient by word and deed.” K&D, however, interpreted this as a “recent act of God” which had happened in the past, perhaps the decimation of the Moabite and Ammonite army before Jehoshapat in 2 Chron. 20:26.
YBoth Lamsa and Bauscher translated this “glory” – note recurrences in the next verses as well (curiously omitted by Lamsa in the next verse, and omitted by both Lamsa and Bauscher in the following verse).
ZIn a startling disagreement with the NIV Bible, Gerald Wilson wrote in the NIV Application Commentary, “The NIV’s translation of zmr as ‘sing praises’ ignores the fact that the term has more to do with playing an instrument than producing vocal music.”
AAAq. & Sym chose the synonym επιστημονως (“understanding”) for their translations.
BB“with
understanding, not to seek the sound of the ear, but the light of
the heart.” ~Augustine
“Calvin (like Montanus) renders this
word in the Latin version by intelligens and in the French by
entendu … understandeth... Adam Clarke reads, ‘Sing an
instructive song;’ and observes, ‘Let sense and sound go
together. Let your hearts and heads go with your voices.’”
~James Anderson, annotator of Calvin’s commentary published in the
1840’s.
Fausset = “instructive” G.Wilson = “didactic”
De
Dieu “to Him that understandeth,” R. Obadiah, "of Him who
understands" (referring to God rather than us)
Targum =
"with a good understanding," followed by Gill.
CC“Literally it is, ‘He hath reigned;’ but as the verb מלך malach, is in the past tense, which in Hebrew denotes a continued act, we have translated it, ‘He hath obtained the kingdom.’” ~Calvin
DDTargums and Peshitta appear to move “his” to modify “throne” instead of “holiness.” The Greek preserves the Hebrew grammar that uses “his” to modify “holiness.”
EEChrysostom and Aquila appear to have agreed with interpreting the Hebrew עם as “with,” but Symmachus and Theodotion and Eusebius interpreted it as λαος (“people”).
FFAquilla translated this literally θυρεοι (“shields”), Symmachus and Theodotian figuratively υπερασπισμοι (“protectors”).
GGWithout the vowel pointing, this word could be the preposition “with” or the noun “people.” The Greek, Latin, and Syriac translators all took this word to be the preposition (as did the Geneva “unto”), but most English translations followed the Masoretic pointing and translated it as a noun. The NET Bible translated it both ways (“with the people”).
HHAlthough God is referred to as the singular “shield” of His people in the first two instances in the Pentateuch (Gen. 15:1, Deut. 33:21, cf. Psalms 3,7, 18, 28, 33, 59, 84, 115, 119, 144), the plural “shields” was metonymy for “soldiers.” Here it is parallel to “nobles/princes.” See footnote 11 for other scripture passages which indicate soldiers by their shields. The Latin, Syriac, and Greek all translated this word figuratively as “powers/dominions/forces” instead of literally “shields.”
II“[re]turned” – this is different from the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin “gathered/assembled/congregated”
JJLamsa as well as Bauscher translated this word together with the next as “dominions.”