God the King of the Earth.
For the choir director. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
47 O clap your hands, all peoples;
Shout to God with the voice of [a]joy.
2 For the Lord Most High is to be feared,
A great King over all the earth.
3 He subdues peoples under us
And nations under our feet.
4 He chooses our inheritance for us,
The glory of Jacob whom He loves. [b]Selah.5 God has ascended [c]with a shout,
The Lord, [d]with the sound of a trumpet.
6 Sing praises to God, sing praises;
Sing praises to our King, sing praises.
7 For God is the King of all the earth;
Sing praises with a [e]skillful psalm.
8 God reigns over the nations,
God [f]sits on His holy throne.
9 The [g]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 [h]is highly exalted.
In this song of praise, two verses especially emphasize the sovereignty of God. Of course, in verse 3 God subdues peoples and nations, but in verse 4 he “chooses our inheritance”? The writer was likely thinking of the land they lived in, which had been promised and given to the people of Israel by God himself.
The psalm continues with praises to God until verse 9 where we are told “the shields of the earth belong to God”. All of it speaks to one single fact: the earth, and everything in it, belongs to God. We are stewards, entrusted with whatever God chooses as our “inheritance”. Which is a good thing, because he knows what is best for us, and wants what is best for us.
Even our very lives are a gift from God, to be used wisely and not squandered. Even more, he has redeemed our lives with the death of his Son, so that we are no longer slaves to sin. As Paul would later write, “we were bought with a price, we are not our own.” And we never were, for once we were slaves to our flesh, but in Christ, we are children of the King.
So then, how do we respond? Read it one more time, we sing praises to God, sing praises to our King, sing praises to our Father, who sits on His holy throne. Sing praises to the one who laid down His life to redeem our own lives, for He is worthy and highly exalted.