Psalms 47

Psalms 42:72

Gordon Churchyard

Words in boxes are from the Bible.

Words marked with a *star are described in the word list at the end.

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The City of God

Psalms 46; Psalms 47 and 48

Jesus said, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you killed the *prophets and put to death the people that (God) sent to you. I often wanted to bring you together, *like a mother bird that brings her young birds together under her *wings. But you would not come". (Matthew 23:37) (A *prophet speaks for God. A *wing is what a bird flies with.)

The Story of Psalms 46; Psalms 47 and 48

We do not know who wrote these 3 psalms. We do not know when their author wrote them. (The author is the person that writes something.) What we do know is that something happened that saved the city of Jerusalem. What was it?

We are not sure, but many Christians and Jews think that it was when Sennacherib attacked Jerusalem. This was in 701 *BC. BC means "years Before Christ came to the earth". Sennacherib was the king of Assyria. Assyria was a strong country, and an enemy of Jerusalem. Assyria attacked Jerusalem in 701 *BC. But God *protected the city. (*Protect is another word for "keep safe".) One night, 185 000 Assyrian soldiers died. We do not know why. It was a strange illness, but we do not know what it was. This is what the Bible says in 2 Kings 19:34-36:

v​​34 (God said) ‘I will *protect this city and I will save it. (I will do this) for myself and for my servant David’.

v​​35 So, it happened that night that the *angel of the *LORD went out. In the place where the Assyrians were, he killed 185 000 (of them). When the others woke up in the morning, they saw all the dead bodies.

v​​36 So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, went away. He went and returned to Nineveh, where he lived.

If Psalms 46:48 are from this date, then perhaps the author was the *prophet Isaiah. Many of the words in these psalms are also words that Isaiah used in his book, but not many other Bible writers used.

But it does not matter who wrote these psalms. What is important is that they tell us that God can *protect his city. The city of Jerusalem is a picture of God’s people. God can *protect his own people! If you want to know more about Jerusalem, read Psalms 87 in this set of psalms.

Psalms 47

(This is) for the (music) leader.
(It is) for the *sons of Korah.
(It is) a psalm.

v1 Peoples from every (country), *clap your hands (together).
Shout aloud to God with the sound of happy singing.

v2 Because the *LORD *Most High is wonderful.
(He is) the Great King of all the earth.

v3 He won the fight against peoples (that were our enemies).
He put their soldiers under our feet.

v4 He chose for us the place where we live.
Jacob, that he loved, is very happy with it. *SELAH

v5 God has gone up with a great noise.
The *LORD (has gone up) with the sound of a *shofar.

v6 Sing *praises to God, sing *praises!
Sing *praises to our king, sing *praises!

v7 Because God is the King of the whole earth.
Sing (to him) a *maskil.

v8 God is ruling over the *nations.
God is sitting on his *holy *throne.

v9 People that want to be his servants
have joined the people that belong to Abraham’s God.
The people that rule the earth belong to God.
(They lifted God up) very high.

*Praise

The Hebrew word for this is zamar, from which we get our word "psalm". Remember, we pronounce "psalm" as "sarm". We pronounce "zamar" as "sarmar". So, psalm means *praise!

What Psalms 47 means

Korah is after Psalms 43 in this set of psalms and *SELAH is in What Psalms 46 means, verses 1-3. The other two Hebrew words in this translation are "*shofar" and "*maskil". A *shofar was something that made music. We would call it a "*musical instrument". It made a loud noise that told soldiers that it was time to fight. In verse 5 servants of God, called *priests, blew the *shofars. It was a way of giving God *praises. The Jews called some of the psalms "*maskils". Psalms 42 and 44 are examples. We are not sure what the word means. We think that it means that it teaches us something important.

The important verse in this psalm is verse 5. It says, "God has gone up". Where has he gone to? Where did he go up from? To understand, we must go back to Psalms 46. There, we said that God saved Jerusalem from an enemy, perhaps Assyria. To do this, the Jews believed that God came down from *heaven, to Jerusalem. *Heaven is where God lives. We do not know where it is. After God had beaten the enemy, he went back up to *heaven. So, "God has gone up" means that he has gone up from Jerusalem, back into *heaven. It was the people who made the great noise. They were so happy that God had saved them that they shouted and sang. They also made a noise by *clapping their hands together. Today we call this "applause".

Verse 9 is interesting. It tells us that people who are not Jews have joined with the Jews. Together, they *praise and *worship God. *Worship means that they love God, and so they want to obey him. It also means that they are a bit afraid of God. Some people show this by getting down on their knees in front of God. We call this "kneeling". It does not matter who we are, we can all *worship God. We only have to "want to be his servants".

For centuries, Christians have sung this psalm on Ascension Day. That is the day when Christians remember Jesus going up to *heaven. Jesus did what God did in the psalm. He came down to the earth, he saved us from our enemy, and he went back up after he had finished his work. Our enemy is not Assyria, but death. If we believe in Jesus, we will live with Jesus *for ever when we leave this earth. That is why Christians love Psalms 47:6.

This publication is written in EasyEnglish Level A (1200 words)

July 2001

prophet ~ someone who speaks for God (makes a prophecy).
like ~ another word for ‘as’.
wings ~ what a bird uses to fly with.
BC ~ years Before Christ came to the earth.
protect ~ stop an enemy hurting or killing someone.
protect ~ stop an enemy hurting or killing someone.
angel ~ a servant of God (usually) in heaven.
heaven ~ the home of God.
LORD ~ a special name for God; only his people use it (look after Psalm 25 in Psalms 1-41).
lord ~ someone with authority (with a capital L a name for God, look after Psalm 25 in Psalms 1-41).'sons of Korah ~ the people that sang in the Temple (look in Psalm 43).
temple ~ a special building where people worship God.
worship ~ say that someone is very wonderful.
clap ~ hit the fronts of your hands together a lot.'Most High ~ a name for God which means that he is very important.
shofar ~ a horn from the head of a cow; when you blew into it, it made music; an early trumpet.
horn ~ on the head of animals like cows and goats.
like ~ another word for ‘as’.
praises ~ saying good things about someone, and how great they are.
maskil ~ a psalm that teaches you something.
nation ~ a group of people (or a country) with a government.
holy ~ very very good; only God is really holy (because he always obeys his rules); Jerusalem was holy because people worshipped God there.
worship ~ say that someone is very wonderful.
throne ~ a special chair that a king or queen sits on.
queen ~ the wife of a king.
praise ~ (noun, or being something) words that say that someone or something is very good.
praise ~ (verb, or doing something) say that someone or something is very good.
praise ~ (noun, or being something) words that say that someone or something is very good.
praise ~ (verb, or doing something) say that someone or something is very good.
priest ~ servant of a god in a temple (here servant of true God).
temple ~ a special building where people worship God.
worship ~ say that someone is very wonderful.
heaven ~ the home of God.
heaven ~ the home of God.
worship ~ say that someone is very wonderful.
worship ~ say that someone is very wonderful.'