Devotional Short Note to Psalm 47: Hengstenberg is a great scholar on Psalms because of his utter rejection of people who tried to minimize miracles and God in the writings of the Bible and those who honors humanism and reason as a substitute for God’s actions in history. But on this Psalm, unfortunately, because he was not an Adventist and did not have an Adventist “prophetic understanding”, he could not fully understood this Psalm because Korah had a developed “prophetic understanding” similar or even identical to what Adventism in the Developmental history of Christianity have. Each generation had their chance to make a contribution but this age since 1844, is the Three Angels Messages of Adventists and their understanding of the Interpretation of Prophecy.

Are there prophetic elements in the Psalms? Are they not only in prophetic books? W. H. Bellinger studied it in 1984 and was convinced that there are prophetic elements in some poems of the Psalms. He noticed the correlation between Psalm 46 and Habakkuk 3 which all good readers of the Bible will see is the Second Coming of Christ and the Hell event after the millennium.

Preterists are those who put on “past glasses” and wish to see the event as happened sometime in the past: victory of Hezekiah over the Philistines in 2 Kings 18:8 (Hitzig); removing the ark in the days of David and Solomon; ascension of Christ; and then the theory that Hengstenberg himself favored, namely, the victory of Jehosaphat over the combined forces of the Moabites, Edomites, Ammonites and Arabians in 2 Chronicles 20. They prefer to use the history genre of the Bible to explain the prophecies. This approach is what links Reformed Theology, Charismatic Theology, Catholic Theology and Jewish Theology to sing common tunes at the Society of Biblical Literature meetings every year. Their Bible commentaries are packed with these explanations. “Two men sat behind bars – the one saw mud – the other one stars”.

The occasion of this Psalm is a past subduing of nations by the Lord Who is “King over all the earth” (47:3b). There is only one time that the Lord is King over the whole earth and that is when all evil are destroyed in the Hell before the earth is created anew. That is after the Door of Mercy closes since that is the time Christ receives the kingship from the Father and the rest of the Trinity. “He chooses for us an inheritance” (47:5a) which is Christ’s promise in John 14:1-3 “I am going to prepare you a place and when I am done I will come again and take you there so that you can also be where I am”. All sons of God through Jesus acceptance of salvation qualifies for this testament of property awaiting. He sealed it with His blood, the blood of the covenant He made with humans.

The Kingship of God universal over the earth is again in 47:8a repeated in 47:9a. That God is the victorious Warrior is clear in Psalm 47:10c that “for to God are the shields of the earth”. All military excellence is in the hand of God. No longer war-economies and warmongering. The last final Battle of God on the Day of the Lord is over and that was Hell. The Warrior Messiah won. The Battle is completed. It is at this time that saints “they will clap a hand, all the peoples” (literal translation recognizing the future verbal form) (47:2a) and continuing this future event “cause shouting to God in a voice of victory” (47:2b). Final absolute victory is over. It is not the victory at the cross in 31 CE and now the singing must be because of that event, it is when all is done and all evil eradicated and the time arrived for Christ to create this earth anew.

The scene of the Battle is described in vivid pictures by Zephaniah in 1:2 until the “fire” of 1:18. The sitting God in the Investigative Judgment (Daniel 7:9) who then will stand-up in Daniel 12:1 during the Time of Jacob’s Trouble to complete the Advent in majesty as the King of Kings (Habakkuk 3) and to Resurrect (Daniel 12:1-3). Says Zephaniah: “wait for Me, says the Lord, for the day that I will rise up to meet [at the Second Coming]. For it is My judgment to assemble nations [Executive Judgment after the millennium] to pour out My fury upon them, yes, all the kindling of My wrath, for with the fire” (Zephaniah 3:8). Korah continued with his poem is Psalm citing prophetic scenes: “He will subdue [a future verb is used and secondly, the root is the ‘word’ which means He will speak and it will be] peoples under us, and to nations under our feet” (Psalm 47:4a-b). “Us” and “our” is the view from the perspective of the faithful of all ages or spiritual Israel and not physical Israel in any generation.

They are the “pride of Jacob whom He loves” (Psalm 47:5b). This is an emoticon of God popping up in this Psalm of Korah donated by his sons for the collection. This love-emoticon is also used by Isaiah in Isaiah 43:4a-b where the synonymous dictionary that Isaiah is using for this chapter explains that to be “in My sight” means for God “I love You”.

Why the “pride of Jacob”? The Time of Trouble of Daniel 12:1 at the End of Time is the Time of Jacob’s Trouble since the remnant will be without a Mediator in Heaven and similar to the experience of Jacob they will cling to the Lord symbolically and say, I will not let You go, in the agony of their minds. But, God is proud of them. They shine for Him during this period beautifully.

A Selah is used by Korah to indicate that the citation ends here at the end of verse 4. In verse 5 he continues another scene and shift in the process that day. When Christ returns from the Battle in Psalm 46 also, the saints are shouting. It is noisy of excitement. “God goes up in shouting, the Lord in the sound of a shofar” (47:6a-b). This is not temple or tabernacle services in mind here, but this Battle of the Lord in the Eschaton or Hell perspective. God goes up, not Jesus in the ascension as some would try to explain, but the enemies of God is in the Valley of Decision and the saints are in Mount Zion or the New Jerusalem. He returns from the Battle and Psalm 24 asks that the gates should lift and be opened for the King of Glory mighty in Battle can come in. The saints then want to sing songs to the Lord, to God, “our King” to praise Him.

The handclapping in 47:2 had been used by Charismatic movements to honor their handclapping rhythmic musical performances that helps mesmerize and blend everyone into an unified mass “drunk with the spirit”. What spirit is not always clear but this is out of context here. Handclapping in the Bible is reserved for the fall of an enemy in battle and especially the fall of evil at the final Eschaton Battle of God or Hell event, as here portrayed. This is the conclusion not only of ‘some narrow-minded Adventists’ but many other serious Bible analyzers in other denominations. Handclapping in church actually invites demons to take over the service. It destabilize the work of the Holy Spirit in the church and change the event into a pure cultural or entertainment affair. It is sometimes remarkable that the very parts of the world that do not want to accept this principle are the very ones who are rebellious in pursuit of culture over the biblical text on woman ordination and LGBTHQ issues. Christ indeed said that there are two ways and it seems even in the church that principle applies. The seed and the weed will grow side by side until the Time of Trouble.

The reason in Psalm that praises should be given to God, is not because Jehosaphat had victory over nations of current Jordan or the ark came back in David or Solomon’s day, but “for God is the King of all the earth” (Psalm 47:8a). This is no metaphor due to excitement here. It is not virtual reality but reality. King of the whole earth is when evil is obliterated. Eradicated Atonement is then absolutely completed. Atonement has many phases and this will be the final phase. It is not God helping Jehosaphat in his day over Ammon, Edom, Moab and Arabians but “God reigns upon the nations” and “sits upon His Holy throne” (47:9a-b). He was standing-up, He went out, He came down to resurrect, He went back to Zion and New Jerusalem in Heaven with the saints, He sat down on a throne and they sat next to Him one by one for a 1000 years so that He can dry their eyes for their absent loved ones, then He stands up again, come down to Battle and “go up” (`alah) (Psalm 47:6a) to sit down on the throne again as King of Kings reigning over the Universe, including this stolen planet.

Gathered together around His throne are the princes of peoples and the people of the God of Abraham, a remnant and an enlarged remnant which became bigger at the Latter Rain event Says Isaiah 43 about this global gathering at the Latter Rain: “everyone who is called by My name” (Isaiah 43:7a). This gathering is reserved for the time of the Latter Rain since it coincides with the time of the condition of the Laodicea remnant, blind and deaf and the gathering is also during that time “all the nations have gathered together in order that the peoples may be assembled” (Isaiah 43:9). It is a future prediction and not like preterism tries to explain (Isaiah 43:9c-d).

After the Hell event, says Isaiah 43:15-17 God will create everything new (Isaiah 43:18). See the absolute elimination in Isaiah 43:17c-d “the army and the mighty man they will lie down together not rise again”. Absolute finality of Hell and not metaphors of virtual reality. God is greatly exalted (Psalm 47:10d).