Bible Reflections From Scripture Union Volume OneSample

Worship the Exalted King!
Read Psalm 47:1-9

‘… for the kings of the earth belong to God; he is greatly exalted.’ Psalm 47:9b

Joy and jubilation dominate this psalm. And it gets somewhat noisy: ‘Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy’ (v 1).

The Lord is King!
Some scholars hold that this psalm was written to celebrate an annual festival which dramatised God’s power over His enemies and His kingship over all the earth. But we do not have to be confined to a festival to celebrate God’s greatness. When was the last time the congregation you worship with celebrated His greatness with explosive claps and shouts?

The Lord is God of the nations.
The Israelites often thought themselves as exclusively God’s people but the Psalms repeatedly remind us that God is God of the nations of the world. All nations are called to praise Him (vs 1-3, 7-9). In many of our churches, peoples from different nations of the world join us to worship the Lord each Sunday. Ask the pastor/church leaders if representatives of the different nations in your congregation could dress in their national clothes and come up front at the start of next week’s worship service. Then read this psalm aloud, together.

The Lord is highly exalted!
The emphatic theme of this psalm, as it is in Psalm 46, is the majestic glory and the exaltation of the Lord. We would seek God and know Him to gain fulfilment of our plans. But God wants us to seek Him and know Him as God who is exalted in all the earth (46:10). Be directed to His glory, not the fulfilment of our plans. Be directed to gaze, not on the assembled peoples of the earth, wonderful as that may be, but on the Lord – He is greatly exalted (v 9)!

What steps do we need to take, as a congregation, to turn our gaze away from man to the Lord, who alone is highly exalted?