gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural absolute
reigneth
מָלַ֣ךְma.Lakh
H4427
to reign · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
heathen
גּוֹיִ֑םgo.Yim
H1471
a foreign nation · noun, common masculine plural absolute
God
אֱ֝לֹהִ֗ים'E.lo.Him
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural absolute
sitteth
יָשַׁ֤בya.Shav
H3427
properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
throne
כִּסֵּ֬אki.Se'
H3678
properly · noun, common masculine singular construct
holiness
קָדְשֽׁוֹka.de.Sho
H6944
a sacred place or thing · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 Chronicles 16:31 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice: and let men say among the nations, The LORD reigneth.
Revelation 19:6 And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alle…
Psalms 45:6-7 Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre.
Psalms 93:1 The LORD reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the LORD is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the world also is stabli…
Psalms 9:4 For thou hast maintained my right and my cause; thou satest in the throne judging right.
Psalms 22:27-29 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
Psalms 89:14 Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.
Psalms 96:10 Say among the heathen that the LORD reigneth: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: he shall judge the people righ…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 47:5–end
We are here most earnestly pressed to praise God, and to sing his praises; so backward are we to this duty that we have need to be urged to it by precept upon precept, and line upon line; so we are here (Psa 47:6): Sing praises to God, and again, Sing praises, Sing praises to our King, and again, Sing praises. This intimates that it is a very necessary and excellent duty, that it is a duty we ought to be frequent and abundant in; we may sing praises again and again in the same words, and it is no vain repetition if it be done with new affections. Should not a people praise their God? Dan 5:4. Should not subjects praise their king? God is our God, our King, and therefore we must praise him; w…
The instruction continued.
throne of . . . holiness--or, "holy throne" (see on Psa 2:6; Psa 23:4).
John Gill on Psalms 47:8
God reigneth over the Heathen,.... He reigned over Israel under the former dispensation, and now he reigns over the Gentiles under the Gospel dispensation; as appears by the numerous instances of conversion among them in the first ages of Christianity; and by the many churches that were planted by the means of the apostles; and by the destruction of the Roman Pagan empire under the sixth seal, Revelation 6:12; and which will still more appear by the destruction of Rome Papal, when all the Heathens shall perish out of the land; and by the fulness and forces of the Gentiles being brought into a submission to him; all which are reasons to sing praises to him;
God sitteth upon the throne of his…
Psalm 47:5-9
5. God is gone up with triumph, Jehovah with the sound of a trumpet. 6. Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises to our King, sing praises. 7. For God is King of all the earth: sing praises every one who understandeth. 8. He hath obtained the kingdom over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness. 9. The princes of the peoples [or nations] are assembled together to the people of the God of Abraham: for the shields of the earth are God's: he is greatly exalted.
5. God is gone up with triumph There is here an allusion to the ancient ceremony which was observed under the Law. As the sound of trumpets was wont to be used in solemnising the holy assemblies, th…
The Church Fathers
The throne of God is Christ. The throne of Christ is the reasonable nature.
"God shall reign over all nations" [Psalm 47:8]. Who reigned over one nation, "shall reign" (says He) "over all nations." When this was said, God reigned over one nation. It was a prophecy, the thing was not yet shown. Thanks be to God, we now see fulfilled what before was prophesied. A written promise God sent unto us before the time, the time fulfilled He has repaid us. "God shall reign over all nations," is a promise. "God sits upon His Holy Seat." What then was promised to come, now being fulfilled, is acknowledged and held. "God sits upon His Holy Seat." What is His Holy Seat? Haply says one, The Heavens, and he understands well. For Christ has gone up, [Acts 1:2] as we know, with the Body, wherein He was crucified, and sits at the right hand of the Father; thence we expect Him to come to judge the quick and the dead. [2 Timothy 4:1] "God sits upon His Holy Seat." The Heavens are His Holy Seat. Will you also be His Seat? Think not that you can not be; prepare for Him a place in your heart. He comes, and willingly sits. The same Christ is surely "the Power of God, and the Wisdom of God:" [1 Corinthians 1:24] and what says the Scripture of Wisdom Herself? The soul of the righteous is the seat of Wisdom. [Wisdom 7:27] If then the soul of the righteous is the seat of Wisdom, be your soul righteous, and you shall be a royal seat of Wisdom. And truly, brethren, all men who live well, who act well, converse in godly charity, does not God sit in them, and Himself command? Your soul obeys God sitting in it, and itself commands the members. For your soul commands your members, that so may move the foot, the hand, the eye, the ear, and itself commands the members as its servants, but yet itself serves its Lord sitting within. It cannot well rule its inferior, unless its superior it have not disdained to serve.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Gentiles · Ruled by God — Ruled by God
Heathen, The · God: Rules over — God: Rules over
Holiness Of God, The · Exhibited in his: Kingdom — Exhibited in his: Kingdom
Throne · .Of God — .Of God
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
(Heb.: 47:5-9) The ascent of God presupposes a previous descent, whether it be a manifestation of Himself in order to utter some promise (Gen 17:22; Jdg 13:20) or a triumphant execution of judgment (Psa 7:8; Psa 68:19). So here: God has come down to fight on behalf of His people. They return to the Holy City and He to His throne, which is above on Zion, and higher still, is above in heaven. On בּתרוּעה and קול שׁופר cf. Psa 98:6; Ch1 15:28, but more especially Amo 2:2; for the "shout" is here the people's shout of victory, and "the sound of the horn" the clear sound of the horns announcing the victory, with reference to the celebration of the victory in the Valley of praise and the homeward…
People from all the earth (see 96:1-3) will worship God.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 47:8
God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness.
Now at this moment, over the most debased idolaters, God holds a secret rule; here is work for faith. How we ought to long for the day when this truth shall be changed in its aspect, and the rule now unrecognised shall be delighted in! The great truth that God reigneth in providence is the guarantee that in a gracious gospel sense his promises shall be fulfilled, and his kingdom shall come. He sitteth upon the throne of his holiness. Unmoved he occupies an undisputed throne, whose decrees, acts, and commands are holiness itself. What other throne is like this? Never was it stained with injustice, or defiled with sin…
