Ascension Thursday 2023: Psalm 47

Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy.

The psalm was written by the song writers of the old testament and therefore they look to what the Lord has done for the kingdom of Israel: how He provided a homeland for them; how He subdued the nations who were already in that land and gave it as an inheritance to His nation, His faithful people, which is descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

In Numbers 7 v 89 we read in the days of the Exodus that when Moses entered the Tent of Meeting to speak with the Lord, he heard the Lord’s voice speaking to him from between the two cherubim above the atonement cover on the Ark of the Covenant. And this ascension, it is often suggested refers to when David brought the Ark of the Covenant, which represented the living presence of God, into Zion. So God came up into His people.

But remember what Jesus tells us in Luke “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. Psalm 47 is not a psalm limited to the Old Testament. It is a psalm that speaks of Jesus.

Why should all the nations clap their hands and shout to God with cries of joy. Because of Jesus. The Lord our God is not a tribal God of a small middle eastern people. He is the King of all the earth. He is seated on his holy throne and reigns over the nations. When Charles was crowned we sang God save the King, the Commonwealth sang God save the King but the EU and the USA and Russia and all the other nations of the United Nations did not sing God save the King. Because Charles is not king over all. But the Lord is King of all the earth and He has exalted Jesus to the highest place.

Jesus who was and is God with God, became a human being. He set up home with us in our neighbourhood; He tabernacled with us. Through Him God became At One with us – atonement. Through Him God speaks to every human being of every time and place.

In His flesh Jesus temporarily dwelt with us for a purpose, to reveal God, to overthrow the works of the devil, to die in our place, to bring us home to our rightful created dwelling with God. And the wonder of all He did for us was confirmed in His resurrection and Ascension.

It says in the OT that if someone is hung on a tree to die they suffer the curse of God. When Saul the Jew saw Jesus crucified he concluded that Jesus was cursed by God. Therefore He could not be God with God. But when Jesus met with him on that road to Damascus he was overwhelmed by the truth that Jesus was resurrected by God, and as Peter said on Pentecost that Jesus is exalted to the right-hand of God. And that exaltation happened at the Ascension and following that Ascension God poured out the Holy Spirit who declares the truth of Jesus to all the world. God ascended amid shouts of joy, the Lord amid the sounding of trumpets. And if trumpets were not sounding on earth angels made a mighty fanfare in heaven.

Of course all the world does not yet celebrate Jesus as Lord. But the psalm is a prophecy. And scripture prophecies operate across different time-levels. Jesus ascension, which led to the gift of the Holy Spirit initiates a new world wide community of God’s people, the Church. A people called to make disciples of all the nations. A mission still continuing. During Covid there was a day [in the UK] when people were invited to stand outside their homes and clap their hands in praise of the National Health Service [NHS]. Do you know what day that was? It was Ascension. It deeply saddened me that the churches encouraged God’s people to join in this event and give a human organisation the praise that belongs to God. When did you last heart the Churches of the UK asking their people to stand outside their homes and clap their hands in praise of the Lord? Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy. For in Christ Jesus alone God heals us of death and saves us for eternal life.

However the recognition of God’s sovereignty over the earth is not by imposition, as Putin is trying to impose his rule over the Ukraine, it is an invitation. But we can rejoice for we know that every knee in all creation will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Sing: To God be the glory