Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with loud songs of joy. For the LORD, the Most High, is awesome, a great king over all the earth.” (Psalm 47:1-2 NRSV)
Have you ever noticed that every time you read a psalm, you’re actually talking to God? The Psalms have been called the Bible’s prayer book, and it’s no wonder. Each one of them in its own way can move our hearts closer to the Lord as we contemplate his love, his mercy, and his justice. Psalm 47 is no exception. It urges us to honor God as King over all the earth by clapping our hands and singing songs of praise to him. The anthem the Senior Choir will sing on Sunday is based on this Psalm. “Clap Your Hands” was written by John Helgen, a musician and friend of Southwood. He has been our guest clinician for our worship festival three times and will back this December, 2012.
Read verse 1 and 2 again: “Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with loud songs of joy. For the LORD, the Most High, is awesome, a great king over all the earth.” (Psalm 47:1-2 NRSV). Author Eugene Peterson reflects on the psalm this way:
“There is a noisy exuberance in this psalm that is appropriate to God’s people—a kind of holiday parade atmosphere that goes along with the realization that ‘God is king of all the earth.’”1
1. Peterson, Eugene H. Praying with the Psalms. (HarperCollins Publishing: New York, NY, 1993). Devotion for April 9.
Clap Your Hands
All who hunger, gather gladly;
Holy manna is our bread.
Clap your hands, you people, and praise the Lord! Shout to God with loud songs of joy!
Clap your hands, you people, and praise the Lord! Shout to God with loud songs of joy!
For the Lord is an awesome God, the king of all the earth, a great king over all the earth.
God has gone up with a shout, a shout of victory, with the sound of the trumpet call.
(Psalm 47, alt.; John Helgen)
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