Psalms for Turbulent Times: Psalm 47 - Thy kingdom come

The flags of the signatory nations of the United Nations Charter in June 1945

Psalm 47[1]

¹ Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with loud songs of joy.
² For the Lord, the Most High, is awesome, a great king over all the earth.
³ He subdued peoples under us, and nations under our feet.
⁴ He chose our heritage for us, the pride of Jacob whom he loves.            

 Selah

 ⁵ God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
⁶ Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises.
⁷ For God is the king of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm.
⁸ God is king over the nations; God sits on his holy throne.
⁹ The princes of the peoples gather as the people of the God of Abraham.
For the shields of the earth belong to God; he is highly exalted.

‘Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’ When Jesus was asked by the disciples to teach them to pray (Matthew 6.10), he wove these three short phrases into what we call the Lord’s Prayer. Asking God’s kingship to grow now, as then, is part of our daily duty and prayer. Jesus’ whole mission could be summed up in these 14 short words. God's kingdom is not about dominance or power or tyranny. But it is about a way of life which waits for wisdom, seeks unity and is shaped by truth found in all that gives life.

God’s reign over all the earth, all the nations and all the peoples is the focus of this psalm of praise. It is radical in outlook and broad in vision. It presents an understanding of God’s interests and desires as global not parochial (yet we know also that God treasures each life form, each soul in his or her particularity).

The perpetual temptation of each nation or people group (including each church or tradition) is to make God very small; and to make God ‘like us’, in our image. Thank goodness, though, that we also know that God is not English, or Brazilian or Chinese but the King of All.

The psalm taps into the radical truth of God. We are made in God’s image. And out of God’s joyous imagination comes creativity, diversity, a multiplicity of life forms, a riot of wondrous possibilities and the mind-blowing beauty of God’s sovereign love which does not privilege one group over another. None of us is special, yet we are all special.

When read together, psalms 47 and 46 offer a beatific vision of a righteous life for the nations where war is no more (46.9). Because the truth is, whenever there is a war then God is the loser, because it is always God’s people who are killed.

This radical vision of peaceful coexistence under God’s just reign in this psalm was penned several millennia before the vision of the United Nations charter[2] which was signed by the 50 of the world’s nations on June 26^th 1945 in San Francisco, just weeks after VE Day. These are the inspiring claims of the Charter:

WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED
·      to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and
·      to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and
·      to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and
·      to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

AND FOR THESE ENDS
·      to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and
·      to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and
·      to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and
·      to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples,

HAVE RESOLVED TO COMBINE OUR EFFORTS TO ACCOMPLISH THESE AIMS: Accordingly, our respective Governments, through representatives assembled in the city of San Francisco, who have exhibited their full powers found to be in good and due form, have agreed to the present Charter of the United Nations and do hereby establish an international organization to be known as the United Nations.

Now, that is worth celebrating and clapping for. And it is worth continuing working for. And maybe, just maybe, one of the really great things which might come out of this pandemic is a re-commitment to working across national barriers for the good of all; while at the same time being clear-eyed and strong-willed in implacable opposition to tyranny, despotic powers and those who would use brutal means to subjugate peoples because of greed, a love of power or a twisted abandonment of the sacred nature of all life.

Is it too radical a thought to suggest that The UN Charter displays a vision of justice and mercy which was proclaimed in psalm 47 and the life and mission of Jesus?

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[1]  New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised (NRSVA)
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[2] https://www.un.org/en/charter-united-nations/