Psalm 47 Praising God with all our Senses

God is such a creative God! Have you ever sat and thought about His creativity? God could have made the world in black and white, but He chose to give us a rainbow of color. He could have made the world in 2 dimensions, but He chose to give us depth. He could have made all speech monotone, but He chose to give us a range of decibels.

This is all the more amazing when we realize this great truth: as God created the world with each of these elements, He simultaneously invented those elements! Before God made light, there was nothing to see. When God made light, He created the full spectrum of all colors, bringing into existence a rainbow of never-before imagined hues. When God spoke, it was the first noise in all of history. Then He continued to speak and bring into existence a range of frequencies through which all sound could travel. When He created His highest creation, Man, He chose to give us eyes that could perceive color and ears that could hear sound. We use these senses partly for practical reasons, but we use them so much more for luxurious purposes. How often do you simply gaze upon or listen to something beautiful?

God is not only creative, but He is gracious to give us the abilities to experience His marvelous creation! How should we respond to this marvelous gift? The Sons of Korah make a suggestion in today’s psalm.

Please read Psalm 47.

God gave us hands, so lets clap them together for His glory; God gave us voices, so let’s shout and sing His praises! God is incredible, and worthy to be praised! He has done incredible deeds in the past for which we can praise Him. The psalmist talks about His deliverance of His people, Israel. Centuries later, we look back upon His deliverance of all those who would put their faith in Christ. Not only has God delivered us, but “He chose our heritage for us.” God has chosen us, saved us, and prepared a marvelous inheritance for us! Surely He is worthy to be praised!

God is “the King of all the earth” (v.7). He has sovereign dominion over every aspect of His creation, and daily does marvelous works within His kingdom. We could praise God for providing rain which waters the grass, or for providing the energy that comes from sunshine. We could praise God for providing grass for the cows or worms for the fish to eat. We could praise God for providing streambeds in which the rivers can flow and gravity to make the leaves fall from the trees.

We could praise God for all of His creation, and we should. But we don’t primarily praise Him for being King of all the earth, we primarily “sing praises to our King” (v.6). He is not just the King over all the earth; God is my King. Jesus is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who controls every aspect of creation. But He is also my personal Savior, who works all things together for my good.

What a wonderful mystery that the King of all the earth would love me and bless me in so many ways. He reigns over the nations; He sits on His holy throne; the princes of the earth bow before Him. And He loves me. He has painted a wonderful sunset and given me the eyes to see its beauty. He has written a symphony of a thunderstorm and given me the ears to hear. I will use all my senses to praise Him, for He is worthy to be praised!