Psalm 47

The subtitle wasn’t part of the original psalm. Korah was a musical family in the tribe of Levi, one of the 12 tribes that made up the original nation of Israel. Levite families worked as priests and worship leaders and assistants for the Jewish nation.

If this song was written during the reign of King David or his son Solomon, around 3,000 years ago, this land refers to both the Jewish homeland and surrounding kingdoms David conquered and the Jewish people controlled. The Jewish homeland today is made up of Israel and the Israeli-occupied Palestinian Territories.

The word in the original language of Hebrew is selah. Bible scholars haven’t figured out what it means yet, so all we can do is guess. It could mean “pause for effect,” “instrumental interlude,” or “choir singing ‘Amen.’” We’re offering a guess instead of selah. Though selah might be the better way to go because it’s always correct, it’s also always incomprehensible. “Instruments” has a good chance of being wrong, but at least we convey the idea that the Hebrew word behind it probably has something to do with enhancing the song.

The passage says only that “God has ascended.” But it doesn’t say where he went. One guess scholars make is that he went to his throne. That fits the context of all the celebrating that comes next.

The Jewish people.

This reads like a prayer of what the songwriter hopes will eventually happen, once the world recognizes who God is.