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Psalm 47
“Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy! For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth” (vv. 1–2).
At the beginning of our study of the divine attributes, we noted the distinction that theologians make between God’s incommunicable attributes and His communicable attributes. His incommunicable attributes are those that find no corresponding attributes in creatures, whereas God’s communicable attributes do have something in common with certain attributes in creatures. The incommunicable attributes of God have to do with His transcendence—His being separate from creation, different from creation, and Lord of creation. Among the divine attributes, perhaps none is more closely associated with divine transcendence than the sovereign kingship of God.
The concept of divine sovereignty and lordship is found more often in Scripture than any other attribute of God, indicating its importance to having a right view of the Creator. Put simply, as Psalm 47:1–2 tells us, to say that God is sovereign is to say that the Lord is “a great king over all the earth.” Everything falls under His rule and authority. Not every creature recognizes or submits to that authority, but that authority exists nonetheless. God is the sovereign King not only over the earth, however, but over all creation, over all things seen and unseen. His “kingdom rules over all” (Ps. 103:19). Matthew Henry comments that the Lord “is a God of sovereign and universal dominion. He is a King that reigns alone, and with an absolute power, a King over all the earth; all the creatures, being made by him, are subject to him, and therefore he is a great King, the King of kings.”
Our God’s sovereignty is comprehensive. In other words, He is in control of all things, governing whatsoever comes to pass according to His sovereign decrees. These decrees of the Lord, according to Westminster Shorter Catechism 7, are “his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.” We find God’s decrees, sometimes referred to in the singular simply as His “decree,” spoken of in texts such as Ephesians 1:11, which says that our Maker works out all things according to the counsel of His will. Nothing operates outside God’s sovereign control. From the tiniest detail to the most significant world event, God is controlling and directing all things according to His good and inscrutable purposes.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
If we do not understand the sovereign kingship of God, we will get many other things about God wrong. His sovereignty tells us that He will give grace and love as He desires. His sovereignty tells us that He does not owe creation anything. His sovereignty means that He can overcome any would-be obstacle to His plan for the welfare of His people. Let us praise God for His sovereign kingship.
For further study
- Isaiah 33:22
- Malachi 1:14
- 1 Timothy 6:15
- Revelation 15:2–4
The bible in a year
- Joshua 12–13
- Luke 4:1–30