Ps. 47.3 (subduing: violence, peace and liturgy)

“He subdues / peoples / beneath us, - and warriors / beneath our feet.” Here we find the first action taken by the Great King. Verses 1-2 have largely been verses of praise and acknowledgment. The ‘action’ has been on the part of “the peoples”: they applaud and “shout out to God with a cry of praise”. The reason for their praise is Yhwh-Elyon’s “Great Kingship” and his regal authority over the whole earth. The scope of the psalm is not merely expansive but total. Here, when the psalm shifts to Yhwh-Elyon his first perceived act is that of the ‘subduing’ of “peoples” beneath Israel. The image is clearly militaristic, as the “peoples” is paralleled with “warriors”. This act, though, however shameful it is, and is intended to be (“beneath our feet”), is described as being one of peace: “subduing”. For example, it does say he has ‘subjected’ the peoples beneath us. There is clearly the sense, flowing from verses 1-2, that Yhwh-Elyon is ordering things in his subduing, that he is extending not merely the force of his reign as the Great King but his peace. It is the case that Israel is the pinnacle and the nations reside beneath her. It seems this is a crucial insight: that however the peace of Yhwh-Elyon is to be made present within “all the earth” it will be by and through Israel’s ‘subduing’ of the “peoples” beneath her. This same vision is one that is present in Psalm 2, with the nations becoming vassals to the anointed king. Hence, just as the king is ‘raised up’ from within Israel so is Israel raised-up (elected) from the midst of the nations in order to position them as the pinnacle; in a sense, they are made the ‘head’ of the body of the peoples and nations, whereas before the earth seemed to be directionless (‘headless’). This is an important point to realize in the context of what has gone before with the analysis of Yhwh and Elyon (Israel and the nations). That no matter how expansive and total the reign of the Great King is understood to be, it is not a ‘democratic’ reign; the nations are clearly not equal to Israel, but, rather, only gain their dignity by and through Israel, as through their head. In a sense, the “Elyon” of the peoples will be brought within, and ordered beneath, the “Yhwh” people of Israel. I believe this adds an important dimension to understanding the militaristic impulse within Israel: as we have emphasized again-and-again, Yhwh’s deliverance is one that requires a simultaneous movement of judgment and deliverance (or, better, his act of judgment is an act of deliverance). Because this is a concrete reality, and not a metaphor, it works its way out in and through Yhwh’s dramatic encounter in and through his people. Yet, further, what is clear also is that there is set against Yhwh a force of chaos—something, within man and beyond man, that seeks to thwart his reign. For that reason, any establishment of Yhwh’s reign will take on the form of violence (violence now being the display of judgment/deliverance). However, there is a countering reality to this: that the pinnacle of redemption will be the world’s recognition of Yhwh’s persuasive and overpowering glory. There are clear hints of this reality being accomplished through the Scriptures as Gentiles (or, nations) come to peacefully recognize Yhwh’s lordship it, accept it and praise it. Here, in our psalm, the militaristic ‘river’ takes prominence but not at the expense of the other. Indeed, as we will see (and, as we have already seen), the embodiment of Yhwh-Elyon’s kingship is one that finds its expression in the unified praise of the nations and Israel. Here, however, it is certainly premised on the subduing of the ‘peoples’.