Ps. 47.4 (allotment, conquest and election)

“He chooses / our inheritance / for us, - the pride of Jacob / whom he loved.” We are, again, in that realm of the biblical witness that centers on Yhwh-Elyon’s sovereignty over Israel and the nations. The first half of the psalm refers to Deuteronomy 32.8 wherein Yhwh is perceived as allotting the nations their places/boundaries; it is the passage, also, wherein Yhwh is assigning separate powers to head the nations. Within that allotment, however, it concludes: Yhwh’s own portion was his people, Jacob his allotted share. We find here a dynamic similar to what has been observed in our psalm: that Yhwh-Elyon’s gaze and interest is of “the entire earth”; however, his special concern is of Israel. That said, his ‘special concern’, in our psalm must be seen as, in a sense, a ‘beginning’ and not ‘an end’. In other words, one could get the impression from Deuteronomy that allotting the nations their own ‘overseers’, while personally choosing Israel, is not something with an end in sight; it is more of a description than a plan. However, as we see in our psalm the nations are to be ‘subdued’ underneath Israel and, through that subduing, Yhwh is to be seen and praised as Yhwh-Elyon, the “Great King”. They are, in other words, covenanted with Yhwh-Elyon, through Israel’s militaristic enterprise and their allotment is somewhat more porous than might be initially perceived. Indeed, it may be the case that their ‘overseers’ are to be removed by and through Israel’s conquest of them such that Israel takes the overseer’s place, with Yhwh at the top. If that is the case, the allotment of the nation’s territory might not be temporary, but their subjection to ‘sons of god’ (overseers) would be, and this in light of Yhwh’s future empowerment of Israel to be the staging ground of the ‘kingdom of God’.