Yesterday we said that God brings down arrogant nations that trust in their own strength. In the Bible, the book that makes this point most emphatically is Daniel. The story of King Nebuchadnezzar teaches it. But I pass over Nebuchadnezzar's story to that of his son Belshazzar. Belshazzar had given a party in which he had defiled the vessels that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem when Nebuchadnezzar sacked the city. In the midst of this party, the fingers of a human hand appeared, writing on the palace wall. Belshazzar and his guests became frightened.

It will help to make a few observations about Psalm 47 and its place in the Psalter. First, Psalm 47 follows quite naturally after Psalm 46. Psalm 46 is focused on the security of God's people, noting how God had delivered them from one of their great enemies.² It challenged the nations to observe that deliverance and stand in awe before God: "Be still and know that I am God: “I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth" (v. 10). God himself is speaking.

There are quite a few places in the Old Testament in which God is addressed almost exclusively as the God of Israel—as if he is the Jew's God as opposed to the gods of the nations round about. In fact, the Jews are repeatedly warned against serving these other gods. The first of the Ten Commandments is one example: "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me" (Exod. 20:2, 3)