Psalms 47:9 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The princes of the people The heads of the tribes; even the people of the God of Abraham With all the people that worship him, who promised to give this country unto Abraham; are gathered together Are assembled at their solemn feasts, without any fear of invasion from their foreign neighbours; for the shields of the earth belong unto God For God (to attend whose service they have left their own houses unguarded) hath undertaken their protection; and he is infinitely superior to all other gods, who pretend to be the defenders of the earth. So Bishop Patrick. But almost all the ancient versions and more modern translators render the former clause of this verse, The princes of the nations are incorporated with the God of Abraham: similar to which is the version of our Liturgy; The princes of the people are joined to the people of the God of Abraham. “In this prophetical sense,” says Dr. Dodd, “which seems most proper, the princes of the people mean the heathen princes, who were to be converted to Christianity, and to join themselves to the people of the God of Abraham; that is, to the Jewish converts under the dominion of Christ. The shields mean the sovereignty of the whole earth: for God takes to him the shields of the earth; all the princes of it under his own immediate government. King and shield are synonymous, Psalms 84:9.”