O clap your hands, all ye people.
Messianic triumph predicted
The psalmist looked far ahead. His immediate experience was as “a little window through which he saw great matters.” The prophecy of the universal spread of God’s kingdom and the inclusion in it of the Gentiles is Messianic; and whether the singer knew that he spoke of a fair hope which should not be a fact for weary centuries, or anticipated wider and permanent results from that triumph which inspired his song, he spake of the Christ, and his strains are true prophecies of His dominion. There is no intentional reference in the psalm to the Ascension; but the thoughts underlying its picture of God’s going up with a shout are the same which that Ascension sets forth as facts--the merciful coming down into humanity of the Divine Helper; the completeness of His victory as attested by His return thither where He was before; His session in heaven, not as idle nor wearied, but as having done what He meant to do; His continuous working as King in the world; and the widening recognition of His authority by loving hearts. The psalmist summons us all to swell with our voices that great chorus of praise which, like a sea, rolls and breaks in music round His royal seat. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The praiseworthy and the faultworthy in worship
Man is a worshipper. The deepest craving of his soul is for worship, and in true worship alone he can find the healthy excitement and the full and felicitous development and exercise of all his powers.
I. The praise-Worthy in worship.
1. Exultancy. “O clap your hands,” etc.; “shout unto God.” “Sing praises to God,” etc. Among the reasons indicated in the psalm for this exultancy is His supremacy over all the earth.
(1) His government of the world is founded upon the reason of things.
(2) His government of the world is founded upon laws suited to the nature of His subjects.
(3) His government of the world is exercised for purely benevolent ends.
(4) His government of the world affords opportunities for rebels to be restored.
2. Enthusiasm. In worship all the faculties and susceptibilities of the soul are interested, and into it conscience pours its whole force.
3. Monotheism. There is one God, and one only, to be worshipped. The supremely good is to be loved supremely, the supremely great to be adored supremely, the supremely just to be obeyed supremely.
4. Intelligence. “Sing ye praises with understanding.” Worship is not an unmeaning act, not a burst of blind passion; it is founded in the profoundest philosophy, it implies the grandest truths.
II. The fault-Worthy in worship.
1. There is something like selfishness here. Worship may begin in gratitude, may spring from a sense of God’s personal kindness; but it only becomes virtuous and noble as it rises into self-oblivious adoration.
2. There is something like revenge here. “He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet.” “God reigneth over the heathen.” “The shields of the earth belong unto God”; i.e. the rulers of the earth are in His hand. (Homilist.)