The obliteration of distinction between Israel and the nations, by the incorporation of the latter, so that "the peoples" become part of the "people of the God of Abraham," floats before the singer's prophetic eye, as the end of God's great manifestation of Himself. The two parts of that double choir, which the preceding strophes summon to song, coalesce at last, and in grand unison send up one full-throated, universal melodious shout of praise. "The shields of the earth" are best understood as a figurative expression for the princes just spoken of, who now at last recognise to whom they belong. Thus God has exalted Himself by His deeds; and the result of these deeds is that He is greatly exalted by the praise of a world, in which Israel and the "peoples" dwell as one beneath His sceptre and celebrate His name. 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. PSALM XLVIII. 1 Great is Jehovah, and much to be praised, In the city of our God, His holy mountain. 2 Lovely in loftiness, a joy of all the earth, Is Mount Zion, the recesses of the north, the city of the great King. 3 God in her palaces Has made Himself known as a high tower. 4 For, lo, the kings assembled themselves, They marched onwards together. 5 They saw, then they were amazed; They were terror-struck, they fled. 6 Trembling seized them there; Pain, as [of] a woman in travail. 7 With an east wind Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish. 8 According as we have heard, so have we seen In the city of Jehovah of hosts, in the city of our God: God will establish her for ever. Selah.