Verse Lens · Concise explanation
Psalms 47:4 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 4. 4He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Selah.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Psalm 47:4: The line “He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob…” reaches Selah inside “All peoples summoned before the great king,” marking an ancient pause of uncertain performance.
Read It With
- Psalms 47:1–9
Read Psalms 47:4 with 47:1–9. Read alone, “He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom…” could lose the communal voice, the parallel line or movement it develops, and the psalm's outcome. The complete movement establishes: Within Psalms 47:1–9, the communal voice carries the movement “All peoples summoned before the great king” as part of “All peoples summoned before the great king.” Its divine-kingship-hymn form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Psalms 47:1–9 opens Psalm 47 with “O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph” and establishes the communal voice and “All peoples summoned before the great king” movement before later lines develop or answer it. Within that relationship, Psalm 47:4 carries “He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved.…” into the liturgical marker Selah, creating a pause whose exact performance remains uncertain.
What Remains True
Psalm 47:4 carries “He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom…” inside the divine-kingship-hymn movement “All peoples summoned before the great king.” Its durable contribution is this: Human rule is answerable to the LORD and is measured by justice, especially protection of poor and vulnerable people, rather than by power or sacred slogans. The local movement is “All peoples summoned before the great king.” The unit's reviewed limit is: Universal kingship praise must not become religious nationalism, forced conversion, or celebration of subjugated peoples.
How It Can Shape Life
- Start with the line's work inside “All peoples summoned before the great king”—Psalm 47:4 carries “He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved.…” into the liturgical marker Selah, creating a pause whose exact performance remains uncertain. Then let “He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom…” question concentrated power: examine whether actual policies protect poor people and restrain violence rather than baptizing authority.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Psalms 47:1–9 — All peoples summoned before the great kingSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Psalms 47:1–9, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Psalms
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ps.xml, OSIS 47:1–9
Open the fixed Hebrew Psalms file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Notes: Psalms 1-150
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, current official online edition
Supports: Verse-level controls for poetic syntax, imagery, older KJV language, textual issues, headings, and alternatives in Psalms 47:1–9.
Exact location: Official NET Bible Psalm 47 HTML, translator, textual, and study notes attached to Psalms 47:1–9
Open the official NET Psalms notes ↗