Psalm 47: 1-9 (links validated 4/16/24)

In Maya Angelou’s classic essay “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” we see a vignette of what such new eyes may mean when we see Jesus as Lord. Set in the South back in the late 1940s, the essay tells of a time when Maya’s Momma was taunted and insulted by a group of white girls while Momma was doing no more than sitting in a rocker on the front porch of the small grocery store they ran. The girls said nasty things to Momma, laughed at her for being black. One thirteen-year-old girl even did a hand-stand so as to let her dress fall down. She wasn’t wearing any underwear and so she mooned Momma with her bare bottom and front. Watching her Momma, young Maya was furious that Momma didn’t do something. Yet Momma stayed calm and as Maya moved closer, she heard Momma singing quietly, “Bread of heaven, bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more.” The girls tired of the show and left eventually, and as Momma left the porch to return to the store, Maya heard her singing again, “Glory hallelujah when I lay my burden down.” Momma could see deeper, farther than just those nasty girls and their despising of her. She saw the Lord, high and lifted up, and it changed everything...

Scholars have tried to reconstruct the event that led to the writing and reciting of Psalm 47. They envision some sort of procession, a religious parade with Yahweh at its center. That made me think of President Trump’s proposal that the United States needs a military parade like the one he saw in France and the ones we all see on TV from North Korea. Some applauded the idea as a fitting tribute to our military. Others blasted it as an extravagantly wasteful exercise in self-congratulation. Whatever we may think of Trump’s parade, it is surely optional. The U.S. will be just fine without it. The same cannot be said of the parade envisioned in Psalm 47 and fulfilled in Christ’s Ascension. His ascent before the eyes of his apostles was an essential part of the Gospel. We should stand at attention, clap and shout and sing, and acclaim him as King, at least once a year.