Week 8 Psalm 47
I’m interested in finding anything that the bible says about the organizational structure of the world (since it’s useful to know how the world is managed).
I figure that one of two possible things is going one. #1: there’s no macro-organizing taking place. Things just move along under the direction of various micro-managers (politicians or dictators or entrepreneurs or the super-rich) who grab power and rule. #2: there’s a Supra-Governing manager who oversees and directs all events.
Psalm 46 goes with Option #2. It says things like:
• The Lord, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth
• God is the King of all the earth
• God reigns over the nations
• The shields of the earth belong to God; he is highly exalted (the margin says shields = leaders)
So psalm 47 is definitive about who’s at the top of the hierarchy. The Lord has the deciding vote when it comes to strategic-planning & decision-making & coordinating-resources-and-personnel. Planning & oversight & performance-assessment are all under his oversight.
Unfortunately the writer doesn’t specify any of the subsidiary managers who are part of the entire power-and-governance hierarchy.
So for now the one solid piece of information I come away with is that the Lord has executive authority over everything – which is maybe the critical and the best piece of the puzzle to have.
But I’m still interested in the bible’s view of the total structure of the system. So I’ll keep looking.
Note: quotes from Psalm 47:2 7 8 9 (ESV)