Texts in Conversation
Psalm 47 depicts God ascending with shouts and trumpets, celebrating divine enthronement, while 1 Thessalonians echoes the same imagery but reverses its direction, portraying the Lord descending with a commanding cry and the eschatological trumpet of God.
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Psalm 47:5
Hebrew Bible
3 He subdued nations beneath us and countries under our feet. 4 He picked out for us a special land to be a source of pride for Jacob, whom he loves. (Selah) 5 God has ascended his throne amid loud shouts; the Lord has ascended amid the blaring of ram’s horns. 6 Sing to God! Sing! Sing to our king! Sing! 7 For God is king of the whole earth. Sing a well-written song.
Date: 6th-3rd Centuries B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
1 Thessalonians 4:16
New Testament
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also we believe that God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep as Christians. 15 For we tell you this by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will surely not go ahead of those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be suddenly caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Date: 41-51 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Fee points out the linguistic similarity between this and Psalm 47:5: “God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet”. The κύριος of the Psalm is the ascended Christ, whose return will be accompanied by “the voice” and with “the trumpet” of God. Craig Evans analyses 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11, and sees a variety of traditions, much of which will have taken shape before Paul’s usage. Paul evidently understood Psalm 47:6 in a judgmental way, and this is echoed in the “cry of command”, rather than “shout of joy”. Believers are raised; unbelievers are judged. Although not cited as a prooftext, or as a prophecy fulfilled, Psalm 47:6 has, nevertheless, made a significant contribution to the eschatological idea of 1 Thessalonians ..."
Gibb, Ian
Paul and the Psalms: Paul's Hermeneutic and Worldview
(pp. 130-131) University of Glasgow, 2017
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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