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Our God Reigns-Psalm 93 (Assisted Living Facility Sermon)

By Charlie Vensel | March 13, 2007

Today is Christ the King Sunday. It is the last Sunday in the season of Pentecost and of the completion of the church year for those who follow the liturgical calendar, before Advent begins next week. Today we complete the Christian journey through the life of Jesus Christ on earth and in heaven that began with the preparation for the birth of Jesus last Advent. Today, we acknowledge and celebrate that he is indeed the risen King of kings and Lord of lords, who is seated on his throne.

Now, Christ the King is not a ‘traditional’ service in the sense that it is an ancient custom. In fact, it was only created in the 1930s by Pope Pius XI, and was later picked up by the Anglican churches as well as other Western liturgical communities. Pius’ reasons for instituting this feast day were quite remarkable.

In the 1930s, of course, ideological revolutions were beginning to rise to power just before World War II. Pius responded by issuing a dangerous encyclical that denounced Mussolini–jeopardizing his own life and the life of many Italian Catholics. A few months later, he issued another encyclical denouncing Hitler’s regime and, not long after, he issued a third encyclical rebuking communism and its totalitarianism.

In addition to these negative actions, Pius believed it was necessary to assert the doctrine of Christ’s Kingship in a bold denial of these regimes. Thus, the feast day of Christ the King was born. Pius believed the church was on the verge of widespread persecution, and his answer was to hold tenaciously to Christ’s kingly rule. As long as Christians could remember that Jesus is Lord, they would be immune to the voice of antichrist in political ideologies. Though it was likely to bring greater persecution, Pius believed the church should give an answer to the 20th century.

This is one of those cases where I have to say, “Amen,” to the Pope. And indeed, recognizing Christ as King will do more than keep our political ideologies straight, but indeed every aspect of our Christian lives.

While the spirit of anti-Christ might not be as apparent to us right now as it was during Nazi Germany, though militant Islam may be gaining ground, we still deal with many ideologies that compete against the true Faith. For example, how many times do we cave to the empiricist ideology of modern science, that “if you can’t see it, touch it, or measure it, it doesn’t exist”? We often live by sight, not by faith, and the results are devastating. We succumb to fear, unrest, and anxiety often; our peace is surrendered and worry is our new ruler. But, because the risen Christ Jesus is enthroned as King, his faithful servants have no reason to worry.

Our texts today, all speak to Christ’s royalty and majesty; Christ is King. In particular, we are going to look at Psalm 93 this morning.

“This brief Psalm is without title or name of author, but its subject is obvious enough, being stated in the very first line [, “The Lord reigns…”]. It is the Psalm of Omnipotent Sovereignty: Jehovah, despite all opposition, reigns supreme. Psalm 93 is the first of a group of eight psalms dealing with the kingly reign of God, a “theocracy”. A theocracy is a reciprocal relationship between God and men, exalted above the intermediary forms of government, like monarchies or democracies, which began when Yahweh became Israel’s King (Deut 33:5; cf. Ex 15:18), and which will be finally perfected by its breaking through this national self-limitation when the King of Israel becomes King of the whole world. The ultimate fulfillment of the promise inherent in the word theocracy is the present and coming reign of our great Lord and King, Jesus Christ…This psalm and indeed the other seven describe God’s rule of the entire earth and indeed the universe.”

Possibly at the time this psalm was written, the nation was in danger from its enemies, and the hopes of the people of God were encouraged by remembering that the Lord was still King of the Universe.” In a day when there once again seems to be so many competing ideologies, so many forces in a state of chaos, even the unpredictability of our lives, and the daily uncertainties, let us look at this psalm on this feast day, remembering that our God reigns, as a source of encouragement.

In light of this, there are three main points I would like for us to look at this morning.

The first thing we need to see this morning is found in verses 1-2. In order for us to be encouraged, let us remember that the Lord is the Sovereign.
We read:
The LORD reigns, he is robed in majesty; the LORD is robed in majesty and is armed with strength. (Psalm 93:1 NIV)

The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved. Your throne was established long ago; you are from all eternity. (Psalms 93:2 NIV)

The first two verses of the psalm speak of the nature of God’s reign, introducing four characteristics of God’s kingly rule, which are at the same time four important attributes of God. These are stated in strong poetic language, involving blatant repetitions in nearly every case, a particularly bold form of Hebrew parallelism.

The majesty of God: The first characteristic of God’s kingdom and indeed himself is majesty. Majesty is a hard idea to define but it has to do with dignity, authority of sovereign power, stateliness, and grandeur. It is the proper characteristic of earthly monarchs, who have often gone to great lengths to enhance the impression of their majesty by multiplications of trappings of power. But it is supremely the attribute of him who is the Monarch over all and who does not need to multiply the trappings of his power.

Majesty is the dominant element in the Visions of God in his glory seen in both the Old and New Testaments. It inspires awe in mere human beings and often leaves them speechless or nearly dead. Isaiah saw the majesty of God in the vision recorded in chapter six of his prophecy:

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. (Isaiah 6:1-4 NIV)

Isaiah was so overcome with a sense of God’s majesty that he cried out, “Woe to me! … I am ruined! For l am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty (v. 5). Majesty is an attribute that links God’s holiness and God’s sovereignty.

The power of God: The author of Psalm 93 was so impressed with majesty as a characteristic of God’s kingdom that he repeated the idea twice: first, “the LORD reigns, he is robed in majesty”; second, “the LORD is robed majesty”. But even that did not seem to satisfy him, so he adds in a third parallel statement in this verse, “and is armed with strength.” He means the majesty of God is also majesty of power. It is not a mere show of sovereignty, as has often been the case with human rulers. It is an actual sovereignty, as the psalmist will show more completely in the next stanza. In other words, when he says, as he does at the start of the psalm, ‘The LORD reigns,” he means that he does actually reign, not merely that he seems to. He really is sovereign.

The immutability of God: The third characteristic of God’s rule, which is also an attribute of God, is immutability. That is the proper term for what the writer means by “established” in verses 1—2. The second part of verse 1 says, “The world is firmly established.” That is, “it cannot be moved. Despite appearances, nothing is able to move or, even less, destroy God’s creation but God himself. However, the only reason why the world is established is because God himself is established or immutable, which is what verse 2 is about.

Your throne was established long ago; you are from all eternity.

This quality is one that separates God from even the highest of his creatures. God is unchangeable, but no other part of creation is. If we think of the material universe, it is clear that it is in a state of constant change. The universe changes in the sense that it is constantly decaying or running down. Its decay may be spread over so long a time span that it is almost unnoticed by us, but it is nevertheless running down. The sun is cooling and will eventually die out. The varied and abundant resources of the earth are exhaustible and will run out. Species have become extinct. Each of us matures, grows old, and passes on.

Nor is human nature immutable. On the contrary, it is restless and constantly changing. Jude speaks of the wicked as “clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted… wild, waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackest darkness has been reserved forever” (Jude 12—13). No better illustration of the variableness of human nature exists than the inhabitants of Jerusalem who one week were hailing Jesus as their king (“Hosanna! … Blessed is the King of Israel!”) and the next week were calling out for his crucifixion (John 12:13; 19:15).

Ah, but God is unchangeable. And the characteristics of his kingdom do not change either. He rules as well today as he ever did, and he will rule forever.

The eternity of God: That leads to the fourth of the attributes of God mentioned in the opening stanza of Psalm 93, God’s eternity. This is a difficult idea to put into a single English word, but it means that God is, that he has always been and that he will always be, and that he is everywhere the same in his eternal being. We find this idea throughout the Bible, from the book of Genesis to the very end. Abraham called God “the Eternal God” (Gen. 21:33). Just three psalms before this Moses wrote:

Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. (Psalms 90:1-2 NIV)

Revelation describes God as the “Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end” (Rev. 21:6; see 1:8; 22:13). The angels that are before his throne cry out continually, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come” (Rev. 4:8).

This means two things for us. First, God can be trusted to remain as he reveals himself to be. He will be at the end of our days what he was at the beginning. He will not change his character or break his word. Second, God is inescapable. We may try to ignore him, but ignoring him will not work. One day we will have to give an accounting to him before whom no secrets are hid and all desires known.

The second thing we need to notice this morning is found in verses 3-4. In order for us to be encouraged, let us remember that the Lord rules over chaos and evil.

We read:
The seas have lifted up, O LORD, the seas have lifted up their voice; the seas have lifted up their pounding waves. (Psalms 93:3 NIV)

Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea— the LORD on high is mighty. (Psalms 93:4 NIV)

It is widely understood that “the sea” in Hebrew literature has two connotations:

As a symbol of chaos and evil: God’s act of creation was two-fold, first to establish the building blocks of creation, and second to order them, or bring order out of the chaos. As we read in Gen 1:2, “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” (Genesis 1:2 NIV) Here, God was preparing to act over the primordial chaos and proceeded to do so in the following verses. It is in God’s nature to bring order, to redeem from chaos and evil; that is the function of our redemption, to bring us from the chaos and evil of our sin.

We see it again in Mark 4:39 when Jesus rebuked the storm and calmed the sea, and again in Mark 6:48ff walking on the water; you can’t tread on what you are not master over.

Verses 3 and 4 remind us that God is greater than the creation, he is master over evil, he brings order out of chaos…nothing is outside of his control and there is nowhere he cannot see, reach, and restore.

As a symbol of persecution, distress, and judgment: We should remember that in the Old Testament the ocean with its restless waves is often a symbol of the vacillating world of the surrounding Gentile nations. Examples would be Isaiah 17:12 “Oh, the raging of many nations— they rage like the raging sea! Oh, the uproar of the peoples— they roar like the roaring of great waters!” (Isaiah 17:12 NIV) and Jeremiah 6:23 and 50:42 “They sound like the roaring sea as they ride on their horses.” (Jer 6:23, 50:42 NIV) The sea with its mighty mass of waters, with the constant unrest of its waves, with its ceaseless pressing against the solid land and foaming against the rocks, is an emblem of the Gentile world alienated from and at enmity with God; they are shaking their pagan ideologies in God’s face.

If the seas represent the Gentile nations, as I think they do, then the second stanza is an assertion of God’s sovereignty over every historical development. He is king not just of the cosmos, which has been asserted earlier, but of human beings too.

The third thing we need to notice this morning is found in verse 5. In order for us to be encouraged, is that the Lord is both the perfect lawgiver and the perfect judge. Your statutes stand firm; holiness adorns your house for endless days, O LORD. (Psalms 93:5 NIV)

One of the greatest things about the Bible is its unexpected character, for often just when we think things are coming to an end we suddenly come to something that is quite fresh and that stretches our thinking a bit further than we had expected to go. That is the case with verse 5, which is the final stanza of the psalm. What we might have expected is an encouragement to the believer to “stand firm”, or perhaps a repeated word of praise to God as king. Instead we find two more unanticipated characteristics of God’s kingly rule: that it is a kingdom of law and that it is a kingdom of holiness or justice.

A rule of law: Thus far we have been thinking of the theocratic rule of God as being a rule of power. But God’s rule is not a rule of power alone. It is also a rule of law, which is what the important word statutes in verse 5 refers to. God’s statutes are his decrees.

What this means is that God rules his people by his Word. It is true that he rules over the world and history. But that is a sovereign rule, independent of and somewhat removed from us or from what we do. By reminding us that the statutes of God “stand firm,” like the world, and even the throne of God itself, the psalmist is saying that those of us who profess to know God and confess him as our God must know and obey his statutes too—if we would be actually ruled by him. Let me put it another way. The Lord Jesus Christ rules his church by guiding its destiny sovereignly, of course. But the way he specifically rules his people within his church is by the teaching of the Scriptures. It is there that we learn what he would have us do and what he would have us be.

A rule of justice: There are two obvious ways that human rule can be perverted. It can be by the whim of those in power and not by law. Or even if it is by law, it can be by unjust laws that exist only to legitimize the oppression of the weak by those more powerful. God is guilty of neither of those perversions. First, his rule is by law. Second, it is according to holiness or justice, for the law of God is perfectly upright, which is what the last sentence of the psalm asserts: “Holiness adorns your house for endless days, 0 LORD” (v.5)

Everything associated with God is holy, from which it follows that we must be holy too. As Peter wrote, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9)

So, in conclusion, let us do three things in response: First, let us repeat the proclamation, “The Lord reigns,” whispering it in the ears of the desponding, and publishing it in the face of the foe. For God is not the semblance but the reality of sovereignty. Let us rejoice over our benevolent dictator carrying his banner wherever we go.

Second, recognizing our submission let us pray, “Thy kingdom come.” It should be a constant theme for prayer, that in our day the reign of the Lord may be conspicuous, and his power displayed in his church and on her behalf. “Thy kingdom come” should be our daily prayer…that the Lord Jesus does actually reign should be our daily praise.

Third, “The Lord reigns,” are the first words and the main doctrine of the psalm, and holiness is the final result; a due esteem for the great King ought to lead us to adopt a behavior becoming his royal presence, obedience to his decrees. We are to live a life of faith rather than a life of sight, fear, and unbelief. Belonging to him, and him being Lord of all, trust in Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28 NIV), and “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5 NIV) Indeed, if he is Lord of all, while seeing him not, but trusting his character, we have absolutely nothing to worry about.

Sources: James Montgomery Boice’s Commentary on the Psalms, Spurgeon’s Sermon on Psalm 93, New Covenant Oviedo’s Website (www.newcovenantoviedo.com) for info on Chrsit the King Sunday

Topics: Christ the King Sunday, Liturgical Seasons, Psalms |

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