GOD’S WORD FOR DECEMBER 12 ~ ~ Acts 20:32 ~ ~ “So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”

Continuing in Chapter 8 of Michael Youssef’s book, “How to Read the Bible”, entitled:  Psalms: The Songbook of the Kingdom

Today, Psalm 93:  The King and His Kingdom

I have lived under a dictatorship, under socialism, and under oppression.  After Gamal Abdel Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952, Egypt, the land where I was born, was ruled by a dictator who cultivated a cult of personality.  In fact, Nasser popularized the authoritarian model of regimes now widely practiced in Arab nations.  I didn’t choose the government under which I was raised.

But God has given us a privilege – the right to choose to be ruled by the Jesus the King.  Let’s look at Psalm 93:1-5

The Lord reigns, He is robed in majesty; the Lord is robed in majesty and armed with strength; indeed, the world is established, firm and secure.  Your throne was established long ago; You are from all eternity.  The seas have lifted up, Lord, the seas have lifted up their voice: the seas have lifted up their pounding waves.  Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea – the Lord on high is mighty.  Your statutes, Lord, stand firm; holiness adorns your house for endless days.  (Psalm 93:1-5)

Psalm 93 declares the kingship of Yahweh.  The psalmist tells us that God is exalted in three ways.  First, He is exalted by the triumph of His reign.  The Psalmist tells us, “The Lord reigns He is robed in majesty.”  God reigns over all the earth, whether we, the atheists, or the tyrants of the world like it or not.

At Christmastime, we like to think of Jesus as a helpless baby lying in a manger.  But He did not remain a baby.  He was nailed to a cross like a common criminal.  He was mocked and bled to death for our sins.  But now He is enthroned over the entire universe.  He is robed in majesty, and all power and authority belong to Him.

When John saw the majesty of the Lord, he fell on his face in worship (Revelation 1:17).  When Isaiah saw the Lord’s splendor, he cried, in Isaiah 6:5:

“I am ruined!  For I 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.”

Most of us go about our lives full of our own self-importance, eager to take credit for what God has done.  But when we catch even a faint glimpse of the absolute splendor and might of the Lord, we realize that we are ruined and unclean.  We are forced to step down from the throne of our lives, to fall on our faces before Him, and confess, “The Lord reigns, He is robed in majesty!”

Second, God is exalted over all who oppose His authority.  The psalmist writes, “The seas have lifted up,” but “mightier than the breakers of the sea – the Lord on high is mighty.”

The Scriptures often depict the enemies of God as fierce ocean waves.  Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 7:12:

“Woe to the many nations that rage – they rage like the raging sea! 

Woe to the peoples who roar – they roar like the roaring of great waters!”

The prophet Jeremiah also depicts God’s enemies as a raging sea in Jeremiah 6:23:

“They are armed with bow and spear; they are cruel and show no mercy.  They sound like a roaring sea as they ride on their horses.”

Like these two prophets, the psalmist gives us a vivid image of those who reject the authority of God’s Word and His authority over their lives:  “the seas have lifted up their voice; the seas have lifted up their pounding waves.”  The mass of godless humanity is a churning, pounding wave.  It raises its collective voice in defiance against God.

You see many godless people on television, smiling pleasantly as they ceaselessly mock God and all those who follow Him.  They have rejected the authority of Jesus over their lives, just as they have rejected His salvation.  They refuse to acknowledge the sovereign supremacy of the King of Kings.  They are like the roaring of the ocean – loud, ceaseless, and mindless.

Those who belong to Jesus will live with Him forever.  Those who reject and rage against Him will continue to pound the shore. But the Lord is mightier than the breakers of the sea.

Third, God is exalted by the truth of His rule.  Verse 5 tells us that His perfect laws “stand firm.” And, the psalmist adds, “holiness adorns your house for endless days.”

There has never been a time in history when there was such a clear choice between the rule of God and the rule of Satan.  Here’s what you need to know about dictators:  they don’t give you any choices.  They tell you what to do, and if you don’t do it, they punish you.  Satan is the cruelest dictator who ever existed.  If you let him, Satan will enslave you.  He will take away your power to choose.  He might enslave you through a lust for power, wealth, or status.   He might enslave you through addiction to drugs, alcohol, tobacco, gabling, spending, pornography, adultery, or profanity.  But if you give him one inch of your life, he will take a mile.  He will control you 100 percent.

The psalmist wants you to know that God has given you the power to live as a free human being under the pleasant and gracious rule of Jesus the King.  You don’t have to remain in bondage under the dictatorship of Satan.

The statutes and laws of the Kingdom stand firm.  Holiness adorns the house of the Lord.  Holiness means surrendering to the God who loves you.  Once you have surrendered fully to Him, you will live in the house of the Lord for endless days.

********  *******************

Psalm 37:11

But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in abundance of peace.

Jeremiah 31:3                                                                                                    

The Lord has appeared of old unto me, saying.  Yea, I have loved you with an everlasting love:  therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn you.

Philippians 2:9-11

Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,  and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father

John 15:5

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much (E)fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

John 15:9

As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.

Published by liveinthelightofourlord

View all posts by liveinthelightofourlord