Live Your Life as a Particular Expression of Christ's Universal Reign
Notes
Transcript
New Year’s resolution and a better prayer life
Psalms helps our worship—can teach us to pray
In rawness through the specifics of our own troubles
And here in Psalm 47 and 48 it teaches us to have worship and prayer that is grand and large in scope
Perhaps you are like me and determined to have a greater prayer life only to run out of gas 4 in a half minutes in
Could it be that your prayer life lacks such zeal because it is not grand enough?
From the heights of such grandeur you then settle into your own specific situation with excitement, and energy and worship
Such a grand and awesome view of God is what’s going on in Psalm 47.
1,6
Sing praises times 5
(not so worried about repeating myself anymore)
What is the doctrine that is worth such a repeat?
What is the doctrine that is able to create such excitement?
2,7
The grandeur — the epic nature of God being the ruler over all the earth
Let’s pause and ask ourselves why such a doctrine doesn’t have such worship in our heart
Why doesn’t it feed such a strong prayer life that the extra sleep in the morning, or extra television watching in the evening just doesn’t seem as important?
God reigns over all the earth!
If this created happy worship in the saints of old--it can and should create such worship in the saints today
The same Spirit is in you that was in the writer of this psalm
There is a truth there for the taking for us saints that instead of my prayer life being dead after 4 minutes, I am just beginning with excitement over the wonderful things God is doing as King over the World.
And it starts with knowing how God reigns over the world
He does it in a particular way
That affects specifically every one of his saints
So as your prayer starts in the heights of wonder of God’s reign over the earth—you wend with every action of yours that day having such massive meaning
And so our prayer life has both an intimacy on an individual level, fueled by our worship of God in what he is doing on the larger level
And the first step in making this a reality in your own prayer life, worship life, is to know HOW God is reigning over the nations
3-4 Subdued-Conquers
Immediate context is Israel
But it’s also looking beyond the shadow (All people happy about this)
Not only does he reign through conquering but he does it through his temple
5
15 So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn.
David didn’t just conqer Jerusalem for vain glory like other kings—He did it to establish God’s presence there
But even this section has an obvious shadow
7
This was not over the whole world but a corner of it—this too is looking beyond the shadow
8
God reigns over the nations, and he does it through his temple/throne
9
And all the peoples gather in joy
Abraham
1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
So, the temple becomes the medium that God rules the world through
And Jerusalem is the city that protects—surrounds houses the temple
The next Psalm, 48, hits on this theme
1-3
No matter what direction you came from, entering Jerusalem, you were always going up to Mt. Zion (Jerusalem).
As you approached it back then, you would be amazed at the huge walls and fortification and the Temple within it.
4-8
So impressive is the sight that it sends God's enemies running
The only event that this comes close to is Isaiah 36-37, 2 Kings 18 and 19 and 2 Chronicles 32 when the army of Assyria breaks its seige of Jersualem and runs back home because of the Angel of the Lord
9-11
Such protection against the people of the world causes God’s people to rejoice as God displays his righteous power in the world by his Temple
12-14
With the conclusion to look and marvel at what God is doing in the world by his temple
So notice how vital Jerusalem and the Temple is to God’s rule over the nations
The peoples flock to it with joy, and the others flee in awe
So you could understand why the Jews got upset when Jesus came and said this kind of stuff about Jerusalem and the Temple:
The temple:
18 So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
Jerusalem
37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 38 See, your house is left to you desolate.
The following chapter being about the destruction of the city and the temple
That’s because, like Psalm 47, Jesus looked beyond the shadow and to the substance—the fulfillment in him and the church
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
All authority has been given to Jesus to rule the nations
Go as his presence—he is with us
2000 years later if you believe his gospel
19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Jesus didn’t blush at teaching the destruction of the physical Jerusalem and the physical temple
Because he knew that was only pointing to when he would establish his temple on the earth
And reigns today through it, through us the church
10 As your name, O God, so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is filled with righteousness.
Christ, as King, is spreading his reign of righteousness through all the earth
And as you live your particular life today, you are an extension of that righteous reign
As you rely upon Jesus to make you right with God
As you rely upon Jesus to cause you to reflect him in all that you do
The joy of being so subdued before the king is extended to others through your word and deeds
6 Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! 7 For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm!
God is king over all the earth and he graciously has chosen you to show reveal that reign
And so may I suggest you try something for your prayer life this year
Start 40,000 feet in the air and praise God for his rule over the nations
And then start proclaiming the gospel to yourself as you praise him for ruling through a temple
That temple is made up of everyone the king has died for, and made righteous
Praise God through prayer that you are made righteous by the love of the king
Subdued not by sword but by a song of peace
And as the vantage point gets lower, view your day coming up as an extension of this lofty truth
The health I pray for, for me and others is connected to this work of righteousness Jesus is doing
As I pray to be a better parent, and my children to be more obedient, it is connected to the reign over the world Jesus is performing
When the reign of Jesus Christ is manifesting itself through our own worship and prayer life, it has a way to make us view the darkness as something to be conquered by the power of Jesus’ right arm
12 Walk about Zion, go around her, number her towers, 13 consider well her ramparts, go through her citadels, that you may tell the next generation 14 that this is God, our God forever and ever. He will guide us forever.