Psalm 93: The Lord Eternal Reigns
Notes
Transcript
Open prayer with:
May your Kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Last Sunday, I mentioned that Psalms 90-92 are connected. One commentator even stated that they create a minibook. Psalms 93-100 also have their own connection. They are Theocratic Psalms. The theme of God as King is a prominent theme through the remainder of the psalms that we will look at this summer.
Though this is a common theme that I have preached it seems that the events of the past few weeks have demonstrated all the more the need for this reminder.
There were a series of interesting events that occurred yesterday. You may be aware of a few.
It was Flag Day.
It was President Trump’s 79th birthday.
It was the 250th year anniversary of the U.S. Army.
No Kings Day, a protest sponsored by leftist groups such as: Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the Human Rights Coalition, Freedom from Religion, American Humanist Organization, ACLU, and a whole bunch of other leftist groups, many of which with LGBTQ+ symbols and colors in their logos.
The the rhetoric for the protest began with people who wanted to brand a parade that Trump scheduled on Flag Day as if he was having a parade for his birthday. Really clever spin, not the reality of what happened though. This was also connected to disapproval of actions related to immigration policy.
For various reasons they responded with something akin to “America has no king, America needs no king.” Which while I thought we ought to agree with resisting a country monarch, but it seems that this is driven by rhetoric and media narrative rather than reality.
However, there is a King. That King is Jesus.
Now, normally I would have the temptation to feel somewhat apologetic for bringing political current events into my sermon - but one of the major themes of the Psalms that will be studying this summer is that the Lord Reigns, the Lord is King.
This is a political statement. It always has been.
Jesus is Lord, is also a political statement.
If Jesus is Lord, then Caesar is not. This is one reason why early Christians were persecuted. They refused to confess caesar to be Lord.
This ought to be a foundational true to how the Christian engages in the world. Our every breath and deed ought to be done in a manner that serves our king.
The Lord Eternal Reigns and there is no threat to his dominion.
Though there may be riots in California, though China is doing weird stuff, Israel bombed Iran, war is still going on between Russia and Ukraine - but the Lord is King. He eternally reigns sovereignly, and perfectly over his creation.
The three main points we have for today will be concerning the King’s Rule, The King’s Might and the King’s Word.
The King’s Rule is Eternal. (vv1-2)
The King’s Might is Unrivaled. (vv. 3-4)
The King’s Word is true. (v. 5)
So first we will draw our attention to the King’s Rule as we look at verses 1 and 2.
The King’s Rule
The King’s Rule
1 The Lord reigns; he is robed in majesty; the Lord is robed; he has put on strength as his belt. Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.
The Psalm opens with a declaration that the Lord reigns. YHWH reigns. YHWH is King.
Then it proceeds to describe God’s kingly attire. He is robed in majesty. We don’t necessarily think of kings today in Kingly Attire. Most of the time they are wearing a suit. However, not that long ago in history we saw England’s King Charles in the Royal Regalia.
At the day of his coronation King Charles first entered Westminster Abbey wearing the Robe of State, with Camila wearing a matching attire. Then after he has made his entrance he changed to put on the royal vestments. There’s a robe, a stole, there ‘s a coronate gauntlet, a supertunica, sword belt, and imperial mantle. Several of these pieces over 100 years old. During the coronation he is given the crown jewels - the imperial state crown - decorated with 2,868 diamonds, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds, 4 rubies, and 269 pearls. The crown alone weighs over 2 and a quarter lbs. He is also given the sovereign scepter with cross - containing the world’s largest diamond. It’s a lot - and he looks like a king - especially the kind of king you might picture from a movie or what you might expect to see in the official portrait.
But the regalia is not just about flaunting affluence, or being flash but it is a ceremony that demonstrates the king’s power and majesty. This is all to demonstrate that there is no question that he is king. However, consider how that helps us understand this verse.
In this Psalm we read that the Lord is robed in majesty, and he has put on strength as his belt. The Lord is adorned in regalia that is majesty and might.
So even as the King of England was adorned with billions of dollars of precious stones - his attire pales in comparison to the glory that the Lord is robed in.
There is no question that the Lord is king. He reigns without question. He is king in every way.
Then in verse two the attention is shifted from the Lord’s being robed in majesty and strength to his throne. A further statement of God’s undeniable reign.
The Lord is Eternal:
2 Your throne is established from of old; you are from everlasting.
His throne is from of old… he has reigned in eternity past. And he is from everlasting no beginning or end.
The Lord has reigned in eternity past, and he will reign forever and ever.
18 The Lord will reign forever and ever.”
Unlike King Charles, who was given the title of King at his coronation in 2023 - the Lord has always reigned. Also unlike King Charles, there is no limit to God’s dominion - God reigns supreme over all creation.
Now in a previous sermon, I stated that the cross was Jesus coronation. This does not contradict what I just said. On the Cross Jesus was publicly displayed and king. The sign above the cross said “This is the King of the Jews,” they placed a crown upon his head. This was further confirmed upon his resurrection. Jesus has always been king, but as the God man his crucifixion demonstrated what kind of King he is. He is the King of Kings.
The Lord has always reigned. When we consider the Old Testament, when the people of Israel requested that Samuel bring them a king. They held a protest for “King’s Day”, they shouted “We Want a King”, “let us be like the other nations”. The Lord speaks to Samuel and states: it is not you that they have rejected but me. This does not mean that the Lord is not their king. It means that they are in sin - but God will provide for them a king who ought to be an emissary for him. However, the request for a king comes with a warning - and they find out that having a human king isn’t all they thought it would be. But the Lord uses this king, through David, to establish Jesus, the Son of God, as undisputed king.
The people of Israel are a primarily faithless people as shown in the scriptures. Regularly turning to idolatry and turning from YHWH. This doesn’t mean the Lord stops being king. But even in their faithlessness, as they seek a human king - and God further uses that crown to glorify himself.
The people of God ought to live in the reign of the Lord as King.
You don’t make God King. Jesus is king whether you like it or not. Jesus is king whether you believe in him or not. The Lord reigning over all creation has nothing to do with your feelings, or your faith. Jesus is Lord whether you like it or not, Jesus is Lord whether you believe in him or not.
This is why evangelism methods that speak making Jesus King, or making Jesus Lord are faulty. Jesus is Lord - and you will either confess that with joy and in worship, or in judgment and in terror.
The King’s Reign is Eternal.
13 “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.
Jesus, the Son of Man, was given dominion and glory and a kingdom. All peoples nations and languages should serve him. And he will reign forever.
The Lord is an eternal king, and he is a good king, but he is also a conquering King.
The King is mighty. He is crushing his enemies, and making them into his footstool.
We are given a display of the Lord’s power by means of comparison to the sea.
The King’s Might
The King’s Might
3 The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their roaring.
4 Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the Lord on high is mighty!
Floodwaters are rising. The waters are roaring… but God is mightier than the waters.
The ocean is filled with scary things. We have some potentially scary animals here in Arizona. But I’ll take an encounter with a rattlesnake over one wiht a Goblin Shark. Have you ever seen a Goblin shark? Terrifying. Not to mention: Vampire Squids, Angler Fish, and all sorts of other sharks.
It is estimated that Oceanographers have only explored 5% of the ocean, and only mapped 20% with sonar. There’s a potential for a whole lot of scary to be in that remaining 95%.
There’s a reason that so many horror films focus on the ocean and what is in the ocean. Think about Jaws… “you’ll never go in the water again,” was the tagline - but the movie was scary because sharks are real. The ocean is scary. And yet the Bible shows us that God tells the ocean what to do. God speaks and the oceans listen.
We see this in Genesis 1. God speaks and the waters part.
3 The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over many waters.
The Ocean is scary and mighty, but God is mightier.
But it’s not just the water than God is mightier than, but also whatever terrifying creatures that reside in that water.
In Job 41:1-2, God humbles Job by giving him the example of Leviathan.
1 “Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook or press down his tongue with a cord? 2 Can you put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook?
There are various suggestions for what Leviathan may have been - whether this is the ancient near eastern version of the loch ness monster, or if it is a dinosaur, or a whale shark doesn’t matter… but God is telling job that whatever this terrifying creature is that God fishes him out of the water and plays with it as if it is a goldfish.
Psalm 74 demonstrates a similar instance where God is shown as the Leviathan Crusher.
Psalm 107:23-32 demonstrates a similar picture as well. There’s a narrative in there of men going down to the sea in ships to do business. The text tells us:
24 they saw the deeds of the Lord, his wondrous works in the deep. 25 For he commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea.
God calls for a storm upon the waters. And the waters listen.
And then in verse 28 the sailors call out to the Lord and he makes the storm to be still. This Psalm shows us that when God speaks the seas respond. And this Psalm is the background to Jesus calming the storm. Much like the sailors in Psalm 107, the disciples are at wit’s end and they call out to Jesus who speaks and the storm stops. They ask “Who is this that even the winds and the sea obey him?” The answer is that Jesus is God.
Jesus is God, and he speaks to the water and it does what he says.
When the Bible states that God is mightier than the thunders of many waters - it also shows us very clearly what that means. To add to this, in ancient literature, water was often used to convey chaos. To the point where there is a whole genre of literature that the Germans have deemed chaoskampf. This phrase is used to describe stories where a person or deity goes to war against chaos, often in the form of a sea serpent or dragon.
The Biblical writers picked up on this to say that God is bigger than your nightmares, and your pagan gods. When God speaks into the seas and they stop he is speaking into to chaos and putting it in submission.
God is mightier than even the scariest things in the ocean.
The King’s might is unchallenged. And since his might is unchallenged, this would also connect to his word. His decrees are trustworthy. We just finished reading Psalm 119 during our weekly Psalm reading where we read that celebrated by the Psalmist repeatedly.
The King’s Decrees
The King’s Decrees
A king’s word carries authority. A king speaks and these things happen.
He doesn’t have to go through a chain of command. Congress doesn’t serve as his check and balance.
He has spoken. And we should seek to conform to his will.
5 Your decrees are very trustworthy; holiness befits your house, O Lord, forevermore.
Do you believe that God’s word is trustworthy?
PLUG CAN I TRUST THE BIBLE?
Does what you are reading in the Bible ever disagree with you? What if you don’t like something in the Bible? What do you do? Do you dismiss it, assert that it isn’t true? Or do you change what it says? Ignore it? explain it away?
Or do you repent, and pray for God to conform you will and desires to his own?
Tim Keller once said “If your god never disagrees with you, you might just be worshiping an idealized version of yourself.” His point being that God is higher than we are, and we are sinful people.
If God’s word is trustworthy and you disagree, you are wrong.
The culture tells us to follow our hearts.
You heart is not a trustworthy guide. In fact the prophet Jeremiah tells us
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
But God’s word is trustworthy.
The Kingdom of God is not a democracy. God doesn’t care about your opinion.
The King’s Word is true.
Whatever happens in Globe, or Arizona, or Los Angeles, or Washington, Russia, Israel, China or North Korea Jesus is still King. He reigns eternally.
Two responses to God’s reign
Reverence or rejection.
Two attitudes that should follow in response.
If you revere God as king. It brings comfort.
If you reject it - it ought to bring terror.
Concerning rejection -
While our constitutional right to free speech and freedom to protest are important, one of the things that I’ve always found perplexing is when people use the phrase “Not My President” in protests. Because it might feel like it’s a significant phrase - but it doesn’t change anything. Much like the declaration that “Well I don’t believe in your god.” Doesn’t change who God is, or what he has said.
Concerning Comfort:
Take Comfort in the King who reigns unthreatened.
John Newton wrote in a letter to a friend: “There is one political maxim which comforts me. "The Lord reigns!" His hand guides the storm; and he knows those who are his—how to protect, support, and deliver them. He will take care of his own cause; yes, he will extend his kingdom, even by these formidable methods. Men have one thing in view; He has another—and his counsel shall stand!”
Newton was British. He wrote this in August of 1775… so you can fill in which war was happening then.
Even though he was a dirty brit, he’s right. Whether the british crown is ruling and the colonies are rebelling, or the president is doing things you don’t like, or if the president is doing things you do like when the nations rage… the only true sense of comfort comes not from political parties but from the declaration that the Lord reigns.
When riots break out: the Lord Reigns. When the nations rage: the Lord reigns. When the seemingly inevitable WW3 begins: the Lord reigns.
Jesus is the King of Kings. He’s the greatest and highest of all kings.
This mighty eternal God has revealed himself in his word. Through his word he has revealed that though each and every person has committed divine treason against the Holy Throne, he has given his son that our sins may be laid upon him - and we may be forgiven. That though we were deserving of wrath he has made those who believe in Jesus Christ, his friends.
And that King is coming again. He will return to judge the living and the dead. Every tongue will confess that Jesus is King. Every knee will bow. The King will return and when he returns we will see the glorious splendor that read about at the beginning of this Psalm.
17 Your eyes will behold the king in his beauty; they will see a land that stretches afar.
Repent or perish.
Go and serve your king.
A quote that has been attributed to Charles Spurgeon is “I have learned to kiss the waves that throw me up against the rock of ages.” When the waves crash and the storm of life throws you into desperation to look up the rock of ages - kiss that wave - knowing that God is greater than the sea.
