All right, Psalm 47, there's
only nine verses. I want to read through this again
with you tonight, and we will continue on where we left off
last time. It begins in verse one. Oh, clap
your hands. Now, when we clap, that's called
applause. If someone You know, it's common
in our day, I don't know if it was always common, that if someone
is performing and people like what they hear and they're being
entertained, they give them applause. Sometimes we clap when we're
together, if someone has a birthday or something like that. But here,
God is calling on his people to give applause to the Lord. Clap your hands, all ye people. Shout unto God with a voice of
triumph. For the Lord, most high, is terrible. He is a great king over all the
earth. He shall subdue the people under
us and the nations under our feet. The words us and our refer
to the church, refer to God's people. elect, those who believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, those who He has made a covenant with.
Remember, in the New Covenant, God has promised to be the God
to His people. He will be their God and they
shall be His people. And Jesus Christ was sent into
the world to save his people from their sin. So it's clear
from these kinds of scripture verses that the people of the
Lord are those he made a covenant with in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he calls them his people, us, and our in these kinds of
verses. Because the Bible was written
to the church. And it was given to the church.
And those who were used by God to write scripture were people
who were believers. I was telling Denise as I was
listening to the Bible reading this last week, I noticed, and
I've thought about this a lot, that when the devils or the demons
spoke and said that Jesus was the Son of God, that Jesus commanded
them to be quiet, to be silent. And there was a reason for that.
It was that the reason is, I believe, that God doesn't give to the
liar We were Satan and his children and his kingdom, the task of
proclaiming the truth of Christ. He gives that blessing to the
church. And so when he uses the words
us and our here, and when he writes the scripture, he speaks
to his church. The scripture was written to
the church, to the congregation of the Lord. Remember, in the
Old Testament, whenever the scriptures were read, it was to those in
the nation of Israel, which represented the people of God. Okay? All
right, that's kind of an aside here, but notice in verse 2 again,
for the Lord Most High is terrible. He is a great king over all the
earth. He shall subdue the people under
us and the nations under our feet. He shall choose our inheritance
for us, the excellency of Jacob, whom he loved, Selah. Verse five, God has gone up with
a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to
God. Sing praises. Sing praises unto
our King. Sing praises. For God is the
King of all the earth. Sing ye praises with understanding. Notice five times God tells us
to sing praises. God reigneth over the heathen. God sitteth upon the throne of
his holiness. The princes of the people are
gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham. For the
shields of the earth belong to God. He is greatly exalted. The people here he's speaking
about in this last verse, the princes of the people are gathered
together. The people of the God of Abraham are the us. They are
the hour that we saw in verse three. He shall subdue the people
under us and the nations under our feet. So the people of Abraham
are the people of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we are children of
Christ, we're also called children of Abraham because God gave the
promise of salvation through Christ to Abraham and to all
those who, like Abraham, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay,
so as I tried to bring out last time, in verse one, that this
psalm is about the triumph of our God and our King, who is
the Lord Jesus. And he's telling us here in this
psalm that we can know our attitude towards his work by what he declares
to us in this psalm. What is our attitude to be? It's
an attitude of applause. It's an attitude of approval,
of joyful, of jubilant praise and singing and gladness, joy
bubbling over for a good reason. And that reason he's given to
us here is God's triumph over our enemies. And we read last
week, if you remember from Second Chronicles chapter 20, about
how King Jehoshaphat with Judah and Jerusalem were sort of the
victims of the attack of these enemies that came to them, Ammon
and Moab and the Edomites, and they were more in number, stronger
than the people of Judah and Jerusalem. And Jehoshaphat and
his people did not know what to do. He confessed they had
no strength. And if you recall in that chapter,
when Jehoshaphat prayed, he prayed to God. He said, aren't you God
over all the earth? And that's what we read here.
He's God in verse two. He's the great king over all
the earth. And Jehoshaphat also prayed.
And isn't it true that you have all power and that no one can
resist your will? And then he goes on to say in
that same prayer, he says, and aren't you our God? So again, he's bringing out the
truth in his prayer. He's confessing what God himself
has taught us from his word, that God is almighty, that he
rules over all, that his people are his people in covenant, And
then Jehoshaphat went on to say that God had chosen out their
inheritance for them, had driven out the inhabitants of their
inheritance and given that land to them. And that then these
same people that they had encountered in their wilderness sojourn,
God had prevented them. from hurting them or taking their
lands from them. And those people were the ones
who rose up at this time against them, and they were coming against
them. So Jehoshaphat is praying on many grounds for God's salvation
to them. And you can read that again in
2 Chronicles 20. But I love that it's such a precious
prayer. It teaches us how to pray. But
I love the way that they were brought, just like we are brought,
to this place of utter helplessness when he said, we don't know what
to do, and we have no power over this great host that's come against
us. And then he also said that our
eyes are upon thee. So that's the position that God's
people are in. We have no power, we don't know
what to do, but we look to the Lord Jesus Christ. That summarizes
our life in this world, doesn't it? It summarizes our condition
before we were saved. We didn't know what to do, how
to save ourselves. We couldn't do it. We couldn't
bring about our own reconciliation. Couldn't put away our own sins.
Couldn't establish our own righteousness. Couldn't obtain any favor from
God. God had to take the initiative and accomplish everything for
us. He had to give us life and faith. He gave us his gospel. He gave us everything. And then
Jehoshaphat goes on in that same chapter where they are told through
God speaking through the prophet that they were to go out against
the enemy, but they weren't going to have to fight because the
battle was the Lord's. And this is tremendously comforting
to us. because the battle of God's people
is God's battle. It's our enemy, but God is the
one who fights for us. And this is such a powerful lesson.
And we have the benefit of looking throughout the history recorded
in scripture, God's chosen words to us by taking these people
and their lives and all the history and their lives behind that and
showing how we ourselves are delivered by God's grace in our
own life now. So we have enemies. There's a
battle to be fought, but the battle is God's, and the victory
is His, and the enemies, though they are ours, were His enemies
by His taking our case as His own case and standing for us
as our God and Savior. This is the wonderful message
of the gospel, that Jesus Christ is the God and the Savior of
his people. He came to save his people from
their sins. And those words, I'm never tired
of them. And let me read to you a couple
of scriptures that support this, besides that one in 2 Chronicles
chapter 20. If you remember in the book of
Micah, in Micah chapter 7, Excuse me, we read a promise there,
and this promise was spoken in the New Testament, again, to
show us the fulfillment of it. But notice in Micah chapter seven,
he says in verse 18, who is a God like unto thee? This is God's
people giving praise to God by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And so this is a song, isn't
it? is declaring the truth of the gospel. Who is a God like
unto thee? There's none, of course, it's
a rhetorical question. That pardoneth iniquity. No God
but the Lord can pardon iniquity. And passes by the transgression
of the remnant of his heritage. That would be his elect, and
they're called his heritage. God's people are his inheritance,
and he is their inheritance. He says, he retaineth not his
anger forever because he delights in mercy. He will turn again. He will have compassion upon
us. Don't you love in the New Testament
where the Lord Jesus, when he looked upon someone and he would
heal them or he would open their eyes or he would give them life,
he would have compassion on them because the Lord Jesus Christ
is our God who has compassion on us. He delights in mercy. And we need to take that to heart,
don't we? Because we doubt, we who believe
also doubt. We doubt the mercy and the heart
and the purpose of the Lord himself. And here he tells us, he reminds
us, he will turn again, he will have compassion upon us, he will
subdue our iniquities, and thou wilt cast all their sins into
the depths of the sea." Like the Egyptians, our sins are cast
into the depths of the sea, our enemies. thou will perform the
truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham, which thou has sworn
unto our fathers from the days of old." All the way back in
the book of Genesis, God promised that the Lord Jesus Christ would
bruise the head of the serpent. In Luke chapter one, this particular
prophecy in Micah is mentioned. If you want to turn to Luke chapter
one, In Luke 1, verse 68, Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist,
is given this by the Holy Spirit when he says in verse 68, his
father Zacharias said, Now he speaks of it as in the past. But John hadn't yet been born,
and so Jesus hadn't yet been born, but he's speaking of it
as present because that's the way God speaks of his work. And
he has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant
David. See, he's talking about Christ.
He's the son of David. John the Baptist was of the house
of, he was a Levite. He wasn't of David's house. And
he says in verse 70, as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets,
like Micah 7, 18 through 20, which have been since the world
began, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the
hand of all that hate us. And we saw from Micah 7, verses
18 through 20, that our iniquities, our sins, that's the transgressions
that he would subdue under us and cast into the sea. Verse
72 says, To perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to
remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to our father
Abraham, is exactly the words of Micah 7, verse 20. That He would grant unto us that
we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve
Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him
all the days of our life. Now our holiness and our righteousness
is the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't miss that. In Hebrews chapter
10, verse 10, by the offering of himself, he has forever sanctified
his people, made them holy. And in Hebrews 13, verse 12,
It was His blood that made us holy. And in Hebrews 10, verse
14, He has perfected forever them that are sanctified by His
one offering of Himself to God. In 1 Corinthians 1.30, God says
that He has made Him to be wisdom, righteousness, holiness, or sanctification
and redemption to us. The Lord Jesus Christ has made
our holiness. So all these things teach us
that our righteousness and our holiness is the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is Him Jeremiah 23, verse
5 and 6 says, the Lord our righteousness. It is Him. And it is Him, not
only in His person, but because of His work to offer Himself
to God. It was in offering Himself to
God that He clothed us with the skins of His own righteousness,
just as God clothed Adam and Eve with the skins of that animal,
Christ sacrificed is our righteousness, our righteous clothing. All these
things are wonderful beyond words. And he says that here in holiness
and righteousness, we serve him all the days of our life. Notice
in verse 76, Luke chapter one, verse 76, he goes on, and thou
child, talking about John, shall be called the prophet of the
highest. who was Christ, for thou shalt go before the face
of the Lord to prepare his ways." He's quoting from Malachi chapter
3 and Isaiah 40, to give knowledge, notice, the knowledge of what?
Salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins.
And the remission of our sins is how? How does that come? By
the blood, by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ is the remission of our sins. He says
in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 14 through 19, he says, the Holy
Ghost speaks of these things of Christ offering himself to
perfect us forever in the new covenant. When he said there
are sins and iniquities. Well, I remember no more. And
he goes on there and Hebrews tend to say now where remission
of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Christ's blood
made remission for our sins. OK. That's what he's talking
about here. This is the enemy. This is what
we were saved from. It was by the Lord. He redeemed
us by his precious blood. You see how all of Scripture
is in language that describes our sin in personification of
people and enemies and kingdoms and troubles all coming against
us. God is describing to us the victory
the triumph of His work for us in His Son over our sin enemy
and all the consequences of that. What are the consequences of
sin? Death. And what is death? Death is the wages of sin. It's
the punishment God brings. God brings it because of what
we are, what we've done. And God removes that in order
that he might not give us the wages of sin, but what? The gift of God, which is eternal
life. All right, so finishing this
up in Luke chapter 1 in verse 78, through the tender mercy
of our God, whereby the dayspring from on high have visited us.
The dayspring is Christ. He's the son of righteousness.
He springs up in the gospel and that becomes light to us. Verse
79, to give light to them that sit in darkness. It's like the
rising of the sun After a dark night in the cold of winter,
the sun rises and suddenly there's warmth and light all around.
That's Christ coming at the appointed time to redeem his people, to
remove the curse from them. He says to give light to them
that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our
feet into the way of peace. All right. So now all that is
spoken of. And I read those things to you
so that you can see that Second Chronicles 20 with Jehoshaphat,
Jerusalem and all of Judah with the king going out against their
enemies and God telling them, now you stand still. You see
the salvation of the Lord. And then there were these appointed
singers who would go forth with trumpets, singing and playing.
ahead of the army. And what happened? God completely
wiped out their enemies. They didn't do anything. They
just took God's word. They took God's word, telling
what what he would do as their confidence. And they praised
God for a victory already accomplished, even though it hadn't yet been
brought to pass. Now, we have a much more privileged
position because our victory has been accomplished, hasn't
it? Christ has obtained our victory for us, our redemption. When
he says in Hebrews 9, 12, he by the eternal spirit offered
himself without spot to God, he obtained our eternal redemption. It's already there. It's obtained.
And so because we have it, because he has purged our sins, we're
looking on an accomplished redemption. Christ has risen from the dead.
He has ascended. He sits in glory. And our enemies
are already subdued under his feet. And so we see that here
in this psalm. Look at Psalm 47. Again, as we
read through this now, you can see the triumphant joy in verse
one. Oh, clap your hands, all ye people.
Shout unto God with the voice of triumph. It's like when Jesus
came into Jerusalem on the donkey and the children and all the
people were saying, Hosanna to the son of David. Oh, save us
to the to the Messiah. That's what they were saying.
Verse two, for the Lord Most High is terrible, and we looked
at that last week. That means he inspires awe in
his people by his saving work for them to subdue their enemies
and to give them their inheritance. He is a great king over all the
earth, therefore none can resist his will. He shall subdue the
people under us and the nations under our feet. He shall choose
our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he has, whom he
loved. Notice here in this verse, verse
four, God chooses our inheritance for us. What is our inheritance,
by the way, that he has chosen for us? Well, it's everything
that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, Christ himself
is our inheritance. I want to read in Ephesians chapter
one, verse 11, it says, Also, we have obtained an inheritance
in the Lord Jesus Christ. What do we have in Him? What
don't we have in Him? We have everything in Christ.
We're complete in Him. He's the fullness of the Godhead.
In the Lord Jesus Christ is the fullness of the Godhead. and
we are completed him, Colossians 2, 9 and 10. So we know that
we have everything in him. He's all, and we have all in
him. There's nothing we don't have
in him. Let me read this particular verse to you in 1 Corinthians
3, where he enumerates some of these things
to us, to the Corinthians. He was saying these things so
that they would be encouraged in 1 Corinthians 3, this was
actually spoken by the Apostle Paul in the context of the Corinthians
trying to find who was greater, like the disciples at one point.
And the Apostle Paul rebukes them, he says, let no man glory
in men, this is 1 Corinthians 3, 21, for all things are yours. Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas,
that would be Peter, or the world, or life, or death, or things
present, or things to come. All are yours, and you are Christ's,
and Christ is God's. So you can see why all things
are ours, because we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. And as
he says in Romans 8, 32, if God has delivered up his son for
us and didn't spare him, He's not going to withhold anything.
He's going to give us everything with His Son. We're heirs of
God. Heirs of God. Do you know what
that means? We're given all that God has for His children. We're
joint heirs with Christ. That means we receive what God
gives to His Son. And what has He given to His
Son? He's the heir of all things. Hebrews 1-2. He's the heir of
all things. If He's the heir of all things,
and we're joint heirs with Jesus Christ, then we're the heir of
all things in Him. He's our inheritance. Could we
want anything more than we have in Christ, the Son of God, the
Spirit of God given to us? There's absolutely nothing that
can be even compared to Him. There's no measuring stick. There's
no measuring tool that can possibly measure out the greatness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Height, depth, length, and breadth
of his love passes knowledge, according to Ephesians chapter
three. So there's no way that we can measure him. Infinite,
that's our God, infinite. He goes beyond any possibility
of measurement or quantification. Scientists like to talk about
the size of the universe. There's nothing you can use to
measure God, not light years, not distance, not some comparison
to an intelligence on Earth. There's no size, no justice,
no righteousness. There's nothing you can use to
measure or compare God to. infinite, beyond our ability
to comprehend. And all that is His is given
to His Son and to His people with Him. Christ is our inheritance. If God gave His Son for us and
gave His Son to us, He's given us all things. OK, so back in
Psalm 47, He shall choose our inheritance for us. Our inheritance
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says in that same verse,
us, the excellency of Jacob, whom he loved. Now, the excellency
of Jacob, it shows us that God, when he looks at his people,
he sees them as excellent. And that seems completely contrary
to what we know about our own selves. When Paul, the apostle,
said, oh wretched man that I am, he wasn't just saying how excellent
he was, was he? But God says this, In Isaiah
60 verse 15, talking about his people, he says, whereas thou
hast been forsaken and hated so that no man went through thee,
I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations, talking
about the church. God's people are an eternal excellency. What is their excellency? Well,
it has to be the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the foundation of the church.
The walls of the church are salvation. The cornerstone of the church's
building is Christ himself. And we are stones that are living
stones because Christ is our life. So everything in the church
is, and he dwells in us, so everything about the church can really be
summarized as the Lord Jesus Christ and his excellency. His
righteousness is our clothing. His precious blood is our cleansing. Our garments are the white linen
of his righteousness. And we're made whiter than snow
according to Isaiah 118 because of his precious blood. So the
excellency comes from Christ. It's not in us. We're not excellent
in ourselves. God has esteemed his people as
excellent because he has given them to the Lord Jesus Christ
and he looks only to Christ for them. All right. So I want you to also,
let's go on to the next verse here. He says in Isaiah, I'm
sorry, Psalm 47, God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with
the sound of a trumpet. What does this mean? God has
gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
Well, look at Acts chapter one. So you can see this in Acts chapter
1, the Lord Jesus Christ, this is the setting in Acts 1, the
Lord Jesus Christ had risen from the dead. He had accomplished
our redemption. He had fulfilled the will of
God, had accomplished all God gave him to do and saved his
people from their sins. He had cast Satan out of heaven. And the accuser was cast down,
and the people of God now were liberated from sin, and from
Satan, and from death, and all their enemies. Christ has risen,
and he's with his apostles, and just before he ascends to heaven,
it says this in verse 9. When He has spoken these things
to them, while they beheld the Lord Jesus standing there on
earth in His physical body after His resurrection, while they
beheld Him, He was taken up and a cloud received him out of their
sight. This is something I've always,
you know, you think about these things, what actually that was
like to see Jesus Christ standing there one moment, and the next
moment he's rising up into the clouds and disappears out of
their sight. He says in verse 10, and while
they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold,
two men, angels, stood by them in white apparel, which also
said, you men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven?
This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall
so come in like manner as you have seen him go up into heaven. Okay, so back in Psalm 47 verse
five, God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a
trumpet. Now, what does it say in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 about
the second coming of Christ? What does it say about that in
1 Corinthians chapter 15? He says in verse 51 of 1 Corinthians
15, behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed in a moment. And the twinkling of an eye at
the last trump You hear that? The trumpet, the last trumpet
sound. For the trumpet shall sound. This is, in the book of
Revelation, there's several trumpet sounds. This is the last one.
This is the last thing in history. He says, For the trumpet shall
sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we
shall be changed. For this corruptible must put
on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when
this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal
shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass
the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. This
is the last day. This is the resurrection. Everything
has come to an end. This is the final event of history.
The saints are risen together with Christ, and after this resurrection,
then the dead are also raised up to stand for judgment. So
all this occurs in what's called the last day in scripture. But
notice what's happening here. A trumpet sounds. Christ returns. Going back to Acts, the angel
said that he will come again in the clouds the same way he
went up. And how does he come back? With
a trumpet. And according to 1 Corinthians
15, the trumpet shall sound, the dead shall be raised. It's
the Lord Jesus Christ calling to his people to rise again,
as he says in John chapter five, verse 24 and 25. And here in
Psalm 47, he's saying God has gone up with a shout. So when
the Lord Jesus Christ ascended After he rose from the dead,
he ascended from earth, returning to heaven with his father in
his body, in his resurrected, glorified body. And when he did
that, it was the same way he's going to return, in a cloud,
with a trumpet sound, and with a shout. That's what Psalm 47,
verse five. The shout is the shout of victory.
Absolute, total victory over his enemies for his people. He
has delivered them from every enemy, and he has subdued every
enemy under his feet and under their feet. That's what he's
saying. He's gone up with a shout. Look at Revelation chapter 15. Revelation, let me get there. Remember when the nation of Israel
was brought out of Egypt and crossed over the Red Sea, all
the Egyptians were killed in the Red Sea and their dead bodies
were on the shore and all over the place. And the children of
Israel sang a song at that time over their enemies. They were
singing praise to God who saved them from their Egyptian enemies. And that parallels what God's
people do. We sing praise to God from our heart. for his victory
over our sin enemies, pictured by the Egyptians. Revelation
chapter 15, verse 1, I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous,
seven angels having seven last plagues, for in them is filled
up the wrath of God. And I saw, as it were, a sea
of glass mingled with fire, and them that had gotten the victory
over the beast and over the image, over his image, and over his
mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of
glass, having the harps of God, and listen, and they sing the
song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb,
the Lamb Jesus Christ, saying, great and marvelous are thy works,
Lord God Almighty, just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who is the King of saints? The
Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb. who shall not fear thee, O Lord,
and glorify thy name, for thou only art holy. All nations shall
come and worship before thee, for thy judgments are made manifest."
Okay? So here we see the victory of
Christ over his enemies and his triumph after he ascended in
heaven. Let's see, I was gonna bring
out a different text of scripture to you. Let me just take you
to, let's see, the other text of scripture,
what was it I was gonna go to? Well, let's look at Daniel chapter
seven, Daniel seven. This entire chapter is talking
about Christ and his victory over all of the enemies of God's
people, which are portrayed throughout history as these different nations
that come and go. In Daniel chapter 7 and verse
13, in the middle of all these different beasts that represent
these nations of the world, the religions of the world, opposing
God and opposing His people, opposing the Lord Jesus Christ,
here in verse 13 we see the final victory of the whole of history. He says, And I saw in the night
visions And behold, one like the Son of Man, in other words,
the Son of Man, Christ, came with the clouds of heaven Notice
the clouds. How did Jesus ascend up? In the
clouds. And He comes again in the clouds.
So it says here, One like the Son of Man came with the clouds
of heaven and came to the Ancient of Days, that would be God, our
Father, and they brought Him near before Him, Christ coming
into the presence of God on His throne. And there was given Him,
notice, everything, dominion, glory, and a kingdom, that all
people, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion
is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his
kingdom, that which shall not be destroyed." All right, so
this is describing the ascension of Christ. after his resurrection. When he ascended on high, this
scripture was fulfilled. He came to his father and God
the Father gave him honor, glory and dominion over all things
and in the eyes of the onlooking universe so that no one could
oppose him ever again. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion. Now to the people of the Lord,
they still have their lives to live out. there's going to be
the whole course of history that is fulfilled, and the final close
of history when Christ, with the last trump, shall sound and
call forth his people to rise from the dead, and they shall
be changed in their bodies, made like his body, and then they
will be made openly manifest to the onlooking universe as
the children of God. But that is described here, his
ascension is described here, as in verse five of Psalm 47,
God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a
trumpet. Therefore, in verse six, sing praises to God, sing
praises, sing praises to our King, sing praises. For God is
the King of all the earth, sing ye praises with understanding.
Understand this, Christ is the King. He rules over all. He has accomplished our salvation. Our enemies are defeated. We
are victors. We're more than conquerors through
him that loved us. He always gives us the victory. They overcame him by the blood
of the lamb, by the gospel, the word of their testimony, because
they love not their life even to death. We have no life except
what we have in Christ. And so he goes on in Psalm 47,
God reigneth over the heathen. God sits upon the throne of his
holiness. And here we have a picture of
God. God is holy. His throne is holy.
Everything he does is holy. His rule is holy. His salvation
is holy. His people are holy. Nothing
that comes into the presence of God is not holy. God cannot
have anything to do with anything but pure holiness, and that's
what we are in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why we can only
come to God through his blood, is because by his blood we have
been made holy. And then finally in verse nine,
the princes of the people are gathered together, even the people
of the God of Abraham, in other words, God's elect, who are called
the children of Abraham, because like Abraham, they are given
faith in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. For the
shields of the earth belong to God, he is greatly exalted."
The shields of the earth, what are these shields? Well, the
Lord himself is our shield. In Genesis chapter 15, God told
Abraham, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. God is our shield. In Psalm 27,
he says, the Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall
I fear? Whom shall I fear? Why should I fear what man can
do to me? God is on my side. In Romans 8, he says, who can
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Christ is our shield. God has justified us. He said,
who is he that condemned? Who is he that condemneth? Who
can condemn one for whom Christ died? That's what his answer
to that question is. It is Christ that died. If Christ
died for us, there is no condemnation. He did not just die, he rose
again, justified. He not only rose, but he ascended.
He not only ascended, but he took his place on the right hand
of God, sitting on the throne of God. And he not only sits
on the throne, everything given to him with all power, but his
work there is to make intercession for his people, to bring them
into the inheritance he purchased for them with his own blood.
Is he going to fail? Absolutely not. He's already
on the throne. Can history be undone? No. History has been
accomplished. What was done? Christ finished
the work. Our redemption was obtained.
Our sins were purged. God justified his people when
he justified his son. He has been made unto us righteousness. Everything is done. And God tells
his people, therefore, you applaud. You clap, you sing, you shout,
you give praise to God. In your heart of hearts, know
what God has done in Christ. And you live that way. You live
in the light of the truth of what God has done in Christ and
declared to us in the gospel. This is our life. The just shall
live by faith. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for
your magnificent victory declared to us in a way that we would
never have imagined from your word. And it can't be changed,
can't be undone, because the work is already accomplished.
The saints of old look forward with expectation undaunted by
the fact that their enemies were stronger than them and they did
not know what to do, knowing that the Lord who had promised
that he would fight the battle for them would absolutely succeed.
And here we stand on the other side of the cross, the Lord himself
actually in heaven as our victor, having completely defeated our
enemies and we now live by faith in him and his accomplished work. What a joy it is to know that
the battle is the Lord's, and He has fought it and won for
us, and that our enemy, our sin, and all consequences of it have
been utterly subdued under His feet. And we've been delivered,
redeemed by His precious blood, and given all things in Christ.
Help us to live according to this truth. In Jesus' name we
pray. Amen.