I'd like for you to open your
Bibles with me to the book of Isaiah chapter 1. Isaiah chapter 1. The title of the message this
morning is that which is right. That which is right. And I'm
really just going to deal with one verse. Now, I want to tell
you how this message came about, because I believe that's significant
for your understanding of what I'm trying to do. I've just been
thinking about this new year that we're going into. This is
an election year, as you know. And there's been a lot of political
talk, news on the landscape, and for our country, and electing
a president. and how that's going to come
about who's going to be president and I was thinking about the
state of our nation and that's what drew me to the book of Isaiah
chapter 1 because the prophet Isaiah is basically in this first
chapter setting forth the state of the nation Israel in his day
this is about 750 years before the actual appearance of Christ
on earth the book of Isaiah And he starts out as God's prophet
talking about the people, the nation, the state that they're
in. It's not a good state. He talks about how they're so
sinful. He says in verse four, a sinful
nation, a people laden with iniquity. And then he starts out in verse
10 to show them that religion will not help them. Their ceremonies,
their going through the motions, even those which are commanded
in the Old Covenant, Law of Moses, will not help them. The blood
of bulls and goats can never take away sin. And then he says
to them that they have to learn to do well. And that's really
where I started on this, to talk about learning to do well. And
of course the doing well there has to do with understanding
and seeing the main purpose of that old covenant law. It was
not a legal system of works by which centers under that law
by their works could attain salvation. It was not, it was not a way
of salvation by works. It was not a way in which centers
could make themselves righteous by their works. That was a perversion
of the law. But that law was given by God
to the nation Israel to show them their depravity, their sinfulness,
their lack of righteousness, and the impossibility of attaining
righteousness based on their works. Read it at the end of
Romans chapter 9, and I'm going to get into that mainly next
week in this series. But he tells them that Israel
sought after righteousness, but they didn't find it, they didn't
attain it, they didn't make it, they fell short of it. That's
us by nature, isn't it? And you know most people when
they read the Old Testament today, they really have a very arrogant
attitude because most people think in some way, to some degree,
at some stage, they would be better than Israel. They could
do better. But as you go through, now you
read the whole first chapter of Isaiah, and I'm gonna get
into that some next week, but I'll tell you what this describes.
It doesn't just describe sinful Israel, it describes sinful me
by nature. Sinful you. You say, oh, wait
a minute, I was born in the South in the buckle of the Bible belt.
Doesn't matter, religion won't help you. No matter how good
you try to be, or I try to be, we cannot be, as the old guy
said, good enough to make ourselves acceptable, righteous with God. Now that's the case. And you
say, well, somebody says, well, that's shocking to me. It shouldn't
be. That's why salvation is by grace through Christ. That's
why it's conditioned on him and not on ourselves. And so Isaiah
talks about that. But what grabbed my attention
is this first verse. Look at verse one. The vision
of Isaiah, that means the word of God that was given to this
man who was God's prophet, the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning
Judah and Jerusalem, that's the southern kingdom now. You remember
after Solomon, the kingdom was divided, the northern kingdom
and the southern kingdom. And Isaiah was a prophet in the
southern kingdom, Judah and Jerusalem. And then he lists these kings.
in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Now some scholars say that Isaiah
even went on to prophesy during the next king, who was Manasseh.
We don't know that for sure, but he lists four kings here.
And who are these kings, and what is this about? Now here's
what got me on to this, to thinking about this, and why I've entitled
this message That Which Is Right. You know, think about our country
today. Now we're not under the old covenant.
That's done away with. That was abolished by way of
fulfillment when the Lord died on the cross and the veil was
rent in two. So we don't have any mandate from God. You see,
in Israel there was no separation of church and state. It was all
together. The law of God, the old covenant,
was their economy. Some scholars call it the Mosaic
economy. That's the economy under the
law of Moses. But now in our country, there's a separation
of church and state. In other words, there's no state
religion. And I thank God there's not, because I guarantee you
it wouldn't be the right one. It would be a false one. And
I thank God. I pray every day, Lord, enable
us to continue to have the freedom to come to this place, and worship
without hindrance from the government, from the law. And we need to
pray for that, whoever's elected president or whoever's elected
in Congress. But I asked myself this question,
what does our country, and we could go on, what does our world
need more than anything else? And we could talk about a lot
of things, couldn't we? No doubt our country, our world
is in dire need of moral reformation, aren't we? I mean, we see, and
I think the world's always been immoral since the fall of man,
but we see it in vivid technicolor in our living rooms on television.
We hear it all the time, see it on the internet. We're brought
closer to it, you know, and like I said during the Bible study
hour, you know, we've been spoiled in our country, especially in
our region. We were brought up in law. Region
basically has been a law-abiding region and we brought you know
I hear people talk about you know when back in the 50s You
could you didn't have to lock your car You didn't have to lock
your doors and things like it and that was good, but I'm gonna
tell you something. We've been spoiled one like that everywhere You
see Albany, Georgia or Ashland, Kentucky or wherever it's one
like that all over the world there are people suffering there
people yeah, I But we'll say, all right, this country, this
world is in dire need of moral reformation from our leaders
to the vast majority of the citizens. We watch the direction this world
is going and it grieves us, doesn't it? I'm not optimistic about
this world. I'm optimistic about the grace of God in Christ. But
I'm not optimistic about this world, are you? Somebody said,
our world's going to hell in a handbasket. The world's been
going to hell in a handbasket since the fall, folks. Since the fall of man. When has
the world not been corrupt? Evil. The Lord has always called
this world evil. This present evil age. And I
tell you what, and I want you to listen to everything I say
here now in this statement, because I want you to think about this.
I believe one of the greatest deceptions of many, many people
in our day is that they think things are much worse than they've
ever been. I really believe that can be a deception. Now, I agree.
I agree that things are worse, but in what way? And I'll tell
you, we think about movies, TV, the internet, Hollywood, the
corruption that comes out of there. We've got a church in
town that produces movies that they call family entertainment.
Well, I'm all for family entertainment, if it sends the right message. I watched one of those movies,
and here's the message I got out of it. that if you accept
Jesus as your personal savior, you'll get a new truck and your
football team will win the state championship. Now that's not a right message.
And I'm not just saying it to make fun. I really am not. I'm
saying that to make this point. What our world needs, what our
nation needs, what Albany, Georgia needs more than anything else,
I'm gonna tell you what it needs, the gospel of God's grace. They need to hear about not just
some kind of a pliable God that they can do with what they will,
but they need to hear anything about a sovereign, righteous
God who does have a plan and purpose for his people in the
Lord Jesus Christ. This country needs the gospel.
And I see the main way that is getting worse and worse in our
day is the gospel is getting scarcer and scarcer. That's the
same way it was in Isaiah's day. Did you know that? Here they
are, the people of Israel, the people of God, who had been given
so much and understand now that anything we're given that is
good, is totally undeserved and totally unearned. Is that right? And that, we certainly see that,
we who know Christ, we certainly see that in the way of salvation.
But you know, that even filters right down to the next breath
you take. That's a gift of God that you
didn't earn and didn't deserve. And why? Why didn't we earn it?
Why didn't we? Because of sin. a sinful nation,
a people laden, a people that are heavy, overburdened with
iniquity, a seed of evildoers. That's verse 4 of Isaiah 1. children
that are corruptors, they forsaken the Lord, they provoke the Holy
One of Israel into anger, they're gone away backward. You'd read
passages like that and you'd think that he's describing the
ingrate, perverted scum of society that ought to be impressed. No,
he's describing the religious people. He's describing, you read the
whole chapter, and like I said, I'll get into more of this next
week, there are people who pray, there are people who read their
Bibles, there are people who meet to worship. And you know
what God says to them? He said, I'm tired of it. I've
had enough of it because it's religion without truth. It's
religion without heart. And mainly it's religion without
Christ. That's what it is. They were
doing all of that to do one thing to establish their own righteousness
before God. And they had rejected the righteousness
of God in Christ, the works, the merits, the obedience unto
death of the promised Messiah. And God said, I've had enough,
but I want you to look back at verse one. According to Isaiah
one, one Isaiah prophesied through the reign of four Kings of Judah.
I want you to turn back to second Chronicles chapter 26. Look at
2 Chronicles 26. Now, these four kings that are
listed here, the history of them, you can read about them in 2
Kings and 2 Chronicles and I'm not going to go through the whole
history of all of these. We don't have time to do that.
But I want you to see, he talks about Uzziah. Isaiah especially
mentions Uzziah in chapter 6. In the year that King Uzziah
died, Isaiah said he saw God gave him a vision of a throne,
the temple, his throne high and lifted up. Holy, holy, holy Lord
God Almighty. You remember he saw the holiness
of God. the righteousness, the justice
of God. And remember what conclusion
he came to when he saw that, that vision of God's holiness,
he said, I'm undone. That means I'm cut off. I'm a
sinner. I'm alienated. I've got no right to approach
God because I'm a sinner. And then he said, he said, I'm
undone. I'm cut off. And I dwell amidst the people.
I've got, I'm a man of unclean lips. I dwell amidst the people
of unclean lips. And you remember the seraphim
flew to the altar and got a live coal from the altar. Now that's
a picture of salvation by God's grace in Christ. That altar is
the brazen altar where the judgment of God fell upon the substitute,
the surety, the Lord Jesus Christ in the stead of his people, in
the place of his people. Our sins imputed to him, his
righteousness to us. And he brought that live coal
and touched the lips of Isaiah. He saw the message of God's sovereign
grace in Christ. And that happened the year the
king Uzziah died. Now he said Uzziah. Sometimes
in the Bible you'll see the name Azariah applied to Uzziah. The
same guy. But look at 2 Chronicles chapter
26. Now I'm going to read a few verses
here and then I'm just going to touch on the others. But listen
to what happened. Verse 1, Then the people of Judah
took Uzziah, who was 16 years old, that's when he started to
rule in Judah, made him king in the room of his father, Amazigh.
He built Eloth and restored it to Judah after the king's After
that, the king slept with his father. Sixteen years old was
Uzziah when he began to reign. He reigned fifty and two years
in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Jecholiah of Jerusalem. And verse four says this, And
he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according
to all that his father did, Amaziah did. He did that which is right.
Now that's why I entitled the message, That Which Is Right.
You can read on about all of that. Uzziah was considered what
some scholars call one of the good kings of Judah. Remember
you had the north and the northern tribes, Israel. All the kings
of that nation down through its history from the split of the
kingdom all the way down to where it was destroyed in Isaiah's
day by the Assyrian Empire, they were all called bad kings. There
was no good kings in Israel. But in Judah, there were some
bad kings and what scholars call good kings. I hesitate to call
them good kings. I just simply say they were the
kings that did that which is right, whatever that is. They
did that which is right. And it says here Uzziah did that.
Look across the page at 2 Chronicles 27. Here's the next king that's
listed in Isaiah. His name was Jotham or Jotham,
however you want to pronounce it. It says in verse 2 of 2 Chronicles
27, Jotham did that which was right in the sight of the Lord
according to all that his father Uzziah did. How bid he enter
not into the temple of the Lord and the people did yet corruptly.
Now you remember the story of Uzziah? Uzziah was a successful
king politically, economically. I mean, he brought prosperity
back to Judah. Buildings, the farms, everything.
But at the end of his career, he was lifted up with pride.
And what did he do? He took up it on himself to go
into the temple, into the holy place. You remember the temple
had the outer court with the brazen altar. Then you had that
tent inside that was divided, the holy place where only the
Levites, the priests, could go. That's where the table of showbread
was, the golden altar, the basin, and the golden candlestick. And
then there was the veil, the curtain that separated the holiest
of all where only the high priest could go. One time a year on
the Day of Atonement with the blood of the Lamb, all picturing
Christ, all picturing salvation. All right? Well, Uzziah got lifted
up with pride and took it upon himself to burn incense in the
holy place. He had no right to do that. He
wasn't a priest. He was the king. But he wasn't
the priest. And you remember what happened?
God struck him with leprosy. And he dwelt separated from the
people the rest of the days of his life with leprosy. That's what happened to Isaiah.
Then Jotham comes along. Now Jotham, he did that which
was right in the sight of the Lord. But it says here in verse
2 of 2 Chronicles 27, he didn't enter the temple like his daddy.
But it says, the people did yet corruptly. What happened was,
back long before even Uzziah, false prophets had arisen in
Judah, and they built what the Bible calls high places of idolatry,
compromising and denying the true worship of God in the temple. And under Jotham, even though
he did that which was right except for this, he allowed those high
places to remain. Turn the page, look at 2 Chronicles
28. Here's the next king that Isaiah
prophesied under. His name is Ahaz. Ahaz. Sometimes his name is listed
as Ahaziah, but he's the same one. It says in verse one, Ahaz
was 20 years old when he began to reign. He reigned 16 years
in Jerusalem, but he did not that which was right in the sight
of the Lord, like David his father. He didn't lead the people right.
And then across the page in 2 Chronicles 29, there's Hezekiah, that's
the last king. That's listed in Isaiah 1.1.
Hezekiah, verse 1, began to reign when he was 5 and 20 years old.
He reigned 9 and 20 years, rather, in Jerusalem. His mother was
Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah, and he did that which was right
in the sight of the Lord according to all that David, his father,
had done. He led the people right. Now, what you see in all these
kings, first of all, No individual king was a perfect person. They
were all sinners. They were all flawed men. Go
back to Israel's glory days. What would you say is Israel's
glory days under King David, under Solomon? Well, they were
certainly flawed men. There was no perfect king, but
there were a few of whom the Holy Spirit has recorded in the
Old Testament that it could be said they did that which is right.
That which is right. What does that mean? They did
that which is right. It means this, they led the people
in the ways of the Lord according to the law. That's what it meant. Let me give you these three things
to consider. Number one, the office of king in Israel was
a type of the kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ, the king of
kings. It was a type, a picture, the king of kings. You see Christ,
we talk about him as mediator. That means he's the one who stands
in between God and sinners. There's one God, one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. There's no other
mediator. Mary's not a mediator. The saints are not mediators.
Christ is the one mediator between God and men. What does it take
to be a mediator? Christ is said to be a mediator
in three of his offices. First of all, he's a mediator
in his priestly office. The office of high priest under
the law was a type of Jesus Christ, our great high priest. His performing
the duties of his priestly office is the foundation of our salvation. And it's also the foundation
of his other two offices, prophet, priest, and king. What does he
do as a priest? He represents the people before
God. God gave Christ a people before the foundation of the
world. That's what the scripture says. And he sent Christ into
the world to save them from their sins. And as our high priest,
Christ himself, God in human flesh, he presented himself a
sacrifice for our sins. It's what it takes to perform
the duties of a high priest. There's got to be an appointed
high priest. Well, Jesus Christ was appointed
by the father. He's got to be qualified. Well,
he is, he's Emmanuel, God in human flesh, and he's got to
be willing. Scripture says in John 13, one,
he loved his people to the end, to the finishing of the work.
For the joy that was set before him, that joy, the glory of his
father and the salvation of his people. You gotta have an altar. That's what you have to have,
to have a satisfaction. Someone has to die. God must
be just when he justifies. He must punish sin. God, you
see, people today present God as some kind of an old grandfatherly heart-melting person who just
says, well, I feel sorry for you guys. You've made some mistakes
and I'll just look over it. We'll just forget about it. No.
God must punish sin. He's just. That's His nature.
He's a holy God. That's what Isaiah saw. Holy,
holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. You say, well, doesn't the Bible
say God is love? Yes. Doesn't it say He's gracious
and merciful? Yes, but not at the expense of
His justice. In other words, if you understand
the gospel of God's grace in Christ, if you understand about
salvation as it is revealed in God's word, you understand not
just love, but love that fulfills his justice. Not just mercy,
but mercy that fulfills God's requirements of righteousness.
Not just grace, but grace that reigns through righteousness.
How is that possible? Through Jesus Christ the Lord.
That's why Christ had to die. That's why He's the surety of
His people. That means our sins were imputed,
charged, accounted to Him. He's the substitute. That's why
the high priest had to bring an offering. And that offering
had to be a lamb and the blood of the lamb. Christ is our priest, he is our
altar, he is our lamb, he is our sacrifice. And the king was
a type of Christ, the king of kings. He's our prophet. Isaiah,
the office of prophet was a type of Christ. Christ is that prophet
that Moses spoke of in Deuteronomy 18. He is the Word of God. He's the embodiment of the Word
of God. He's the Word made flesh, dwelt among us. Everything we
know about God in salvation comes through Jesus Christ, the Lord. That's right. And then He's our
King, the King of Kings. Well, this office of King was
to typify Him. Back in the Old Testament, the
office of King was established back in the book of Genesis.
as the Lord brought forth all that he would say and do concerning
the king of Israel, the king of his people. God is the king
of all the earth, sing ye praises with understanding. For the Lord
is our defense and the Holy One of Israel is our king. Paul told
Timothy, he said, this is how our savior is to be honored. He's the king of kings, there's
no king above him. In Revelation, he's called the
King of Kings, Lord of Lords. So that office was to typify
Christ the King of Kings. Somebody asked me one time, he
said, you reckon all those kings knew about that? And I said,
no. You reckon any of them knew about that? I think so. I believe
David did. How do you know that? Because
I read it in the Psalms. But let me tell you something,
and I say this with all respect, it doesn't matter whether they
knew about it or not, it's still true. I hope some of them did. And
again, I said, I believe David did. I believe Hezekiah did.
But it doesn't matter. You see, it's true. You know,
it's like I told you about the sign outside the false church.
It said, God said it, I believe it, that settles it. That's wrong.
God said it, that settles it. Whether I believe it or not.
I hope we do believe it. But God said it, that settles
it. Now here's the second thing. The kingly line was the line
through which Christ was to come according to the flesh. You know, back in Genesis 35,
you don't have to turn there, but when God made covenant with
Abraham, one of the things he told Abraham, he said, kings
will come out of you. Turn to Genesis 49, let me show
you this one. Here's Jacob on his deathbed,
blessing his sons. And down in verse 8 of Genesis
49, he comes to Judah. And listen to what he says to
Judah. Genesis 49 and verse 8. He says, Judah, thou art he whom
thy brethren shall praise. Thy hand shall be in the neck
of thine enemies. Thy father's children shall bow
down before thee. Judah is a lion's whelp. From
the prey, my son, thou art gone up. He stooped down, he crouched
as a lion, as an old lion who shall rouse him up. Remember
Christ is called the lion of the tribe of Judah. But look
at verse 10. The scepter shall not depart
from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh
come. And unto him shall the gathering
of the people be. That's a prophecy of Jesus Christ,
the King. who by virtue of his work of
establishing righteousness for his people on the cross is made
Lord of glory, both Lord and King. The scepter is the King's
scepter. That scepter is a scepter of
righteousness. You see, we are saved and accepted
with God based upon the righteousness of the King of Kings. It's called
in Romans 117, the righteousness of God. You see, we're not saved
or accepted based on the righteousness of men. Not at all. The righteousness of men, even
the best men, is not good enough. It falls short. There's none
righteous, no, not one. There's none good. The salvation
of the people of God is founded upon the imputed righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. that righteousness which is charged
to our account, which he by himself as the substitute and surety
of his people worked out on the cross in his obedience unto death.
That's my whole ground of salvation. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
This is all my hope and peace. This is all my righteousness.
That's what the gospel reveals. It's not the righteousness of
men. It wasn't the righteousness of Uzziah. Uzziah went into the
holy place that he wasn't supposed to go into. What does that show
you about Uzziah? He's a sinful man. If he were
saved, it has to be by what? By grace that reigns through
righteousness through Jesus Christ our Lord. And that, listen, that
applies to every king of Israel, every king of Judah down through
the ages. That applies to men, presidents, whoever today. If
salvation is to come to any of us, it has to be by that grace
that reigns through righteousness by Jesus Christ our Lord. And
those who refuse to bow to Christ as king in that way, the Lord,
our righteousness, whose scepter is a scepter of righteousness.
There's no hope of salvation for it. You remember Israel it's recorded. You can read this in first Samuel
eight. They desired a king. Their motives for desiring a
king were not all wrong. Samuel had, what, two sons, I
think it was, and they were evil. They didn't lead the people right.
He set them up as judges. So the people came to Samuel
and they asked for a king, but the problem was Not just that
they desired a king. I heard somebody say one time
and said they were wrong just for wanting a king. No, because
God had already promised a king. He told Abraham, kings will come
out of you. He told Jacob, told his son,
the scepter will not depart from Judah till Shiloh come. We could
go right on through. The Messiah was always prophesied
to be king. You remember in Jeremiah 23,
when it talks about him, the Lord, our righteousness, it talks
about his scepter. He's going to be king. But in asking for a king, they
rejected God's king. They rejected God's leadership.
They said, we want a king like other nations. Read the history of the kings
of other nations. It's pretty bad. You see, they
were to submit to God's rule, God's way, at God's time. God
had told them back in Deuteronomy. Turn back to Deuteronomy 17 now.
This is what Mark read. Listen to God's king. Listen
to what God says about the king that he had for them. Verse 14. He says, when thou art come,
Deuteronomy 17, 14. When thou art come into the land
which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and
shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me,
like as all nations that are about me. You see, he knew they'd
say that. That's man by nature. Thou shalt in any wise set him
king over whom the Lord thy God shall choose." Not whom you choose.
Who did Israel choose? You remember who they chose?
A guy named Saul. A big old, stout, good-looking
guy. He had that political presence
from the tribe of Benjamin. God said the scepter's not going
to depart from Judah. But they got their king. They
took the popular vote and they got their king. But God said,
you'll be who I choose. One from among thy brethren shalt
thou set over a king. I think about Christ. It's said
in Hebrews chapter two that he's not ashamed to call his people
his brethren. That's something to think about,
isn't it? You see, if that were based upon us, He'd be ashamed
and ought to be ashamed, but he's not. And why is that? Because we stand before God washed
in his blood, clean from all our sins, clothed in his righteousness. That's why. He says, thou mayest
not set a stranger, a foreigner over thee who is not thy brother,
but verse 16, but he shall not multiply horses to himself. In
other words, All the other kings were trying to get as many horses
and as much money as they could, you know. This is not God's king.
God's king is going to do that which is right. What does that
mean? He's going to depend on God alone. His strength, his
source of strength was always God, not himself. Nor caused
the people to return to Egypt to the end that he should multiply
horses. In other words, he's not going to make alliances with
idolatrous nations in order to get gain. See that? For as much as the Lord has said
unto you shall henceforth no more return that way. Verse 17,
neither shall he multiply wives to himself. I had a fellow tell
me one time, he said, God didn't forbid polygamy in the Old Testament.
Oh, yes, he did. He put up with it. And the guy
said, oh, God doesn't put up with sin. My friend, he puts
up with me. He puts up with you. Here he says, the king shall
not multiply wives to himself. Just about every one of them
did, didn't they? Even David and Solomon. that his heart turned
not away. What happened to David and Solomon?
Their heart turned away for a while. Neither shall he greatly multiply
to himself silver and gold. His richness and riches is not
in the things of this world, but in Christ. Verse 18, it shall
be when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom that he shall
write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is
before the priest of the Levites. In other words, he's going to
take that law and use it to show their sinfulness, their depravity,
and the fact that they cannot be saved based on their works.
He's going to point them to the coming Messiah. Verse 19, It shall be with him,
and he shall read therein all the days of his life, that he
may learn to fear the Lord his God, believe in, trust, and worship
God. That's the king. That's the king
that does right. To keep all the words of this
law, these statutes, to do them, that his heart Be not lifted
up above his brethren. Royalty, oh, well, they're so
much better than everybody else, aren't they? Not God's king. Turn not aside from the commandment
to the right hand or to the left to the end that he may prolong
his days in his kingdom, he and his children. You see, the king
was to lead the people in the ways of God. I could show you
many more verses, but I'm running out of time, but I do want to
show you one verse And you read through the Psalms, you know,
get you a concordance and look up through the Psalms where it
talks about the king. Psalm 2 that talks about the
kings of the earth rising up against the Lord God and his
Christ. And he tells them in Psalm 2,
he says, listen, king, you better kiss the son lest he be angry. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the king should do.
But in Psalm 20, 72 rather, he says in verse 1, Give the king
thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's
son. He shall judge thy people with righteousness and thy poor
with justice. The king should be compassionate,
merciful, kind, just, all of that. But the main thing he was
to do was to lead the people in the ways of God. The wise
man in Ecclesiastes 8-2 wrote this, I counsel thee to keep
the king's commandment, and listen to this, and that in regard to
the oath of God. In other words, in light of what
God has promised, in light of what God has covenanted to do
for his people in Christ, the king of kings. What does it mean
when it says kiss the sun? It means to embrace Christ. It
means to believe in him, to worship him, follow him as the one and
only king of his people.