The Majestic Monarch

Transcript

JR 28
10/01/2023
The Majestic Monarch
Psalm 93
Jesse Randolph

Back in history class, however many years or decades ago that was for you, you might have heard of the names of Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth. Both Douglass and Truth were African-American abolitionists who fought valiantly and bravely, to stamp out human slavery, in the pre-Civil War South. In the years leading up to the Civil War, both Douglass and Truth were these prominent public figures and speakers. And they each traveled regularly throughout the country to participate in and speak at these abolitionist gatherings. Now, earlier in their lives, both Douglass and Sojourner Truth had embraced a non-violent approach to challenging the practice of human slavery in the States. And in those early years, both believed that the best way to fight the evils of American slavery was to appeal to the good consciences of American citizens. And sadly, as we know, that didn’t work.

But by the 1850’s, the early 1850’s, Fredrick Douglass had totally changed his approach. See, no longer content with appealing non-violently to the good conscience of American legislators and the American public, Douglass was not persuaded that violent action might be needed to take down the system of American slavery. Now, though Douglass made this switch in his approach, from advocating from non-violence to eventually advocating for violence, Sojourner Truth did not agree with his views or his switch to the violent position. She retained her non-violent views, and she split with Douglass on this matter of abolition.

Now, in 1852 there was an anti-abolition meeting that was held in Salem, Ohio. And the two views of these two abolitionists clashed at this meeting. Douglass was the featured speaker at the meeting. And in this meeting, he was openly endorsing his now new violent means, or his violent views, on overtaking American slavery. And at this meeting was Sojourner Truth. She was out there in the audience, and after listening to Douglass speak for some time, she broke decorum. And she stood up, and in the middle of Douglass’ speech, and for all to hear, she asked this question, “Is God dead?” Douglass, himself recounted the event, and he wrote a letter about it after the fact, about how Sojourner Truth had interrupted him in that way, by asking that question, “Is God dead?” And he recalled it this way: he said, “The incident . . . occurred at an antislavery meeting in Salem, Ohio . . . In my speech I took the ground that Slavery could only go down in blood – that Slaveholders and the country had sinned too long and too deeply to escape. While describing the power of Slavery in the church and the state in furtherance of my argument, Sojourner in a distant part of the “Hall” startled me and the whole audience with the question “Is God dead?” The suddenness and the sharpness . . . brought me for a moment to a complete halt . . . We were all for the moment brought to a stand still – just as we should have been if some one had thrown a brick through the window.”

The question that Sojourner Truth asked, very publicly and loudly and vocally in that meeting in Ohio in 1852, of course, was a question that she already knew the answer to. And of course, it was an answer that Frederick Douglass himself knew the answer to. Which was actually the point Sojourner Truth was making in asking the question in the first place. She was making a statement. The answer to the question she posed in that meeting of “Is God dead?” of course, was “no.” God is not dead. God is very much alive. And God is very much ever present, as we’re going to see in our text for tonight.

Turn with me, in your bibles, if you would, to Psalm 93, Psalm 93. A hundred fifty psalms in the psalter, we’re going to be in Psalm 93 tonight. We looked at Psalm 11 last Sunday night, Psalm 93 tonight, and Jonah 1:1 next Sunday night. Psalm 93, God’s word reads: “The Lord reigns, He is clothed with majesty; the Lord has clothed and girded Himself with strength; indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved. Your throne is established from of old; You are from everlasting. The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice, the floods lift up their pounding waves. More than the sounds of many waters, than the mighty breakers of the sea, the Lord on high is mighty. Your testimonies are fully confirmed; holiness befits Your house, O Lord, forevermore.”

How a person could not love reading the Psalms, hearing the Psalms, meditating on the Psalms, memorizing the Psalms, hearing the Psalms preached, is absolutely beyond me. See, for centuries the psalter has served as the divinely-given worship book for the Israelites. It provided them these words of instruction on how to understand who God is, and the reverence and the praise which is due Him, and what it means to worship God, and what it means to sing songs to God, and what it means to pray to God. And of course, the 150 psalms in the psalter, though clearly addressed to the people of Israel, do have direct relevance and application to Christians living today in the Church Age. And that’s because, though the Psalms were very contextually unique and that they were written to a specific people at a specific point in time in history -- for instance, the Psalms of Ascent were written to be sung as the people of Israel were going up the mountain of Jerusalem to worship in the temple, doesn’t mean that we can take a Psalm of Ascent and read it in the same way as we drive up to Denver -- but they, nevertheless, contain these timeless truths concerning the nature and the character and the will of our unchanging God, and the reverent worship that He expects and is due. They contain truths which transcend centuries and people groups and continents because they center on the character and the person of an unchanging God.

And that’s where we are this evening in Psalm 93. It’s brief and it’s only five verses. It has a unique context. It was originally written for Israelites and to Israelites. But, as reflected in the fact that it is in the Christian canon, there are undoubtedly truths in this Psalm that we can apply and appropriate to our lives today as followers of Jesus Christ.

Psalm 93 is an enthronement psalm, or as some would call it, a royal psalm, or as others would call it, a theocratic psalm of which there are six. This psalm, Psalm 93, and then Psalms 95-99. They’re all in the same category. And the psalter, just so you know, is broken up into five books. There’s five parts to the 150 book psalter or the 150 psalm psalter. And the royal Psalms here appear in Book Four. And the theme of these Psalms, the royal Psalms, or the theocratic Psalms, is unmistakable. They testify over and over to the fact that God is sovereign and God reigns. They testify to the eternal kingship of Yahweh. They celebrate that Yahweh reigns all over the earth. And in doing so they celebrate the grandeur and the majesty of a transcendent God.

In fact, let’s look at some of the key truths. You can flip with me to these other royal Psalms, as I look at these cross references, to get a flavor and feel for what the royals Psalms were communicating. Look at Psalm 95:3, we’ll just take one verse from each of these royal Psalms, Psalm 95:3, “For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods.” Psalm 96:9, “Worship the Lord in holy attire; tremble before Him, all the earth. Say among the nations, ‘The Lord reigns.’ ” Psalm 97:1, “The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many islands be glad. Clouds and thick darkness surround Him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.” Psalm 98:5, “Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody. With trumpets and the sound of the horn shout joyfully before the King, the Lord.” Psalm 99:1, “The Lord reigns, let the peoples tremble; He is enthroned above the cherubim, let the earth shake! The Lord is great in Zion, and He is exalted above all the peoples. Let them praise Your great and awesome name; holy is He.” And you’ve heard, as I’ve read these excerpts to you, the focus of each of these Psalms is God’s eternal reign, His divine sovereignty, His unmatched royalty.

Now of the six royal Psalms that we’ve just sampled here, this one that we’re in this evening, Psalm 93, really stands out. Because this Psalm is mighty in its utterance, and it’s colorful in its language, and it’s a strong incentive to faith in the midst of trying circumstances. Its brevity and its beauty are evident. And note, it’s not that this Psalm reveals anything new to most of us here this evening. I mean, I would say that many of you who are in the room, those who come to the evening service at Indian Hills Community Church, are very familiar with the fact, you already know the fact, whether through your own reading of scripture or through your own circumstantial experiences in life, that God is in control. You understand, I trust most of you here this evening, that God reigns, that God is sovereign, and that God is majestic. So, the core truth of this Psalm, which is one that you’ve sung to your children at bedtime or maybe at mealtime, “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands,” is both fundamental and its basic.

I’m not wowing anybody up here with the truth when I tell you that God is in control. But my charge here this evening isn’t to wow, my charge is to proclaim. And what you’re going to hear proclaimed to you tonight through Psalm 93 are some truths about the kingship and the majesty of God, some truths about the sovereignty and His rulership that He has over the world. Truths that you likely knew as you pulled into the church parking lot tonight? Probably. But truths that you and I and everybody needs to be reminded of day after day and month after month and year after year as we go on our sojourn in this life.

We need to be reminded regularly about God’s sovereign rulership and kingship over all things. Because the world seems to be, I don’t know if it is for you, but it is for me, certainly turning faster and faster. You know, not materially, not physically, but experientially, things are getting busier and busier and busier for, I think, most of us in this world. Not only that though is the world spinning faster and faster, it’s spiraling downward. Things aren’t getting easier or better. Things are growing darker, as things are going from bad to worse, as the scriptures predicted they would do. And on top of that, (as we saw this morning in Colossians 2:8), though we have fullness in Christ and though we have completeness in Christ, the worldly way of thinking starts invading our news feed and our inbox and our TV screen. And though we do our best to keep our minds focused on biblical truth, the onslaught of unbiblical ideas and information that keep flying in our direction is almost too much to overcome, impossible to ignore.

And then, when we’re really feeling overwhelmed, and when we’re already teetering and tottering, the tax bill comes, or the eviction notice comes, or the pink slip is delivered, or the car breaks down, or the divorce papers are served, or the diagnosis is made. And finite and fallen people that we are, as we’re assailed with the trials and the circumstances of this life, as we’re reminded over and over and time after time and year after year that life is not a bed of roses, but rather it is as God said it would be after the Fall, laden with thorns and thistles, and life is challenging and hard. As things feel like they’re getting at the tipping point and as we feel like things are about to fall apart, we can find ourselves sometimes forgetting that God is on His throne. And we’re in that state of forgetfulness. If she could speak with us today, if she had the ability to do so, Sojourner Truth would have every right to ask us the same question she asked Frederick Douglass, “Is God dead?”

This evening we’ll be listening to the testimony and to the song which God inspired through the anonymous author of Psalm 93 of God’s kingship and His majesty. And we’ll be reminded, as we all need to be reminded from time to time, that God indeed is King over the earth. It’s a Kingship He mediates through God the Son. We know this from our study in Colossians. Colossians 1:17 says, “. . . in Him,” meaning in Christ, “all things hold together.” Let’s not lose sight of God’s rule and reign over all the earth.

Let’s get into our text. I’ve broken it into three parts this evening. We’ll start in verses 1-2, where we’re going to look at “God’s Present Rule.” And I’ll give you a couple other headings as we get to verses 3-5. But verses 1-2, we have “God’s Present Rule.” Look at verse 1, “The Lord reigns.” And such a simple and clear statement already at the outset of this Psalm. I could probably preach sixty minutes on just those three words, “The Lord reigns.” It’s such a power-packed declaration of truth, again, that we each need to be reminded of, over and over again. And each word there is important. First of all, the word “Lord” there, you see it in all capitals, is the name Yahweh. That’s what’s being highlighted there. This is the covenant name of God, the name by which Israel was told they were to address their God, the personal name of God, the name that God revealed to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3. And the fact that God is referred to here by His covenant name is of tremendous importance. Because what this does is remind God’s people -- the same God that appeared to them, the same God who made each of those promises to Abraham and Isaac and to Jacob, the same God who keeps His promises to you and me as He gives us those promises in His word -- is not only faithful to keep His promises, which He is, but He reigns.

And note, the word “Lord” there is preceded by the word “the,” “The Lord”, “The Lord reigns,” meaning that the God who is being described here isn’t one of many gods, He isn’t in a league of gods, He isn’t a part-time god, He isn’t a late-to-the-party god. No, He is the true God, the living God, the eternal God, the only God, and as it says here in verse 1, that God “reigns.” And this is a statement of Yahweh’s kingship. It’s a proclamation formula. It’s a declaration formula. This is the strongest possible way that someone could say in Hebrew that ‘God is King.’ And the tense of the verb here - “reigns” - is one that makes clear that there was no beginning to God’s reign and there will be no end to God’s reign. In fact, we can peek ahead to verse 2 here of Psalm 93 (which we’ll look at momentarily) and see where it says, “Your throne is established from of old; You are from everlasting,” meaning God’s kingship is eternal. And what that means is that in those days, back in the days of King Saul when Israel was clamoring for a king, “We want a king like all the other nations around us,” the sad irony, of course, was that they already had one. It was Yahweh. At Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem when He’s initially, at least, treated as a king in Luke 19, and they say, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord,” the reality was there already was a king over all of Jerusalem, and all of Judea, and all of the earth -- this God. And in our days, when we still have a handful of nations which still have monarchial rules of government, where they still call a mere mortal a king, whether or not they want to do this or acknowledge this, they already have a king -- God, who rules over human kings. “The Lord reigns.”

Now, again. I get it. To say that God reigns, or that He is the Ruler over all things, or to say that He is sovereign, is not necessarily some revolutionary thought for anybody here who’s been in church for any amount of time, or has any degree of biblical literacy. And that’s ok. The sovereignty of God, the rulership of God, is one of those things that’s true and that’s there. But we don’t often think about as much as we should. It’s like a life preserver, or an AED unit, or the brake system in your car, right? How often do you really think and dream about life preservers or defibrillators or braking systems? Unless you’re a lifeguard, or an EMT, or a mechanic, the answer is probably not very often. But for the rest of us, especially in our moments of crisis in chaos -- when our hands are flailing in the water and we’re feeling like we’re sinking, or when our heart feels like it’s racing or its about to stop, or when the car in front of us slams on its brakes and suddenly we see the lights flashing in front of us -- all of a sudden, we’re really glad we have each of those things I just mentioned, right? So it is with the rulership of God, with the sovereignty of God. What Spurgeon said is like “the pillow upon which the child of God rests his head at night.” We don’t tend to give the reality of the sovereignty of God and the kingship of God the attention that we ought. But when we find ourselves in a pinch or a pickle. When we find ourselves spinning our wheels. Or circling the drain. When we find ourselves worried or panicked or anxious or fearful or hopeless or distraught. It sure is comforting to remember, or to be reminded of, the fact that God is our sovereign King. That He does, as it says here, “reign.”

Now, as New Testament believers, when we hear these words, “kingship” and “reigning,” they do remind us of an aspect of God’s kingship that we are still looking forward to. We are, as Christians, still looking forward to the future Kingdom reign and rulership of our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ when He, after the rapture of the Church and after the tribulation that comes on the earth, sets up His Millennial Kingdom, earthly reign, right here on planet Earth, in this period of time where we will rule and reign with Him. We look forward to that day as well. We look forward to that day with anticipation. That future date is coming and that kingdom will, in fact, come and we pray for that kingdom to come when Christ will set His feet on the earth and reign here. But at the same time, we can’t lose sight of the fact that there has never been a day when God was not on His eternal throne, His throne is eternal. Psalm 93:2, “Your throne is established from of old.” And what that means for us, practically, this evening, is that we can look around the world and witness all the evil and the wickedness in the world -- we can take a look at our lives and perceive all that’s happening to us, even perceived unfairness, we can observe all the crashing troubles that are happening around us, whatever those may be and whatever those may look like -- and we can say with joy, as the psalmist does here, “The Lord reigns.” What a comforting truth, what a comforting reminder, to know that our God reigns.

Next, we see that the text says, “He is clothed with majesty.” This is a fascinating piece of Hebrew poetry, because we’re going to see the psalmist emphasizing this aspect of God’s kingship by using this form of doubling and tripling language. You’ll see what I mean in a second. It says, “He is clothed with majesty” in the first line there. And then drop down to the next line, and the word “clothed” is repeated. And it says, “The Lord has clothed and girded Himself with strength.” See, repetition in biblical Hebrew was this intentional device used by the human authors to underscore the point that they were trying to make. Repetition was used by these authors of the Old Testament, including the psalmist here, to get the ears of whoever was hearing this song sung (remember, this is a song), to pay attention to what’s going on here. See, clothing in the Old Testament was considered an extension of the person. So, to say that the Lord “is clothed with majesty” is to say that He Himself is majestic. We see similar language in
Psalm 104:1, it says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, You are very great; You are clothed with splendor and majesty.”

The Lord’s royal robes here, note, are not made of any ordinary texture, like cotton or wool or linen. What is being described here, rather as His clothing is referenced, are emblems of His dignity, representation of His majesty. That’s a word we don’t use very often, is it, as often as we should -- majesty. That word “majesty” or “majestic” comes from a Latin word that means greatness. To speak of something, or someone as is the case here, as being majestic, is to speak to the person’s greatness and to offer our due respect for who that person is. But the fact is there’s no one like our God. He is incomparable and unrivaled in His greatness and His majesty. He is far greater than our finite minds could ever possibly imagine. He is far greater than the due or the attention or the focus or the description that most modern pulpits give Him today.

Well, thank God for giving us His timeless word, where He gives us a self-revelation and this glimpse of just how majestic He is. Turn with me, if you would, to Psalm 145, where we’re going to see the Lord testify to His own greatness and testify to His own majesty. That’s not boasting, that’s truth. He has the right to do this. He is a great God. Look at Psalm 145:1, a Psalm of Praise, of David, it says, “I will extol You, my God, O King, and I will bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You, and I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of Your majesty and on Your wonderful works, I will meditate.” Or, as the author of Psalm 93, the anonymous author of Psalm 93 puts it, “He is clothed with majesty.”

And then, since the boldest and the most colorful human terms that we could possibly summon are weak in comparison to the divine realities that they portray, the psalmist repeats himself again. He comes at it from a different angle. And the second line of verse 2, he attempts another rewording here where he says, “The Lord has clothed and girded Himself with strength.” In other words, He has robed, or He has belted, Himself with strength and might. And what this does, it gives us new information about the specifics of God’s reign. Here, the splendor and the majesty and the kingship of God is described as one that is powerful, one that is present, one that is mighty and eternally so. Question: does anybody in here remember who the king of Ethiopia was in 146 AD, or does anybody remember who the king of Bulgaria was in 1322, or does anybody remember who the king of, I don’t know, Romania was in 1526? I didn’t think so. Neither do I. Neither do any of us. The reality is, no matter how long any particular king sat on a throne, and no matter how long any monarch of a specific nation had a crown on his head or a scepter in his hand, no matter how strong a grip a royal dynasty had on a nation for decades or for even centuries, their period of power was fleeting, it came to an end. And their names and the names of all the people who served in their courts, and the edicts and the decrees that they passed, have all been swept into the dustbin of history.

It kind of makes you wonder why so many Christians, commentary now, are so obsessed with political things these days. It kind of makes you wonder why certain Christians watch more Fox News than they watch sermons. Or why they read more Drudge than they read scripture. Why they seemingly live for every four year-voting cycle when that four-year voting cycle is smaller than a single grain in the hourglass of eternity.

Compare this to our God, the God who “reigns,” the God who is “clothed with majesty,” the God who is the King of all the earth. Thrones and rulers in our nation change. But God continually reigns. He forever reigns. He has never stopped reigning and He will never stop reigning. God is never up for reelection, He’s never subject to term limits, He will never be subject to recall. Rather, He is “clothed,” it says, “and girded… with strength.”

His strength is further highlighted in the last part of verse 1, where it says, “Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved.” Now, the word “world” there refers to the earth, the ground, the dirt, the soil, the terra firma beneath our feet. And the idea that’s being portrayed here is that of security. And any security that we experience in this world -- whether it’s another night of the ground not opening and swallowing us whole, or another night in which burglars and rapists and murderers don’t come in and break into our house, or another night where this church facility is secure once again -- it’s all because of our God and our King. Our “world is firmly established” not because of any environmental measures that have been passed, and not because of the current situation with the polar ice caps, and not because of the research and initiatives that are being worked on at various universities around the world. No, our “world is firmly established”, because God, our King, has decreed that it be so. And the world “will not be moved,” as it says here at the end of verse 1, because it is under the firm and strong hand of our King.

And note, as we get into verse 2, its from God’s established throne that He causes the world to be established and secure as it is. It says, “Your throne is established from of old.” In other words, any sense of security we experience, or any sense of security we feel in this world, any sense of peace and tranquility we experience in this world, stems from the fact that God’s throne is fixed and established. It’s never threatened, it’s still, and it’s safe. Now, it may not seem that way to us practically, as life from time to time seems like it’s spinning out of control. But what ‘seems’ and what ‘is’ are two different things. And what God’s word reveals is that God is sitting on His throne. As we saw last week in Psalm 11:4, His “throne is in heaven.” Or Psalm 103:19 says, “The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all.” And as we see here in Psalm 93, His throne is eternal, “Your throne is established from of old.”

Now look at the last line of verse 2, where it says, “You are from everlasting.” That reminds us of Psalm 90. In fact, flip over with me, if you would, to Psalm 90, when we look at the eternality of our God, eternality of our King. Psalm 90:1-2, a prayer of Moses. This is the oldest Psalm in the psalter. It says, “Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were born or You gave birth to the earth and the world. Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” So, the groundwork here for God’s unshaken rule, and for His sovereignty, and for His Kingship, over all things is laid out here with this statement here in Psalm 93:2, regarding the eternity of His Kingship. Again, God is not like the President who’s termed out after eight years. He’s not like the dictator who’s toppled by his henchmen. He’s not like the earthly king from, you know, centuries ago who was poisoned and died. No. God is and ever has been the Eternal One. His rule is eternal. His reign is eternal. Psalm 145:13 says, “Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures throughout all generations.” See, time has always been on God’s side. He has all time at His disposal. He works according to His own faultless and eternal timetable. He’s outlived all empires. He’ll outlive all future empires to come. His “throne is established from of old.” And He is from everlasting. Again, these are old truths and familiar truths. But these are blessed truths and needed truths.

As we turn to verses 3 and 4 of this Psalm we come to a major point of transition. After describing God’s rulership and His reign, His majesty, His strength, His throne, His eternality, in verse 1-2, in verses 3-4 we now turn to a series of threats that the psalmist here was facing. And if you’re taking notes, our second heading is “The Powerful Threats.”

Look at verse 3, it says, “The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice, the floods lift up their pounding waves.” Once again, we’re being introduced here to repetition, repetition for emphasis, “The floods,” “The floods,” “The floods.” And then we even have the same verb introduced in all three lines there, “lifted up,” “lifted up,” “lift up.” And what we actually have here is something called progressive parallelism where each line clarifies the next and each line actually aims for what’s going to happen at the end of verse 4. Actually, we can look at that right now. Look at the end of verse 4 where it says, “The Lord on high is mighty.” So, each of those three stacking lines, “The floods,” “The floods,” “The floods,” you’re getting this picture of rising water getting higher and higher. But at the end of verse 4 you already get the outcome. The Lord is higher than that, the Lord is on high, He is mighty. I’m getting ahead of myself, because we’ve got to do verse 3 first.

Look at these three lines again in verse 3. And what’s interesting here, is that in Hebrew the words here, “The floods have lifted up,” “The floods have lifted up,” “The floods lift up,” this is an instance of onomatopoeia. You guys remember that from high school? Onomatopoeia? That’s where the word that you use, it has the same sound in it of whatever it is you’re describing. Right? Like we have words like that in the English language. We describe a bumblebee buzzing. Right? Or we have a cat meowing or oceans roaring. We use that same concept or tool in the English language. Well, onomatopoeia was used in the Hebrew, in the Old Testament, as well. And here in verse 3, these words (I won’t try to demonstrate it for you in Hebrew), but “The floods have lifted up,” “The floods have lifted up,” “The floods lift up,” in the Hebrew language that actually would have created like a crashing sound, like the sound of breakers or even floodwaters. So, what the psalmist is doing with his repetitive language here In the midst of this chaotic scene, with floodwaters rising and ocean waters sloshing and waves crashing, and then this use of onomatopoeia to demonstrate it all, is he’s highlighting this contrast between his circumstances and the reality that we’ve already seen in verses 1-2, of God being on His throne, a throne which is “established from of old.”

Now, one would ask, and I think reasonably ask, is the psalmist here describing actual water, is he actually in the middle of a flood? You know, are his pants getting wet? Is it up to his belt? Is this an instance of true water soaking through his shirt, for instance. Or instead, might this be a metaphor for some other form of agitation that was being caused by this psalmist as a member of the Israelites, maybe by some outside force who were a source of hostility. I lean in the direction of that latter interpretation. Right? This is a royal Psalm, after all. And as we’ve seen from the outset, what is being described in this royal Psalm is God’s rulership and reign. So, I believe that the floodwaters he’s describing here would actually be a picture of these agitated, foaming nations that are rising in hostility against God and against God’s people. But, not to worry as that’s happening because Psalm 89:8-9 says, “O Lord God of hosts, who is like You, O mighty Lord? Your faithfulness also surrounds You. You rule the swelling of the sea; when its waves rise, You still them.” And then down in verse 10 of that Psalm, Psalm 89, which shows that he’s speaking of nations here, he says, “You scattered Your enemies with Your mighty arm.” In other words, even as the Almighty controls raging waters of every sort, whether they be breakers of the ocean or the currents of a river, He remains in full control of every other force, including governmental and national forces that may seek to arise and challenge His authority.

Whichever interpretation you take, if you take verse 3 here to be about actual rising rivers or if you take it to be about swelling-up nations, note what’s absent here. There’s a total absence, in the midst of these cataclysmic and worrisome conditions, of complaining. The Psalmist here isn’t grumbling. He’s not even crying out for help. Instead, what he’s really doing in this account here, is he’s recording the facts as they’re happening. You could even say he’s journaling the chaos. And in the middle of the cacophony of the crashing waves there’s this clear sense of peace and tranquility in his words here. He’s not getting off the ride. He’s not pressing the panic button. He’s not tapping out. Rather, there’s stability and there’s a calmness to him. And this calmness and this stability all goes back to what he’s already identified in verses 1-2. “The Lord reigns, He is clothed [in] majesty,” He’s “clothed and girded… with strength… the world is firmly established, it will not be moved. Your throne is established from of old; [and] You are… everlasting.”

But it’s from this calmness and stability that we get what comes next in verse 4. He says, “More than the sounds of many waters, than the mighty breakers of the sea, the Lord on high is mighty.” So again, back in verse 3, it looks like things are falling apart. It’s looking like the wheels are falling off. The waves are crashing. The floodwaters are rising. But it’s no matter. It’s almost as though a contest is being described here in between verses 3 and 4. And it’s almost as though what’s being asked is: Is the din of the surrounding crashing waves louder, or instead, is God’s throne higher and more stable and more secure and able to endure the crashing of those waves? And we know the answer to that, don’t we? The answer is that Yahweh, “the Lord [is] on high” and that He “is mighty.” Things appear to be chaotic but God is on His throne high above it all. Doing all that He pleases, Psalm 115:3 says.

And the carry-over lesson for us tonight – again, this is not just written to the Israelites, it was written initially to the Israelites, but it applies to us today -- is that there are, I’m sure, in this room a million things that we could throw our arms up about, there are a million things that we could identify that get our heart rate up. But God’s prescription for us in the middle of the tumult, in the middle of the chaos, is not to get red-faced and angry, it’s not to get hopeless and despondent. Instead, it’s to remember, and even find satisfaction in the fact, and contentment in the fact, that God is on His throne. That ought to help us whenever we’re going through a health scare, that ought to help us whenever we’re dealing with that wayward child, when we’re going through that crisis of faith. To remember that the Lord, as it says here in verse 4, is on high and mighty. God is sovereign. God is our King and He is our Ruler.

And embracing this truth that He is our sovereign Ruler and King means embracing the fact that God has everything to do with each and every plight and circumstance, and each and every detail of every plight and circumstance that we find ourselves in. Indeed, He appointed each of those circumstances. He brought them about. Ephesians 1:11 says, He does “all things [according to] the counsel of His will,” His eternal sovereign decree, whereby He declared everything that would ever happen in this world and certainly in your life. He hasn’t lost sight of the circumstances. Not at all. The God who has numbered every hair on each one of our heads. Surely knows how He is going to bring us through the circumstances He has appointed for us to go through. He allows us to go through it all. He is sovereign over it all.

I love how Spurgeon once described the totality and the scope of God’s sovereignty. He wrote this, he said, “I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes -- that every particle of spray that dashes against the steamboat has its orbit, as well as the sun in the heavens -- that the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered as the stars in their courses. The creeping of an aphid over the rosebud is as much fixed as the march of the devastating pestilence -- the fall of leaves from a poplar is as fully ordained as the tumbling of an avalanche. He who believes in God must believe this truth… There is no halfway between an Almighty God, who works all things according to the good pleasure of His will, and no God at all!” As it relates to nature, “like the creeping of the aphid over the rosebud” as Spurgeon said, as it relates to governments, as it relates to diseases, as it relates to health scares, as it relates to the very appointed days of our lives, God has made no blunders. He has made no mix-ups. We certainly can’t find fault with Him, a God who is, as it says in Psalm 93:4, mighty, “The Lord on high is mighty.”

With that, we come to the final verse of Psalm 93:5 and our third point for this evening. And our third point is “God’s Present Help.” Look at verse 5, it says, “Your testimonies are fully confirmed; holiness befits Your house, O Lord, forevermore.” Now, the first words there, where it says, “Your testimonies”, that’s a reference to scripture, God’s declared written word. We know that from places like Psalm 119:24. Psalm 119:24 says, “Your testimonies also are my delight; they are my counselors.” That’s referring to the scriptures. Psalm 119:31 says, “I cling to Your testimonies; O Lord, do not put me to shame!” Psalm 119:36 says, “Incline my heart to Your testimonies.” In other words, the psalmist here in Psalm 93 knows where he can go for help. He knows where he can find help. It’s in God’s “testimonies,” it’s in His decrees, in His revelation of Himself, it’s in His word. And His word, it says here, is “fully confirmed.” It’s faithful, it’s reliable, it’s trustworthy. And it’s faithful and it’s reliable and it’s trustworthy because of its source, an ever-faithful and ever-reliable and an ever-trustworthy God. The psalmist here knows that no matter what happens in this life God is on His throne. He knows that no matter what chaos is unleashed on this world God is still there on His throne. And no matter what season of worry or uncertainty may be ahead of him, all of God’s words are true and all of His promises are trustworthy and all of His decrees are confirmed. All of His “testimonies”, it says here in Psalm 93:5 “are fully confirmed.” It reminds me and it sounds similarly to Psalm 19. Turn with me over to Psalm 19, please. Let’s look for that familiar word “testimony” there. But also look at what this Psalm reveals about the character of God’s word. Psalm 19 starting in verse 7, it says, “The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the Lord are true; they are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them Your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward.”
And in bringing it back to Psalm 93, as God’s rule over all the earth is stable… so also His revelation in the scriptures, His “testimonies,” is trustworthy.

And then the next line in verse 5, the focus shifts from God’s word, “Your testimonies are fully confirmed,” to the type of worship that He is due. Look at the middle line of verse 5 where it says, “Holiness befits your house.” So, this Psalm, it starts with this description of God’s royal highness there in verse 1, “The Lord reigns.” Now, it gets to this place where it’s describing God’s perfect holiness, His impeccable holiness. And God’s house (here the reference is to His heavenly dwelling place), His heavenly abode, is adorned with holiness, it’s bedecked with His purity. The eternal dwelling place of God which is described here as His “house” is all about His holiness. It’s all about His purity. It’s all about His otherness. It’s all about His perfection.

Turn with me over to Isaiah 6, familiar passage, but it gives us a sense of the holiness which pervades God’s house. Isaiah 6 the heavenly throne room scene, Isaiah’s vision before he gets his commission to go serve as a prophet. Isaiah 6:1 says, “In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.’ And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, ‘Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.’”

A picture of the holiness of the house of God here in Psalm 93. So, here’s this psalmist in Psalm 93 experiencing his world somehow being turned upside down. And to pull him through this experience, as we’ve seen here, he recalls that the Lord reigns. He recalls that the Lord is on His throne. He recalls that the Lord’s “testimonies are fully confirmed.” He recalls that “Holiness befits [His] house.” And he recalls that God requires worship in holiness.

Now, who this psalmist was (again, it’s an anonymous Psalm) we don’t know. And how he put this charge to worship the Lord in holiness in His house, we really don’t know. But what we do know is what Leviticus 11 says (I won’t turn you there)… but that’s where God called on His people, the Israelites (in that context) to be holy as He is holy. And we know from 1 Peter that that standard never changed. It’s carried over to the New Testament where New Testament believers or New Testament people are called to be holy “like the [] One who called you” is holy. See, holiness is a thing, it’s a virtue, an element, that’s required to enter into the presence of a holy God since after all “holiness befits [His] house.” But holiness is not who we are naturally in our sinful condition, in our fallen, sinful humanity. Holiness is something we desperately lack. We aren’t in our own right holy. That’s testified not only to in our experience but in scripture. Romans 3:10 says, “There is none righteous, not even one.” Romans 3:23 says, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
So, what are we to do, to make that up, to bridge that gap, for the unholy to have access to the holy? Do we bring a lamb, or a goat, or a turtledove to church and drape it over our shoulders and bring it up here and sacrifice it? No, not anymore. But the shedding of blood is still required. Hebrews 9:22 says, “without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sin.” Well, praise God! Because of His great love for the world, and because of His great grace and mercy toward sinners like us, and in His great wisdom, He decreed a plan and He provided a way whereby sins could be atoned for not through the blood of bulls and goats, but instead, through the shed blood of His Son, the Lamb of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, the very One who’s on that throne that we see here described in Psalm 93, sent His Son from heaven . . . to die of a cross, and to rise from the grave, so that anybody who would believe upon His name, and believe that He had risen from the grave, would receive forgiveness for their sins. And have their sins washed as white as snow and declared as far as the east is from the west. Of course, what I’ve just described for you all this evening is the very essence of the gospel message, the good news of forgiveness of sin offered by belief upon the name of Jesus Christ. That only happens though when we have believed upon the name of Jesus and called out to God for forgiveness for our sin. Ask for forgiveness for our sin and then have fellowship now, with Him. We don’t enter God’s holy house through good deeds. We don’t enter God’s holy house through a number of, you know, gold stars that we get to put in our chart. We don’t enter God’s holy house by being better than we once were or better than the other guy. No. We can only enter God’s holy house, unholy sinners that we are, if we somehow ourselves become holy. And we become holy, not by practice but in position when we put our faith in Jesus Christ. It’s at that very moment that God’s righteousness is imputed to us so that we can now be viewed as and presented as holy and blameless before Him. And thereby granted entrance into His holy presence.

So, the question I have this evening, have you trusted in the name of Jesus Christ? Have you repented and believed in the name of the world’s only Savior? Have you come to realize that the only hope that you have to stand before the holiness of the holy God that’s described here in Psalm 93, Whose house it says is holy. Is that, like the tax collector, you beat your breast and you say, “God have mercy upon me, the sinner”? That’s the only way it can happen. If you know you’re not right with God, or if you’re not sure if you’re right with God, I pray you’ll give it serious consideration. I pray that you’ll confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. I pray that you will believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. And I pray that you will indeed be saved.

Ok, back to Psalm 93. The Psalmist knew that God’s testimonies were fully confirmed. He knew that holiness befit God’s house. And he knew that to be eternally the case. Look at the last few words there in verse 5, it says, “O Lord, forevermore.” God’s settled and timeless decrees, His holy abode, His heavenly throne, all of it, will endure forevermore. Just as God is eternal, His dwelling place is eternal. And praise the Lord, it’s the place that we will spend eternity with Him, worshiping around His throne.

As we close, I’m going to turn us to Revelation 4 just for words of encouragement and remembrance. And I hope, in optimism, where this is all headed for those who have put their faith in Christ, for those who have believed upon the name of Jesus Christ, for those who have put aside any sense of self-righteousness or any sense of earning anything before a holy God. For those who are saved this is where it goes. And as we go through this I want you to think through what we’ve just learned in Psalm 93. Everything from the holiness of God’s house, to the fact that the Lord reigns, to the crashing of waves in the days in which we live. And think about how that even interchanges or interacts here with this scene in heaven in Revelation 4.
“After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.’ Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and One sitting on the throne. And He who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones; and upon the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and golden crowns on their heads. Out from the throne come flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God; And before the throne there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal; and in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. The first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God. The Almighty. Who was and who is and who is to come.’ And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, ‘Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.’ ”

I’d say His testimonies indeed have been confirmed. And I’d say that holiness indeed does befit His house. And what a glorious day that is going to be to join Him there. And sing this song of praise eternally to our sovereign and majestic God and King.

Let’s pray: God, thank You, for the clarity, the beauty, the truth of Your word. Thank You, that we can go to a Psalm, like Psalm 93 -- one that maybe we don’t read all that often, or come across very often, maybe one that we’re not all that familiar with -- one that was written long ago to entirely different people across the world, but from it we can extract and mine these amazing truths about who You are, a God who reigns, a God who is clothed in majesty, a God who is full of strength and might, a God whose throne is exalted and lifted up and cannot be destroyed or taken down by the crashing waves of the world, a God who is eternal. God, we praise You for being the God that You are. And we praise You that for we who have trusted in Christ, You have given us access to You, have a relationship with You, we have the hope of eternity with You as we’ve just read there in Revelation 4. I pray that that would motivate us and spur us on to share more and more about the hope that we have, the hope in Christ. And I do pray, if there’s anyone here this evening who doesn’t know You, if they’re deceived, or they’re open in their unbelief, or they are just confused, pray that they’d be open to talking to somebody here. By getting right with You. Crying out to You, God. And asking for forgiveness. And falling on the mercy and the grace of Jesus Christ. And trusting in His finished work on the cross, as the only means by which they might be saved. Thank You, God, for Your word. Thank You, for sending Your Son into the world, the hope of hope, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. It’s in His name we pray. Amen