Pray: that Jesus be exalted and that we see and love His reign and as a result hate evil

I want you to know that I’ve wrestled over preaching this message, because I almost preached a different one after this morning on Ephesians 6, but instead of preaching that, and expounding on those verses, let me just read them and let this morning’s service be the exposition…Ephesians 6:1-3 says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (this is the first commandment with a promise), that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” Obey your parents, submit to them in the Lord, honor them, do as they say, pray for them, and ask and beg for their care of your soul in accountability and discipline. If they are not leading you to the cross, ask them to do so. Do not rail against their God appointed authority over you. Parents were God’s idea and so is their discipline of you and you should love the means through which God’s guards your soul from Hell! This is right! In a thousand ways it is right.

So that’s the message in short, but I believe Psalm 97 was planned for a reason and the reason is that while many of us are shaken and unsure right now it is good in this state to look to a Sovereign God and our text directs our attention to Him. So turn with me to Psalm 97…

[Psalm 97] “The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice, let the coastlands be glad! Clouds and thick darkness are all around Him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. Fire goes before Him and burns up His adversaries all around. His lightnings light up the world; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim His righteousness, and all the peoples see His glory. The worshipers of images are put to shame, who make their boast in worthless idols; worship Him, all you gods! Zion hears and is glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoice, because of Your judgments, O Lord. For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods. O you who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the lives of His saints; He delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and give thanks to His holy name!”

The Present Context and Future Fulfillment
Any time you begin studying a passage of Scripture one of the first things you need to know in order to understand the passage and the perspective of the passage and the why behind it, is the background. So in order to understand this Psalm we need to know the occasion for which it was written…unfortunately, the occasion for which Psalm 97 was written is not very clear. However, there are some things that we can assume from the passage and it is this:

1) A Great Victory Has Taken Place (v.1-7)
2) There is Great Rejoicing in Zion (v.8)
3) There is a Great Response and Great Joy in and to the Lord’s Promises (v.10-12)

That’s what we know from the context and there is much to apply to our own lives from the vision of God laid out here and the joyful response of the people, but in the Psalms, if you remember, there is that prophetic piece that looks forward or foretells a future event. So while there is a present fulfillment here there also can be a future fulfillment. This is what theologians call “double-fulfillment.” However, in this case there could potentially be a “triple-fulfillment.” And this why applying this passage is so difficult and where it gets tricky to understand. Let me explain:

Fulfillment 1: The Great Victory Over a Present Enemy
Fulfillment 2: The First Coming of Christ and The Advancement of the Kingdom of God in the Kingdom of this World
Fulfillment 3: The Second Coming of Christ When He Will Reign Over All the Earth

So with those 3 fulfillments on the table, I believe, that the one that is most clear, for our instruction and edification is fulfillment 3, in that, this Psalm is looking forward to the Second Coming of Christ when He will have full reign over all the earth and every enemy will be fully and finally destroyed in the heat of His wrath, and there will be great rejoicing on every coastland.

We’ll dive into this Psalm in 4 parts, let’s look at verse 1 and see point 1 which is…

I. The Lord Reigns, Rejoice! (v.1)
This verse sets the tone for the whole Psalm and is a summary statement of what is to follow. It’s kind of like a “tweet” on the Psalm. The truth is this: the Lord reigns, rejoice! And what this is teaching us is that the Lord’s reign is to be something that fills us all peoples with joy. It is something we should look forward to and bank on…He will reign fully over all sin and creation and peoples and He will reign on the earth because He does reign! The specific attribute this verse is highlighting is God’s sovereignty, and God’s sovereignty in short means that God does all that He pleases for His eternal pleasure and purposes. This means as Sovereign He governs and controls every single action and cause and effect in the universe. In other words, He micromanages everything from the flight of a wasp through the sky, to the dance of dust particles in a sunbeam. Over everything God is King and at this we should rejoice! We should contend for this truth and sing of this truth! He reigns supreme and this should be our great delight, as it was for Jonathan Edwards who said, “Absolute sovereignty is what I love to ascribe to God.” And why should one be so enthusiastic about the Lord’s reign over all things? Because of the great contrast of the Governing of God compared to all other earthly rule. Let me just give you six contrasts of Christ’s reign to all other reigns…

His Reign is one of…

A) Freedom not Oppression: King Jesus said in Luke 4:18-19, “The Father has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of the sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And that’s what He did. He freed people from oppression to sin, especially the sin of self-love, and from the oppressive service of serving Satan rather than God. If you are in Christ, the kingdom of God and the reign of Christ has broken in on your life freeing you from oppression!

B) Righteousness not Wickedness: In Hebrews 1:8-9 we read, “But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”

C) Justice not Injustice: In the book of the prophet Isaiah in chapter 11 he says of Christ, “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what His eyes see, or decide disputes by what His ears hear, but with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall kill the wicked.”

D) Delight not Drudgery: Those who are under the reign of Christ experience delight not drudgery and this sets apart false professors from the true. All enter the kingdom of God with joy. Matthew 13:44 says, “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy (note the word, he’s not upset about giving all he has up) he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

E) Singing not Sorrow: Of the coming kingdom Isaiah 35:10 prophecies, “And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” And we’re not the only ones singing…Isaiah 62:5 says, “…as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.”

F) Life not Death: In Revelation 21:3-4 in view of the new heavens and new earth a loud voice from the throne says, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall their be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

This is what is and what will be! The kingdom has broken out upon the earth and is even now in our midst and one day it will be the only kingdom there is, and it will be a kingdom marked by freedom, truth, righteousness, justice, delight, singing and life! And as you hear this, you might be saying, “Wow! That is awesome, but can I really trust that it will be accomplished. Is He really able to pull this off even in the face of what seems to be great enemies and worldwide religious indifference and even hatred to the truth of God? Can He do this?” The overwhelming answer is yes…and He won’t be stopped from establishing His rule. The cross of Jesus Christ has set it into motion and it will not be undone…“It is Finished!” Jesus said, and He will come back to make it final! Look and see in verse 2-7…

II. The Unstoppable Sovereign (v.2-7)
The point of these verses is that we see the Sovereign, Unstoppable Christ who dwells in the storm and rides in the storm. First, we see Him on His throne and we see Him surrounded by clouds and thick darkness. All throughout Scripture when there is a vision of God this is how He is revealed…from Sinai to the throne in heaven in Revelation, He is God in the storm! Second, the throne is mentioned as having a foundation that is righteousness and justice. It is a good and great and immovable throne. But there’s movement in this Psalm from the throne that we’re supposed to see and be stunned by. We see Him on His throne and then rising from His throne and on the move with unstoppable power: a power that is over all enemies and all creation and a power that is over all idolatry and religious systems. What we see is that nothing can stand before Him or can contend with Him! The first thing we see is that…

His Enemies Cannot Stop Him (v.3)
“Fire goes before Him and burns up His adversaries all around.” The most foolish and pointless thing sinful men and women have ever done and are doing on this earth is seeking to live under their own rule. It is vain task that will not amount to anything! Listen to me, you may think you are doing whatever you want, you may think you are living independently and that your actions are being overlooked by God, but let me tell you on the authority of the Spirit-breathed Scriptures, you are deceived! No one! No one, lives independently or outside of the reign of Christ and no one will be able to escape His judgments! His fire will burn up all those who have sought to establish their own rule in whatever capacity that may be. His consuming fire will burn up all those who have rejected Him by open hatred or passive indifference! His fire will burn up every enemy who has chosen earthly pleasure and temporal joy of Eternal Treasure and Forever Joy! His consuming fire will sniff out and scorch all those who will seek to hide from Him on the day of His return! He will have ultimate victory over every single one of us and He will do this in one of two ways: He will either do this by saving you or He will do this by destroying you! He rules and you cannot stop Him, none can stop Him!

But not only will He have victory over all the enemies of humanity, but He will have ultimate victory over all Satanic and demonic forces of evil. The great powers of Satan that we cannot see that deceive and destroy and ruin and kill will one day all be burned up by Jesus! Many people tend to think that Satan will still have power forever in Hell, as if he is not affected by the flames and torment of Hell, but is more ruler over it. Well, that is a false picture that has been made in the mind of man, because in the mind of God revealed to us through the Scriptures we see Christ as the Ruler over Hell and Satan and his demons suffering at His hand. There is a reason why when a demon saw Jesus in the flesh on earth 2,000 years ago he said, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” He rules over demons, you need to see this. In Revelation 20:10 we read, “…and the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be (look) tormented (consciously) day and night forever and ever.” You see that, Satan will be tormented as well and all those whom Christ does not own will be with him, and that’s what we see in verses 11-15 where we read, “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it. (Compare the imagery here with our Psalm) From His presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were throne into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

No enemy will escape Jesus or prevail against Him. And this power over earth and sky that flees at His presence is what we see in the next block of verses in our Psalm…

His Creation Cannot Stop Him (v.4-6)
“His lightnings light up the world; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim His righteousness, and all the peoples see His glory.” When Christ comes in His glory creation will clear the way before Him and announce His coming. It’s almost as if David is composing a song for Matthew 24:27-31 when Jesus says, “For as lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man…Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

All of creation responds to Him and nothing can stop Him from coming. He is over creation not subject to it; it is subject to Him! It will not stop Him!

Religious Systems Cannot Stop Him (v.7,9)
Lastly, what we see is that when Jesus comes in His power from His throne all those who have sworn allegiance to any god, but Christ will be put to shame. They will be shocked, stunned, embarrassed and shamed that they ever worshipped anyone but Him, and all the world will give Him the worship He is due! Every knee in heaven and on earth will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father! He will have His glory over all religious systems! All the millions who have spent their lives worshiping themselves, their own wealth, beauty, popularity, position, and possessions will be put to shame when the Treasure of the Universe shows up! The millions of Hindu worshipers who bow to countless idols will bow down before the feet of Jesus in shame and in terror that they ever worshiped anyone but Him! The millions of Muslims who bow down and pray five times a day will not bow down to Allah on that great day, but they will bow down to Yahweh! And let this be a warning, all those who have believed in a Christ of their own making will be ashamed at the “Christ” they created. And you better be sure you are truly His because there are some who will stand before Jesus and will confidently claim that they were His saying, “Lord! Lord! Didn’t we prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles” and He will say to them, “Depart from Me! I never knew you!” They will find out they had the wrong Christ! And if you don’t repent and forsake the ‘god’ of your own making that day will be a great shock to you as well! You cannot settle for the fact that you almost had it right, you almost repented, you almost believed, you almost surrendered your life…No 'almost Christian' will inherit the kingdom of heaven! Only those who have lost everything and died to themselves will live to God! He will not be stopped!

Now I want you to see something here…You remember that at first, we said this Psalm was pointing forward to the day of Christ’s second coming where He will reign over the earth? I want you to know that I didn’t make that up, because what we’re seeing in Psalm 97 is exactly what John saw in Revelation 6 when the last seal of judgment was opened…

Revelation 6:12-17 “When He (Jesus) opened (and only He can open because He has conquered Rev. 5:5), I looked and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

And that is the question isn’t it: “Who can stand?” From the perspective of those defeated, none can stand before the wrath of the Lamb, and it is true, but there are some who will stand on that day…and they stand because on the day Jesus was crucified, the storm clouds of darkness gathered above the head of the Son of God and there the Precious Lamb was treated as the Father’s enemy and the fire of His wrath consumed Him! That is the only reason that they stand and it is the only reason that anyone of us will stand in this room…we must place our trust in Him, surrender to His reign, and confess our sins in repentance for ever seeking to assert our own independence! Oh, let me ask you again, “Will you stand in that Day?” Will you stand when the Storm of the Lamb comes? Will you be found safe in the Son or exposed and seeking to hide in death but not being able to die? We will all face Him! We will all find Him in one of two storms…which will it be? I pray you meet Him at Calvary, find Him there, even now.