[0:00] Now we're going to read in Psalm 93. We're going to read the whole of this psalm, although we're going to focus on the first two verses in our thoughts this evening.
[0:12] Psalm 93. The Lord reigns. He is robed in majesty. The Lord is robed. He has put on strength as his belt.
[0:25] Yes, the world is established. It shall never 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.
[0:40] The floods lift up their roaring. Mightier than the thunder of many waters. Mightier than the waves of the sea. The Lord on high is mighty.
[0:53] Your decrees are very trustworthy. The holiness befits your house forevermore. Amen. As we consider together the first two verses of the psalm, the psalm that really speaks of the majesty of God, we want to see how that theme, that subject is brought out in these two verses, particularly as we need to know more of God, that knowing God, that greatest of studies, that greatest of knowledge, the knowledge of the one true God.
[1:34] And that's the more we come to know God, the more we'll come to see how great God is. You know, we speak of God's power, his might. In the psalm we read later in the passage, we read of the Lord who's mighty, the one on high who's mighty.
[1:53] And in recognising God as great, then, of course, we come to worship him. There's no other option, if you like. We are, you are, I am, beholden to worship the one true God, the majestic one.
[2:12] The Lord reigns. In our service this morning, those of you who attended our service, remember we, one of the things we were remarking on was the prevalence in society, the prevalent trend in human society, the tendency to pride.
[2:33] Pride, pride, pride in self. Pride in achievement. Pride in a kind of man-centred reasoning. Pride in thinking that says that I'm the master of my fate, that I'm the captain of my soul.
[2:50] That mindset, that thinking that really leads to the man-centred philosophy that I am the centre of my life.
[3:01] And it's that pride of man and that pride in man that runs so contrary to the word of God because the word of God directs us away from that man-centred pride to the Lord Jesus Christ.
[3:18] Then we have to ask, what's the antidote to that pride? Well, surely the antidote to that human centre of pride is a focus on God.
[3:31] That focus, that deep meditation on God as God has made himself known, as God has revealed himself in Scripture. And that antidote to pride that comes from knowing who God is.
[3:47] It comes to being the more aware of what the Bible has revealed of God, the one true God. It was the great preacher Charles Spurgeon who said this of the infinite greatness of God.
[4:02] Spurgeon said these words, our pride is drowned in its infinity. In other words, our pride is drowned in recognising the infinity of God and recognising the greatness of God.
[4:16] Because the more that you dwell on God, the more that you contemplate God, the less you're going to have any pride in yourself and the more you're going to echo the words of Job when Job said of God, when he recognised God's greatness and Job said, I am of smaller kings.
[4:39] So, contemplation on God. That's going to be our focus, we pray for the next few weeks, certainly in the next few weeks of our afternoon services.
[4:50] Because truly, you know, each one of us surely has to have that desire to want to know more of God, to want to know more who God is. And knowing God, to respond to him in faithfulness, to respond to him in obedience to his word.
[5:08] And in obedience, being humbled. And being so energised in our spirits, the more that you come to know God, the more that you'll want to live a life of worship of our great God.
[5:23] the more you'll want to follow him and to glorify him. To know that he who loved you has loved you from all eternity and the response of the Lord's people is to love in return.
[5:37] The more you recognise the greatness and the majesty of God. And it's that greatness of God, really God as King. God in his majestic glory.
[5:47] Elsewhere in scripture, he's referred to as the majestic one. And really that's where we're going to, as it were, take our start, make our starting point in reflecting on God.
[6:00] You know, right at the start of the Bible, we read of that greatness. Genesis 1 verse 1, in the beginning, God. In the beginning, God.
[6:11] These magnificent words that tell who God is is in his eternal being. The non-created one. One whose existence is beyond even the confines of time itself.
[6:27] God's existence is beyond even the extent of our finite knowledge of God. Yet, of course, we do know God and can know him through creation.
[6:38] And, of course, through his word, the Bible. And it's that greatness of God that's seen throughout scripture, throughout the Bible. And it's really, you know, really we get that sense of the majesty of God, the greatness of God.
[6:56] Well, not just, of course, from Psalm 93, other scripture writers wrote of the majesty of God. But here in this psalm is, we might say, a direct reference to that majesty.
[7:09] The Lord reigns. He's robed in majesty. In the name that the author used here of God, the Lord, the name, the Lord, that speaks of God's faithfulness, his covenant faithfulness.
[7:23] The one who's faithful towards his people. The one who's never changing in his greatness and his power and in his majesty. You know, we read in scripture of the various names that God has granted us to know about him.
[7:39] Various names that tell us of the attributes of God, his characteristics, what God's revealed of himself through the names that God has given to us to know him.
[7:52] Well, all these names tell of his greatness. All the names of God, the various names that we come across, they tell of who God is in God's incomparable greatness.
[8:07] And so, we've got no excuse not to know more about God and not to know even the name of the Lord. Let me think of God, the Lord.
[8:19] Remember, we're thinking of the three in one. Now, of course, three in one, that is absolutely incomprehensible to our minds. Yet, we've been given this knowledge so that we worship him and know him as great in order to worship him, so that we worship the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
[8:41] Three persons, one God, one God, one Lord, and even as the psalmist tells us here, the one who reigns, the Lord, the Lord reigns.
[8:53] You know, none of us can read these words. Now, if you can sing the words of Psalm 93 with any kind of sincerity or honesty, unless you know God, unless God is yours and you are his, unless you know God, unless you've been gifted to come to God, the Father, through faith in the Son, through the drawing power of the Holy Spirit.
[9:21] And so, knowing God, knowing who God is, knowing that he is the eternal three in one, the Godhead, well, you'll want to know him more. You'll want to know more and more of who God is.
[9:33] And you'll want to know God and all his majesty. It's a majesty, it's a glory that God has by his own nature. It's not some kind of inherited majesty that we know of in our earthly monarchs.
[9:51] It's not a majesty that somehow is conferred by others on a certain individual. It's not a limited majesty such as we have in our own country, a majesty that's limited in power.
[10:05] No. When we think of God and his majesty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that's a majesty that's unparalleled. It's a majesty that's eternal.
[10:18] It's a majesty that no one has conferred upon God. God has conferred that majesty upon himself because he is the unchanging one, the eternal one.
[10:30] And it's for you and for me to want to know him more, to want to know his greatness more. And so, we're going to explore just for a short time then even what these words tell us in the first two verses of Psalm 93 of God's majesty, God's greatness.
[10:47] because majesty speaks of greatness, the greatness of God. I may have mentioned before, but it was the great German reformer, Martin Luther, Martin Luther, who once wrote to his contemporary, a man called Erasmus.
[11:08] And Martin Luther sent this to Erasmus. Martin Luther never was shy of being direct in his communications. And he sent this to Erasmus. He said, your thoughts of God are too small or too human.
[11:20] Your thoughts of God are just too human-centered. In other words, Martin Luther was saying to Erasmus, Erasmus, your thoughts of God are simply too little.
[11:33] You're not having a true appreciation of God's greatness, of God's majesty. You're not truly appreciating the majestic one.
[11:44] But of course, it's not just Erasmus, the 15th, 16th century Dutch scholar. It's not just him whose thoughts of God are too little. It's my thoughts.
[11:56] It's your thoughts. Because so frequently we have a, we might say, a rather vague notion of who God is. And never truly seeking to know God, the more to, to know him in his greatness.
[12:12] We're not in his word often enough to be truly appreciative of the greatness of God. Because how you consider God, that's going to shape your faith.
[12:24] It's going to shape your, your actions. It's going to form your thoughts. It's going to influence your relationships. It's going to impact your witness.
[12:35] It's going to impact everything about yourself. Because if you have a small view of God, if you, all you're thinking of God is some kind of, you know, benign, kind deity, you know, who's going to do your bidding whenever you ask him, well, that's going to indicate a faith that's weak and a commitment to God that really isn't bullsome.
[13:03] Because you're more going to, as it were, trust in your own preconceptions of who God is rather than following the word of God and as God has made himself known to you in his greatness, in his majesty.
[13:18] We're not to see God in any kind of man-centered image of God, no. But truly, to have that desire to know God in all his majesty and to worship God in all his greatness, as you do so, to bow before the eternal one, to come before him and recognize God in all his power, that God is great.
[13:45] He's great because he's king. And he's king because of his power. He's the all-powerful one. He's the all-knowing one. He's the all-seeing one. And he loves you with an everlasting love.
[13:59] The more you contemplate that greatness of God, the more you'll seek to honor him and glorify him and follow him. You know, at the same time, we have to say that we have limited minds, minds that only grasp in many ways a fraction of who God is.
[14:19] Because if we were on this side of eternity, if we were to gaze on the full glory of God, we'd be utterly overwhelmed. But God in his grace, God's given us sufficient knowledge of himself so that we are able to worship him, so that we are able to know who it is we're worshiping.
[14:38] He's God who's over all. He's the one who's created us. He's the God of history. He's the sovereign God. He's the God of mercy. He's the God of grace.
[14:50] He's chosen his people from all eternity. And we see that greatness and that majesty above all in the sending the Lord Jesus Christ.
[15:02] Jesus being sent. Jesus willing to be sent. To break, come into history and to save his people from our sins. God is king and majestic.
[15:22] There are so many times we can lose sight of God's majesty. So many times when we minimize his power and fail to truly grasp the glory of God, our Lord, our Savior, the ruler of the universe.
[15:39] you know, that happens so often when we look around us and we see a world that seems to be so out of control, a world that seems to be so far from God, so broken in itself, so calamitous in so many aspects of the world that we see, the wars, rumors of war, the disasters that we see, natural disasters, human disasters, catastrophe, an abandonment of God's words, even in our own land and our own doorstep.
[16:19] And at times we can even cry out when we have a lack of faith, where are you, Lord? And ask, where is God? Through all that's happening. And when we do come to that time, even when we cry out, where are you, Lord?
[16:35] God replies, I am Lord. I'm on the throne. The Lord reigns. The Lord is the majestic one.
[16:47] And when we again see the first few words of Psalm 93, the Lord reigns, let's keep that in our hearts. And let's echo that, these words, in our own lives and by our own witness.
[17:03] and know that these words are going to resonate throughout all eternity. The Lord reigns. You know, when these words were first written, we don't know exactly when these words were first written, we're not given any indication of precisely when they were written, but there's no doubt that they were written at a time that needed to be heard, that the Lord reigns.
[17:26] There were long times of Israel's history, when Israel was ruled by ungodly kings. There was a time when the people of Israel and Judah were sent into exile, and they didn't have a descendant of David ruling over them.
[17:42] And surely a reminder that the Lord reigns would bring comfort to the Lord's people, even in times of desperate rule and even in exile itself.
[17:54] But despite appearances, they would know that the Lord reigns and still reigns. it's not just in the time of the Israelites, Israelites under false kings or no kings at all.
[18:09] But in our own day and age, we still have to grasp and emphasize the message of the majesty of God, that God rules, that God reigns.
[18:20] Let's proclaim that truth loud and clear. God because we live in a land that every year it seems that Christian values seem to be more and more eroding.
[18:32] And the evidence might suggest, again, where is God? Is he reigning? Let's be reminded and be reassured constantly that the Lord is reigning.
[18:45] He reigns. He reigns. Past, present, eternal. And no matter what the circumstances might suggest, the Lord reigns.
[18:58] Let's have that absolutely before you. The Lord reigns. And the author of Psalm 93 here, he wants to drive that point home so that there's no doubt whatsoever in the minds of the Lord's people.
[19:12] But there's nothing to fear when we know that the Lord reigns, when we know that God is in control. Even bring that to our current predicaments, even our society of today.
[19:26] You know, all the turmoil of cultural realignment, the so-called woke philosophy that attacks the core truths of Scripture. Remember, the Lord reigns.
[19:39] Through all the turmoil that a virus has caused worldwide, it's brought about so much catastrophe and heart. Remember, the Lord reigns. and through all the changes that we're seeing in society, a society that mocks the Lord.
[19:56] Will you remember that the Lord reigns, that he's king? He's king now because he's been king eternally and he'll be king forevermore.
[20:09] God is a God of power. So don't be afraid, don't be alarmed when the forces of evil appear to have the upper hand in our media, in our government, in our educational establishments.
[20:23] Cancel culture, well, it might seem relentless, but God is never cancelled. His greatness is never cancelled. His power is never cancelled because the Lord reigns, because he's king.
[20:39] And I swear to be reminded as these opening words tell us he is reigning, present tense, he reigns, he's reigning as king, king over the universe, king over his creation, he's king over time, he's king over his enemies, he's king from all eternity.
[21:01] And the author here then uses language that helps us the more to appreciate that the Lord reigns. The language used that tells us of, well, kings of old as kings of now or monarchs of now or present day, don't have so many monarchs now, I suppose as in times past we still do have them.
[21:23] The writer tells us here of the monarch, the king who's robed, robed with majesty. I've never witnessed a coronation, at least one of you has, but you know when we think of coronations, these are the most spectacular events when monarchs are robed with a particular robe of office, a robe that indicates power and authority, that the robe, these wonderful robes that are so wonderful in appearance, that very much symbolic, the sense of power and authority that's been vested in the monarch.
[22:03] When we read here of the Lord as robed, robed with majesty, then you have that sense of the great power of God. But of course, in contrast to the monarchs of today, we have a limited reign.
[22:18] They're robed once. There will be a time when our monarch will pass on to glory. But God's reign never ends. He's continually robed with the office of majesty, the office of power.
[22:32] And his reign is that reign that is utterly magnificent because of who he is. Because he's glorious. He's all powerful. And again, you see that in the language used here in the psalm in the opening verse.
[22:46] We're told that he puts on strength. Psalm 93 verse 1. The Lord is robed on strength. That's his belt. Or as other translations might say, he's armed with strength.
[23:00] And it's this whole idea of God as the warrior king. Of course, in David's time, for example, kings were warriors. Even in the Middle Ages of our own country, kings went into battle.
[23:14] And there's this sense of God as warrior, as God fighting on behalf of his people. And God's strength being almighty strength so that no one, no power, no evil power, can withstand the power and strength of our mighty God, our warrior king.
[23:33] even the most hostile, even the strongest opponents of our God and saviour will not overcome the one true God, our warrior king.
[23:46] And so let's be encouraged with these words, these words that God has given to us to know him more as the one who reigns.
[23:56] and to know that if God is the one who's armed with strength, who puts on strength, then be assured that God gives to you a portion of that strength.
[24:11] The apostle Paul could say that his strength, God's strength was made perfect in Paul's weakness. And Paul could say that when I'm weak, then I'm strong. As we know and even as we've been considering even this morning of Paul's missionary work, Paul who knew much oppression, but still Paul persevered because he knew the strength of God the Lord.
[24:36] And it's for you and for me to know that strength from the one who's armed with strength, our warrior king, who gives to you and to me that enabling to fight that good fight of faith in his name and for his glory.
[24:53] And, you know, it's the Christian's great comfort. It's just great encouragement. You know, because we are weak. We're all weak. We have many weaknesses. Weakness of faith, maybe weakness in loving one another.
[25:08] We have all various weaknesses when we're tempted to maybe to fall into sin. And when we're weak, remember, we call upon one who's strong.
[25:22] Who's strong because he is the Lord who reigns. And you who know the Lord Jesus as your saviour, you know that Jesus is Lord, that he reigns.
[25:33] He reigns in your heart. And so you can know that you have that support, that strength, that encouragement. And even now, bow the knee.
[25:46] You'll hear a lot in the media about taking the knee. Well, surely the most important person we take the knee to is our Lord and our God. We bow before his majesty.
[26:00] Because in times past, servants, ordinary people would bow before the king. Well, surely it's for you and for me in our lives and our hearts to bow before our king and know that on that day of day when the Lord Jesus comes, that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord for the glory of the Father.
[26:22] And so I ask you, whether it's those of you who are worshipping now or maybe later, is Jesus your Lord? Is God your king?
[26:34] Are you praising God? Do you give God the glory? Because he is God. Do you have thoughts of majesty, the majesty of God the Lord?
[26:47] But when you see the Lord Jesus, when you see him, when you know him as a savior, you recognize that he is full of majesty, that he is armed with strength.
[27:02] That confidence to know that yes, that God reigns, that the Lord reigns in heaven and on earth. And may it be that the Lord reigns in your life, that he's king in your life, and that in response to that reign of God in your life, that you worship him.
[27:23] That's really the third point we want to make this evening, this afternoon. Because having that true knowledge of God, having an awareness in your heart of God's greatness, it's going to lead you to want to worship him and to worship him alone.
[27:40] God's made himself known to you. He's made sufficient of himself about himself in order for you to worship him.
[27:53] He's revealed to you his name, his name that's above every other name. He's revealed to you that he is the Lord, the covenant one, the faithful one.
[28:04] He's made himself known to you as God the Lord. He's made himself known that he is king, that he is the majestic one. And if he's king, if he's the majestic one, then he's worthy of all worship.
[28:20] And so when you are worshipping God, remember that you're joining with the angels in heaven as they're even now worshipping God the king. You're joining with the saints who've gone into glory.
[28:32] You're worshipping the Lord with them. You're worshipping God with the saints here and there. There's that wonderful crescendo of worship, that universal worship in heaven and earth because God is king, because the Lord reigns.
[28:50] And so we worship God, God the king for who God is. Worship him. Know that that's the most important thing for you to do even now, to worship him, to praise him.
[29:04] That's why we began with Psalm 113, that psalm that spoke so much of praising God. Praise him. He's worthy of all praise.
[29:15] Even after the service, go back to Psalm 93. Go back to these first, even these first two verses of this psalm and bring to mind what God has revealed of himself, even in these words.
[29:30] God's word. Because he is Lord. And may he reign. May he reign forevermore. May he reign even, as we said, even in your heart this evening. And know this, because it happens.
[29:45] When your worship falters, if you're finding that your heart worship of God maybe has somehow slipped and gone back, well return to God's word.
[29:58] Meditate on that truth that tells you that the Lord reigns, that he's the majestic one, that he's the king of glory. And have that resolve to go forward in faith to serve the one who reigns.
[30:13] Amen. And let us pray. Lord, you reign. May we truly know that you are the majestic one, that your reign is not superseded by any other.
[30:26] There is no other king. You are the only one. So help us to live in your presence as king, rejoicing in your majesty, following you, putting our faith and trust in you and in you alone.
[30:42] Lord, have mercy upon us, we who are sinners, and take from us our sin, we pray. In Jesus' name we ask. Amen. Amen.