The Lord Reigns

The President of India says in a speech marking 50 years of Indian independence that corruption even to the highest levels of government is blighting his country. The bullet proof screen behind which he stands is ample testimony to his own personal insecurity. Tony Blair strolls triumphantly down a sunlit Downing St to take up his new residence as the Prime Minister. New Labour has won power and now governs the country. At the back of No. 10, plain Mr John Major slips out to watch the cricket at Lords, and the ex Chancellor of the Exchequer loads up a furniture van, jumps in behind the wheel and drives away. Swampy sits in a cramped underground tunnel and defies all the powers of the State. In the private spaces of your own heart, you make the decisions that will shape your own life. Who governs? Never mind what we or others like to think, what is the reality? Psalm 99, which we said together earlier, is all about government, not as we imagine it to be but as it really is. I would like you to turn it up in the Bibles in the pews now if there is one to hand. You can find it on p603. You should have an outline with your notice sheet, and on it you will find my three headings for this evening. My title is the opening phrase of the Psalm: The Lord Reigns. In those three words is the simple, all embracing lesson of this Psalm. Who rules the world? God does. This is a Psalm about God's government. So my three headings areFirst, THE EXTENT OF GOD'S GOVERNMENT; secondly, THE NATURE OF GOD'S GOVERNMENT; and thirdly, THE REACTION TO GOD'S GOVERNMENT. All of these three aspects of the rule of God are distilled into this short Psalm. First of all then: First, THE EXTENT OF GOD'S GOVERNMENT; Who does God rule? You can picture the government of God that this Psalm describes as like three concentric circles that focus down stage by stage. What is the outer circle? Take a look at the first two verses:

The Lord reigns, let the nations tremble;he sits enthroned between the cherubim, let the earth shake. Great is the Lord in Zion; he is exalted over all the nations.

The fact of the supreme sovereignty of God is repeated three times. "The Lord reigns" (v1). That is not just stating the obvious. It is not just saying, as it were, "the one who rules, rules OK". The name "the Lord" is very specific. This is the Lord, Yahweh, the God of the Bible. Looking back from the perspective of the one writing the Psalm, this is the Lord who rescued his people out of slavery in Egypt. Looking forward to what the Psalmist has not yet seen, this is the Lord who a thousand years later was to send his Son into the world to rule on his behalf. It is this God, who we know from the Bible, who reigns. He it is who "sits enthroned between the cherubim" (v1 again). The cherubim are those mysterious creatures whose awesome power as they stand guard around the throne of God simply serves to put into even sharper relief the glory of the Lord God. The Lord is on the throne. The Lord reigns. And "great is the Lord in Zion" (v2). Zion is the seat of God's government. In earthly and old covenant terms that is the city of Jerusalem, a disputed patch of land in the middle east. But Jerusalem is just the shadow of the heavenly Jerusalem, heaven itself where God dwells for all eternity. It is from there that he reigns. Old Testament believers understood that. So King Solomon, after he has poured all his resources and years of effort into the building of a golden temple fit for the name of the Lord, prayed to God:

"But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple that I have built?" (1 Kings 8.27)

So three times the fact of God's government is proclaimed in these first two verses: the Lord reigns, the Lord reigns, the Lord reigns. And three times the extent of the first circle of God's government is made clear: "let the nations tremble" (v1); "let the earth shake" (v1 again); "he is exalted over all the nations" (v2). The physical universe is included in the sphere of God's rule here but the focus is on God's government over people. And when it comes to people, "all the nations" are subject to him. That is the first circle. The nations. The second, smaller circle is God's own people. This too is expressed repeatedly. The Lord's rule is "in Zion", the city of his people (v2); the Lord governs "in Jacob" (v4); Moses and Aaron and Samuel, key leaders of the people of God, were among those subject to him (v6); then in v8 it is "Israel" who have to deal with God their King. But the third circle focuses down further, and in it we find ourselves, not merely in a general way, but very personally. Do you see how the Psalm changes from general proclamation to direct address of God: from "the Lord" to "you"? And then he is "our God" in v5 and again in v9. God rules the nations. He rules his people through the ages and around the world today. And he rules us. That is one of the most profound and important truths of the Scriptures. It is the Lord who governs in every sphere. Who does the God of the Bible rule? He rules every nation. He rules the church. He rules us. It is the Lord who governs you. It is the Lord who governs me. But then the next question which this Psalm addresses is this: how does God rule? What kind of authority does he have and how does he exercise it? This brings us to my second heading: Secondly, THE NATURE OF GOD'S GOVERNMENT There are at least five characteristics of the government of God that Psalm 99 draws to our attention. The first is that God rules with invincible power. As the President of India's remarks about corruption indicate, some governments have only a very limited degree of real authority and power over the territory which they are supposed to rule. There has recently been a fascinating TV series attempting a fly on the wall job on Chris Patten's tenure as the last governor of Hong Kong. One of the striking things about it was the sheer limitation of the authority that Patten had. But God's government is not like the lame duck government of an outgoing colonial power. "The King", as v4 says, "is mighty". And that is not some kind of comparative term. It is not that the Lord is mighty, but on the other hand you should see some of the other powers around, because some of them give the Lord a close run for his money and some of them are mightier yet. This is not comparative but absolute might. You cannot mess with the Lord and expect to escape beyond his reach. There is no power hostile to God behind which anyone can shelter when the Lord comes looking. He is awesome (v3). Let the nations tremble; let the earth shake (v1). We are not talking earthquakes here (though they too are within the scope of God's government). These shakes arise from fear which gives rise to submission. It would seem that there is a double edged meaning here. The nations of the world should tremble with fear if they are not already doing so. But also, the day will come when the nations will tremble with a fear that leads them to submission even if it is against their will. For a time, many nations are being allowed to think that they are free from the Lord's control. It is an illusion. But the day will come when that illusion is stripped away, and the invincible power of God will be plain for all to see. There will be no room for dispute or challenge. The second characteristic is that God governs with justice. Verse 4:

The King is mighty, he loves justice - you have established equity; in Jacob you have done what is just and right.

Some of us grew up with perhaps a rather chauvinistic notion that if you went before the courts in this country, you would get justice. A seemingly never-ending series of high profile cases over the last few years has seriously dented that perception. But the more elusive justice seems to be, the more apparent is the yearning that people have that the innocent should go free and the guilty should suffer the just penalty for their crimes. Admittedly we might be a good deal less idealistic if we found ourselves in the dock. But nonetheless we long for a world in which wrongs are righted. The record of human governments cannot give us any sound basis for believing that things will turn out that way. But the great good news is that the One who governs all governments is just. Indeed, he loves justice. And his love for justice shows itself in how he acts. He does what is right. How come then that the world is so awash with injustice and so many guilty people seem to prosper? Without wanting to be flippant, the answer is simply this: give the Lord time. Scotland Yard may close their files on a crime. The Lord's files will not be closed before Christ returns. What is not put right now will be put right then. What a relief it is that we live in a world where justice will prevail. What a relief it is also that God's justice is tempered with mercy. Otherwise there really would be no hope for any of us. But we will come back to that in a moment, because God's mercy is in verse 8, and before that, in v6-7, there is another of the characteristics of the Lord's government. So, thirdly, he rules by his word. The examples given here in the Psalm relate to how the Lord exercises his authority over his own people. Take a look at the end of verse 6 to verse7:

they [that is Moses, Aaron and Samuel] called on the Lord and he answered them.He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud; they kept his statutes and the decrees he gave them.

And the point is repeated at the beginning of verse 8:

O Lord our God, you answered them

Do you see the kind of God with whom we have to deal? Now this is Sunday School revision. This is the basics. Nothing subtle or complicated. Except that it is the basic Sunday School truths that we get so familiar with that we miss their significance or even forget them altogether. The point is this: God has spoken. He listens to his people, and he answers them. There's only one of him, so we don't have to look up some kind of celestial Yellow Pages and work out which god it is that we should be getting in touch with. How do we communicate with this one God? We speak, he listens. He speaks, we listen. How has God spoken? Under the old covenant he gave the law and the prophets. But then he sent his Son, his supreme and final Word. Jesus didn't supersede the law and the prophets and render them useless. But he did fulfil them. He is the one we are to listen to with all ears. Hebrews 1.1-2:

In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at may times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son

And it is the Son who sustains all things. How? He does it "by his powerful word" (v3). God speaks. And God governs the universe by what he has spoken. That is the God who we know, and who we are meeting with and speaking to and listening to this evening. Then fourthly, he governs with mercy. Verse 8: " you were to Israel a forgiving God" Important as justice is, it is not ultimately what we need, because under a strict system of justice each one of us deserves nothing less than condemnation at the hands of God who sees and judges all things. But the Lord is a God who forgives. How can it be possible for justice and mercy to coexist? We know that they do. God speaks and he has told us. We don't know how. In the end that is beyond our very limited minds. But we do know where they coexist. Justice and mercy join together at the cross of Christ. There God's justice is satisfied, and his mercy is poured out on the guilty such as us. Whoever wrote this Psalm didn't see that in the clear light that we do as new covenant believers. He probably would have gone cross eyed and taken to his bed with a migraine if you had asked him to make sense of what he writes here. But he knows that in the way his God governs, justice and forgiveness are entwined. And he knows something else too. It is almost as if he has been reading his New Testament after all. Because he knows that our forgiving God is also a God who disciplines. That is the fifth characteristic of his rule. The Lord rules with discipline. The condemnation is removed but sin still brings consequences in its wake. Verse 8 again:

you were to Israel a forgiving God, though you punished their misdeeds.

It is not in the heart of any wise and loving parent simply to forgive in such a way that the lessons of their child's failure are not learned. A loving parent wants a child not just to be free, but also to grow in maturity. Responsibility for culpable failure has to be taken. The consequences of failure have to be understood. Condemnation is averted by mercy and forgiveness. But lessons, sometimes painful lessons, have to be learned. As Hebrews 12 puts it in verses 10 and 11:

Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, put painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

So then, as we draw the threads of this Psalm together, where have we got to? The Lord reigns. He governs the nations, he governs his people, he rules in your life and in mine. But how does he rule? He governs with invincible power but thankfully with justice. He rules by his word: he is a God who has spoken. And he reigns over us with mercy in the face of our rebellion, but yet he applies discipline because he wants us to learn and grow and become more like Christ. What an awesome God he is! He governs the nations, and yet at the same time tenderly works on a life development plan for each of us. How are we to respond? That question brings me to my third and final heading: Thirdly, THE REACTION TO GOD'S GOVERNMENT What does the Psalm say about how we are to respond to this majestic God? It is clear enough. Twice we are told how to react, at the end of each half of the Psalm. Verse 5:

Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his footstool; he is holy.

And again in verse 9:

Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy mountain, for the Lord our God is holy.

What does it mean to say that God is holy? God's holiness is really all the characteristics that we have been thinking about rolled into one. If those separate characteristics here are like the colours of the rainbow, then the holiness of God is like the white light that contains them all. When we see what the Lord our God is like, our response should be one of worshipful submission to his rule in our lives. God looks for worshipful submission to his flawless government. The Psalm indicates that there are two aspects of such worshipful submission: we should lift God up; and we should lower ourselves down. In one sense, of course, it is quite impossible for us to do either of those things. It is not as if it is in our power to raise the Lord of Lords any higher than he already is. Nor can we lower ourselves beyond where our sin and insignificance apart from Christ have already taken us. But what we can do is grow in our understanding of how high God is and how low we are in relation to him. And then we can express that deeper understanding with our lips and with our lives. God goes up. That is what exalting means. We go down. That is what worship means here. In this, too, New Testament and Old Testament are at one. In John 3.30 John the Baptist says of Jesus, the ruler of his life: "He must become greater; I must become less." Let that be our reaction to God's government in our lives.