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Bible preaching from the pulpit of Choice Hills Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina
Alright, let's go to Psalm 47. Psalm 47.
I just want to look, basically,
take a kind of a devotional view of Psalm 47 tonight.
I'll kind of give you some background of the Psalm.
It's a very brief Psalm, only nine verses, but we'll just look at basically
one thing that's kind of a running theme throughout the Psalm and use it kind of
as a devotion
this evening. Psalm 47, the subtitle begins,
The chief musician, a Psalm for the sons of Korah.
O clap your hands, O all ye people, and shout unto God
with the voice of triumph. For the Lord
most high is terrible. He is a great king
over all the earth. He shall subdue the people under us
and the nations under our feet. He shall choose
our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved,
say la. God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
Sing praises to God, sing praises, sing praises unto our King, sing
praises. For God is the King of all the earth.
Sing ye praises with understanding. God reigneth
over the heathen. God sitteth upon the throne
of his holiness. The princes of the people are gathered together,
even the people of the God of Abraham, for the shields
of the earth belong unto God. He is
greatly exalted. Would you pray with me tonight?
Our Father, we thank you for your word
and the truths that your word constantly reminds us of.
Lord, indeed we grow by the sustenance that your word gives us.
Lord, I pray that you would bless our time in your word and
you would help our hearts to be receptive and willing
to hear and to see what your word says.
Lord, help me to say what your people need tonight. Lord, we trust you.
We look to you. Our eyes are upon thee.
In Jesus' name, amen.
So you have this you have this song, just so you know, verse number two,
for the Lord most high is terrible. That sounds sounds terrible, doesn't it?
The idea being the Lord strikes terror.
He produces, incites terror in us.
That's what the word terrible means.
The thing I want to point out to you is I want you to see this
this frequent mention. There's three times, maybe four,
depending on how you count, of the mention of God as a king.
Did you notice that? In verse number two, for the Lord most high is terrible,
he is a great king over all the earth.
In verse number six, sing praises unto
sing praises to God, sing praises, sing praises unto
our king, sing praises. For God is the king
of all the earth. Sing he praises with understanding. And then the fourth
partial mention is God reigneth
over the heathen, implying a kingdom,
implying that God is a king. Now when you read this, you know,
there's actually at least two different ways that you can
view this psalm, that you can read it. Okay? The first way
is just to look at the psalm in its context,
written, you know, about a thousand years before Christ. So right around maybe the
time of David, David's name is not on the psalm, but
if we assume that it's written around the time of David, you're talking about a
thousand years before Christ
about. Now at that, let me ask you a question, I want you just to think
think this through with me. At that time,
there was basically
one nation that recognized and acknowledged God as their king.
Right? There was just one nation, and that was the nation of Israel.
Now, obviously Israel was not the only nation on earth, so
on earth there were many, probably thousands of nations at that time
in various parts of the world then that
that had their own gods and their own religion and their own faith and their
own all of that
that did not, some of them probably didn't even know about
God, at least as he's revealed in scripture, but
they definitely did not recognize or acknowledge God as king.
Everybody understand what I'm saying? So the question I have for you is
how then can the psalmist say in verse number three,
or verse number two, he is a great king over all the earth?
Or in verse number seven,
for God is the king of all the earth.
Because in the time in which this was written, there were many many places in
the earth that did not acknowledge God as the king. So
here's what I want you to, this is the first way to look at it. This psalm
has a prophetic element to it. Right? It has a prophetic element to it.
Like many of the psalms, like Psalm 22, Psalm 23,
Psalm 24, definitely all have a prophetic element. In other words,
there's a way that you can look at it in its time,
thousand years BC, right? And then there's also, it speaks to that time, but it also
has a broader meaning that speaks to a time
in the future. Because when you take this psalm
not devotionally like we're gonna do tonight, but when you take it literally,
and I think there's grounds to do that, when you take it literally,
there will actually be a time in which the Lord rules and reigns
over the heathen. Not only that he rules and reigns over them, but they
acknowledge
and submit themselves to his rule. The scriptures are replete with
different verses and passages that deal with that. That God is not
just
going to be the God of a small group of people like he is now,
where we acknowledge him and worship him. Or in the Old Testament, like Israel
acknowledged him
and worshiped him, but no, he will rule over everyone.
He will rule over everyone. Now that's one way to look at it,
right? That's one way to look at it. So there's a prophetic view. In other
words, it's pointing to something future,
a greater, broader fulfillment. But there's another way to look at it, and this is
where the theology kind of,
your theology really matters. Because
of course we hold a pre-millennial position. That means we take the
scriptures literally
in almost every case. And that means, and
I say that not to say, well we hold the pre-millennial position and
so because we hold the position it's right. No, no. The pre-millennial position is
the position
that seeks to, where possible, interpret scriptures literally in their
grammatical and historical understanding. In their basic
understanding. So that's the reason why we read this psalm in other places
like it. We take it at face value.
We don't spiritualize it automatically. But you can do that. You can
read this in a way and draw from it principles, which we're going to
do tonight.
But these principles,
the fact of this psalm tells us that even though this was not
literally fulfilled at this time, yet there will be a time when it will be
fulfilled.
Where Christ will literally reign over this world.
And I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to that day.
I'm looking forward to that day. But sometimes people that
that tend not to take the scriptures literally
come to a psalm like this and find trouble.
Because it says, God reigneth over the heathen, and there's a seeming
contradiction.
Because when you read it you know he doesn't.
So what kind of the default reaction to that is to
spiritualize it.
And to say, well this is God's spiritual reign over the world.
This is God's spiritual reign over the world. Now the truth is there are verses in scripture where
you can see that.
Where the Bible does say that indeed.
That God rules and God reigns. I mean just because
people do not acknowledge God, that doesn't mean he doesn't reign.
It doesn't mean somehow that
because I thumb my nose at God and ignore him that somehow he doesn't rule.
No, he rules.
But when we talk about God is king, the fullest expression of that is not only
that he holds the position but that we acknowledge that.
Right? That's where they go together. And one day again that will be
fulfilled. That will come to fruition. But without a question, God is king now.
God is king. There's never been a time that he's not been that. He's
king by virtue of
his reign, by virtue of his creation. And he does rule.
He does rule from heaven over the sons of men.
Whether people acknowledge it or don't acknowledge it.
He does his will whether people like it
or don't like it. Right? He is a sovereign.
That's what actually, you know, with all the talk about that word, that's actually
what the word means. He is supreme over all.
No one challenges him. So someone says, well God is not going to tell me what to do.
That doesn't affect him.
That doesn't like make him fret
over, you know, the person that won't listen to him.
No, God is king. That's what I want to look at
tonight with you. What I want you to see is in verse number one
as well as in verse number six.
Oh clap your hands, all ye people, shout unto God with the voice of triumph.
That's an expression of joy. Shout.
Now there aren't many times, listen, I'm just, I'm not wired this way, but there aren't many times
that I literally and verbally shout for joy.
And that's probably true of a lot of you. Probably more true of the men than the women.
The women seem to be more prone to shouting for joy whenever
sometimes it just kind of blurts out and you can't really help it.
And that's good. That's good. We need that. But with men it's
probably less so kind of toned down with the emotion. But this psalmist
is shouting for joy. Why is he so happy?
Why is he rejoicing? Verse two, here's the reason.
For the Lord most high is terrible.
He is a great king over all the earth. Look at verse number six.
Again, rejoicing. Sing praises to God. Sing praises.
Sing praises unto our God. Sing praises.
For God is the king of all the earth.
Sing he praises with understanding. So what is the, why are we singing praises?
Why is there joy? The expression of praise. Why?
Why is that? It's because God is the king. He rules.
So here's what I want you to see. And this is the
core of what I'll say tonight. The psalmist is rejoicing over the fact that God
reigns over him.
He is gladdened
by the fact that he has a king
who reigns over him. I want to tell you something. That is not natural.
That is not natural for humanity.
Think about it. It is not natural for human beings to rejoice
that they are ruled and reigned over
by another. And yet the psalmist is jubilant.
He's happy. And I'll say in our time,
in our day, 3,000 years later, one of the primary influences and
tokens of the grace of God in us
is that we joyfully acknowledge
God as the ruler of us. But it's not a grief.
It's a joy. But that is not natural.
That's the effect of God's goodness and God's grace and work in our lives.
It's not there by default. We came out of the womb
not wanting anyone to rule us, not our parents.
Say amen right there for little Thomas. Can't believe I botched his name on Sunday.
I just had a blank out.
Hope I redeem myself tonight, brother.
But kids come out of the womb. They don't want parents to tell them what to do.
And that remains in adolescence. It remains even as adults.
It looks a little bit different, but it's a basic
element of our sinful nature that we do not want to be ruled by another.
We do not want another to have dominion over us. Mankind wants self dominion.
He does not want anyone to rule over him whatsoever.
And this is one of the roots of problems in the political world.
It's one of the roots of the problem as you see wicked and sinful ambition
in the political world.
A lot of that is mankind grasping for the next rung,
trying to get, because you can't live knowing there's someone more powerful than you.
There's someone that has greater authority than you.
A lot of that sinful ambition comes out of this very thing, this part of human nature.
A lot of problems in a marriage come out of this very thing,
whether it be the husband toward the Lord and not willing to be ruled,
whether it be the wife toward the husband unwilling to yield and submit to God's order in the home,
or whether it be the children to the parents.
It goes on. It manifests itself in so many ways.
Nobody wants someone else over them telling them what to do.
That is not original with us.
That's one of those wicked sins of Satan that has passed from him to us.
Let me show you. Isaiah 14, if you'll look at it with me,
we'll come back to Psalm 47 in a minute.
Isaiah 14.
Isaiah 14, verse number 12.
Isaiah 14, verse number 12 says this, of course, is the famous passage,
one of these dual meanings, right?
It's not only talking about Lucifer, the devil, but it's also in the context of Babylon as well.
So anyway, verse number 12,
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning?
How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations?
Now notice Lucifer's heart, his original sin.
He says, I will exalt, for thou hast said in thine heart, verse 13,
I will ascend into heaven, no one will be higher than me.
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, the other angels, no one will be higher than me.
I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north.
Now if you're there, go back to Psalm, I hope you have your fingers still on Psalm 47,
look at Psalm 47, and hold your place because we're coming back to Isaiah,
but I want to show you one thing.
It's just kind of a coincidence.
Look at Psalm 48.
The devil says in Isaiah 14, he says,
I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north.
Psalm 48 says in verse number two, beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion
on the sides of the north, the city of the great king.
So in Isaiah, the sides of the north is a reference to where God dwells.
In other words, the devil is saying, I want to be up there, right?
Verse 14, back in Isaiah 14, Isaiah 14, 14, I will, he continues,
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.
I will be like the most high.
You know what that means?
I want to be equal.
That's what he's saying.
I want to be equal.
But do you know what it means to be equal with God?
It means that he does not rule you.
He does not rule you.
So in the heart of Satan,
in that moment when he rebelled against God, what was his rebellion?
What did it look like?
It is that core rebellion we see in ourselves as well.
I don't want anybody to reign over me.
I will make my own decisions.
I will determine what I do.
No one is going to tell me what to do.
That was the core of it.
Not only that, if you will go to the New Testament now and go to 2 Peter,
as well as the book of Jude, 2 Peter,
right next door is the book of Jude, or a couple doors down anyway,
2 Peter chapter number 2.
This is a reference to, in particular, false prophets, false teachers,
but specifically to the ungodly.
2 Peter 2 verse 10,
Notice this.
Now this is a description of the ungodly.
You might call them the children of the devil.
Whatever you want to call them, these people have definitely been influenced by Satan.
And then what characteristics do they exhibit?
Verse 10,
Now this is not talking about the Constitution.
No.
This is a governing ruler.
That's what we're talking about here.
Any government, anything that restrains or dictates or determines,
that's what a government is supposed to do, I suppose.
That's what it's talking about here.
These people despise government.
Notice what it says.
Presumptuous are they, self-willed.
They are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.
Authority.
Look at Jude if you would, verse 8.
Jude verse 8 says this.
Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh.
Notice, despise dominion and speak evil of dignities.
They do not have a good relationship with authority.
You see this?
Just like the devil did not have a good relationship with authority.
And really this can be extended to mankind, and I'll show you that as well.
This is a characteristic of those under the devil's influence that they do not want anyone reigning over them.
The word self-will indicates that.
They want to only do what their will dictates, not what any authority over them might dictate,
no matter what that authority is.
Now look at Luke chapter 19.
Luke chapter 19.
Luke chapter 19.
This is a parable of the Lord Jesus, the parable of the ten servants.
Verse 13, just to pick up the context, Luke 19 verse 12.
Certain noblemen went to a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return.
And he called his ten servants and delivered them ten pounds and said unto them,
Occupy till I come.
In other words, get to work.
But his citizens hated him.
Notice that.
His citizens hated him and sent a message after him saying,
We will not have this man, but we will not have this woman.
And he said unto them,
Notice that.
His citizens hated him and sent a message after him saying,
We will not have this man to reign over us.
Now if you follow this parable, here's what this parable is.
It's picturing in parable form.
It's picturing the Lord Jesus.
Notice in verse 12, the nobleman goes into a far country.
He departs.
And then he's planning to return.
That's Jesus leaving this world, ascending back to heaven until such time as he returns.
And when he's going away, he's going to receive a kingdom.
Right?
And so when Jesus comes, he's coming to do some business.
But in the meantime, while he's away, that's where we are,
he's telling us, because of course Christ is not here,
and we're his servants, so he's giving us jobs to do.
He's saying, Occupy till I come.
Get in occupation.
Work for me.
Serve me while I'm gone.
Because when I come back, you're going to give an account.
That's the whole picture here.
I'm sure you're familiar with this.
But in verse 14, he mentions the citizens.
But notice the citizens are not the servants.
The citizens are not people who believe in Christ.
The citizens are not content with the Lord's rule and reign when he returns.
In fact, notice the citizens, verse 14,
But his citizens hated him and sent a message after him.
So right now, at verse 14, this nobleman is in a far country.
He's not present.
And they're sending a letter after him.
They're chasing him down.
That just strikes me supremely stupid.
They're sending a letter after the nobleman.
This is exactly what people are doing now.
Jesus is not even here.
And they're saying, We don't want him.
He's not even here.
We don't want him.
Now, but what is the key of their rebellion?
What is the essence of their rebellion?
It's in the last part of verse 14.
And this is the voice of mankind.
We will not have this man to reign over us.
Remember, this is a parable.
So the Lord is speaking broadly and generally.
He's covering millennia in this parable.
And how does he summarize mankind's response to him in his absence?
Mankind's response to the gospel?
We don't want anybody reigning over us.
We will be our own king, thank you.
We don't want anybody to tell us what to do.
You know what that is?
That's really the core of sin.
That's really what it's all about.
This is why a person responds so negatively.
When you show them God's law and you help them see that they're a sinner.
Why? Why do they respond so negatively?
It's because they don't want anybody to tell them that they should be shacking up,
or getting hammered at the bar,
or worshiping a false god,
or dishonoring their parents,
or using foul language,
or whatever it might be.
They don't want anybody telling them no.
This is satanic.
This is in the heart of man.
This is how the Lord Jesus summarizes mankind.
Now we could go also to Psalm 2,
Psalm 2 verse 3,
Let us break their bands asunder,
and cast away their cords from us.
The point I'm trying to make is this.
That is deeply ingrained in the heart of man.
So when you see, back in Psalm 47,
when you see the psalmist jubilant,
that God is reigning over him,
Yes Lord!
You are king and I am so glad!
That's not normal.
You know some people,
Liberty and David,
and those of you that are in the political sphere,
often are maligned,
and it's so funny if you think about it,
they'll say things like,
you people just want a theocracy!
You've probably heard that, right?
And we're like,
well yeah!
Now we know, because of our theology,
we know that's not going to be a complot.
We're not bringing the kingdom in.
The Lord Jesus will bring the kingdom in without our help.
He will, and when he does,
he'll rule in reign with a rod of iron.
So we don't have to bring in the kingdom,
we don't think that's how it's going to play out at all.
We don't think the scriptures teach that.
However, we are looking forward to a theocracy.
I for one am looking forward to the day
when Christ reigns on the earth,
and his law is the law.
I am looking forward to that.
You know why?
Because that's the way I want to live now.
Even though the land in which we live is not that,
as a believer, I want to live that now.
Because right now I'm in the kingdom of God now.
Now his kingdom hasn't been manifested physically yet,
it will be, but I'm in it already.
He is the king, right?
He's the king.
And I'm glad.
I want him to reign over me.
Now the flesh doesn't always like it every time,
but I want the Lord to reign over me.
How about you?
Do you want the Lord to reign over you?
You know, it's funny, those people that malign us,
oh, you're just a Christian nationalist,
you just want a theocracy.
It's funny because by them saying that,
although there is an element of truth in it,
they got the means all wrong,
but there is an element of truth in there,
but what they're revealing is how revolting that idea is to them.
How revolting it is.
And grating on them to think that God's law would be the law.
Are they not revealing that?
They are.
They are.
It's a Freudian slip.
They're revealing something about their nature,
which is what we see in Scripture.
They don't want to live in a nation where it's against the law to commit adultery,
it's against the law to do this or to do that.
They don't want to live in a nation like that.
They don't.
And they reveal that.
But we do look forward to a day when Christ reigns,
because right now He reigns.
Over us He reigns.
And we like the psalmist because of the effect of God's grace in us
transforming our heart from an old wicked rebellious heart
to a heart of flesh that has the law of God inside of it.
We want the Lord to reign over us.
Lord, tell me what to do, because if you don't,
I am liable to do my own will, and that never is good.
Last thing I'll just remind you of in this context of this psalm is David.
We don't know that this psalm was written by David, for certain,
but you think of David.
What was David?
David is the greatest king to this point of Israel.
Well, I guess Christ counts because he's already come into the world and was rejected.
Anyway, David was the greatest king of ancient Israel, right?
I mean, he's highly regarded to this day among the Jewish people.
David rose in rank and power above everyone around him, even by his neighbors.
David was like a regional leader, like very well known.
But see, David, what you don't see in David when you read the psalms,
you don't see this clawing for the next rung of the ladder.
You don't see that.
Even when God had anointed him to be the king in place of Saul, right?
It was years before he actually became king, when Saul was still the king.
You don't see him grasping for power.
You never see that.
Even when he became king, David had faults, David had failures, David messed up,
David sinned and brought shame upon himself and upon his family, upon the kingdom.
Yes, but what you don't see is you never see an inkling that David is discontent
with the fact that God reigns over him.
You don't see that.
And you know what?
That's the safeguard.
Even though David was highly exalted, like Satan, Lucifer,
the difference was that David remained content for God to reign over him.
And that's what protected him.
He remained under God's reign.
And the problem is when a person is no longer content with God reigning over him,
that his exaltation will bring him low, because God will cast him down.
This is why I look at a couple of examples and we'll be finished.
Psalm 5 and Psalm 68.
Look at both of those if you would.
Psalm 5, Psalm 5 verse 2.
Now if you look at the heading, the subtitle, it says the Psalm of David.
So this is David writing here.
Psalm 5 verse 2 says this,
You see that?
What does he call God?
The King calls God his King, personalized.
Look at Psalm 68.
You'll see it again.
Psalm 68 verse 24.
Again, the subtitle identifies this Psalm as the Psalm of David.
Verse 24 says,
They have seen thy goings, O God, even the goings of my God, my King in the sanctuary.
It is for this reason that King David was so highly exalted yet remained righteous.
See, his exaltation was so high that he was not able to stand up.
He remained righteous.
See, his exaltation and his honor did not corrupt him.
You know why?
Because he kept the Lord in his place and recognized that even in his exalted place,
God was still his King.
He wanted God to reign over him.
And that protected him.
That kept him even in an exalted place.
And it doesn't matter what kind of spiritual leadership you might be in.
You might be a husband.
I want to tell you something.
Sometimes with husbands, especially in churches that still teach the biblical order of the family,
sometimes that goes straight to their head.
Sometimes they just thump chests and mistreat their wives as a result of that.
You know why?
You've forgotten that God is your King.
That's why you don't do it.
Because you know God is your King.
And the same is true at every level.
Whether it's you're a boss at work or whether it's you're a parent of children,
a spiritual leader in the church, whatever the case might be, you remember God is my King.
Are you glad that the Lord rules over you?
Maybe another question I should ask is, does he rule over you?
Now we know he does.
But do you acknowledge that in practice?
Look, it's joy.
It is joy for the Lord to reign over us.
I wouldn't have it any other way.
Wouldn't have it any other way.
Let's pray.