Psalm 93 testifies to God’s reign over us, and over all.
The psalmist reminds us that God reigns. The psalmists seem to have a frequent need to remind themselves of God’s authority. Why? Because we have a habit of divesting him of control! Why? Because we want it! It turns out that it can never be ours, because it doesn’t belong to us, but to Him.
I recently read one of those pithy, well-meaning little sayings that end up being posted on someone’s Facebook page that contained the phrase: “Love without depending”. As in, actively love without depending on a response to that love.
My first reaction was ‘that’s back to front rubbish!’. Perhaps it makes sense in human relationships – that we should give without expectation of receiving – but in a greater context, it falls over. God is the author of love. He is Love with a capital ‘L’. You can depend with unwavering certainty that the One who keeps his promises, will keep His promises. You can depend that love flows from Him, unendingly. Expressed in Jesus, declared in Jesus, constant in Jesus.
This is the declaration of Psalm 93.
Despite and in the face of the flood, of the thunder, and of the roaring waves, He is greater. His throne is stable, established, unshakeable and unmovable. I may not be, but He is.
In the midst of a world that cherishes the changeability of things, the fluidity of truth, the dynamism of knowledge, one thing remains steadfast: that which God has established. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. His reign and rule has been established in the Father. Every knee will bow down before Him and what He has planted will remain because it is founded in Him.
Psalm 93 wreaks of hope and certainty. Amidst my uncertainty, he is sure. He knows.
Yet the Psalmist isn’t quite done there because, in Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we get a look in to this surety. I ended up reading verse 5 in a host of translations to make sure I wasn’t gleaning something from it that wasn’t there to be harvested, yet it seems ripe for the picking!
“Holiness befits your house” says one translation. ”Beauty” and “Holy” mark your palace rule, says another.
Which house? Which temple? Here’s what I know: In the light of Jesus, “We are the temple of His Holy Spirit, who is in us, who we received from God” (1 Corinthians 6:19). Clay pots for sure, easily broken, perhaps, but a frail temple to contain the glory of God and to make know that glory through the earth.
What befits our temple? Holiness. Purity. Beauty. We shouldn’t feel indicted by this, but liberated. God has set us free that we can humbly testify to his glory and holiness testifies most decisively of His redemption of us, through Jesus.
The God of the writer of Psalm 93 is mine too. He is trustworthy to complete the work He’s started in us and carry it on to completion at the day Jesus returns.
I don’t cling to that confidence because of me, I depend on it because of Him. He who is mightier than the thunders of many waters.
– Simon Elliott