Psalm 93
The Sovereign Lord
This is a song of praise and celebration. “The LORD reigns” is the bedrock of our confidence, future, faith and worship. This Psalm invites us to revel in this declaration and delight in the God whose power and majesty and unmatched and matchless.
For when we face the storms of life, we know the one whose word has the authority to silence them in an instance.
1 The LORD reigns, he is robed in majesty;
the LORD is robed in majesty and armed with strength;
indeed, the world is established, firm and secure.
2 Your throne was established long ago;
you are from all eternity.3 The seas have lifted up, LORD,
the seas have lifted up their voice;
the seas have lifted up their pounding waves.
4 Mightier than the thunder of the great waters,
mightier than the breakers of the sea –
the LORD on high is mighty.5 Your statutes, LORD, stand firm;
holiness adorns your house
for endless days.
King Charles II is the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. Yet within the governmental structures, sovereign is a mere title, as the authority truly lies with Parliament.
The LORD God is sovereign. This refers not to a title but to the truth that is at the foundation of all reality. God has full and total authority, without exception, over everything. He rules and reigns over the entirety of the cosmos.
He is sovereign. This sums up the message of this Psalm and these opening verses in particular (1-2).
That the world will still spin tomorrow, that the sun will rise, that the process of photosynthesis will continue, that the tide will come in and go out, all this is because the LORD sovereignly sustains the whole of creation. The LORD is robed in majesty. That is, we see the power and might of God in the movement of the stars and the growth of trees. Not that he is in them but that he is the principle by which the creation principally lives and moves and has its being (see Acts 17.28).
His sovereignty is not just a temporary situation. His throne was not created recently. Julius Caesar and Josef Stalin both ruled their nations with a suffocating totality that we struggle to comprehend but they both had an expiration date. Just like every other ruler in history. Except God. He rules over all history. He ruled before history. From everlasting into all eternity. He reigns.
God’s rule is not suffocating though but freeing. This is what we are reminded of and celebrate in the middle of the Psalm (3-4). For the LORD is the one who protects us and delivers us from the dangers in this world.
To be caught in the sea when in a storm is a terribly perilous place to find yourself. We are at the mercy of the powerful swell of the waves and they are merciless. In the Prophets, the seas are sometimes used to describe mighty nations (see Isaiah 8.7 & Jeremiah 46.7-8). Both the untamed creation and the untamed kingdoms are in sight in this Psalm, particularly the danger they pose to God’s people.
Yet this is not a Psalm of fear but of joyful celebration. For we know the one who is sovereign over nature and nations.
The LORD is “mightier”. Much more powerful is God. His word brought order to creation (see Genesis 1). The word of the Lord Jesus silenced the tumult of the storm (see Mark 4.35-41). The word of the Spirit confirms in our hearts that we are children of the living God (Galatians 4.4-7). The word of the gospel is the power over death for all who believe in the Son (Romans 1.16-17).
The word of the LORD sustains the universe. The word of the LORD governs nature and nations. And in this final verse (5), we remember that the word of the LORD is to guide our lives. It leads us into holiness, for without holiness we will not see the Lord (Hebrews 12.14). Holiness is only found in obeying God’s word, which is trustworthy. And holiness is the marker of the house of the Lord, where we are being drawn into.
Glory be to God the Father, who is sovereign without equal.
Glory be to God the Son, the Lord who is robed in both majesty and meekness.
Glory be to God the Spirit, who is holy leads us into the house of the Lord.
Ever three and ever One.
Home Group: Isaiah 53.7-9
What does the servant’s silence before the unrighteous tell us about him? How does his suffering shape the way we live with injustice (1 Peter 2.21-23)?
How did people respond to the injustice of Jesus’s trial? Why did he suffer in this way? What does this mean for followers of Jesus (Hebrews 13.11-13)?
The servant was buried with the rich. Was this a good or bad sign? Why is it so important to the gospel that Jesus was innocent? Is his death the end of the story for us?