Psalms 97 Commentary - The Biblical Illusrator

Verses 1-12

Psalms 97:1-12

The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice.

The reign of God over the world

I. The reign of God over the world (Psalms 97:1).

1. His laws are righteous.

2. His purpose is benevolent.

II. The providential procedure of God in the world.

1. If is inscrutable. “Clouds and darkness.”

2. It is righteous.

3. It is terrible (Psalms 97:3-4).

III. The moral triumphs of God in the world (Psalms 97:6-11).

1. The false are confounded (Psalms 97:7). Idolatry is crushed.

2. The true are blessed (Psalms 97:8). Why glad?

The Lord reigneth

“The Lord reigneth.” Where shall we put the emphasis? Shall we put it here--“The Lord reigneth”? Yes, let the emphasis be first placed upon the lordship of God. Whatever appearances may seem to dictate, and, in spite of all evidence which suggests the sovereignty of the devil, the Lord is upon the throne. Where, again, shall we place the emphasis? Shall we place it here--“The Lord reigneth”? Yes, let us vary the music by changing the emphasis. The Lord reigneth; He does not hold the sceptre loosely, giving part of His sovereignty to another; He never relaxes His hold of dominion, and, amid all the changing seasons, He pursues His sovereign will. Now, what kind of man should this great evangel make of me? What ought to be the tone and disposition of my life? I think the psalmist proceeds to give the answer. “Let the earth rejoice.” The word rejoice is significant of movement, of nimble movement, of dancing, of a certain busy activity of limb. It suggests the busy habits of birds on a bright spring morning. “A bit of sunshine makes all the difference.” And here in my text the sun is up and shining; “the Lord reigneth,” and we His children are to be as busy as His birds on the bright spring day. “Let the multitude of isles be glad.” The soul must not only be vigorous; its vigour must be set to music. And now I am startled by the succession of the psalm. The fact of the sovereignty of God should make me blithe and busy as a bird. But all this seems to be challenged by the words which immediately succeed. Why should the psalmist introduce the ministry of the cloud? He knew that joy that is not touched with reverence is superficial or unreal, Joy is never at its sweetest until it is touched by awe. And, therefore, the suggestion of the mysterious dispensations of God is not intended to smother the song, but rather to deepen and enrich it. Every grace needs the accompaniment of reverence if it is to be perfected. But now, in order that the gathering cloud and darkness may not paralyze men, something is told us as to what dwells in their innermost place. “Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne.” The darkness may throw men into perplexity, and yet the darkness itself is regulated by the Lord of the noonday. In the very midst of the cloud and the darkness there is the throne of righteousness and judgment. Therefore must my reverence be inspired with confidence, and not be stricken with cringing fear. “A fire goeth before Him and burneth up His enemies.” We need the pure flame of His presence; we need the ever-burning atmosphere in which all defilement is consumed. And now the psalmist turns away to retrospect. He has proclaimed the sovereignty of God, and now he turns to the things of yesterday to find the evangel confirmed. “His lightnings lightened the world.” Who does not know the lightning interposition of God? He flashes upon us unexpectedly; the Divine is obtruded when we least expect it. We had almost forgotten the Divine. The nearness and the depression of the cloud had caused us almost to forget Him. Or we were wondering if He would ever return. And suddenly He appeared!” The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord.” The Divine suddenly interposes and the obstacles melt away. Have we not known the experience? The difficulties towered in front of us like gigantic hills, and we saw no way over the tremendous heights. And then suddenly, half-unexpectedly, the hills melted, and the difficulties vanished away. Missionary literature abounds in such experience. Every Christian could produce confirmatory witness. God has suddenly interposed, and the difficulty has withered away, and the “outsiders” have seen the glory of the Lord, and His leadership and righteousness have been declared. It is the lightning interposition which confounds the ungodly. They are turned pale by the passing of the hills, and by the triumph of the meek and lowly in heart. “But Zion heard and was glad.” Now, in the face of this evangel, “The Lord reigneth,” and with this corroboration from the witness of experience, what shall we do? The psalmist supplies the answer. “Ye that love the Lord hate evil.” This is the foundation of everything. And what shall be our reward if we are possessed by this love-hatred, this twin ministry, this mortifying grace? “He preserveth the souls of His saints.” We shall be kept by God, He will erect fences to guard us from peril. “Light is sown for the righteous.” We are not only to be preserved, we are to be illumined. God will give to us the light we need. “And gladness for the upright in heart.” Then my light is not only to be sure, it is to be glad light, sunlight! It is to minister to the warmth of my heart as well as to the illumination of my mind. It is to comfort me as well as lead me. It will be a genial presence as well as a counsellor. (J. H. Jowett, M.A.)

Jehovah is King

I. Earthly dominion is the gift of God. David and Solomon were the ideal kings of the Israelites. They did not only represent the Divine power, but also Divine righteousness. We apply the title of “majesty” to earthly monarchs, though, strictly speaking, it is an attribute which can only he ascribed to God. The grandeur of the going forth of earthly monarchs is but a feeble and material imitation of the going forth of God so eloquently described in this psalm.

II. God rules over all spiritual powers. It was at first the belief of the Hebrews that there were “gods many and lords many.” They would have been no more tempted to worship them, if they had been convinced that they had no real existence, than we should be tempted to worship Juggernaut. The Assyrians thought Asshur the most powerful god, who alone could give victory in battle; hence they worshipped him. Croesus sent to the oracles of all the gods to inquire what he should be doing on a certain day; and he worshipped the god whose oracle declared most accurately the future. Israel worshipped Jehovah, not only because He possessed power and foreknowledge, but most of all for His character. He was exalted above the other gods by His righteousness.

III. The consideration of these facts a cause of joy to the believer. It is the conviction that a wise and loving power is at the back of all we see around us, and working through all history to accomplish gracious purposes, which made Israel the greatest of all the ancient peoples--great, not in having the best soldiers and lawgivers, like the Romans, or the wisest philosophers, like the Greeks, but the noblest, truest, and best men. That faith which made the nation immortal will also make the individual immortal. God is on the side of our holiest aspirations and deepest yearnings, and against that which is base and miserable and sinful. Every desire must be brought into subjection, and God be all in all. (R. C. Ford, M.A.)

The reign of God

I. The subjects of the Divine government. We speak now of God’s moral government only. And beneath it are angels, devils, man, as a race, as nations, as individuals.

II. Certain characters which mark his administration.

1. It is sovereign and uncontrolled.

2. It does not interfere with human liberty.

3. Is in the hands of a Mediator. Jesus governs the world with reference to the interests of His religion.

III. Proofs of the doctrine of the text which late occurrences have furnished.

1. The great evils of bigotry and opposition to the rights of conscience have been permitted to display themselves. Also--

2. Infidelity has shown its full character for the warning and instruction of mankind.

3. See what God has done. He has preserved our country from invasion, punished persecuting and wicked nations: France and Napoleon especially have been overthrown, and God has made us the principal agent in accomplishing this. (R. Watson.)

The Divine government of the universe

I. The fact.

1. The sacred singer here speaks of a God who exercises a personal agency in the universe. The Lord “reigneth.” That implies power. All energy that has play anywhere is in a true sense His. Gravitation, electricity, heat, what are these but names which we have given to the operations of the everywhere-present Deity? Even that force of will, and nerve, and muscle which we and other creatures exert is from Him “in whom we live, and move, and have our being.”

2. This personal agency of God is carried on in a regular and orderly way. The history of the universe is the development of His plan. He sits at the great loom, and, while the shuttles that carry the threads move, so to speak, consciously and of purpose, it is God who weaves the broad result, fabric and design being His. He reigns over beings who have not respect for His will, but are opposed to it, by working out, in His superior wisdom, His plans by means of their very opposition.

II. Its mystery and awfulness (Psalms 97:2). The symbol here expresses three ideas.

1. The majesty of the Divine government. Great clouds and darkness are ever suggestive of the sublime. And God’s is a lofty and glorious rule. When we try, by the aid of astronomy, to realize the extent in space of God’s material universe, and by the aid of geology to conceive of its past duration; when we think of the different generations of the human race which have existed, and of all the higher intelligences; and when we try by imagination to explore the eternal future, with its ever-opening vistas of life and crowding events which are to form history as real as that of the days that are gone by, we feel a necessity of adoration to relieve our hearts of the burden of their awe.

2. The incomprehensibility of the Divine government. God is within the “cloud and darkness.” We do not see Him at all. His rule in every department is to us a thing of faith. Philosophers cannot tell what is the connection between cause and effect in the material world. And how, in the moral world, God works out His purposes by means of the free action of His rational creatures, and makes “His people willing in the day of His power,” while their wills are still theirs, we cannot comprehend. But such are the facts. God does rule in these ways, as the uufoldings of history show.

3. There is the idea of the Divine government being characterized by judgments. Out of the “clouds and darkness” proceed “hailstones and coals of fire.” “A fire goeth before Him, and burneth up His enemies round about.” I, for my part, could not understand God’s dealings with the world if I did not recognize the fact of there being sin in it, which leads to the expression of the Divine displeasure, and also to the use of the means of discipline.

III. Its moral excellence (Psalms 97:2). This “King” can “do no wrong.” It is impossible from His very nature. That nature gloriously necessitates the working of righteousness. To a properly constituted mind there is no sight more sad than that of an unjust judge, an unrighteous government. The world has not been, and unhappily is not now, free from the baleful presence of such miscalled governments. But it is consolation, in view of them, that “justice and judgment are the habitation of God’s throne.” (W. Morrison, D.D.)

How may our belief of God’s governing the world support us in all worldly distractions

I. What is government? It is the exerting or putting forth of that power which any one is justly clothed with, for the ordering and directing of persons and things to their right and proper ends.

1. In all government there is an end fixed and aimed at; which end is either supreme and ultimate, or inferior and subordinate.

2. In all government there is supposed a power sufficient for the ordering of things unto these ends. Not only natural power, but also moral authority, lawfully come by; for, without that, there can be no just, right, and good government.

3. In government this power is reduced into act: there is a prudent, seasonable exerting and putting forth of the power in order to the attaining of these ends.

II. Prove that God governs the world.

1. The light of nature has discovered this. Even some among the heathen call God “the Rector and Keeper of the world,” “the Soul arid Spirit of the world,” and do expressly compare Him to the soul in the body, and to the master in a ship, who doth command, rule, direct, steer, and turn it what way and to what port He Himself thinks good.

2. Scripture is full of testimony to this effect (Job 5:9-13; Isaiah 14:5-7; Psalms 34:16-17; Ephesians 1:11; Daniel 4:34-35; Matthew 10:29; Psalms 103:19).

3. God has a most unquestionable right to order and govern the world.

4. For God to govern the world is no dishonour to Him. Is it possible that His doing so should render Him cheap to the children of men? Nay, is it not enough to commend Him to all wise and thinking persons, that He is so great a God as that He can extend His care to so many millions of objects, and so graciously condescending as to look after the lowest of the works of His hands?

5. God is abundant in mercy and goodness. He built this huge and stately fabric, and He furnished it with all its inhabitants, from the highest and most glorious angel to the meanest and most contemptible insect. And how can we possibly think otherwise, but that the pity and love which He hath for the works of His own hands will draw out His wisdom and power and care for the ruling and directing of them?

III. How our belief of God’s governing the world may support us in all worldly distractions.

1. God is most fit and accomplished for this great work. Men have unruly passions; they interfere in their several interests, and, while they are carrying them on, quarrel and jostle one another: and who but God can order all, and direct them to most noble and excellent ends? Who but God can take these several scattered shreds, and unite them together in one curious and amiable piece of workmanship? Who but God can take these jarring discords, and turn them into an admirable and delightful harmony?

2. Consider the extent of God’s governing providence. It reaches to--

3. The properties of God’s government. He governs the world--

The Divine government

I. Some of the attributes of the Divine dominion.

1. It is a righteous dominion, and it is founded upon unquestionable right. Sovereignty alone, without these virtues, is often the greatest curse. God’s government is regulated by His moral perfections: these blend to form an administration absolutely perfect. Justice regulates it (Psalms 97:2). Holiness (Psalms 145:17). Faithfulness (Psalms 36:5). Mercy (Psalms 145:9).

2. The Divine government is universal. The extent surpasses our conceptions. The earth is but a fraction. Our system is but a speck.

3. The Divine government is directed to the greatest ends. The dominion of such a Being must be adapted to the worthiest purposes.

II. The various responsibilities which devolve upon us in consequence of this character of the Divine government.

1. Joyful praise.

2. Cheerful obedience.

3. Unlimited confidence. Personal, national.

4. Look forward to the day of account. (Evangelical Preacher.)

The Divine government the joy of our world

Men are placed here to be formed by a proper education for another world, for another class, and other employments; but civil rulers cannot form them for these important ends, and therefore they must be under the government of one who has access to their spirits, and can manage them as he pleases. “The Lord reigneth”--

I. Upon a throne of legislation. “Let the earth rejoice”--

1. That God has clearly revealed His will to us, and not left us in inextricable perplexities about our duty to Him and mankind.

2. That God’s laws are suitably enforced with proper sanctions, such as become a God of infinite wisdom, almighty power, inexorable justice, untainted holiness, and unbounded goodness and grace, and such as are agreeable be the nature of reasonable creatures formed for an immortal duration. How happy is it to live under a government where virtue and religion, which in their own nature tend to our happiness, are enforced with such resistless arguments! On the other band, the penalty annexed by the Divine Lawgiver to disobedience is proportionably dreadful.

3. That the Divine laws reach the inner man, and have power upon the hearts and consciences of men.

II. By his providence.

1. Over the kingdoms of the earth.

2. Over the Church.

3. Over all contingencies that can befall individuals.

4. Over evil spirits. He keeps the infernal lions in chains, and restrains their rage. He sees all their subtle plots and machinations against tits feeble sheep, and baffles them all.

III. Upon a throne of grace. This is a kind of government peculiar to the human race; the upright angels do not need it, and the fallen angels are not favoured with it. This is invested in the person of immanuel (Ephesians 1:22; Matthew 11:27; Matthew 28:18). This is the kingdom described in such august language in Daniel 2:44-45; Daniel 7:14; Luke 1:32-33). To His throne of grace He invites all to come, and offers them the richest blessings. From thence He publishes peace on earth, and good will towards men. From thence He offers pardon to all that will submit to His government, and renounce their sins, those weapons of rebellion. From thence He distributes the influences of His Spirit to subdue obstinate hearts into cheerful submission, to support His subjects under every burden, and furnish them with strength for the spiritual warfare.

IV. The Lord will reign ere long upon a throne of universal judgment, conspicuous to the assembled universe.

1. In that day the present unequal distributions of Providence will be for ever adjusted, and regulated according to the strictest justice.

2. In that day the righteous shall be completely delivered from all sin and sorrow, and advanced to the perfection of heavenly happiness. (S. Davies, M.A.)

The Divine government matter o/ universal joy

I. The Divine government.

1. God’s right to govern the world must be original and inalienable.

2. God alone can uphold creatures in being.

3. The government of God is universal.

4. All second causes are under His direction and control.

II. The causes of rejoicing which this affords.

1. The benevolence of its design. When we consider the character of the God of love as opened in His Word, we are sure that His conduct is governed by an ultimate regard to the highest felicity and glory of His moral kingdom; whether He pardon transgressors, or make them feel His wrath in the present world, or exclude them from happiness in the next.

2. The certainty of its accomplishment. It is promoted by all events in providence; and will fill its enemies with confusion, and its friends with joy, in the day when all creatures shall appear at the bar of God, and His righteous judgment shall be revealed before the assembled worlds. (C. Backus, M.A.)

The fact and consequence of the Divine government

I. Visible evils call forth the expression of the psalmist’s faith. Some powerful form of evil had been judged and overthrown.

II. The fact concerning which the psalmist utters his conviction--that God reigns. God is overhead counteracting the shortsighted selfishness of the wicked. In the psalmist’s day, men looked on the idols of the heathen as wicked spirits, less powerful than the righteous Jehovah. We are too advanced to believe in the gods of other people. We can scarce believe in a devil, though that would be less awful than to be in the grasp of nature. It would have been “some comfort could I have fancied myself tormented of the Devil,” said Carlyle once. Those who think the universe a vast machine find it terrible to contemplate a fall amidst its ponderous wheels. Better a devil than a blind force. But Jehovah is a living God, and not hostile to us. Righteousness and judgment are the base of His throne. And He is a God of love.

III. The occasion herein for joy. It was this thought that inspired Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus.” “Hallelujah! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth . . . King of kings, and Lord of lords. Hallelujah!” And it is a glorious conviction to reach. Those who hold it may rejoice in the midst of injustice. Or while patiently doing deeds of unappreciated lovingkindness, they may, like the Saviour, have respect unto the recompense of reward. In the storms of life they may say, as did the happy child to the anxious passengers: “My father is at the helm.” And when Death knocks his dire summons at the door, since God reigns, they may remember that he is but a messenger from the courts of heaven. And when the Lord comes to judgment, and the wicked call upon the rocks and hills to hide them, the saints may shout for joy, since this God is their God for ever and ever. (G. M. Mackie, M. A.)

Jehovah’s sovereignty

I. In the material world. What men call a “law of nature” is nothing else than God in action; it is infinite power carrying out the plans that infinite wisdom has devised. Is God then present as the presiding Deity? He is. The world proclaims it by its infinite variety; by its beauty and harmony of arrangement; by its constancy of succession. “Yes,” you say, “we do not doubt that, but what of these disturbances, these irregularities? Sometimes our fruits are nipped by an early frost; our herds are swept away by disease, our fields wasted by the flood. What of these? Is there a providence in them?” We must remember that the grand centre of the world is man; that all things are made for him. Vegetation blooms for him; minerals are stored in the hills for him; beasts graze in the fields for him, and around him the world revolves. But there is a soul as well as a body, and as the world ministers to the body and is in subjection to it, so in turn the body ministers to the soul and is in subjection to it. Here, then, come in the grander purposes of God. He is preparing a race of intelligent beings for Himself; and so what we call His natural government must be subject to His moral government. Man may transgress the Divine law, but that transgression must be punished; he may mistake, and that mistake, while it brings no guilt, may bring loss. It still may be infinite wisdom that sweeps away the promise of a harvest, for this temporal loss may be the one ingredient needed in order to bring spiritual gain.

II. In the political world. We judge of events from the low standpoint of expediency or of self-interest. When we sum up the results of the war we borrow the language of diplomacy, and tell of an indemnity at so much, and certain boundaries altered. But God cares not for these. They are but as trifles, motes in His vast heavens, so small they do not cast a shadow. We want to get up--up where God is; up where Infinite Wisdom looks down! Then shall we discern the harmony, and learn that in the grand march of nations the music is set to two keys only--God’s promises and God’s purposes!

III. In the individual life. Even those lives that run contrary to His will He checks and controls, and makes them subserve His own purposes; nor is there one life, however dissipated, however wild, but some time or other it gets into one of God’s sluices, and turns one of His thousand wheels. But when the heart is submitted to Him, He does more than control the life, He guides it and shapes it to His will. But how far does this intervention of Providence extend? Does He not leave us to follow our own judgment; and is not that judgment the only cloud we follow? Even granting that it is, still that judgment is influenced by Him, for “The meek will He guide in judgment; the meek will He teach His way.” Many a time when we fancy our decisions are merely the result of the exercise of common sense and ordinary prudence, God has been secretly influencing our minds to the choice. But then many of the actions of life are so insignificant, what can God have to do with them? He has worlds to look after, why should the little motes of my life cause Him any concern? We do wrong in thus thinking, in thus banishing God from what we call life’s trifles. What is our life made of? Of so many days. And what is each day made of? Of so many moments and so many little deeds. But what is a little action? I put a piece of bread in my mouth. A little thing you call that, you do it frequently. But stay. That crumb may choke me, may end my life, and leave all my plans undone. Is it a little thing now? I set my foot down upon the pavement. Ah, that’s a little thing, you do it thousands of times a day. Yes, but I step upon some orange peel and slip. That fall gives me a broken limb, unfits me for some intended pursuit, and completely changes the current of my life. Is it a little thing now? And does not God mark these little events that fill up each day of my life when such vast interests may depend upon them? (H. Burton, B.A.)

The consolation of God’s sovereignty

I. The Kingdom of God on this earth.

1. Necessarily autocratic in its form.

2. Singular in its basis.

3. Universal in its range.

4. Profound in its reach.

5. A present, active, accessible power.

God is with us--not locally and geographically merely, but spiritually, sympathetically, practically, actively with us; controlling, cooperating, counteracting; directing, defeating, determining; making effectual or bringing to nothing the designs of the children of men. And we do well to go to Him, not trembling, as Esther to Ahasuerus, but with holy confidence in all times of personal, family, social, national necessities, to ask for His pity, to pray for His delivering power.

II. The consolation which the fact of God’s sovereignty gives to the good.

1. It is a consolation that the Evil One does not reign: that strong as are the forces of evil in this world, they are not supreme; that greater is He that works for righteousness than all they that work for sin and ruin; that our great adversary has himself an Adversary who is mightier than he; that though we may be in danger of being “led captive at his will,” he is under the control of the Omnipotent.

2. It is a consolation that mere force does not reign. All the forces that are at work are “under law,” and law is under the control of the Divine Law-maker; and He can act upon and control His own laws, touching links out of sight with His skilful hand, changing the aspect and the issue of things at His holy will and in accordance with His far-seeing wisdom, evolving the bright and the blessed out of the dark and the distressing.

3. It is a consolation that man does not reign. There have been times when the destinies of a continent have seemed to be in the hands of a Cyrus, a Caesar, a Napoleon; and now it may seem that very large issues hang on the decision of a few controlling minds in London, St. Petersburg, Berlin. Yet God can and will determine results, and He can overrule all events, either saving from calamity, or compelling disaster itself to yield “peaceable fruits of righteousness.”

4. We may all rejoice that we ourselves do not reign over our own lives. “The Lord reigneth”--the loving Lord, who wills the happiness of His children; the holy Lord, who wills their true and pure well-being; the wise Lord, who will not withhold any good thing, but will withhold that which seems to be so but is not; the mighty Lord, who can compel the saddest and strangest events to contribute to our well-being; the faithful Lord, who will make good the kindest of His promises--“The Lord reigneth,” and not we ourselves; “let us rejoice and be glad.” (W. Clarkson, B.A.)