Endow the king with your justice, O God, the royal son with your righteousness. He will judge your people in righteousness, your afflicted ones with justice. The mountains will bring prosperity to the people, the hills the fruit of righteousness. He will defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy; he will crush the oppressor. He will endure as long as the sun, as long as the moon, through all generations. … All kings will bow down to him and all nations will serve him. For he will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help. He will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy from death. He will rescue them from oppression and violence, for precious is their blood in his sight. Psalm 72:1-5,11-14 In this Psalm the writer Solomon is speaking about a future “King” that would come from his ancestral line; a king who would bring wonderful blessings to his loyal subjects. It’s pretty clear when you examine those blessings that Solomon must be talking about someone who is no ordinary monarch. Solomon uses superlatives that can only describe a ruler who is head and shoulders above every other sovereign. In verse 5, he writes that this coming king “will endure as long as the sun, as long as the moon, through all generations.” Only God is eternal. Solomon goes on to say that “all kings will bow down to him and all nations will serve him” (verse 11). No ancient king—not even Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar or Nebuchadnezzar—ever ruled the entire planet or received tribute from every kingdom of the world. But King Jesus has subjects among “every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9) because he died to pay for the sins of every person who has ever or will ever live on earth. That includes you and me. No matter what our ethnicity, what we do or did for a living, whether we’re the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or unemployed, where we were born or where we live now, whether we drive a high-end automobile or a clunker, take public transportation, ride our bike or walk wherever we go, what sins we’ve committed or what good things we’ve left undone, what physical, psychological, spiritual or emotional battles we face, it doesn’t matter to Jesus. He loves us nonetheless. Solomon prophesied about Jesus that he “will defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy; he will crush the oppressor” (verse 4). Even a cursory reading of the Gospels shows how much Jesus stood up for the oppressed and reached out to the marginalized among his own people. He even reached out beyond the borders of Israel to non-Jewish people—Samaritans, for example—to demonstrate that he’d come to be the Savior of all. Again, that includes you and me. Jesus said of himself that “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him” (John 3:17). Jesus accomplished that mission by living a perfectly sinless life in our place. He then offered that holy life up on a cross; he bled and died to take away our sins and to remove our guilt from us. He rose again on Easter morning to assure us that he had won the victory not only over sin, but over “the wages of sin,” which is “death”—eternal death in hell! Instead, “the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Eternal life is a totally free gift from God for every single person whom the Holy Spirit calls to faith in Jesus. A free gift! We don’t have to earn it—we can’t earn it, in fact. We don’t deserve it, but God loves us so much that he willingly gives it to us! Search the Scriptures. Apply God’s promises to your own life and situation. Pray for the Holy Spirit to work through God’s Word to transform you, to strengthen you, to give you faith and courage to move ahead. Prayer: (Christian Worship: A Lutheran Hymnal – 380): Lord, ‘tis not that I did choose you; that, I know, could never be, For this heart would still refuse you had your grace not chosen me. You removed the sin that stained me, cleansing me to be your own; For this purpose you ordained me, that I live for you alone. Amen. This message has been brought to you by Prince of Peace SLC, Palos Evangelical Lutheran Church, the WELS (Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod), and WhatAboutJesus
Posted on: Fri, 30 Aug 2013 15:04:53 +0000
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