The Lord Reigns - Psalms 97-99 and Romans 16
There is no doubt that the Almighty God reigns over all of His creation, and no one can defeat Him in doing His will. However, God has chosen to allow the angels and the people He created to have a choice in whether to submit to His reign or not. Lucifer, the archangel, was the first to rebel against His rule, and a huge number of angels followed him. They began a spiritual warfare against God to try to unseat God as Lord of the universe. They came to earth and succeeded in getting Adam and Eve to rebel against God, too. Then, this rebellious, sinful nature was passed on to all human beings, so that everyone sinned against God's rule. Therefore, Jesus had to come as the God-Man to defeat Satan once and for all through the Cross and the Resurrection. However, God did not end the spiritual warfare at that point, because He continued to give people the choice of submitting to His rule or not, and He allowed Satan to continue his war for a while until Jesus returns. This explains the situation in which we find ourselves today. The Lord reigns, but He may not reign in your life or in the lives of those around you. The forces of God and the forces of Satan are fighting over each soul. We as believers can enter this conflict by using God's armor and God's weapons against Satan and His forces. God has created these weapons, so that we can defeat Satan's attempts to lead us away from His rule, and so that we can influence others to submit to the reign of God.
The psalmists may not have understood all of the spiritual warfare, but they knew that God reigned. They knew that was cause for celebration in worship. They knew that they needed to submit to God. They knew that this should cause the whole world to tremble at His power and His judgment. In fact, one day He would come to judge the earth, because He is the owner and creator of it all. He has the power to forgive or to punish. The Lord reigns! However, all around them, they saw people worshiping idols and not following God. They were using God's truth to try to turn their hearts to the Lord. These psalms are God's weapons to fight against Satan. They are the sword of the Spirit. When they were sung, Satan trembled, because he knew they were true, and he would never defeat God.
Romans 16 ends the book with a list of believers. These were people who had submitted to God's rule for their lives, and they were working in the power of the Lord to extend His rule to all parts of the earth. Paul exhorts them to work together to do God's will and to watch out for those who caused divisions. Satan loves to cause divisions in God's people. That is one way he turns people against God. If we all submitted to God, there would be no divisions. There would be some differences, but not divisions. We would all be doing God's will together. Paul promised them that God would soon crush Satan under His feet shortly. He knew Satan was still actively fighting against God until the return of Christ. Paul was so longing for that day, when the war will be over and Christ will reign on the earth in peace. We should all long for that day, and we should do whatever we can to oppose Satan and his forces by extending the rule of God over this world.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Psalms 100-102 and I Corinthians 1.
The psalmists may not have understood all of the spiritual warfare, but they knew that God reigned. They knew that was cause for celebration in worship. They knew that they needed to submit to God. They knew that this should cause the whole world to tremble at His power and His judgment. In fact, one day He would come to judge the earth, because He is the owner and creator of it all. He has the power to forgive or to punish. The Lord reigns! However, all around them, they saw people worshiping idols and not following God. They were using God's truth to try to turn their hearts to the Lord. These psalms are God's weapons to fight against Satan. They are the sword of the Spirit. When they were sung, Satan trembled, because he knew they were true, and he would never defeat God.
Romans 16 ends the book with a list of believers. These were people who had submitted to God's rule for their lives, and they were working in the power of the Lord to extend His rule to all parts of the earth. Paul exhorts them to work together to do God's will and to watch out for those who caused divisions. Satan loves to cause divisions in God's people. That is one way he turns people against God. If we all submitted to God, there would be no divisions. There would be some differences, but not divisions. We would all be doing God's will together. Paul promised them that God would soon crush Satan under His feet shortly. He knew Satan was still actively fighting against God until the return of Christ. Paul was so longing for that day, when the war will be over and Christ will reign on the earth in peace. We should all long for that day, and we should do whatever we can to oppose Satan and his forces by extending the rule of God over this world.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Psalms 100-102 and I Corinthians 1.