11/21/07 - Thanksgiving Eve - Psalm 97

THE LORD REIGNS
- Rejoice in his judgments
- Rejoice in his love

Psalm 97 begins, “The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice.” It’s a fitting way to begin a psalm that we are using for the festival of Thanksgiving, isn’t it? Because Thanksgiving is all about being glad, about being thankful, about rejoicing over what the Lord has given us. It’s the time of year when we look back and praise our Savior for everything that he has blessed us with and everything that has made us happy. It’s a joyful time. It’s an uplifting time. And so we would expect to hear words such as these: “The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice.”
But that’s not where the psalm ends. As the psalm continues it begins to talk about things we normally don’t rejoice about, things we normally don’t want to think about during the festival of Thanksgiving. “Clouds and thick darkness surround him… Fire goes before him and consumes his foes on every side… The earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the LORD… All who worship images are put to shame, and those who boast in idols…” We don’t want to talk about those things, do we? We don’t want to think about those things on a night like tonight! Not when we’re looking back on everything the Lord has done for us! Not when we want to concentrate on the blessings and the gifts God has showered on us this past year! Darkness and fire and destruction and shame… let’s just skip over that for tonight and focus in on the first verse: “The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice.” Now those words are more appropriate. Those words belong at Thanksgiving!
Yes, those words do belong at Thanksgiving. We are to rejoice that our Lord reigns. But it is also necessary for us to realize that the rest of those words are just as appropriate for Thanksgiving as the first verse. We are not only to rejoice that the Lord reigns in love, we are to rejoice that the Lord reigns in judgment as well. Listen to verse eight of our psalm, “Zion hears and rejoices and the villages of Judah are glad because of your judgments, O LORD.” Have you ever rejoiced about God’s judgment of unbelievers? Have you ever been glad and expressed your thankfulness in song or in prayer about God’s judgment of his enemies? Why not? Isn’t that exactly what this verse - and this entire psalm - says? Don’t those acts of God display his power and perfection and justice? Aren’t those things something God has done for us?
And this is how the Lord will reign in judgment, “Fire goes before him and consumes his foes on every side.” And who are the Lord’s foes? Not only those who are atheists. Not only those who are blatantly and openly anti-Christian. The Lord’s enemies are all people who teach or believe things that are contrary to the gospel of Christ. Anyone who refuses to believe that Jesus is their Savior 100% is an enemy of God! And the Lord’s fire will consume those enemies!
“Ah, but Lord, do you really have to do that? Do you really have to destroy those people with fire? You mean to tell me that the little old lady down the street is going to be consumed in fire? Yeah, she might not ever go to church, she may not believe in Jesus as her Savior - but she’s so nice! She’s always helping people out and never has a bad thing to say! Or that little 5 year old kid: you’re really going to consume him with fire? Sure, he doesn’t know about his Savior and maybe he’s a little naughty but you can’t blame him! He’s a boy, they’re all like that.” Are these familiar thoughts? We know what the Lord says we just don’t want to believe it. We don’t want to accept the fact that the Lord reigns in judgment.
But maybe you’re OK with the concept. Maybe you know what the Lord says and you have come to grips with the fact that he will reign over unbelievers in judgment. But you’re certainly not going to rejoice about that! You are certainly not going to thank the Lord for consuming his foes with fire! Why would you do that? Why would you be happy about those things? Especially during Thanksgiving! That is not something to thank the Lord for! But why not? If the Lord is bent on destroying his foes, we should be glad. Because that means he is destroying our foes. If the Lord will reign in judgment over his enemies, we should rejoice. Because that means he wins!
Back during the Civil War, when one side had a decisive and certain victory on th battle field, do you think there was rejoicing? Of course there was! They rejoiced because they were still alive! It was a matter of life and death. Even though they were fighting against their own countrymen. Even though they were often fighting against their own families. They rejoiced that the victory for that battle was theirs and they could live another day. How much more does this apply to the spiritual battle we wage every day? If the Lord reigns supreme, he must destroy all of his enemies and ours. He has to judge sin, he has to judge death, he has to judge all unbelievers on the Last Day. And we should rejoice in that fact! Because he is our Lord, after all! He is our Savior! Anyone who is not for him is against him and we could not want anyone to be victorious except our King!
Rejoice that the Lord reigns in judgment! And rejoice that the Lord reigns in love. Because if the Lord only reigned in judgment, we, too, would be judged for our sins. We know how much we have sinned. We know how often we have questioned God’s judgment and have not wanted to believe what he clearly says about his enemies. We know how often we have neglected thanking him for saving us from our enemies and reigning supreme because we didn’t think he should be doing those things! How blind we are sometimes! How deserving of judgment! And so it would be a dreadful life living under a God who only reigned in judgment. Rejoice that the Lord also reigns in love! He does not immediately send us to hell for breaking his law. He does not instantly condemn us when we fall away from his truth. He does not judge us the moment we think or say or do something contrary to his will. Rather, he reigns over us in love. And the most important way he reigns in love is by giving us free and full forgiveness.
Every year at Thanksgiving, as we look back at everything God has given us, one of the blessings we thank the Lord for is sending his Son to die on the cross for our sins. As well we should. And, of course, we make forgiveness the focus of every service and every sermon. But that forgiveness is not going to mean a thing unless we understand that we desperately need that forgiveness, unless we understand that the cross was the only way God’s reign of judgment on us could be changed into God’s reign of love. That’s why the last verse of our psalm tonight says, “Rejoice in the LORD, you who are righteous, and praise his holy name.” We can rejoice in the Lord because we are righteous. God has given us Christ’s righteousness - which is Christ’s perfection. Scripture says that we are clothed with the robe of Christ’s righteousness - so that when we stand before the judge he no longer sees our sins, rather he sees Christ’s love and righteousness upon us. That is why Christians are called righteous - it is the forgiveness we’ve been given. That is why we rejoice. That is the only reason we can rejoice.
Now that’s more like it! That’s more of the Thanksgiving language that you’re used to, isn’t it? We rejoice because of the Lord’s love. And yes, that includes the food and the family and the health and the protection and the life that the Lord has blessed you with throughout this past year. It includes everything that you normally think of during a festival of Thanksgiving. But that’s not the real reason we rejoice. Because even if we didn’t receive any one of those things this past year, we could still rejoice with just as much enthusiasm. We could still rejoice because “light is shed upon the righteous and joy on the upright in heart.” The light of the gospel. The joy of forgiveness is poured out on us. These are the blessings of our Lord. These are the blessing that really matter. These are the blessings that will never be taken away. Thank the Lord that he made our forgiveness possible. Thank the Lord for his judgment on those who reject that and even try to take that blessing away from. And thank the Lord for his love through which he offers this blessing to all people of the earth of all times on every distant shore. “The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice.”
Amen.

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.” - Rev. 11:15