Hands Down, Lord of the Rings is my favorite movie series of all time. It has great battle scenes, ugly monsters, and plenty of "kings and knights" nonsense to go along with it. Anyway, the story takes place in a land called Middle Earth which is divided up among different kingdoms - some hobbits, dwarfs, elves - all of which look to the race of men to wage war against the evil lord Sauron and his little orc minions. All of that really doesn't matter - what does matter is that the movie is filled with an enormous amount of kings, all of which are partly responsible for the downfall of man-kind. Basically, all of the kings are either corrupt, possessed, or self-centered jerks that don't care about the end of the world. It's quite a sad picture that the author JRR Tolkien originally painted in his books. Man is corrupt, man is corrupt and filled with all sorts of injustice. Man is self centered. What does that mean? There is no truly good king - no truly "good" ruler. The bible talks about this in Micah 7 where the prophet mentions that man is wonderfully gifted in the arts of messing things up - tipping scales, being unjust and corrupt, hating authority, waring against brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers. Lord of the Rings couldn't be more spot on in this aspect of human nature ... the human race is a failure. We are sinners who daily fall short of the glory of God - who are sometimes even hesitant to repent and ask for forgiveness. Revelation 17:14 gives Jesus the title of the KING OF KINGS - that he is the only righteous one worthy enough to truly wage war against evil, and as John prophecies, will place evil in its place on the day of judgement. The question today is where do you put your faith? In the goodness of man? Maybe in the "goodness" of yourself? Repent and place your trust in the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ.
Verses 3-4 The chapter starts by talking about the kings, but quickly makes it's way back to the only everlasting king - God. In these two verses, the Psalm is almost a prayer of praise and request at the same time. We pray and we ask God for protection knowing that he is the only one who can deliver on his promise to be our stronghold. It's super cool because it's just like the model prayer. "Our Father who art in heaven, hollowed by thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven ... give us this day our daily bread" (Matthew 6). Not only is God our protector and mighty king, he is our portion and provision. God is victory and God is truth. He is justice and righteousness - everything that the human kings of history's past have failed to be. I love the last part of verse 4 - the Psalmists were living in great anticipation of God's wonderful works. A good king does "wondrous" things for his people. God created an entire universe for his people and sent his only son Jesus Christ to buy back a fallen creation - such a good King.
Verse 5-8 We have talked about this before, but it's cool that it is mentioned here again. God is our victory. I like to think about who reigns in my life - without Christ i have no victory - just failure. I cannot conquer sin on my own, but through the power of the Holy Spirit, I am more than capable (although it has nothing to do with me). After reading this Psalm, you should come to the realization that God is King and that there is no one like him - He is on the throne forever and ever - never to be uprooted.
Praise the King.
-Chris
No comments:
Post a Comment