Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Psalm 93-99 | Date: March 16, 2025 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

The Lord Reigns

Psalm 93 is the first of several of what are called the enthronement psalms. I’ll explain more of that in just a moment. But they are called that because they have this common exclamation in them. And that is the exclamation, “The Lord reigns.” You’ll see it here in Psalm 93 verse one: “The Lord reigns. He is robed in majesty. The Lord is robed. He has put on strength as his belt.” That could be translated “the Lord is king.” It could be translated “the Lord reigns.” We have it in our version, “the Lord reigns.”

And if you’ll look over, for example, at Psalm 96, verse 10: “Say among the nations, ‘The Lord reigns.’ There’s that expression again. Yes, the world is established. It shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity.” Psalm 97, verse 1, you have it again: “The Lord reigns. Let the earth rejoice. Let the many coastlands be glad.” Psalm 99 and verse 1: “The Lord reigns. Let the people tremble. He sits enthroned upon the cherubim. Let the earth quake.” So these Psalms have that common expression.

Now, Psalm 94 does not have that exact expression, but it does speak of God coming with that common theme with them—God coming in vengeance, God coming to judge the earth. So the king has come to execute judgment on the earth. If you look, for example, at Psalm 94 verse one: “O Lord, God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, shine forth. Rise up, O judge of the earth. Repay the proud what they deserve.” And he goes on and speaks of how they deserve it.

If you’d like to look then at Psalm 98, this does not have the same expression, but it has something similar. Psalm 98, verses five and six: “Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of the melody, with trumpets and sound of the horn, make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord.” So it is a very common kind of a theme, even if the language is not exact. And then one other, I skipped Psalm 95, verse three: “The Lord is a great God, a great King above all gods.” So we have this common expression in many of the Psalms, “the Lord reigns.” And then you have the common theme in these other Psalms that are clustered together here in the Psalm 90s.

The Lord Is King Psalms

Now they’re called the enthronement psalms because of some famous scholar about a hundred years ago who did so much work on these psalms, and he alleged that these psalms were influenced by Israel’s pagan neighbors who had a festival every year, and annually at this festival they would enthrone their gods. And so he called this the enthronement psalms that were, he said, borrowed from the pagan neighbors enthroning the Lord, their God, on the throne.

Now, scholars have criticized that reconstruction on many different levels, but most important is the fact that in these psalms the Lord is not enthroned in terms of just now. He has been enthroned forever. For example, in Psalm 93 in verse 2, if you look at that: “Your throne is established from of old, from everlasting.” God is not enthroned. Israel’s God is not enthroned annually. He’s enthroned eternally. And that’s what they are celebrating. There’s a similar expression, not included in this cluster of Psalms, but in Psalm 47 and verse 7: “God is king of all the earth.” So we might call these then “the Lord is King Psalms,” or “Yahweh is King Psalms.”

They’ve obviously been collected here together with this common theme for a purpose that we’ll explore by the time we get to the end of the message, Lord willing. These Psalms then proclaim and extol the Lord as the reigning king over creation, over all the earth, over all nations forever. And they call the whole world to confess the Lord’s kingship and to worship him as the God who is God over all. And these Psalms as well, as you’ve seen in some of the passages that we’ve read already, they anticipate a future reign of God over all the earth where his kingship over the earth is exerted to its full and all the world recognizes that the Lord is king.

You’ll see that, for example—well, let’s back up. Psalm 96, this calls the world to confess the Lord’s universal kingship and calls the world to worship him as such. Psalm 96 verse seven: “Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.” Psalm 97 verse one: “The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice, let the nations and coastlands be glad.” So he’s calling the peoples of the world to worship the Lord and recognize Israel’s God as king. Psalm 98 verse four: “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.” And then these Psalms also, as I mentioned, anticipate that future reign of God. For example, Psalm 96 and verse 10: “Say among the nations, ‘The Lord reigns.'” Verse 13: “He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in faithfulness.”

A Survey Of The Psalms

Now we have noticed that many of these Psalms have a common structure, a certain form that the Psalms often follow. There is no set form for these Psalms. They are just hymns of praise of various kinds celebrating that the Lord is king over all the earth. What I’d like to do quickly then is survey these with just some brief comments to give you a feel for what these Psalms are all about.

Let’s go back to Psalm 93. Verses 1 and 2 here, he proclaims the Lord’s universal reign as the creator. “The Lord reigns. He is robed in majesty. The Lord is robed. He has put on strength as his belt. Yes, the world is established. It shall never be moved. Your throne is established from of old. You are from everlasting.” You might remember that I’ve talked before about polemic theology in the Old Testament. That is where the Old Testament writers will take a theme that’s common to their pagan neighbors and they’ll pick that up. They’ll pick it up not to borrow it, but they’ll pick up that theme in order to combat it and to argue against it and to show the superiority of the Lord God of Israel.

Well, we have something of that here in verses three and four of Psalm 93. God is presented as a warrior. And there’s probably here in these verses an allusion to the pagan myths in which the God, whoever the God was who made the world, did so as a result of a battle with the sea god. And there’s that going on. And finally, the triumphant God triumphed over the sea god and he made the earth, as so goes the pagan myths. Well, here we have the Lord ruling over the sea, verse 2, because he’s the eternal king. And then, verse 3: “The floods have lifted up, O Lord. The floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lift up their roaring, mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea. The Lord on high is mighty.” And then verse five: “His law will always be upheld. Your decrees are very trustworthy. Holiness befits your house, O Lord, forevermore.”

In Psalm 94, the Lord reigns. Verse one, he’s robed in majesty. The Lord is robed. He has put on his strength as a belt. “Yes, the world is established. It shall never be moved. Your throne is established from old. You are from everlasting.” Psalm 95 we’ll spend a couple of weeks with coming up shortly.

Psalm 96, the theme here is God’s kingly rule over all of his creation. The entire psalm is given to a proclamation of God’s universal supremacy over all. And you’ll notice in this psalm, the common form that we’ve seen with praise psalms in this altar: you have a call to praise, and then a reason for praise, and then a renewed call to praise. This one actually has it repeated a couple of times. So verses 1 to 3 calls the earth to praise. All the earth must sing a new song. “Oh, sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord. Bless his name. Tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all peoples.”

And then verses four to six give the reason for praise. And the reason is simply because God is above all gods. Verse four onwards speak of the unrivaled greatness and majesty of God. “For great is the Lord, greatly to be praised. He’s to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.”

Then again, verses 7 to 9, we have another call to praise. Here, all the peoples and nations must worship the Lord. Ascribe—that is to acknowledge publicly, proclaim—to the Lord, “O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name. Bring an offering and come into His courts. Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. Tremble before Him all the earth.”

And then verses 10 to 13 again, we have the reason for praise, and it is because the Lord is their king. This is the climax of the Psalms. Verse 10: “Say to the nations, ‘The Lord reigns. Yes, the world is established. It shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity.'” And then verses 11 and following, he concludes with the anticipation of God’s future reign fully realized on the earth and all creation must rejoice because of it. Verse 11: “Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar and all that fills it. Let the field exult and everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes. For he comes to judge the earth, he will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness.”

So all of the created order must rejoice because, verse 13, the Lord is coming to reign. The Lord is coming to exert his rule and to govern over all of the created order. The imagery here is a familiar one that we see in the Psalms, also in the Prophets, when the creation itself is said to give praise. And so you have the forests, the fields exulting, and the forests clapping their hands, and the seas roaring in joy, and things like that. This is a common figure in the Psalms and in the Prophets. The idea is that the whole created order has been caught up into the fall of man and the consequences of sin. And when the Lord comes to make things right, the whole created order will rejoice and join with the people of God in cheering.

Psalm 97 begins calling the Gentiles to rejoice in God’s reign. Note that, by the way, when you see that in the Psalms—calling the nations, or calling the Gentiles, or the peoples, plural—the peoples of the world to join in praise to God. Keep in mind the outlook of that. As of now, that is when the Psalms are written, the only people in the world that know this God are in Israel. They’re his people. He has singled them out. Now he has singled them out with a purpose to make himself known to the nations, but as of yet that hasn’t happened. And so as they call the nations to worship God, call the Gentiles to worship Yahweh, it’s a call of faith. It’s looking ahead to what God will do.

And so Psalm 97 is that. “The Lord reigns. Let the earth rejoice. Let the many coastlands be glad.” Verses two and following pick up again the idea of the Lord as a warrior, warring over the enemies and ruling over them. The elements of the world here are his weapons. “Clouds and thick darkness are all around him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Fire goes up before him and burns up his adversaries all around. His lightnings light up the world. The earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim his righteousness and all the peoples see his glory.”

And then verses 7 and 8 speak of the judgment that he brings, a righteous judgment. “All worshipers of images are put to shame who make their boast in worthless idols. Worship him, O you gods. Zion hears and is glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments, O Lord.” Verse 9, probably the key verse: “For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth. You are exalted above all gods.” And then in verses 10 and 11, you have a recognition of what we just see and he just affirmed in verse 9, the lordship of God over all. He now calls all of the people of the world to hate evil. “O you who love the Lord, hate evil. He preserves the lives of his saints. He delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart.” So verse 1 of this psalm begins calling the world to rejoice, and it concludes now in verse 12, calling the people of God to rejoice as well. “Rejoice in the Lord,” verse 12. “Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous. Give thanks to his holy name.” Again, this is the idea of the Lord coming to rule, and his rule is exercised in judgment, in judgment over the wicked.

Now, Psalm 98. Here we don’t have a repeat of that expression, “the Lord reigns,” but he is celebrating here the rule of God in judgment. Again, we have the familiar form: the call to praise and the reason for praise. Call for praise, verse 1 here is addressed to Israel. “Oh, sing to the Lord a new song.” It’s a victory song that is to be celebrated. And the reason is his victory over the nations on behalf of his people. “For he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. The Lord has made known his salvation. He has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. And all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.”

And then he starts over again, verse four, with a call to praise. And here he addresses the whole world. Come join Israel’s musicians in singing praise. “Make a joyful noise to the Lord. All the earth, break forth into joyous song and sing praises. Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody, with trumpets and the sound of the horn. Make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord.” Then he begins to address the created order again with this imagery. “Let the sea roar and all that fills it, the world and those who dwell in it. Let the rivers clap their hands and the hills sing for joy together before the Lord.” And then the reason? “For he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity.”

So the psalmist, as we saw last time in Psalm 92, the psalmist here extrapolates from the works of God in the past. In Psalm 92 it is the very recent past, but he extrapolates from that to the future—that God’s victories over evil in the past are just a foretaste of what he will do on a grand scale in the end. So the past victories were just a dress rehearsal for what will come in the future.

And then Psalm 99. Here we have a call to extol the Lord. And notice we have here three sections of praise, each one dividing up the Psalm by ascribing holiness to the Lord. These are the refrains. Verse three: “Let them praise your great and awesome name, holy is he.” Verse five: “Exalt the Lord our God, worship at his footstool, holy is he.” And then verse nine: “Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy mountain, for the Lord our God is holy.” So we have the psalm then divided. Verses one to three, extol the Lord because he rules. “The Lord reigns,” verse one, “let the peoples tremble, he sits enthroned on the cherubim, let the earthquake. The Lord is great in Zion. He is exalted over all the peoples. Let them praise your great and awesome name. Holy is he.”

And then verses four and five, extol the Lord because of his power and his justice. “The king in his might loves justice. You have established equity. You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob. Exalt the Lord our God. Worship at his footstool. Holy is he.” And then verses six to nine, finally, extol the Lord because he answers the prayers of his people. Sixth: “Moses and Aaron were among the priests. Samuel also was among those who called upon his name. They called to the Lord and he answered them. In the pillar of the cloud he spoke to them. They kept his testimonies and the statute that he gave them. O Lord our God, you answered them. You were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings. Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy mountain. For the Lord our God is holy.”

All right, so this cluster of Psalms that has been put together here in this order is grouped together because it proclaims and extols the Lord as king over all of creation. He rules over all the world. He rules over all the nations, not just in Israel. And so they call the nations of the world to confess the kingship of God and to worship him as their creator and as their king. And then, as I mentioned, it anticipates a future reign of God over all the earth when he will come, as these Psalms tell us, he will come to judge the world in righteousness. He’ll vindicate his people, and all the world then will come to know that he is God above all else. And then, just a note ahead, when we get there, Psalm 100 is considered to be the doxology of this grouping of Psalms. “Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness.” So one more time now, all the earth and all the nations are called to give God praise. And this serves as the climaxing doxology of this grouping of “the Lord reigns” Psalms.

The Collection Of The Psalms

All right, that’s a lot. That’s quick. Let’s go back through this quickly and see what we learned from it. First of all, let’s talk about the collection of the Psalms. I’ve talked about that, how the Psalms were not a book. This is not a book that was written all at once. It’s not a book that was written by one author. You have Davidic Psalms, you have Psalms by other kings, you have Psalms by choir directors, you have Psalms by others that are anonymous as well. And the creation of the Book of Psalms as we have it, in its final form, has been likened to the forming of a large river. I think it’s a good analogy. In a river you have all of these springs and little creeks and brooks and they work their way and they feed into a river and that river gets bigger and more streams and brooks and even smaller rivers feed into that. Finally you have this great river and it goes down off into the ocean.

Well, we have that with the Psalter in a way because the bulk of the Psalms were written by David, about half of them at least. And then the rest of them, the bulk of them were during the monarchy period from the kings or from the choir directors that were there in Jerusalem on Zion. Some of them, some of the Psalms though were written during the time of the exile, and some of them even after the exile, rejoicing that God has brought them back. And the final bringing together of all of them with the five books and the arranging of each Psalm within the book, that was done by the final editors. As I’ve mentioned, Ezra—it is a strong tradition that Ezra had a hand in that—and both Jewish and Christian scholars have always recognized them as the inspired editors of the Psalm.

Now when you come then to the final shape of the Psalter, at that point, Psalms that call the faithful to worship in Zion, Psalms that call the nations to worship Yahweh, it’s an expression of the faith of the editors. It hasn’t happened yet. So let’s go back through it. Book 1 of the Psalter, this is Psalms 1-41, largely reflect David’s struggles. He’s often in crisis, but he’s always in praise. Sometimes he’s being chased by Saul, sometimes he’s being chased by Absalom and his armies. David in crisis, and that’s largely the reflection of book one of the Psalter.

In book two of the Psalter, we largely have reflected in that David’s success. His kingship has been established, he’s reigning in Jerusalem, the Davidic kingship itself has been established, and that culminates in Psalm 72, which is that wonderful Psalm of Solomon, which glories in the rule of the ideal king who is to come. And then we have book three, and there we have reflected the devastation of David’s kingdom. It’s the dark book of the Psalter with lots of lament Psalms. It anticipates the exile; Israel’s kings and Israel’s—the whole house of David and the sanctuary—have been destroyed. And that all culminates in Psalm 89, which laments terribly the seeming collapse of God’s promise to David.

And that brings us then here to book four of the Psalter. It’s oriented to the exile. There is no king. No Davidic king on the throne, but the hope is alive. And so book four begins with Psalm 90. And you remember what Psalm 90, the superscript of that is? The prayer of Moses, the man of God. This is the man of God who interceded and prayed in behalf of Israel and brought them deliverance out of Egypt. And there’s that hint that now the intercessor and the deliverer has come. And he prays as: “You have always been our dwelling place, now establish the work of our hands.” And then you have Psalm 91 and 92, both of which tell us, assure us of the success of the messianic king.

And now you have Psalms 93 and following, proclaiming “the Lord is king.” And so during this time now, this is again their expression of faith. Despite the fact that the Davidic kingship has fallen, despite the fact that Israel’s been destroyed—okay, we’re back now maybe—but despite the fact that the Davidic line has been cut off, the Lord is king. There may not be a Davidic king on the throne, but there is a king. And this king rules over all. And so long as this king rules over all, God’s promise to David stands. The promise of a Davidic king to rule over the earth still stands. And in fact, you cannot separate in the Old Testament the rule of God coming to the earth from the rule of God’s king over the earth. And so because God reigns—the Lord reigns, the Lord reigns—this hope still stands.

Book four, by the way, climaxes in Psalm 106 if you want to look at that. Psalm 106 verses 47 and 48, a prayer that God would bring Israel back from her exile. “Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the nations that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise.” Again, and this is a reflection of the editor’s faith of what God will yet accomplish. And then in the fifth book of the Psalms, we have Israel offering praise to God for her restoration. All is not lost. The Davidic hope remains.

So we’ve had in Israel these seasons of prosperity and blessings, seasons of persecution, seasons of collapse, devastation, but we’ve had it all. And it’s the same in the church, by the way. Throughout its history, we’ve had seasons of extraordinary blessing and extraordinary prosperity and growth. We’ve also had seasons of persecution. But in every season, these Psalms then teach us to hold in mind the dominating theme of the Psalter and of the prophets: that God’s kingdom will be established in the earth. The world will not have its way forever. And we know that because the Lord reigns, and he reigns over all.

The Developing Kingdom Of God Theme

Now on one level, this announcement, “the Lord reigns,” on one level, that’s old news. Everywhere in the Psalter and everywhere in the Old Testament we know that God is Lord. The Lord is Lord over Israel and he’s Lord over the nations and he’s Lord over all the created order and all of it is in his hands. And on one level that’s old news. But the point of these Psalms then brought together into this cluster and placed where they are with this stated emphasis is that this hope for the Davidic King remains.

As I say, it’s impossible to separate the idea of God reigning on earth—the day of the Lord, the Lord coming to judge—from the idea of his king coming to reign. This is the developing kingdom of God theme that we have seen over many weeks in our Sunday evening studies. It begins in Genesis chapter one. God establishes or creates man and established him as his vice-regent ruling over the earth. He fails. He blows it. Genesis 3, God makes a promise that another champion will come and he will reign. We find it reiterated over and again through the Old Testament. We’ve seen it in Genesis 49: Judah will have a scepter and he’ll rule. Numbers 24, Balaam’s prophecy: “Stars shall rise out of Jacob and a scepter from Israel. He’ll smash the foreheads of his enemies.” Sarah prays it in her prayer in 1 Samuel 2 that the king, the Davidic king, will rule and rule over God’s enemies to the ends of the earth.

We come to that marvelous high point, 2 Samuel 7, when God promises to David, “Your son will rule on your throne forever. And he’ll be king over all of the earth.” The Psalms pick up that promise and they revel in it and they speak of it in all of its details of God coming to reign through his king. The appointed king will come and he will exercise God’s reign over all of the earth.

And then of course we turn a few pages and we come to the New Testament and the announcement is made that that Davidic king has come. Matthew chapter one, verse one: “Book of the generation of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham.” Here’s the one who has come to fulfill all that God promised to Abraham through David’s son. As mediator, he came. He came incarnate. And in his death, he destroyed sin and rescued his people from the grip of Satan, paying the price of their sin. In his death, he destroyed death. As our forerunner, in his ascension, he takes the throne of the universe, ruling over all things for the advance of his kingdom, until finally he returns and exerts over all the earth God’s rule in every way.

We find this actually at the very end of the Bible in the book of Revelation, the apostle John. We’ve had the kingdom of the earth reigning. We’ve had Babylon, evil Babylon, ruling over all things, becoming drunk on the blood of the martyrs, having its way, and then the king comes. And John announces the victory shout in Revelation chapter 19. He announces the victory shout at Jesus’ coming. In the words of these “The Lord is King” Psalms, Revelation 19:6, he echoes Psalm 97 in verse 1: “Hallelujah, for the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.”

That he comes to judge the earth is a threatening thing for the world; for the people of God, it is our greatest hope and a cause for celebration. And these Psalms call us to praise God for this great kingdom that is his and that will one day be exerted in full. And so this cluster of Psalms takes the theme of the entire Psalter with a particular focus that God is king over all and one day that kingdom will be established and God’s people will be vindicated and God’s enemies will be destroyed forever. The hope of the church. Amen.