Psalm 145 | God: His Kingdom
Introduction
Everyone’s had this type of experience: You have been working on a project for a long time. You bring a question or an idea to your boss (or another student), and they immediately know exactly what should happen next—and exactly how you should do it. And it is not at all how you would choose to do it!
As a boss myself, I am very aware that bosses have this tendency. But I am probably even more aware of the opposite tendency in myself when I am the one doing the work. I tend to think I know better than anyone else what should happen next! You have heard me say that it has been said of me and others, “Always confident. Sometimes right.” And I think there is a little bit of that in all of us.
A teacher gives you an assignment and your first thought is, “That is pointless.” Your parent tells you to clean your room and make your bed. You ask why, and they say, “Because I said so. I’m the parent.” And all you can think as a kid is, “Someday I’ll be the parent!” A coach makes a substitution you disagree with. A manager creates a new policy. The government passes a law. The refs on Sunday Night Football clearly make the wrong call.
And there it is—that recurring thought somewhere in the back of our minds: “If I were in charge, this would all be better.”
If I were the boss. If I were the teacher. If I were the parent. If I were the coach. If I ran the company. If I made the rules. If I ran the world.
Sometimes what we really want is for nobody to tell us what to do. But sometimes I wonder if what we really mean is, “Wouldn’t everything be better if I were King?”
Of course, sometimes the boss really is wrong. Human authority can be foolish, selfish, and badly exercised. Scripture talks about that. But bad rulers can also make us suspicious of the very idea of being ruled.
We spend a surprising amount of our lives assuming that the problem is the person over us. We imagine that life would be better if the authority moved from them to us—or disappeared entirely.
But what if we were never made to live without a King? And what if the King over us were perfectly good? Scripture begins with a radically different claim than what we might imagine: before there were bad bosses, bad kings, bad parents, bad governments, or bad authorities, there was a King—and he was good.
Review: The Story
Last week we started our series on The Story—the grand Story of God that unfolds throughout Scripture, throughout creation, and across time in the lives of God’s people.
We started where The Story must start: God simply is! Everything we know, everything we see, and we ourselves exist because God first existed. Everything else receives its existence from God. That was exactly what we saw Paul say last week in Romans:
“For from him and through him and to him are all things.”
Romans 11:36, ESV
Everything is from him, through him, and to him. And as we said last week: Before Everything Else, God Is. Therefore:
Everything else is from him,
Everything is through him, (and)
Everything is to him.
Because our goal is to try to summarize this Story for ourselves each week, this was the example sentence I gave everyone last week for that section of the Story:
God is the perfect and holy Creator. Everything comes from him, depends upon him, and exists for him. God is the Story, and our story only makes sense inside his.
But that statement raises another question. If everything comes from God, if everything depends upon God, and if everything ultimately exists for God, then what is God’s relationship to everything he has made? Is he a distant Creator? A crushing dictator? How does Scripture describe his relationship to what he has made?
Throughout Scripture, God describes his relationship with everyone and everything in royal terms.
God is King. Creation is his Kingdom.
The God who IS King
We saw this clearly this morning in our text from Psalms:
I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.
Psalm 145:1–3 ESV
And the psalmist continues this language further down in this Psalm as well:
All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD, and all your saints shall bless you! They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power, to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations.
Psalm 145:10–13 ESV
Psalm 145 gives us a glimpse at this concept of the King and his Kingdom. God relates to all he has created as King, and he also has a Kingdom. And yes, God does work in specific places at specific times—we will talk about that next week—but the first thing we should think about when we think about the Kingdom of God isn’t a specific place but rather God’s reign or rule as the King.
Kingdom = God’s reign or rule as the King
And that means God’s Kingdom, God’s rule and reign, is everywhere and it is over everything! Think about all the places we see this idea throughout Scripture.
Psalm 103:19 says, “The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.” Psalm 24:1–2 says, “The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof.” The fullness thereof—everything in the earth, all that is and ever will walk or live on this earth, is HIS!
And Scripture repeats this language again and again. Psalm 93 says, “The LORD reigns.” Psalm 47 calls God “the King of all the earth.” Daniel 4 tells us that his dominion is everlasting and that no one can stay his hand.
And as we saw last week in Acts:
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
Acts 17:24–25 ESV
Paul may be reminding us and the Athenians at the Areopagus that God doesn’t need to be served by us, but that question is raised precisely BECAUSE he is LORD. He IS the King. His reign is all-encompassing.
God is King. Creation is his Kingdom.
And God’s kingship does not begin when people acknowledge it. He is King because all creation already stands beneath his rule.
That leaves us with a comforting reality. Rebellion against the King is not the overthrow of the King. Some might want to imagine that by refusing to believe in God, or by refusing to acknowledge his reign, they have overthrown his rule and reign.
That is not possible.
Because God IS, no creature can threaten or undo his rule. And his relationship to everything was, is, and always will be that of King—a King whose reign is over everything.
Humans can reject God’s authority, but we never remove ourselves from God’s sovereignty. He is still King whether we acknowledge him or not. The question is not whether he reigns, but whether we gladly live under the reign that is already his.
And that brings us to an interesting moment. Many of you have thought about this and have heard it. “God is King. Creation is his Kingdom.” Faith is both recognizing that God is King, and also gladly coming back under his rule. One of the greatest struggles of our lives is that we still, as sinful humans, want to rebel—daily—against God’s reign and rule over our lives.
So, you might be hearing all of this and thinking, “Yes, I know. I need to submit to the God who is the King.” That is true. Everything God calls us to in relationship with him is not LESS than submission to him as King. But it is much more than that! It is more than that because of WHO the King is.
Tom Schreiner, in his book The King in His Beauty, says that “to fear the Lord is to live under his lordship.” God is the sovereign Creator, the one who deserves our obedience. But Schreiner calls his biblical theology The King in His Beauty for a reason. Scripture does not merely tell us that God has enough power to demand our submission. It invites us to see the King—to behold who he is and to live under his rule.
And Psalm 145 is already beginning to show us exactly what kind of King he is. God does not merely have the power to demand our submission. He is the King to whom submission is good because HE is good.
The King is Good
It was interesting to note how Psalm 145:1 begins and how it comes back to the same idea of the King in Psalm 145:10–13:
“I will extol you, my God and King…”
Psalm 145:1 ESV
“Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations.”
Psalm 145:10–13 ESV
But in between these two sections, everything is about the King who is GOOD!
I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever.
Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.
Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.
One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate. They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness. They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness. The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.
All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD, and all your saints shall bless you!
They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power, to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. [The LORD is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works.]
Psalm 145:1–13 ESV
The Psalmist starts with a declaration about the reign and rule of the King and the Kingdom of God. But this is not just any king and any reign! His greatness is “unsearchable.” He has done “mighty acts” and they are “wondrous,” “awesome,” and abundant in “goodness.”
But specifically, what we see about our good King is that:
God is gracious and merciful. (v8)
God is slow to anger. (v8)
God is abounding in steadfast love. (v8)
He is good to all. (v9)
He is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works. (v13)
He upholds even those who fall. (v14)
He is righteous AND kind. (v17)
He is near to those who call. (v18)
God is not merely telling us throughout the Bible that he has enough power and is greater than you, so you should submit. Rather, God wants us to see and know him, and to see that the one who possesses absolute power is absolutely good!
The One who possesses absolute authority is absolutely good.
God’s Story in Scripture is there to show us again and again that he is sovereign, but especially that he is good!
In the beginning, the King creates because of his goodness, not because of his deficiency. He gives life, abundance, purpose, relationship, and blessing. We saw how Genesis 1 repeatedly said that God made everything “good,” and culminated with humanity as “very good.” The reign of the King begins with generosity.
Humanity rebels, but God does not abandon his creation. His judgment is real but so is his preservation. God recommits himself to the world he has created. The covenant with Noah, in effect says, “The King has not given up on his Kingdom.”
God chooses one man—Abraham—and promises that through him all the families of the earth will be blessed. God brings Israel out of Egypt before he gives them the law, and so grace and goodness precede command. Under King David, even amidst human failure, God continues to move his purposes towards THE royal and good King.
And the clearest display of the King’s goodness is that he does not merely command rebels to return; the King comes for the rebels. In Christ, God bears the cost of bringing his rebellious people back under his good reign.
Main Street, when Scripture tells us the Story, it does not merely keep proving that God is stronger than everybody else. We already know that. The Story keeps showing us what he does with his strength. And what does he do?
He creates. He blesses. He preserves. He rescues. He makes promises. He remains faithful. He forgives. He comes near. Ultimately, he gives himself.
Application
Remember where we started today? We tend to think that someone else’s authority limits my good. If no one was in charge or if I was in charge, then I would truly experience good. We don’t merely forget that God is the King, we even begin to suspect that we would rule better than him. But true life is not found in escaping the King’s authority. Life is found UNDER the reign of the good King.
Last week I mentioned John Piper’s famous statement:
“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.”
~ John Piper, Desiring God
God’s rule and reign over us is not opposed to—it is not against—our good and our satisfaction. That is precisely because God is good himself. We truly flourish when we live under the good King. Submission to God’s kingship is not surrendering our good to God’s glory; our true good is found inside God’s glory and God’s reign precisely BECAUSE he is good!
Perhaps that is where you are this morning. Perhaps you have struggled to submit to God and his reign and rule over your life because you thought your good would be lost if you yielded to the rule and reign of God in your life. That is exactly the opposite of what is true. Our true good can only be found in the One who is himself good. Come this morning and submit to Jesus Christ, the very good King who loves you.
Life With The Good King
And once you put your faith in Jesus, Scripture does not stop at telling us to live under the good King. It tells us something even more astonishing: the good King invites us into his work and gives us a real role within his reign.
Up to this point, we have basically established that:
God is King.
Creation is his Kingdom.
Submission to the King is good because he is good.
And it makes sense that we would talk about people when we talk about God. If he is King, we must not be king. And if we are honest, the most appropriate thing would be for God to demonstrate his greatness—his cosmic power in creating, ordering, and establishing—and then turn to show us just how little we really are as humans. We might expect Scripture to only emphasize how small and dependent we are in comparison with him. But that is not what God does! In fact, in revealing his rule and reign over all things, and while showing us just how good he is, he shows us the ultimate kindness and goodness towards us. He brings us INTO his rule and reign.
We see God say in his creation of humanity:
Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
Genesis 1:26 ESV
The good King doesn’t merely create subjects who passively receive his commands. He creates human beings in HIS image and gives them a real vocation within HIS world.
The King created us to represent his rule.
There is a part of what you feel when you want to make decisions, to create, to build, to do, and be part of the project that is good and Godly. The problem isn’t that you sometimes think, “I want to rule.” The problem is with the distortion we all often make: “I want to rule apart from the King.” Or the tragic turn that Satan took, “I want to rule and BE the King.”
Our life as humans is NOT one of insignificance. We were not created as insignificant creatures with no meaningful role in his world. God’s kingship and his goodness actually grounds our significance! God gives us real dignity and real responsibility by bringing us into his work.
And the greater God is, the more astonishing Genesis 1 and our call to have dominion becomes. The good King who needs nothing chooses to give his creatures real responsibility within his kingdom. That is a surprising and counterintuitive gift from our Good King!
Real, but Derivative, Rule
And in Psalm 8 David asks a question we should all be thinking right now when we think of this amazing role we have been given:
“O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”
Psalm 8:1–9 ESV
“What is man that you are mindful of him?...You have given him dominion over the works of your hands.”
You and I truly are very small in comparison with God. Yet God has crowned us with extraordinary dignity and responsibility. We should constantly be asking ourselves and God, “What am I that you are mindful of me?”
That is a good posture and a good reminder when we behold the beauty that is our good King and his invitation to come into his reign with him. We may have been invited in, but we are not and never will be God.
We were created to rule, but never to be King.
God rules inherently—simply because he is the God who is. We rule derivatively, meaning we rule only because he rules and is inviting us in. God possesses all authority. You and I receive authority from God. God is King: We represent the King.
In much of the ancient world, this was a readily known idea. Kings in many non-Jewish or related cultures were viewed as the embodiment of the divine. Many thought the king was a god. Genesis goes even further than most ancient perspectives. Genesis extends image-bearing dignity to all humanity—male and female—not merely to one earthly monarch and his family.
Human rule does not compete with God’s rule. It comes from God’s rule.
We were created to rule, but never to be King.
The King’s Representatives: Expansion
We will say much more next week about WHAT this life of ruling under God actually looks like, but one important thing we should notice today is that this representative vocation was always meant to move outward.
Last week, we talked about how all things are from God, through God, and to God. God already reigns over everything he has made. God does not need his sovereignty to expand; he already reigns over everything. What he intends to spread is a people who visibly live under his good rule and represent him throughout his world.
As the Story unfolds, that calling will continue to develop through Noah, Abraham, Israel, David, and ultimately Christ and his Church. In creation, humanity bears God’s image and exercises dominion under him.
God reaffirms his creation commission in Genesis 9:1 and 7 with Noah. Even after the sin leading up to the flood, God has not fired us; in fact, he reminds us of our job again through Noah and his family. With Abraham, God begins to concentrate his purposes in one man through whom blessing will extend to the many. As we see in Genesis:
“I will bless you…so that you will be a blessing…and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Genesis 12:2–3, ESV
In Israel, God calls a people to represent him among all the nations. They are to be:
“A kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
Exodus 19:5–6, ESV
In David, we see that, eventually, Israel will have a human king. A man reigning as a representative of God. But the human king is never ultimate. The Davidic kingship only works and makes sense beneath God’s kingship. The human king’s greatness is never ultimate; the king is meant to rule in such a way that people see the greatness of God. For God to be known as the true King. As Solomon says about the kingship:
“May he [the king] have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth! May desert tribes bow down before him, and his enemies lick the dust! May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands render him tribute; may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts! May all kings fall down before him, all nations serve him! May his name endure forever, his fame continue as long as the sun! May people be blessed in him, all nations call him blessed!
Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. Blessed be his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and Amen!”
Psalm 72:8–11, 17–19 ESV
The heart is that as the king’s representative reign extends outward, the glory ultimately returns to God. Why? “Because he [God] alone does wondrous things.”
Not Yet
Remember what we already saw in Psalm 8, this phrase:
“What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
Psalm 8:4 ESV
The writer to the Hebrews had thought about this a lot. Listen to his thoughts on it:
“What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.” Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
Hebrews 2:6–9 ESV
The writer to the Hebrews admits we do not see this right now. You and I—all humanity—have not faithfully fulfilled our vocation to represent God’s reign within his world. But God’s Story for us hasn’t disappeared! He hasn’t given up on us, and he won’t give up on his purposes.
God eventually concentrates the Story on the faithful man—the God-man, Jesus Christ—who succeeds where humanity has failed. And through his faithfulness, those who belong to him share in what he has accomplished. Through his death, we receive life. Through his reign, Christ brings us back into life under the good reign of God.
Conclusion
The biblical vision is not God rules, therefore you are insignificant. Nor is it you rule instead of God. Instead, it is this:
The good King created us to live under his reign and participate in his purposes.
And the counterintuitive, amazing, and wonderful truth is the King has not made us passive subjects.
God is King.
Creation is his Kingdom.
Submission to the King is good because he is good.
The King created us to represent his rule.
We were created to rule under him, but never to be King.
That means the answer to the instinct we started with this morning is not, “Yes, everything would be better if I were in charge.” Nor is it, “Everything would be better if nobody were in charge.” The better answer is that everything is rightly ordered when the good King is King—and when we gladly take our place under him!
Application
We said last week that one goal in this series is to learn to tell The Story of God. What would happen if we took the time to turn each of these sermons into a summary sentence or two? By the end, you might be able to share with someone the entire Story of God from Genesis to Revelation. This was our example sentence last week when we talked about the God who is:
God is the perfect and holy Creator. Everything comes from him, depends upon him, and exists for him. God is the Story, and our story only makes sense inside his.
So, how would you take today’s sermon and summarize it in a sentence or two? Take a minute to try to do that…
Again, this isn’t meant to be something you need to copy from me, but if you have a hard time coming up with your own idea, here is an example:
God is King, creation is his Kingdom, and he created us in his image to live under his good reign, represent him, and participate in his purposes throughout his world.
And that leaves us with the next question: If we were created to live under the good King and participate in his purposes, what does that life under and with the King look like? That is where we will go next week.
