Well, it's good to be able to open our Bibles again this evening. We have a great privilege in our day that people haven't always had, and that's to be able to actually have a Bible that we can hold in our hands, bring it to God's house, and do what God told us to do, read it, and listen to it, And so tonight, let's open our Bibles to Psalm 47. Psalm 47. I want us to stand together to read the Word of God tonight. It's a good way to show reverence to the Word of God and the God of the Word. Psalm 47. O clap your hands, all ye people, shout unto God with the voice of triumph. For the Lord Most High is terrible. He is a great king over all the earth. He shall subdue the people under us and the nations under our feet. He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob, whom he loved." Selah. God has gone up with a shout. the Lord with the sound of a trumpet, sing praises to God, sing praises, sing praises unto our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth, sing ye praises with understanding. God reigneth over the heathen, God sitteth upon the throne of His holiness. The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham, for the shields of the earth belong unto God, He is greatly exalted. Let's look to the Lord in prayer tonight. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for this precious book that you've given to us. What a treasure it is in wisdom and in knowledge and the revelation of your will and your way and the fulfillment of all of it in the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for providing him for us, sending him into this world. and providing in him the satisfaction for our sin, we might have eternal life and be able to enjoy the presence of our God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, for eternity. We ask your God tonight that you would bless your word to our hearts and open our understanding to be receptive to it and to understand it and to receive the exhortations that we can gather from it as well. And we'll thank and praise you, dear God, for all that you will do in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. I've entitled this psalm, The Victory of Messiah's Reign. And I've done that because of so many things in it that are so drastically different than the world that we presently live in. than the world has ever been, and it shows victory in the Lord Jesus Christ that's going to be manifest in this earth. We, as God's people, can enjoy victory in our lives. Apostle Paul says it's in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we can have a great degree of victory in our lives, And there's going to be a time, though, when it's going to be evident in the earth. And when I look at things like that, there are a couple of things I want us to keep in mind. First of all, when we approach the Word of God, it ought to be, first of all, to begin to preach from it, teach from it. Our first concern should be, what has God said? We can see a lot of applications many times, but we ought to first be concerned with what has God actually said? That's interpretation of the Word of God. And then the second thing is this. When we look at a subject like this in particular, or a psalm like this, and many things in the Word of God, really, I'm afraid that sometimes many people seem to be unconcerned or disinterested because as human beings, our nature is to be selfish, to be real honest. And we don't get over that. We still have a problem with that. God saved us. We have a new nature too, but we still have that. And yet, one of our great concerns and our great desires is the glory and the honor of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that should be true in our personal lives. It also should be true that we desire to see that in the fulfillment of all that God has promised to the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what we're looking at tonight. Sometimes People look at some of these things as though, well, that's talking about, you know, especially if it has to do with Israel, it seems like, well, that's for them and that's not for us. Well, it's for both of us. And I want us to see that tonight. But as we get into this psalm, first of all, I want to see what has God actually said. And I say that partly because I'm bringing that up because as I've I've studied it myself before, and then I look back at what others have written in commentaries about it, I realize that there are many things like this, psalms like this, passages like this, that it seems easier for men, and I'm talking about men that are very sound in many ways, but it seems easier just to maybe take the easy road and just make it all application and make it in the gospel sense, and I think you're gonna see tonight, I trust you will, There are some things that are expressed in this psalm that are not talking about the gospel of the grace of God. In other words, you can spiritualize it, if you will, and look at it that way in just a personal sense, but that's not what it's talking about, and it really isn't stated in a way that it applies that way. So as we look at this tonight, I want you to notice this first of all. Sometimes we miss this in the psalms, but the title of this psalm is part of the Word of God. And I don't know if you have in your Bible, if you have some notes above that, or whether I do. I don't pay much attention to that. But there's a title to most of the Psalms. This one says, to the chief musician, a psalm for the sons of Korah. Now, you can just read over that and say, well, that was a Jewish family, you know, it was a Levitical family. But who were they? God had appointed, starting with Solomon, that they be the chief singers in the temple. But what's their background? This is the thing that's really amazing to me. When I think about who these people, the first mention we have of them in the book of Exodus, I'm not saying the name wasn't mentioned before, but when it's talking about the tribes of Israel and what they're going to do, The first thing we run into is the fact that Korah and his family rebelled against Moses and God judged them. They led a rebellion against Moses, the man of God, and the earth opened up and swallowed them. And yet here we find the remnant of that family God still is using the family. In other words, to me, it's a tremendous display of the grace of God and the victory that's in the Lord Jesus Christ who reigns through righteousness. And it can take a people, because many times we look at people and say, well, they're family and they were this and they were that. God judged them and there's, you know, there's the family of Eli God said, after a couple of generations of your family, there won't be a man to be in the priesthood anymore. He's done. But here's a family. The leader of this family stood up and rebelled against God. And God literally opened up the ground and swallowed them up, made an example of them. And now we see his descendants are the chief singers in the worship of God. That, to me, really strikes home to me. I love to see that. Romans 5.21 says, This is an important psalm. It also tells us this. It's an important psalm because it wasn't just any psalm. This doesn't mean that others couldn't sing along, but this was committed to the chief singers. Korah, the sons of Korah, chief singers in the temple. I look at this in this psalm, just a few things by way of introduction here that I believe are important for us to recognize right away. This psalm is talking about the king reigning over all the earth. So this isn't talking about heaven, and this isn't talking about right now. Verse 2 says, for the Lord Most High is terrible. He is a great king over all the earth. Now, so that includes more than just Israel, but it includes Israel too. But He's a king over all the earth. This is an earthly reign. Verse 7 says, For God is the king of all the earth. Sing ye praises with understanding. So I can take from that the obvious. And that is God would have us to understand the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ over all the earth. So when we sing about it, we know what we're singing about. Now, I'm going to say something else, some other things about that when we get to that point, but that's the obvious part of it. Back in Psalm 46, in Psalm 46 and verse 7, it says, the Lord of hosts is with us. I want you to notice this, another point about this psalm. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Hebrew poetry uses something we don't use in Western culture. It uses parallelism a lot. The first statement is parallel to the second statement, just said a different way. As if to say, let me say that another way. And make the same point, but you'll get more out of it this way. So what's the parallel? Well, the Lord of hosts is the God of Jacob. It's the same person. Or you could say, the God of Jacob is the Lord of hosts. When we get into this psalm, we're going to see the same thing, only even more. And there's a reason for that, of course. But here in our psalm, you find, again, these same two verses. Verse 2 says, the Lord Most High. So now he's Jehovah God, he's the Most High God, and he's the king over all the earth. These are all the same person. The king over all the earth is Jehovah the Most High. In verse 7, it says, For God is the king, So who's this king going to be? God. He's God. And of all the earth, sing ye praises with understanding. You understand, of course, that we live in a world that doesn't like to even hear somebody talk about God. I hear people all the time, I'm talking about people that, you know, politically they're conservative, but they'll begin to give an argument for the right and wrong of something and say, this isn't even, this isn't a Bible, this is an issue, this is a science issue, and they're talking about morality. Well, that's a Bible issue, whether they like it or not. So you see, it doesn't matter, even the people that are supposed to be reasonable and conservative in their thinking, spiritually are blinder than a bat. Now I'm glad not all of them are, but a lot of them are, probably most of them are. But the reality of it is, the king that is going to reign over this earth is God. We have a world that doesn't want God telling them what to do. We have a society, we have a government that doesn't have a king. And I'm not complaining about that. When we get kings, we end up with the wrong kind of king. But when things are done right on this earth, it's going to be a monarchy. It's going to be a theocracy. The world talks about that like, that's a horrible thing, these countries that have theocracies. Well, the whole world is going to be a theocracy. It's going to be Jesus Christ, Jehovah God, the Most High God, He's going to be the King. All of these names and all of these titles are talking about our King. Every verse, as a matter of fact, you can glance back through this and every verse except verse 3 and verse 4 use a name or a title of the Lord Jesus Christ. King, God, Jehovah, the Most High. So the most obvious thing about that is this. When you look at the religious realm, the most obvious thing about that is this. The Jehovah's Witnesses are just liars and don't have a clue what they're talking about. I'm trying to say that as clearly as I can. If you didn't understand what I said, get with me later. There are a lot of other people too, modernists in the Christian realm, so-called Christian realm. I can name off a few of them right now, but I guess I'll skip that. Same thing. Don't believe Jesus Christ was God. They don't believe He is God. a prophet, a teacher, a wise person, you name it. Religious leader, did a lot of good things. But God, no. Well, I have news for them. He's God of very gods, manifest in the flesh. He's Jehovah. That means He's a self-existent God, the eternal God. Everything that is God, that's who He is. And that God is going to reign in glorified flesh on this earth. And it will be the whole earth. Nobody's going to get into some little pocket of the world where they can get away from Him. And I think that's just great. I think that's wonderful. I love to think about that. I look at what's going on in our nation, and I could be chewing my fingernails about that, but I don't, because I just think the Lord's day is coming. As a matter of fact, it's coming really quick. I think about this a lot, what it says in Revelation. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Because I think it's really, really close. And I'm excited about it. Now, I think all of God's people should be. So when you look at verse 1, it says this. And the first four verses, I believe, show us a call to rejoice in the victory won for Israel. That's right. I'll show you why. But I believe that God's people who believe the Word of God should rejoice in God's victory over and God's victory for Israel. It's for their king. It's for the glory of their king. But it's for them also. We can rejoice. in our Lord. And we should. Now, I say that because verse one starts out with this. Oh, clap your hands. Many times over the years I've had people approach me about things, you know, well, in the Old Testament they did this, in the Old Testament they did that. They'll bring up something like dancing. I've forgotten how many words, how many Hebrew words are used, you know. But the reality of it is, even though we have one word in the English language, it means a lot of things. You know, little kids, when they should have come in earlier and didn't, sometimes they're dancing too. My wife's laughing about that, and you ladies ought to know what I'm talking about. If not, you men too. They're dancing too, but it's not the modern dance, you know, what I'm talking about. There's a word in the Hebrew, it's talking about marching like an army marches. So there's a lot of words that are used. Now the word that's used here, to get back to this, this clap, is not applause like we applaud people. This is not like somebody just made a touchdown, you know, or they just gave a speech and we applaud them when they get done. This is not that kind of applause for men by men. As a matter of fact, it's only used one other time in this sense that it's used here, and that was at the coronation of King Joash when old wicked Athaliah had the tables turned on her, and she was deposed as the queen, that wicked queen of Israel, for a period of time. And Joash was made the king when he was about 12 years old, I think it was, maybe a little younger than that. 2 Kings chapter 11 verse 12 says, And he brought forth the king's son, that is the high priest, brought forth the king's son, put the crown upon him, and gave him the testimony. And they made him king and anointed him. And they clapped their hands and said, God save the king. That's the only time in the whole Old Testament that this word clap is used in relationship to something like this. There's about five or six other times that it's used, but every other time that it's used when it's talking just about the average person, it's talking about people that are mocking other people and clapping their hands to mock people. So, just as a little aside, no, I still believe, you call it old-fashioned if you want to, I think it's biblical, God's people, when they agree with what's been said or agree with what's been sung or agree with what's been prayed, we say, Amen. And as a matter of fact, at the reading of the Word of God in Ezra's time, all the people said, Amen. At the end of a prayer, all the people said, Amen. They didn't clap, do that at a football game or a basketball game, but this is the house of God. Others have their opinions and they're welcome to their opinions, but that's mine. And I think it's a pretty scriptural one. So this is what this is talking about. This is talking about in relationship to the coronation of their king. So it says, clap your hands at the coronation of your king, if you will. All ye people shout unto God with the voice of triumph. That's why I said this is a victory psalm of Messiah's reign. Triumph. He's going to have, if you remember the last two or three psalms that we've studied, he's going to have had military victory over his enemies. Now, God has victory. God has victory over people's lives. His grace has victory in people's lives, and God saves people. Of course, I understand that's true, but that's not what this is talking about here. Now, we'll be involved in that, we'll get to that in a little bit. It's going to be involved in that too. But this is talking about the victory of a king over his enemies on the earth and the establishment of him on his throne. The sphere of the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ is a wonderful thing to consider. You'll notice there, It's in verse two. You notice what it says, for the Lord Most High is terrible. He is a great king over all the earth. There you have it again. Jehovah, notice it says, the Lord. It's all capitals. Now again, one of these people doesn't know what they're talking about. Says, you know, it's never in your King James Bible. Oh yeah, it is. You just don't know how to read your King James Bible. Every time it's in all capitals, it means Jehovah. That's how it's translated, Jehovah. That is Jehovah God. Jehovah is a great king. People that talk about Jesus Christ being a king, but they don't believe He's God, they have a different king than the Bible talks about when it talks about the Lord Jesus Christ. He's called the Antichrist. They've got the wrong king. Our king is a self-existent, eternal, great I Am. Now, it also calls Him here in this verse, the Most High. My Jesus is the Most High God. What does that mean? What is the reason for these different titles? Well, it speaks of his possessing creation. He's above all other gods. He's dwelling in the highest heaven as well as in his entire universe. That's what it means when it says the most high, you look at the context when it speaks of God that way, that's what it's talking about. For instance, Genesis chapter 14 and verses 18 and 19. This is talking about Abraham and Melchizedek. And it says, Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought bread and wine, and he was the priest of the Most High God. And he blessed him, that is, blessed Abraham, and said, Blessed be Abram of the Most High God. Now, if you look at it there, you'll see I highlighted that. It's not only bold, but I highlighted that. possessor of heaven and earth. The Most High God is the possessor of heaven and earth. The Lord Jesus Christ created it all by the word of His mouth and He has redeemed it unto Himself. This earth is going to experience a reformation, if you will, a restoration. That's because he purchases the people to himself and it's tied to our resurrection. His kingdom is universal, the Word of God says. It's over all the earth. He is a great king over all the earth. Now, notice this also. Israel's share in the victory with their king. Again, it says, He shall subdue the people under us and the nations under our feet. Under us. Under our feet. The nations in union with the Messiah share in His triumphs. That is, the nation. I should say nation. I said nations. It should be nations. The nation in union with the Messiah, with Christ, sharing his triumphs. In other words, they're not going to win a victory on their own. Listen, when Israel went into the land of Canaan, you realize Joshua led them. They defeated the enemies of God. They had great victories. But you know who really won those victories? Well, who do you think sent the hornets? Who do you think sent floods. God did. Who do you think sent hailstones? The hailstones killed more people by far than Israel did. God wrought a great victory for His people. God's the one that did that. They shared in it. They shared in it. David recognized this in Psalm 18 and verse 47. He says, it is God that avenges me and subdueth the people under me. It is all of Israel's enemies. David didn't say, I'm such a great king and I'm such a warrior king, I did all this. No, he said, it's God that did all this. David shared in the Lord's victories for his people. This is not a spiritual battle that it's talking about here. And when I say that, I mean it's not a spiritual battle in the sense of the reign of grace. Because that's not what it's talking about. This is a military battle. That's what you see in those previous Psalms. It's not a battle that's subdued by the gospel. This is not bringing people in subjection to us through the gospel. That's not what it's talking about. And it says us. He shall subdue the people under us. I never look at someone who becomes a child of God as though God subdued them under me. I don't think anybody should. When God saves a soul, He brings them into subjection to Him. I never think about It is though God brought them in subjection to me. Because if they're in subjection to me, we're both in trouble. It's not under me. That's not under us. It's going to include the redeemed among the Gentiles. But this is going to say they're going to be under Israel's feet. We'll rule and reign with Him as well. That is, we as Gentiles. That's what it tells us in the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 3 and verse 9, it's there on your sheet. In Revelation chapter 3 and verse 9, I want you to notice some things about this. The Bible says, and before I read that, the Word of God does say that we're going to rule and reign with the Lord Jesus Christ. So when I look at what God's going to do for Israel, the nation of Israel, that doesn't exclude me. any more than it does in relationship to the gospel, you realize if God had not chosen to use Israel as a nation, we wouldn't have any Old Testament. And if we didn't have any Old Testament, we wouldn't have any basis for our New Testament. If He hadn't chose to use them, we wouldn't be singing about a babe that is in a manger, or was in a manger. and lived on this earth a perfect life and did nothing but good, died on the cross for our sins and rose again for our justification. We wouldn't be singing about that. He gave him his humanity through a people. He wasn't a Brit. He wasn't a Native American. He wasn't from Persia. He was a Jew. That's who God used. Made of a woman made under the law that He might redeem them that are under the law. And we share in that. And we'll also share in reigning with Him, but that doesn't exclude them. On the contrary, you find out how the Word of God describes our relationship to the Gospel and to lost sinners, and even the Jews, it says in Revelation chapter 3 and verse 9. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan a synagogue. He's talking about a Jewish synagogue. But when they're opposed to God, the Lord Jesus Christ said, you have your father the devil, and the less of your father ye will do. That's true of all of us in our lost conditions. But now it says this, which say they are Jews, synagogue of Satan, they say they're Jews, but they're not. But do lie. Behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, not under thy feet. The gospel brings people to worship before our feet and to know that I love thee. He's talking about his church, a particular one of his churches. It's before thee, before thy feet. This is going to be converted Jews. He's saying some of these Jews are going to come and they're going to worship before your feet. Not worshiping in the sense of being subdued to the church, but subdued before God and before God's people, not under the church. Boy, the Catholics would like that. As a matter of fact, they do like that idea. 1 Corinthians chapter 14 and verse 25 says this though, and it's talking about, it's talking in the context about the place of tongues. It has no place except in relationship to prophecy. If someone speaks in tongues and you can't understand what they're saying, they don't either. Don't worry about it. They don't either. But back then they did. They knew they were speaking in a foreign language. But if they do that and you don't understand what they're saying, there's no profit to that. But if they prophesy in a language you can understand, then there's much profit in that. It says, and thus are the secrets of his heart made known, how? By the preaching of the word of God. It's a two-edged sword. It's like a rock, breaketh with a hammer. It's broken with a hammer and so forth. It says, and so falling down on his face he will worship God, not you, not the church, he'll worship God. And report that God is in you of a truth. God is in you, that is, the Spirit of God dwells in you. The truth of God is in you. What you preach is the truth of God, because God has taken what has been heard, He's heard it with the hearing ear, it's reached His heart by the Spirit of God, and He's been born again in the Spirit of God, and now when a person's born again as a child of God, they acknowledge that God is in this place, and the truth of God is here. But that's not under our feet. God doesn't put people under our feet. Israel's earthly inheritance will be for a chosen people. Verse 4, he shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Now stop and think about that. The excellency of Jacob whom he What does he mean by that? This inheritance he's talking about has to do with the excellency of Jacob. When Israel entered into the land of Joshua, their inheritance was by law. It was according to God's providence. They chose lots and that's what they got. But everything they have in this inheritance is in Christ. Everything they have in this inheritance is in Christ, their King. It's an inheritance that's not by merit, it's not just by providence, but because God set His love upon Jacob. God set His love upon His inheritance. Those who are His inheritance, that is Christ's inheritance, and those who have an inheritance in Christ, It's because God set his love upon them. In Malachi chapter 1, verses 1-5, and you can just jot this down and read this later for the sake of time, but it's talking about how Israel says, how is it that we're better than Esau? God says, because I set my love upon you. God chose Jacob over Esau, and he says, because he loved him. This is where he says, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. In the eternal counsel of God, God loved Jacob and not Esau. And in time, that was revealed. How do we know? Because you can see it still today. Esau was not loved of God, but Jacob was. Jacob was loved of God. Why does he say Jacob? Well, because there's a seed of Isaac, and his wife had two sons, and they were twins. Esau was the firstborn, but God had already chosen the other one, because He loved him. Why is that? If He wanted us to know, He would have told us. But then God looks to the future. God will be magnified from the borders of Israel. That's what He says in our text. He's going to be magnified from the borders of Israel. They should have loved Him. That is in Malachi. That's where it says that in Malachi. that God is going to be magnified from the borders of Israel. Well, that's a land. Why is God going to do this with Israel like this? So He'll be magnified. The earth is going to see that God has kept His promise. God has defeated His enemies in the earth. His Son is going to reign. And He's going to be especially glorified in His people there. just like he's glorified in his church in a special way right now. When they see the desolation of Esau, they will realize then how God deserves to be magnified in truth. That's the inheritance of God's people. That's part of the inheritance of God's people. This chosen inheritance is called the Excellency of Jacob. The Excellency of Jacob It used to be his pride. This word is used that way many, many times. As a matter of fact, most of the time this word is used in talking about the pride of men. But when it's talking about it in a positive way, it's just the opposite. This is an excellency that is because of the righteousness of God that's in the Lord Jesus Christ. They will be a chosen people in Christ. In Psalm 16, in verse 3, it says this, but to the saints, my goodness extendeth not to thee, he says, this is Christ speaking, he says, my goodness extendeth not to thee, that is, the father doesn't need his righteousness, they have the same righteousness. But the righteousness that he wrought on the cross of Calvary, my goodness extendeth not to thee, but to the saints that are in the earth and to the excellent In whom is all my delight? If there's anything excellent about you and I, it's only because of what we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. God has a chosen people out of Israel. Paul talks about that in the book of Romans. Now I want you to notice the third thing as far as the overall outline of this psalm is concerned. We'll look at this quickly. God is the king. In verses 5 through 9, God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. God has gone up. It's still talking about the king. This king that's going to go up is none other than God Himself. He's going to be praised for His exaltation in the earth. The future is stated in these last verses 5 through 9. It's stated as something that's present. Well, that's because it's the reality of verses 2, 3, and 4. Now that that is established and that is in place, now this will be the present. Prophecy in the Word of God many times is spoken of that way. So verse 5, these verses rejoice that He has done what He predicted He would do in verse 3. He said He would subdue the people under us. He shall, and the nations under his feet. Now verse 5 says he's gone up with a shout. The Lord with the sound of a trumpet. I look at this passage and people that want to try to make it a gospel passage, they twist it all around. They've got, well, when did Christ go up? Well, when he ascended back to heaven. The only thing is they acknowledge, well, there wasn't a shout then that they heard. And there wasn't a trumpet that they heard. But the reasoning is that, well, because when he comes back, it'll be with a shout and it'll be with a trumpet, then there must have been one in heaven that they didn't hear. The fact of the matter is the Bible nowhere says that there was a shout or that there was a trumpet. It never prophesied that there would be a shout and a trumpet at that time. So I come to the conclusion, no, that's not what it's talking about. This is talking about when the king ascends, when he descends from heaven, and so he will then ascend his holy hill of Zion. That's what verse 7 is talking about. For God is the king of all the earth. Sing ye praises with understanding. The king, God, is the king over all the earth. He's going to ascend to his home. The King is none other than Jehovah God, equal in all aspects to God the Father. His subjects are called... I like this. His subjects are called to sing praises. God likes singing people. He likes grateful people. The Lord Jesus Christ liked to sing. He sang with His disciples. God talks about this all through the Word of God. You can say, well, this is Old Testament and that's going to be in the earthly reign of Christ. Yes, but I find exactly the same thing. We are commanded to sing. It is as much a part of worship as prayer, reading the Word of God and preaching. That's why when I go to the house of God, I got my Bible with me, because we're going there to read the Word of God. That's why when I go to the house, I expect there to be some praying. And when there's some praying, I plan on taking part in it, because that's part of worship. I expect that there's going to be some reading the Word of God, there's going to be some praying, and there's going to be some preaching of the Word of God, and some exhortation from the Word of God, because that's what worship is. In Colossians 3, verse 16, it says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. It starts in the heart. The word of Christ, the truth of Christ, the doctrine of Christ, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. So when there's the Word of Christ dwelling in us richly and we have grace in our hearts to the Lord, we'll want to be a blessing to God's people, open our mouths, and if we're not a preacher, we can be a singer and we can be a prayer. All God's people can be that. We're to sing with the understanding. You see, you can't admonish someone else if you don't understand what the Word of God teaches. If God hasn't said something to you, you've got nothing to say to anybody else about God and the Word of God. But when God says something to you and God teaches you something, you understand something, now you have something to pray about, you're on praying grounds, you have something to talk about, and you've got something to sing about. That means that our songs are supposed to be songs that we sing with the understanding of the Word of God. It's really hard to do that when the song isn't a scriptural song. We're to be singing with the understanding. We're to be teaching the truth of God in our songs. We're supposed to actually even be admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. That means admonishing means to express in one another our responsibility to the truth of God. Here's what the truth of God says when we sing about it, and our songs also include what we're supposed to do about it. Trust and obey. Walk with the Lord in the light of his word. There's just all kinds of admonitions, aren't there, in the old song. It's amazing how much the old songwriters knew about the word of God. First Corinthians chapter 14 and verse 15, what is it then? I will pray with the spirit, I will pray with the understanding also. I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also." That sounds like what the Lord Jesus Christ said, they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth, in spirit and with the understanding of the Word of God. So that excludes meaningless unscriptural songs in the house of God. But it includes singing, preaching, singing, teaching the Word of God, reading the Word of God. It's going to be that way. When Christ reigns on this earth, God's people are going to participate. Real Christianity is discipleship, and discipleship is participation. It's participation. So it predicts in general here also, it predicts in general what Zacharias says. It says, God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises, sing praises unto our king, sing praises. For God is the king of all the earth, sing ye praises with the understanding. Zechariah chapter 14 and verse 9 says this, it gets very particular about this general prediction. It says, And the Lord shall be king over all the earth. And in that day shall there be one Lord in His name, one. One Lord, one sovereign God ruling over the earth. There's only going to be His one name. That means there's only going to be one truth, not your truth, my truth. There's going to be one truth. There's going to be one faith and one that we worship. It's all going to be one. And it'll all be in perfect agreement. Now, in verses 8 and 9, there's coming literal reign of Christ upon this earth. It tells us here in verses 8 and 9, God reigneth over the heathen. God reigneth over the heathen. There are going to be lost people on this earth. This isn't heaven. There'll be no lost people in heaven. This is talking about the earthly reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's going to be lost people there, but they're still going to be reigned over. Now, we don't see that today, do we? Now, Alma and Linus can say whatever they want to, but we're not even getting close to this. We're not getting close. We're getting further and further away, so we're not doing a very good job. If God intended for us to preach in the kingdom, it isn't working. And it never has. And it's not going to. He will bring it in. He will bring it in. God is sovereign in the affairs of men today, but it's at His coming time that He will appear as a sovereign God. He will reign in sovereign righteousness, and it will be manifest on the earth. That's certainly not true today. It's going backwards so fast you can't hardly keep up with it. But it's going to change a lot faster one of these days, real soon. Christ is going to be exalted in the earth in verse 9. Verse 8 says, God reigneth over the heathen. God sitteth upon the throne of His holiness. The Lord Jesus Christ is going to reign as God upon the earth. The princes of the people. are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham." Now I want you to know something about this. I want to close with this thought. The people of the God of Abraham. Now think about that. The princes of the earth, first of all, are going to be a regenerate people. Revelation 20, verse 6 says, Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection, on such the second death hath no power. But they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. All the princes are going to be regenerate people, born again of the Spirit of God in this life, and dwelt by the Spirit of God, cleansed by the blood of Christ. and we're going to rule and reign with Him. That's a regenerate people. But I want you to notice the second thing about this. These born-again people are the people of God. The people of God. I mentioned this morning, someone said, do you believe in God? I got a better question for you. Are you one of the people of God? Are you a people of God? In other words, do you belong to Him? And He owns you? Because He not only created you, because He bought you? He purchased you with His own blood? He paid for you? Does He own you, lock, stock and barrel? Does He possess you? The people of God That means the rest of the people aren't of God. It's the people of God rather than what Israel said, what the Jews said to Jesus. They said, we be the seed of Abraham. He said, I know you're the seed of Abraham. But there was a problem. They were not the people of God. In John chapter 8 and verse 47. This is Christ speaking to them and He said, He that is of God. You get that? It's saying the same thing it says here in the psalm. Who is this of Israel that's going to reign with Him? The ones that are the people of God. Who is it among the Gentiles that are going to reign with Him? The people of God. That's a particular people. He that is of God, here is God's work. A people are of God, means from God, have life from God, born again of the Spirit of God, therefore the people of God, adopted by God in the Lord Jesus Christ, belong to Him. Ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. The people of God, listen to me carefully tonight. The people of God hear God. The people of God hear the Word of God. Religious people can sit under the Word of God all the time. As a matter of fact, I've known religious people that sat under the Word of God their whole life. And we're not saved. Though they said they weren't saved until they were older in life and realized the reason they didn't have peace is because they didn't know God. They had not been born again of God, and therefore they didn't have an ear for the Word of God. They didn't hear God. They heard the words, but it didn't affect their life. When people hear the Word of God, like he's talking about here, They love the truth of God. The truth of God changes their life. It has an impact on your life. The Word of God will change your life. And nothing else will do it like the Word of God does once you're born again of the Spirit of God. He says, princes of the people are gathered together Even the people of the God of Abraham. Abraham had the faith of Abraham. The people of God have the faith of Abraham. Because it's the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. That faith is a gift of God. The born again of the Spirit of God, they have the kind of faith that really saves and really changes. Because it comes from God. It's a living faith because it comes from the living God. That makes them the people of God. For the shields of the earth belong unto God, and he is greatly exalted. This word shields, most of the time, I mean almost all the time, it's translated rulers. Rulers, kings, princes, shields. But here it's translated shields. You know why that is? Because what rulers are supposed to do is to defend people. They're supposed to defend the people of their nation. They're supposed to protect the people of their nation. A ruler that is fit to be called a ruler, cares about the people that he rules over more than anybody else. Solomon was a wise king and his first concern was not his wealth, it was not his popularity, nothing. The one thing he wanted more than anything else is the wisdom to rule over this thy great people, and protect this people. That's what good rulers do. In the millennial reign of Christ, the rulers on this earth are actually going to do their job. And they're going to be shields for the people of God, serving the God of the people. Shields. He is greatly exalted. The Lord, the earth belongs to Him, and He is greatly exalted. Wouldn't it be something? I look at passages like this, and I sit back and I think, wouldn't it be something if it was like this right now? That'd be wonderful, wouldn't it? If the world was like this right now. The Son of God ruling over this earth, sitting on His throne over in Israel where the Muslims have their mosque right now. He'd be sitting on that mount. He'd be king. And there'd only be one God, one faith, and one reigning on His throne. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ, the God of eternity. Let's stand and have a word. Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, we thank you tonight for the glorious truths of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you, Father, for all of your promises and the great hope that we have to look forward to and the things that are set before us, both in time and in eternity. And again, we desire that soon the Lord Jesus Christ would come back. Ask your God that you'd help us tonight to order our lives in such a way that we realize that our time is short and that we would therefore redeem the time because the days are evil. We'll thank you and praise you for what you'll do for us and do in us and through us. In Jesus' name.