Alright, Psalm 97 tonight. We sang that song, This is My Father's World, and I saw somebody post that today as kind of a happy Father's Day. Focusing on verse number 3. So you're remembering this is God's world. And even though things in the world may seem wrong, God's still the ruler. And since he's the ruler, why should my heart be sad? The Lord is king, let the heaven rings. God reigns, let earth be glad. And the interesting thing about that is, is this goes along right with our passage of Scripture tonight. Psalm 97. And so if you will remember as we have been going through these psalms that we are in a grouping of psalms that are enthronement psalms. They're looking at the time when Yeshua will come and reign upon the throne of David. And so we are understanding that this is looking forward to the millennial kingdom when Jesus sets upon the throne of David. And you'll notice the last verse of that song that we sing, This is My Father's World, speaks of God reigns. Psalm 97 verse 1 says, The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice. And so we are understanding that this psalm is talking about the reign of Jesus Christ as the Messiah. You know, God's reigning today throughout all of His creation. It may not seem like at this point that He's reigning on earth, but He is. He is in control of all things. We've studied often how the hearts of the kings are in his hand and he turns them whithersoever he willeth. So we understand that he is reigning and so this psalm is talking about that when the children of Israel are looking forward to the reign of Christ. One of the things that I've enjoyed about these psalms as we have studied and tried to look at was the inspiration for the psalmist to pen the psalm. This psalm doesn't necessarily say when the psalm was written or the reason behind it, but some of the commentators say that it could have been after a great victory of Israel when they were able to see that God had delivered them and they were able to look forward to not just a temporary victory but a time when the Lord will reign forever. So it's interesting to study the Psalms and I will say it's always interesting to study the Scripture. When you go into the Scripture and you're preparing to preach a sermon and you're trying to look at all the background information, And it's enjoyable to study and see all the different commentators and how they view the breakdown or the outline of the passage. What we're going to look at today as we're looking at this psalm is we're going to look at the Lord reigning. Then we're going to look at the effect of the Lord's reign upon those who are idolaters. And then we're going to look at the effect of the Lord's reign upon those who are faithful. And you know the thing about that is all of us could think about that. What's going to be the effect when the Lord does return? I know it seems like as we go throughout our lives and we live our lives and And you always hear that, you know, the Lord's going to return and the Lord could return at any time and that the reign of the Lord could happen at any time. But it seems like it never happens. I mean, it doesn't happen and maybe you're thinking, well, you know, it's never going to happen. Well, there's going to be a time when it is going to happen. There's going to be a time when the Lord does reign and if you look there in Verse number one, the Lord reigneth. So this is talking about the sovereignty of God. And so when we think about the sovereignty of God, there's always a couple of different responses to the sovereignty of God. Knowing that God is in control of your life, and knowing that God is the ruler of your life, And knowing that one day you will answer to God for your life. Does that cause rejoicing in your heart? Or does that cause you to be angry? And like we talked about this morning when we talked about God stating of all the trees of the garden you may as freely eat but of that tree that's in the midst of the garden you cannot eat of it. Does the restrictions that God puts upon you and upon your life, how does that affect you? Hopefully, your understanding of the Lord reigning brings rejoicing to your heart. See Psalm 97, the Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice. We should be rejoicing because we know the Lord is reigning. Notice also as you're reading there and it says the Lord reigneth. That ETH suffix there allows you to understand that that's something that continues on. There's no end to it. The Lord is reigning today. The Lord will reign tomorrow. The Lord will reign forever. This is Our Father's world. This is His creation. And as we have looked and understood, this was created by Him and for Him. All things were created for His glory. And so the Lord is going to reign over His creation forever. Notice it also says the Lord reigns and where does He reign? In verse number 1, the Lord reigneth the earth Rejoice, let the multitudes of islands be glad thereof." That little phrase there, the multitude of islands, that allows us to see that it's not talking about just the continents. But all the little islands that are out in the sea, the Lord is reigning there. And as I was considering this passage, I thought about some of those islands. Have you ever sat and looked at the map and looked at some of those islands and how far they are away from anything else? When you get out and look at like the American Samoa, go look at Samoa on a globe and see how far that is away from anything else. There are some islands out and they're kind of by themselves and they're miles and miles and miles away from any other land. How long did it take for the Gospel to get to those places? There's places where we wonder whether the name of Jehovah has been heard, but the Lord reigns there. The Lord reigns there and the multitudes of the islands are glad because the Lord reigns. So the reign of God covers every corner of the earth. Verse number 2 tells us clouds and darkness are around about him. Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne. So we're looking at the reign of God and we're seeing that this is his world and we're looking forward to the time and we'll get into it in just a minute. We're looking forward to the time when the second coming of Jesus when he sets upon the throne of David. And again, it just amazes me how much this has been a part of everything that we've been studying recently. I mean, we're at the party on Wednesday night in the book of Revelation. I mean, this week it's going to be the marriage supper of the Lamb. We're going to see Jesus returning to earth. And so this time when Jesus reigns and sits upon the throne of David, it seems like every message I preach, I'm focusing on that, look, Jesus sitting upon the throne of David forever. Because, let's remember, that's the end. That's the goal of all of creation is for Jesus to reign on this earth. And so verse number 2 tells us, clouds and darkness are round about him. Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne. So now we are getting into a description of his glory and a description of his Sovereignty, and you notice it says clouds and darkness are round about him. Let's think about all the times when God revealed himself to us. When God revealed himself to Israel. Remember it was up on the mountains and there were thunders and lightnings and clouds. Then when God revealed himself Remember, he had those to whom he revealed himself to, to hide in the crevice of the cave. And he said, you can only see my hinder parts. We cannot grasp the glory of God. And so God, when he is revealing himself to us, must hide his glory. And so, when we're thinking about the reign of God upon this earth, We know that he has to hide or veil his reign by darkness. What do we mean by that? We mean that we can't comprehend all that God is doing. We can't comprehend the sovereign will of God for all of creation. We can't handle every single thought of what God is doing. Listen, we can't even handle every event that's going on in our lives today many times. Our lives are so full of anxiety just trying to figure out our own lives. Now try to figure out All the other six plus billion people that are in the world today and how much anxiety would you have if you were trying to figure out all of their lives too? We can't comprehend the glory and the majesty and the sovereign will of God and so God veils His glory but He tells us that when He comes God always reveals to us what we need to know what is good for us and helpful for us. And he says, righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne. Because we can't understand or comprehend all of the will of God, He reveals it to us little by little so we won't be overwhelmed And Proverbs 25 too tells us, it is the glory of God to conceal a thing. So God hides all that He is doing but He reveals to us that when He comes and when He reigns, His reign will be in righteousness. His judgment will be righteous and His throne will be a throne of righteousness and judgment. Now we know that the world doesn't reign in righteousness today. We know the world's judgment is not righteous today. But when Jesus comes and he has that thousand year reign, we know that he will judge in righteousness. And then when he sits on the throne of David forever, it will be in righteousness. So that's something that we can look forward to when all will be just, all will be right. This gives us a longing in our hearts. Who sang that just recently or spoke of that? This world is not my home, I'm just a passing through. We remember that we're not really to enjoy this world. We're not to set our roots down too heavily because this is my temporary home. What's going on in my life is to point me to a better place. A place where reigneth righteousness. You know we're going to experience unrighteousness in this world. And that's to urge us to look forward to a time when righteousness reigns. So the effect of the Lord on his foes we're going to find now in verses 3 through 9. A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about. His lightnings enlightened the world the earth saw and trembled. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. The heavens declare his righteousness, and all the people see his glory. Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols. Worship him, all you gods. Zion heard and was glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoiced of thy judgments, O Lord. For thou, Lord, art high above all the earth. Thou art exalted far above all gods. So verse 3 tells us about the completeness of the Lord's reign, that when He comes to reign and His enemies that are in this world, He's going to completely destroy them. His judgment that he makes is complete. We may not understand, but anyone who is not worshiping the Lord God Jehovah through Jesus is the enemy of God. Because they are setting something else up as God in their life. They're setting themselves up as God. They're setting their idol up, whether it be Buddha, or whether it be Muhammad, or whatever it is that they're setting up to be their God. That God is in competition to the Lord God Jehovah. And so they are the enemy. God is one day going to bring His judgment upon the world. If you want to turn to Zechariah chapter number 14, and you might want to put a little bookmark there because we're going to look here again. Zechariah chapter number 14, it's going to tell us about that judgment of God upon the world because They challenge God for His sovereignty. They want to rule their own destiny. And so they are in rebellion against God's rule and God's authority. And when God brings judgment, and this shall be the plague, Zechariah 14, 12, and this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem. Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet. and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongues shall consume away in their mouth." The judgment of God will come upon all wickedness and all rebellion. And all of those who do not choose to repent of their sins and put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, the judgment of God one day is going to come upon them. Now, we're going to rejoice because why are we rejoicing? Because we know who Jesus is. And we know that He's going to reign. And so it brings rejoicing to our hearts. Jeremiah 21, 12 says this, O house of David, thus saith the Lord, execute judgment in the morning and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my fury go out like fire and burn that none can quench it because of the evil of your doings. And so the judgment of God is going to burn because of evil. Peter in 2 Peter 3, 7 says this, But the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. I know that it's not a popular thing for folks to think about, but there is the fire of God's judgment that's going to come upon this earth, and all the wickedness of this world is going to be brought into judgment, and the wicked are going to be destroyed from this earth. And Jesus is going to reign. And we who are saved are on His side. But those who are not, they're going to face the judgment of God. Verses 4 and 5 describe for us what it would be like when Jesus ascends to the throne. Verse 4 of Psalm 97. His lightnings enlightened the world. The earth saw and trembled. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. Now let's go back to Zechariah 14. And I want you to just try to sit in your mind's eye and visualize. Now, we're not going to be here when this takes place. Those of us who are believers, those of us who are saved, we're not going to be here. But try to visualize what it's going to be like, Zechariah 14 and verse number 4. Well, let's go to verse 3. Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations as when he fought in the day of battle. See, let me just go up and start in verse 1. Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoils shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished, and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. So this is during the tribulation when all the nations of the world are going to come down against Jerusalem. And what's going to happen then? Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west. And there shall be a great valley, and half of the mountain shall be moved to the north, and half of it toward the south. Can you imagine what it's going to be like? And remember this is during the tribulation. This is when the armies of Antichrist are coming down against Jerusalem and they're going to fight against the city of Jerusalem and all the armies of the world underneath the banner of the Antichrist are going to surround Jerusalem and Jesus is going to return to defend his people. Can you imagine what it's going to be like when Jesus puts his foot on the Mount of Olives And that mountain cleaves in half and creates a great valley. That's going to be awe-inspiring. Verse 10 says, All the land shall be turned as a plain from Jiba to Rimon, south of Jerusalem. And it shall be lifted up and inhabited in her place from Benjamin's gate unto the palace of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of the Hananiel unto the king's winepress. When Jesus sets his foot upon the Mount of Olives and this earthquake happens and the Mount of Olives splits in half, notice all the land shall be turned as a plain. All the hills and valleys of Jerusalem will fall flat. Can you imagine what it's going to be like when those sites, you begin to see those sites begin to take place? And it's at that point When the children of Israel begin to see, as we read in verse number 12, as the judgment of God comes out against all of those that are fighting against Jerusalem, and it tells us then, that they will look upon him whom they have pierced, and they shall wonder, they shall wonder about Jesus. And that's when they will see their Messiah. But you see this judgment of God. Verse 6, back in Psalm 97. What's it going to be like when his lightnings enlighten the world and the earth soar and tremble and the hills melted away like wax from the presence of the Lord? When the hills pass away, when Jesus returns. What's it going to be like? When they begin to see, verse 6 of Psalm 97, the heavens declare His righteousness and all the people shall see His glory. You see, when the world begins to see the glory of God, when God opens up His sovereignty and they begin to see His glory and they begin to understand His righteousness, There's going to come a time when there's some people who know and have heard of Jesus are going to say, uh-oh, grandma and grandpa were right. Uh-oh, mom and dad were right. Uh-oh, my Sunday school teacher was right. And I've rejected the message of the gospel. There's going to be some who come to understand the truth. Verse 7 says, confounded be all they that serve graven images that boast themselves of idols. Worship Him, all you gods. They will be confounded. Those who have rejected Jesus, those who have rejected the ways of God, those who have rejected the truth, it says they will be confounded, which means to pale, to be disappointed, or to be ashamed. All of a sudden, as the truth begins to be revealed to them, and they understand that they have been following a lie, they will see the foolishness. of serving a God which is their own creation, the creation of their own hands. All of a sudden, their little Buddhas will hold no value anymore. All of a sudden, those truths that they thought they knew about, all of those virgins that they would have if they died during a holy war, jihad. Uh-oh, that's not true. All of a sudden, all these idols that men have set up on this earth, their riches and their fame that they have established for themselves on this earth, all that they've given themselves for, they find out it was nothing, that Jesus truly is Lord. And they're going to be ashamed. It reminds me, as I was again studying this passage, I won't take the time to turn there, but you remember when Elijah was on top of Mount Carmel and he challenged the prophets of Baal. And remember, you know, you all make an altar, make a sacrifice and, you know, call down fire from your gods and then I'll do the same thing. Whichever God is really God will consume the fire. And the prophets of Baal, they're up on their altar and they're cutting themselves and they're crying out to their God, Baal, to come and consume the fire. Then Elijah goes and has his fire come down and consume his sacrifice. And all of those prophets of Baal are slain. This scripture reminds me of that. They found out the futility of what the prophets of Baal found out, the futility of what they were serving. And they found out that Elijah's God was the true God. This is going to happen so many times over when the people of the world recognize that the Lord God, Jesus Christ, is the true God. Verse 8 and 9 says, Zion heard and was glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of thy judgment, O Lord. For thou, Lord, art high above all the earth, thou exalted far above all gods. Now there's going to come a time when even Jerusalem is going to turn after Jesus. When Jesus comes and rescues them, as we read earlier in Zechariah 14, there's gonna come a time when, again, they're gonna look upon him whom they have pierced and they're gonna ask him, what meaneth those wounds in your hands? And he's gonna say, that's where I was wounded for my friends. And they're going to understand Jesus was the Messiah. They are going to be glad because Jesus is going to come to reign. That's only going to happen because Ezekiel 1119 says that God will give them a new heart. The reason they will receive Jesus is because God gives them a new heart. And when Jesus comes to reign, the false religions will be defeated. And the joy and the rejoicing in the messianic kingdom will be the righteous judgments of the Messiah. They will understand, as verse 9 says, for thou, Lord, art high above all the earth, thou exalted far above all gods. Hold your place in Psalm 97. Let's turn back to 1 Timothy real quick. You see, we're told to pray for those that are in authority over us. 1 Timothy chapter number 2 and verse number 1 says, I exhort therefore that first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and for all that are in authority. So we're told to pray for those that are in authority over us. But why? What should be the reason that we pray for them? Paul tells us that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. Our prayer for our leaders should be that they lead in such a way that we can lead a quiet and peaceable life and live godly and live honestly. Now we know that's not going to happen, but on this day, the day that we're looking at in Psalm 97, that day is going to happen. The day is going to happen when Jesus is going to reign in righteousness and the wicked are going to be destroyed. Again, the children of Israel are looking forward to that day. Finish up now with verses 10 through 12, the effect of the reign of the Lord on His friends. Ye that love the Lord. Who are those that love the Lord? We love Him because He first loved us. We love, those that love the Lord are the ones that are loved by Him. You that love the Lord hate evil. He preserved the souls of His saints. He delivered them out of the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness. His friends recognized His reign. They recognized that it is Jehovah which ensures that reign. You are sovereign above all the gods. You are sovereign. You are above the earth. You are above every God. Verse number 10 tells us this is an Old Testament promise or an Old Testament revealing of the eternal security of the believer. Notice, he preserveth the souls of his saints. That's what the eternal security of the believer is. You're a saint, you're a holy one, and you are a holy one because He's the one doing the preserving. Notice there again that ETH, that suffix, that continuing on, meaning that it's going to continue on. We are preserved. We will be preserved. Forever we will be preserved. That word preserved there means to put a hedge about, to guard and protect. So, love the Lord, Hate evil because He is preserving you, because you are a saint, because you are a holy one, because you are one that is believed in the name of Yeshua. God has put a hedge about you. You are His sheep and He will continue to preserve you. He will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked. And we can even say He will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked one. The wicked one is not going to have any control over your life. You're protected from the wicked one. This is why we should hate evil. Because we know we are protected of God. Preserved of God forever. So we should hate evil. We should hate anything that is contrary to God. We should hate it and despise it. And work against it. We should also love The Lord, because we understand I'm preserved forever. The Lord loves me, so I'm going to love Him in return because He has preserved me forever. Knowing that the wicked one desires to destroy the righteous, we should hate evil because we know evil is what Satan uses to attempt to destroy God's people and so we hate that evil. So we should love the Lord, we should hate evil. Notice also it says, verse 12, rejoice in the Lord you righteous and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. So not only should we hate evil, love the Lord, we should also rejoice in the Lord and give thanks at His holiness. Again, why is that? Because the light is sown. Ultimately, you will triumph for those who He just declared righteous. Those He just declared just. Glee should be in your heart. That light is sown for the righteous is a kind of a poetic way of the children of Israel to recognize that they are going to triumph ultimately when Jesus ascends to the throne. Notice again, we are called just. Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous. You have been made righteous by God. You are declared just by God. Looking forward to that time when Jesus is going to reign. So the psalmist keeps us aware of the glory of the coming kingdom. Why? So we can be encouraged to keep the faith. If any of you watch any sports at all, you probably know about the USA's Women's World Cup team this week beat Thailand 13 to nothing. I mean it started out until late in the game I mean it wasn't close but the USA wasn't ahead by very many and then all of a sudden the USA scored a goal and Once they scored that one goal it seemed like every ball Thailand kicked it went right to United States and before you could blink an eye the United States scored another goal and And you could see them from Thailand, them players from Thailand, they got their head down and they just kind of gave up and the USA just trounced them because they gave up. God doesn't want us to give up. It's easy for us sometimes to look at the circumstances of the world and the heartaches and the trials of our lives and sometimes get I don't know if I can handle this. What's the end of it going to be? That's the reason for this psalm. There's a time when wickedness is going to be judged. And there's a time when Jesus is going to reign. So keep the faith. You're not going to lose. You are going to win. Jesus is going to ascend to the throne of David. And we are going to be victorious. So this psalm is to encourage us to keep the faith. God wins. Keep the faith. The purpose of this psalm is to encourage us. And I pray that encourages you today. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the truths that we find in your Word. And as we keep looking forward to these enthronement psalms, when we see your promise coming true. Thank you for this truth. Thank you for your son, Jesus. It is in his name we pray. Amen.