Singing Psalm 9 it’s time to wake up and stop jostling for the first place in line
You relinquish the pursuit for preeminence for your nation and for yourself by recognizing that there is only one position and that role is filled.
It’s time to wake up and stop looking only at how the other guy is fighting to be first. Ask that your eyes be open to see different ways you might be doing the same thing. Singing Psalm 9 can help you take the log out of your own eye before removing the speck from someone else’s eye.
Admittedly, when it comes to those who are rich and powerful for their own glory, it can seem like you have the spec and they have the log. Still, God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. Ask that you be humble even in the face of oppression. This is what trusting in God looks like.
“The wicked to death’s realm of darkness are brought;
All nations who would not keep God in their thoughts.
Forgotten no longer the cause of the weak,
Nor perished forever the hope of the meek!” ~ Psalm 9:17-18
Singing Psalm 9 it’s time to wake up from your preeminent dream for your nation
You relinquish the pursuit for preeminence for your nation and for yourself by recognizing the vanity and futility of trying to establish a kingdom on earth that rivals his kingdom rather than being a subject to his kingship. Can you steal his crown and sit on his throne? Is your allegiance and gratitude to your nation more obvious than to God, the Maker of all people and nations?
“You chastened the nations, the wicked destroyed;
Their names You erased and forever made void.
The nations are sunk in the pit they prepared;
Their foot in the net which they hid is ensnared.” ~ Psalm 9:5,15
Singing Psalm 9 it’s time to wake up from your preeminent dream for yourself
You relinquish the pursuit for preeminence for your nation and for yourself and instead you worship the one who rightfully owns this position of preeminence, wears the crown, and sits on the throne.
“I now will give wholehearted thanks to the Lord,
And all of Your marvelous works will record.
In You will be glad and exultingly cry;
And praise to your name will I sing, O Most High.
You have defended my judgment and cause;
Enthroned, You judge rightly, enforcing the laws.” ~ Psalm 9:1,2,4
I wonder if Bob Dylan sang Psalm 9 before releasing these words in this song on August 20, 1979.
It’s time to wake up and realize something about God and yourself. He is not the errand boy of your desires. You are not in charge. It’s time to wake up.
Instead of an all out commitment to your dreams for your nation and for yourself, give 100% allegiance to the one who gave you your little story within his big story. Don’t live as if it’s the other way around. It’s time to wake up.
“Arise, Lord, that man may not make himself strong;
Let nations be judged in Your presence for wrong.
O Lord, put Your fear and Your terror in them;
Let nations know truly that they are mere men.” ~ Psalm 9:19-20
“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.” ~ Micah 6:8
“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’” ~ Matthew 28:18-20
Paul writes on the preeminence of Jesus:
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
“And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.” ~ Colossians 1:15-23
August 16-19, 2022
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