It was interesting to watch the Chicago Cubs in the baseball playoffs last month. It was noted again and again that they had not won the World Series since 1908. Teddy Roosevelt was president then. We are on our seventeenth president since Teddy Roosevelt. Three presidents have died in office (Warren Harding and Franklin Roosevelt of natural causes and John F. Kennedy by assassination). Richard Nixon resigned. Gerald Ford served as president without being elected either vice-president or president. Several have not been reelected. Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton left after serving the maximum number of terms. Of seventeen presidents since Teddy Roosevelt, only six are still living.
Every four years we choose to either stay with the current president or elect a new one. We are a little less than a year from the next election, and the campaigning is beginning in earnest. There are even talks of certain people positioning themselves for a presidential run in the year 2008. The campaigning for president is non-stop.
We discuss and debate why this person would be better than that person. We follow it. We spend a great deal of time worrying about who will lead our country for the next four years. In 227 years of the United States we have had 43 presidents. That’s an average of 5 ¼ years per president.
Why do we pay so much attention to that? We pay attention because if we don’t, we will wind up paying taxes.
Turn with me to Psalm 93.
Read Psalm 93.
We have here a picture of God that was written somewhere between 2500 and 3000 years ago. It talks about God’s reign as king that had been established “from of old” according to v. 2. At the average of 5 ¼ years of service for a president, we would have over 560 presidents in the last 3000 years. Human rule is so limited and ineffective compared to God’s eternal rule.
God’s rule is forever. It had no beginning and it has no end. We can look back at the history and learn about our past leaders. We can discuss the merits of our current leadership. We can talk about what we want in future leaders. But God is the eternal leader.
I. God is King of the PAST.
As some of you know, I was a history major in college. History has always fascinated me. History tells us where we have been, and, in some ways, where we are headed. I have always liked reading about presidents. How did they get to the position? It seems as though some men pursued the position with great diligence. Others had it thrust upon them. Some presidents are nearly forgotten. Some stand as gigantic larger-than-life figures. They are all unique. Each had a different personality. Some were president at times of peace, and others at times of war. Some piloted the nation through turbulent waters, while others sailed on seas of domestic tranquility.
What about God’s past? Verse 2 tells us, “Your throne is established from of old; you are from everlasting.” God has been king since before the foundation of the earth.
Sometimes it seems as though God moves in and out of human history. Sometimes he seems closer than at other times. A surface reading of the Bible may leave the reader with the impression that God was closer to humanity at certain times than at others. It appears that God moves in and out of dealings with his people. Sometimes it may seem as though God is closer to us than at other times. There are times when God seems like he is so distant. Other times we feel the warmth of God’s embrace so real in our lives.
What the psalmist is saying here is that God has been God since forever. God’s rule is stable because he has always been king. We see the awe here of the psalmist. When we reflect on the fact that God has been God since before the beginning of time, we can’t help but feel a sense of awe.
I remember being a kid and asking my mom and dad what it was like in the olden days. It always left me with a sense of awe that my parents had been around soooooooo long. Stories of walking to a one-room schoolhouse for my mom were mesmerizing. There was this sense of awe that I had. I couldn’t imagine what that was like.
That’s what the psalmist is going through here. He has this sense of awe. He reflects on the enormous scope of history, realizing that God has been around for all of that. He was there when Noah built the ark. He was there during the lives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the great patriarchs of the Jewish people. He confronted Moses in the burning bush. He crossed the Red Sea and the Jordan River with his people. He was with Gideon and his ragtag army.
When we look back at our lives, we can see where God was at work. It may be at times of despair that we see God at work most. It may be at some turning point in our life that God’s activity is most evident. It may have been a time of great joy. We all can see where God was working in our lives.
The floods of verse 3 represent the enemies of God and his people. The psalmist is saying that the enemies have tried to defeat God and his people. The truth is that God’s enemies have a bigger bark than bite.
When I was younger, I was afraid of dogs. I’m still not real crazy about them. When I was scared of a dog, my dad would say, “His bark is bigger than his bite.” While I appreciated my dad’s attempt to comfort me, I didn’t want to hang around to find out. I reasoned that a little bite would not be very pleasant.
The truth is that God’s enemies roar awful loud, but with God we can’t go wrong.
Another thing we see is that…
II. God is King of the PRESENT.
For all the wonderful stuff he did in the past, God is still on the throne. Verse 1 says, “The Lord reigns; he is robed in majesty; the Lord is robed; he has put on strength as his belt.”
God was King in the past, and his is presently the King as well. God is not just a great God of the past. We can sit and reflect on the great things that God has done. There is nothing wrong with that if we realize that God is also doing great things right now. One thing that I really dislike is when people sit around and talk about how great the good ol’ days were. I’ve heard stories about how great things were in the past. The truth is that the same God who was great in the past is great today. We’ve heard stories and seen the footage of thousands of people responding to the Good News at Billy Graham crusades. We think, “Why isn’t that happening now?” The truth is that it is happening. It may not be happening in the same way, but people around the world are responding to the Good News.
We can live on past glory personally as well. Like the middle aged guy who tries to hang on to the glory of his high school football career. Twenty years ago he scored the winning touchdown against the archrivals, and that is still his crowning moment. Everyone hears the story of how he scored the game winner. He faked left and went right. He broke 15 tackles and carried 37 guys on his back as he fell just over the goal line to win the big game. Nothing that has happened in the last twenty has as much meaning as that touchdown.
We can become like that in our relationship with God. We may remember the moment we gave our life to Jesus in the past. We remember how great that was. We felt the freedom of the forgiveness for our sins. We felt brand new. The moment was incredible. We didn’t want to let that feeling go. The thing to remember is that that moment won’t last forever. It can’t last forever. We have to move on. We have to continue to grow in our relationship with God.
It’s been said that nothing in life is ever really static. Things change. We change. Things are never really the same as they were yesterday. Our relationship with God is different today than it was yesterday. It will not be the same tomorrow. We are either getting closer to God or we are moving away from him. Is God still King of your life today?
It’s great to remember all the great things that God has done in the past, but we cannot leave him in the history books. We need to be able to say, “The Lord reigns in my life today.”
Does God have any real impact on our day-to-day lives? We need to ask ourselves that question. Is God as real today as he was at some point in the past? Our relationship with God has to be current.
Our wedding was wonderful. Tammy and I were married in what seemed to be whirlwind of time. A little over ten years ago, we stood at the front of a church and held hands and exchanged wedding vows and rings. We lit the unity candle. I kissed the bride, in what everyone present said was a very memorable kiss. It was memorable because it was so short. I was concentrating on not fainting. Over the last decade we have had our ups and downs. There are times when we have felt close and times when we haven’t. Our marriage is better today than it was when we were first married. We have grown a lot over that time. How would our relationship be now if all we hung on to was our wedding? As great as that day was, it would be of no value if we didn’t continue to cultivate our relationship over this time.
Whatever experience we had with God in the past is of no value if we don’t continue to cultivate the relationship. Just like marriage is a growing maturing relationship, so our relationship with God is. It must be growing and maturing as well. It must be present and up to date.
Another thing we find in this passage is that…
III. God is King of the FUTURE.
The psalmist doesn’t linger in the past. He doesn’t even stay in the present. He proclaims that God is the God of the future as well.
Verse 5 says, “Your decrees are very trustworthy; holiness befits your house, O Lord, forevermore.” The psalmist is not anticipating a regime change any time soon.
At lot was said in the early days of the Iraqi war about a regime change. One of the main objectives was to rid the nation of Saddam Hussein and his iron fisted rule of Iraq.
Change is inevitable in human rule. As I mentioned earlier, we are in the process, even now, of selecting the next president of the United States. Rulers, kings, prime ministers, president, and the like come and go. One is here now, but someone else will be there next time. The American Constitution forbids a president from serving more than eight years. At a minimum, we will have a new president every eight years. Even if George Bush wins reelection next year, he won’t be able to run again. Someone else will be president.
God doesn’t come and go. He isn’t going to leave office and be replaced by someone with different policies. He is God forevermore.
The prophet Isaiah, who was roughly contemporary with our passage today, had a present experience with the Lord.
Read Isaiah 6:1-3.
Compare that with John’s vision of things yet to happen.
Read Revelation 4:1, 2, 8.
God is the same today as he was before. He will be the same in the future. God is God. God is stable and unchanging.
We can count on God to be there. In our world of ups and downs, God is the same. In our world of chaos and confusion, God is the same. In our world of insecurity and constant change, God is the same.
A lot has been said the last couple years about national defense and presidential leadership. There has been much debate on what should be done in the area of national defense. Should we be preemptive like we were in Iraq? Should we wait? What about protecting citizens on airplanes and in public places? Protection is something on the minds of many people these days. Can we stop every threat? Can we respond to every attack? The answer is “no.” No one can lead to that degree. George Bush can’t. Bill Clinton couldn’t. None of the presidential hopefuls can. They can’t protect us from everything.
In dealing with childhood issues when I was younger, my dad gave some advice. It wasn’t earth shattering. It wasn’t even original. He said, “Son, there is always going to be someone bigger than you.” At my size that’s pretty obvious. As trite as that saying is, it is true. There is always someone bigger and tougher and stronger. When I was a kid and my dad said that, I thought, “But there is someone who is the biggest.” That makes sense. There is Someone bigger than everyone else. And, that Someone is God. God is bigger than anything we face. Verse 4 tells us, “Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the Lord on high is mighty!” It would appear to me that the psalmist thinks the Lord is mighty.
If you are familiar with VeggieTales, you’ve probably heard some their songs. One of the first VeggieTales songs is:
God is bigger than the boogieman,
Bigger than Godzilla or the monsters on TV.
Oh, God is bigger than the boogieman,
And he’s watchin’ out for you and me.
When we are confronted with our deepest fear, God is bigger than that fear. We don’t need to be afraid of the boogieman hiding in our closet. We don’t need to fear anything because God is bigger. We don’t need to fear the next job review, unless we haven’t done our job. We don’t need to fear.
God is bigger than anything. Sometimes we think that we’ve messed up too bad for God to love. We think we done too many wrong things. We think we’ve sinned too much. We may think that God could never love me. God is bigger than our sin. God is bigger than our past. No matter what we’ve done, God can forgive us.
Conclusion
This may seem like kind of an odd message for Thanksgiving, but we should be thankful for God’s eternal reign. We are not subject to a God who changes. God’s expectations and love never change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We aren’t going to wake up tomorrow and have God tell us something different. God is established. His “decrees are very trustworthy.”
At this time of year, as we reflect on the things for which we are thankful, let us remember to be thankful for the stability that God offers us in our chaotic world. Our kids grow up, and we grow old. Our hair falls out. Our sight goes. Things change. It’s been said that the only constant in life is change. We are constantly changing. Clothing styles change. Music changes. Fads and fashions change. Everything changes. The only source of stability for us is really in God.
The thing that I am most thankful for this year is the stability of God. My life has changed a lot over the last couple years. The kids are growing. We moved here a little over a year ago. Things are constantly in flux. God is my anchor. God is my rock. God is my stability in times of change.
Is he your stability? Or, are you just floating along? God can be your stability in a time of instability. Thank God for his constancy and consistency. He is the same God past, present and future.
