Be Glad God Reigns

Psalm 97:1–5 (ESV) The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad! 2 Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. 3 Fire goes before him and burns up his adversaries all around. 4 His lightnings light up the world; the earth sees and trembles. 5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth.

We often pray for God to show up. Have we read the opening of this Psalm? The awesome presence of God is described as clouds and thick darkness as at the time when God descended on the mountain and the people drew back in Exodus. His righteousness is untouchable to us. He is totally just and that should throw a bit of tension in our minds. The earth trembles, the mountains melt, his enemies get fried in His presence.

God's reign is awesome (in the frightful sense). This is the God that shook Isaiah to his core. He caused Peter to despair of sin. John fell prostrate at his feet in Revelation. Never forget, God is awesome. He is AWEsome.

Hebrews 12:29 (ESV) says, "our God is a consuming fire."

And the Earth is called to be glad because God reigns. Why? Because He is the only one worthy to reign. For that His creation can rejoice! If we reigned, Earth would be in trouble. If we were Earth's only hope, the world would suffer. Yes, God cares for His creation and cares for the Earth. So should we. No, we do not serve the world. We serve the one who reigns over it, carefully tending it.

We should rejoice with the Earth! Because we tend to think we reign when we don't. We want to imagine we are greater than we are, more powerful than we think, more important than is reasonable. We should be glad that the Earth is His and He ultimately reigns, because we tend to mess it up.