Psalm1- Archives - Moment to Moment

Yielding to our rightful King

Yielding. It’s not a word people like to hear. Especially when it comes to what we feel are our rights. My body. My life. My way.

And when anyone tries to make us yield, we fight as if our lives depended on it.

And when it comes to God, our lives do depend on it. If we want a blessed life, we need to yield to God as our King.

In this passage, however, we see how many people fight against God instead of yielding to him.

The psalmist writes,

Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth rise up
and the rulers band together against the LORD
and against his anointed, saying,

“Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.” (Psalm 2:1–3)

That’s how many people think when it comes to God.

“He’s trying to bind us. He’s trying to make our lives miserable. Let’s throw off these chains and shackles he’s trying to bind us with.”

It’s been that way for centuries, from the time of Adam and Eve in the Garden, to the cross of Calvary, and even to our present day. And the day will come when all the nations will come together to fight against God one last time.

But,

The One enthroned in heaven laughs;
the Lord scoffs at them.

He rebukes them in his anger
and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,

“I have installed my king on Zion,
my holy mountain.” (Psalm 2:4–6)

In other words, all our fighting, all our striving, all our efforts are in vain when it comes to fighting against the Lord.

God has established Christ as King, and now says to him,

“You are my Son;
today I have become your Father.

Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance,
the ends of the earth your possession.” (Psalm 2:7–8)

All the world will be subjected to the Son. Some will yield in love and awe. Others will surrender with fists clenched and teeth gnashed. But all will yield.

So how should we respond?

Therefore, you kings, be wise;
be warned, you rulers of the earth.

Serve the LORD with fear
and celebrate his rule with trembling.

Kiss his Son, or he will be angry
and your way will lead to your destruction,
for his wrath can flare up in a moment. (Psalm 2:10–12)

In other words, knowing that Jesus will triumph, we would be wise to yield now while we still have the choice.

To honor him and serve him with the awe and reverence he deserves. He is, after all, our rightful king. He created us and so we rightfully belong to him.

All that we have, even our very lives, are gifts from him. So why not yield?

All will kneel whether they want to or not. And if people persist in their rebellion against their rightful King, they will be destroyed.

But as the psalmist says,

Blessed are all who take refuge in him. (Psalm 2:12)

When we yield to him, we find peace, we find joy, and we find life.

We don’t lose anything by yielding. We gain everything.

How about you? Will you yield to your rightful king today?

The way of blessedness

And so we head full-on into the Psalms.

We have already touched on those where we knew their historical contexts, so if you notice that we seem to skip a few here or there, we actually covered them earlier.

I’m thinking of adding to the blog menu to make things easier to find, but I won’t make promises on when that will happen. Hopefully soon, however.

In this, the first psalm, it talks about the way of blessedness. How do we find blessing?

We need to watch where we walk, stand, and sit. The writer says,

Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers. (Psalm 1:1)

In other words, who are you keeping company with? Whose examples are you following? What path are you standing on?

This passage is not saying that we should avoid non-Christians altogether.

For one thing, that would be impossible. For another, it would be impossible to reach them for Christ if we’re avoiding them.

But the question we need to ask is, “Are they influencing us, or are we influencing them?”

Are we starting to take on their attitudes, or are they starting to take ours? Are we taking the path they’re walking on, or are they starting to be swayed by the path we are on?

The writer here tells us not to be influenced by the ungodly. Instead, we should be influenced by the Word of God.

He says we should “delight in the law of the Lord,” and “meditate on his law day and night.” (2)

Every day, we should be immersing ourselves in God’s word. Reading it in the morning if possible.

And as we walk, ride the train, drive our car, or even as we just do housework, we should be reflecting on what God has been teaching us, and asking, “God, what are you saying to me today?”

As we do so, we’ll be like a

tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither —
whatever they do prospers. (Psalm 1:3)

The picture is a tree that is purposely placed where it can get lots of water. And because it is so near the source of its life, it yields its fruit in season and prospers.

In the same way, when we place ourselves near the Water of Life, the Living Water of the Holy Spirit, he fills us, and we bear his fruit.

Does this mean that we’ll never face problems? Of course not. We just saw in Job that though he did all the things Psalm 1 talks about, he still suffered greatly.

But as it says in verse 6,

The Lord watches over the way of the righteous.

Though Job may have felt abandoned by God, God had never left. He was still watching over Job and even prevented Satan from doing more damage to Job’s life.

And by staying near those streams of Living Water, Job eventually was restored and bore fruit once more.

So let us watch where we walk, stand, and sit. And let our lives be filled by the One who gives true life.