Having been rescued from hostile armies on both sides of the cross and raised up with all power as a clear demonstration that He was the Messiah for Whom His people had been waiting, the remainder of the eighteenth Psalm becomes even more striking and dynamic for both us and Jesus. Jesus could continue to read Himself into this Psalm, speaking to the Father and saying, “You make Me a leader of nations; people over whom I had no authority are now My subjects” (18:43b). Throughout the New Testament, this exaltation of Jesus as a leader of nations is a regular theme, as we have already seen in Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi.
Naturally, it is only a recurring theme in the New Testament because it is so prevalent in the Hebrew Scriptures. The repeated insistence is that the Messiah will be a ruler not just for Israel, but for all peoples. Though this was routinely misapplied in Jesus’ day to mean that national Israel, through the rule of its messiah, would also rule all nations, which led to an unfortunate exclusiveness by Israel, as God’s people isolated themselves and set up prohibitive boundaries around God’s covenant and its associated blessings. This was never God’s intention. Jesus Himself makes it quite clear that He was a King for all peoples, and the Apostle Paul seizes on the implications of Jesus life and actions, along with the “all nations” presentation from the Hebrew Scriptures, to show forth that God’s kingdom of earth (the kingdom of heaven) was inclusive of all peoples, in accordance with the covenant that God had made with Abraham.
Jesus’ leadership and authority is part of the Gospel message, and the Gospel message contains power in itself (Romans 1:16). Amazingly enough, when Jesus’ disciples went forth and preached the Gospel message---first to Jerusalem, and then to Judea, and Samaria, and to the farthest parts of the earth (Acts 1:8), in accordance with Jesus’ command to do so (Matthew 28:18)---it was believed. This, in itself, is quite amazing. There was an excellent understanding of death by crucifixion in that day. Not only was it understood that people did not survive a Roman crucifixion, but it was understood that the one that was crucified was crucified for rebellion against Rome. Death by crucifixion meant Rome won. Along with that, it was also well understood that people did not come back to life in bodily form. Nevertheless, that is what the disciples preached.
They not only preached a physically resurrected and living Jesus, but they preached a crucifixion that had precipitated the death from which He was resurrected. They preached that this crucified and resurrected Jew was Israel’s Messiah and also the Lord and Ruler of all people and all things. With full understanding of what was meant by all that had occurred, they preached that this Jesus was, in fact, the actual embodiment of Israel’s Creator God. They preached all these things, and because this Gospel contained God’s power, people actually believed it in vast numbers. As a reward for their belief, large numbers of people, because they were claiming allegiance to a different king than Caesar, were put to death. Yet people continued to believe. Though bewildering to contemplate, this should not be surprising, because the Psalmist had already written, “When they hear of My exploits, they submit to Me. Foreigners are powerless before Me; foreigners lose their courage; they shake with fear as they leave their strongholds” (18:44-45). The world’s powers did not know what to do with the message of Jesus. As Paul would write in Colossians, those powers had been disarmed (2:15), and they had no true and lasting power against those who believed in this Man Who had been resurrected or in the message of His name
Looking to the Psalms, and considering the enemies against whom He was going to do battle, and knowing that His God was completely faithful to see Him through, Jesus could take up the Psalmist’s words of praise, saying, “The Lord is alive! My Protector is praiseworthy!” (18:46a) Knowing that He would eventually hand all rule and all authority on earth back over to the Father, Jesus could say, “The God Who delivers Me is exalted as King!” (18:46b) Facing the knowledge of His eventual demise at the hands of Israel’s oppressors, but also His subsequent and expected Resurrection (according to then-current Jewish expectation) Jesus would faithfully proclaim, “The one true God completely vindicates Me; He makes nations submit to Me” (18:47). “Yes,” says Jesus, to the Father, in regards to death at the hands of Rome and of mankind’s curse that began with Adam, “He delivers Me from My enemies; You snatch Me away from those who attack Me; You rescue Me from violent men” (18:48).
Because of these things, because of the Gospel’s proclamation that Jesus is indeed King over all nations, because we are made to believe this by the power of the Holy Spirit, and because God works through us as His instruments to establish His good in this world as we await the return of our Lord and the final consummation of that glorious kingdom of which we are a part at this very moment, we join with Jesus and declare, “So I will give You thanks before the nations, O Lord! I will sing praises to You! He gives His chosen King magnificent victories; He is faithful to His chosen ruler, to David and His descendants forever” (18:49-50). Jesus is Lord because our God is faithful. Because Jesus is Lord, death has no power. Because He rose, we stand in defiance of death, and dismiss the fear it brings, for it is a conquered enemy and a defeated foe.
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