As a reward for their
belief in Jesus as the Son of God and the world’s true King, Master, Savior,
Leader, Ruler and more (as opposed to the Caesar, who was then afforded and
honored with those titles by those that worshiped him), large numbers of
people, because they were claiming allegiance to that different and greater
king than Caesar, were put to death. In spite of that, people continued
to believe.
Though such a
situation is bewildering to contemplate, one should not find this to be all
that surprising. The Psalmist speaks to
this, having 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. They
dealt with the challenge in the only way they knew how, which was to meet it
with the cowardice and ultimate powerlessness of the sword. As Paul would write in Colossians, though
they could certainly wield the sword, the power of their ancient stronghold had
been shaken. 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
for strength and guidance, and considering the mortal enemies against whom He
was going to do battle, and trusting that His God was going to be 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, even indeed He was correct in His
estimations and successful in His mission, 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 the hopes
of 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 God
of Israel, 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 many have been and are made to believe this by the power
of the Holy Spirit, and because the Creator God works through those that have
cast their allegiance with Jesus as His instruments to establish His good in
this world as they await the return of our Lord and the final consummation of
that glorious kingdom of which they are a part at this very moment, that group
of covenant loyalists 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
the Creator God is faithful. Because Jesus is Lord, death has no
power. Because He rose, all of those that rise up with Him in order to
bow down in humble service to the world, 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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