Psalm 2, The Living God (3)

c)    God’s sovereignty – What is God doing?

i)      God created everything (Gen. 1:1; Jn. 1:1-3; Col. 1:16).  This fundamental truth supports God’s “ownership” of all things.  Psalm 24:1-2: The earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein.  For He had founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the waters.  Just how fundamental is this truth?  Paul quotes it twice in 1 Cor. 10:25-28, using it to support both sides of the argument about “eating meat sacrificed to idols.”  The point was, that whatever choice we make in the matter, it must be consistent with the fact that God created the meat as well as the saint trying to decide what is right.

ii)   God sustains everything (Col. 1:17; Heb. 1:3).  “Consist” means he stands with creation so it continues to serve it’s purpose.  “Upholding” means that He carries creation along to continue to serve Him as intended.

iii)            God rules in everything that comes to pass in the world.  Everything accomplished His purpose (Ps. 103:17-19; Matt.10:29-31; Rom. 8:28).  Every story in the Bible illustrates this.  Nevertheless, here are two that are worthy of study that we might be encouraged with God’s 24/7 rule.  First, the story of Joseph (Gen. 37-45) is specifically said to illustrate that a story intended to be evil on the part of Joseph’s brothers was actually a story about God’s intention to do good for them all (Gen. 50:19-21).  Second, the story of Esther is amazing because there are no specific references to God, and yet He was clearly in control at every step.

God rules in the affairs of men.  Napoleon, at the height of his career, is reported to have given this cynical answer to someone who asked if God was on the side of France: “God is on the side that has the heaviest artillery.”

Then came the Battle of Waterloo, where Napoleon lost both the battle and his empire.  Years later, in exile on the island of St. Helena, chastened and humbled, Napoleon is reported to have quoted the words of Thomas a Kempis: “Man proposes; God disposes.”

We must make one additional thought on what God is doing, one that we touch on regularly.  What God has been doing since before the creation of the world is to exalt His Son.  We see this in Psalm 2 where, before time, God decreed that His Son would have the nations as His inheritance and so forth.  This is the “mystery” that the rulers of the world don’t understand (1 Cor. 2:6-8) but which will come to fulfillment in the latter days (Rev. 10:7; 15:1-4; 19:6-10).  To glorify God, which is the only option for His creation, it is His will that we glorify His Son (Phil. 2:5-11).