#DailyDevotion Jesus Sits Us As Kings & Priests With Him In His Kingdom
113 Praise the LORD! Praise Him, O servants of the LORD; praise the LORD’s name! 2Bless the LORD’s name from now on and forever! 3From the rising of the sun to its going down, praise the LORD’s name! 4 The LORD is high above all nations and His glory above the skies. 5Who is like the LORD our God, seated on His high throne? 6He bends to look down on heaven and earth. 7He raises the poor from the dust, and lifts up the needy from the manure pile. 8 He enables him to sit with noblemen, the noblemen of his people. 9He makes the childless woman live in her own home, as the happy mother of children. Praise the LORD!
The Introit for the third Sunday of Epiphany is from Psalm 113. The antiphon is verse 3, “From the rising of the sun to its going down, praise the LORD’s name!” It is this verse which is supposed to help give us the theme of the day for this Sunday. This verse tells us we should praise the name of the LORD always. The lessons of the day give us a good reason to do just that; he is merciful, kind, forgiving and relents from disaster if we turn to him with a broken and contrite heart and spirit.
The name of the LORD is to be praised forever. That name is Jesus Christ who is the LORD. He is seated at the right hand of the Father “is high above all nations and His glory above the skies.” While that may be frightening to some, and I guess it should be for those who refuse to acknowledge him as their God, it should be a great comfort to us who put our trust in him.
The Psalmist writes, “7He raises the poor from the dust, and lifts up the needy from the manure pile. 8 He enables him to sit with noblemen, the noblemen of his people.” This is right and true. For we who look to the LORD Jesus Christ with humble and contrite hearts he will not despise. He will lift us up at the proper time and exalt us. We see how the Ninavites who while steeped in their idolatry and sins when confronted with utter destruction laid down in sackcloth and ashes and repented of their sins. What does our LORD Jesus Christ do with them? He forgives them and relents of the disaster he threatened them with.
When we humble ourselves before the LORD Jesus Christ and make him our primary devotion, he lifts us up and removes our anxieties and cares. Then we are able to serve those closest to us with a new purpose as he desires us to love them. We don’t have to worry about the things of the world. We know in the world to come, which is eternal, we shall live like kings.
The LORD Jesus Christ bends down from heaven and calls us to follow him. His calling may include times of suffering, persecution, and loss. Yet Jesus tells us the kingdom of God has come. In his kingdom Jesus has taken all these things into himself on the cross and sanctified them. They now serve his purpose to draw us to him, preserve and purify our faith which delivers us from sin, death and the power of the devil. In this kingdom we live and reign with Jesus as priests and kings. What is this world to me! I have Jesus, the LORD.
Heavenly Father, lift us up from the manure pile of our sins and weakness with the faith of your Son Jesus Christ so that we may sit and reign with him in his kingdom which has no end. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.