#DailyDevotion Who Is Your Strength, Shield, Glory and King?
Psalm 89 15Blessed are the people who know that shout of joy, O LORD, as they walk in the light of Your face. 16They delight in Your name all day long, and Your righteousness lifts them up. 17You are their Glory and their Strength, and by Your favor we raise our horns high, 18because the LORD is our Shield and Israel’s Holy One our King.
Verse fifteen refers to “that shout of joy.” That shout is the history of Israel recounted in the previous verses. Those who know that history of their salvation are blessed because they can then count on God the LORD to be there for them also. The shout of joy for us Christians then is to know the creeds and to believe them for our benefit. If the creeds are a true account of our salvation history then we can count on God the LORD to be there for us as well.
Those who know this shout of joy are blessed as they walk in the light of the LORD face. For the Israelites, that was the Temple of the LORD, the tabernacle when they were in the wilderness. For us it is when we gather as Jesus’ holy people around Word and Sacrament. In our gatherings, Jesus has promised to be with us in a special way when we gather in His name.
The believing Israelites delighted in the name of the LORD all day long and His righteousness lifted them up. We who believe in Jesus should also delight in His name all day long. There is no sweeter name than Jesus Christ, the LORD. His righteousness, which He gives to all who put their trust in Him, upholds us in all the trials and fire of life. It declares us to be His people and God the Father’s children in the midst of things that make us think God does not love or care for us or that He hates us. We know these crosses not of His wrath and anger but of His great love for us which purifies our faith when we experience it.
As the LORD was the Israelites Glory and their Strengthen, Jesus is our Glory and Strength as well. We cannot depend upon our own to lift us up in the day of darkness. Through trials and tribulations, the Holy Spirit glorifies us and gives us the strength of Jesus to get through it all. God often gives us more than we can handle but never more than He can handle. By His grace and favor our horns (signs of power and glory) are lifted high. We who trust in Jesus learn to trust in his good favor towards us, undeserved as it is. We need not point to our good works and the like to stir up the Father to be gracious to us. No, we point to Jesus and His promises, to Jesus and His cross, to Jesus and His resurrection, and to Jesus and His ascension to God’s right hand where He seats us with Himself now in the heavenly places.
The LORD was Israel’s Shield and Israel’s Holy One their King. The LORD was declared King in Deuteronomy. He was their king throughout Joshua, Judges, and Samuel until they wanted a king like the other nations. The LORD permitted it with great warnings about what that would mean for them. Yet, He never gave up His Kingship over them. He would though in time become their King in the flesh through the line of David and become Jesus Christ our LORD. When the LORD joined Himself to the seed of Mary and became man, He became Israel’s King in the flesh. He acknowledged this before Pilate. Pilate acknowledged it on the cross, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” Jesus indeed is our King, the LORD. He sits at the right hand of the Father in glory guiding all of history to the spreading of the gospel and His ultimate descent from there to judge the nations and to reward all those who put their faith in Him with eternal life and their inheritance.
Heavenly Father, may we always take great joy in remembering all Your great works, especially those you worked through Jesus Christ, You Son, that we may delight in Him, trust Him for all His great mercy and finally be received into His heavenly kingdom. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.