Psalm 97.
At the time of which this psalm treats, the Lord Jesus will have taken His throne as the Son of David, Israel’s King and King of nations, the long-promised Messiah. It will be observed in this and following psalms, that the words used are not “The Messiah reigns!”, but “the LORD reigns!” and this word “LORD” is not at all the same as “Lord,” as we say, “Lord Jesus,” His title as the glorified One, but the name of God, well known to Israel— “Jehovah.” In other words, when the once rejected Jesus of Nazareth returns, as He will in power and glory, to this earth, He will be seen to be God, as we, believers, know Him now to be, coequal with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Psalm 97 is the introduction, the binning of His reign. How different it all is from that for which the Christian looks, —the coming of the Lord for His heavenly saints, which is spoken of so many times in the New Testament, and vividly told in 1 Thessalonians 4:14-1714For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:14‑17). It is this for which believers who have searched the Word of God are waiting. But His coming for His own is separated by a number of years (just how many, the Scriptures do not tell), from His coming with them to deliver the earth from oppression, and to put its present god and prince, —the devil, —in chains. The Psalms are occupied with this later coming, of which both Old and New Testaments tell on many pages.
ML 07/05/1931