Psalm 93: Reigns

“The LORD reigns”.  How badly do we need to hear and believe that today? “The LORD reigns”. A definitive statement. An absolute truth. An inescapable reality. Then why do I have so many questions? “The LORD reigns”, but so much seems upside down. “The LORD reigns”, but His people are divided. “The LORD reigns”, but my heart feels like it is out of control. “The LORD reigns” but the wicked prosper. “The LORD reigns” but creation groans in the pains of childbirth. “The LORD reigns” but mankind demeans and seeks to dominate each other. If the LORD reigns, what should we do with all this chaos? 

Psalm 93 is one of those in which we do not have any background information. We are not told the author although Jewish tradition attributes it to David. We do not know what circumstances surrounded its writing. We do not know if this was a shout of joy, a cry for help or an effort to remember something that had become easy to forget. I do not believe in the old saying “fake it until you make it”, but I have experienced some seasons in my life where I had to sing it until I believed it. 

This is one of my frustrations in the way we teach faith. We are almost demanding that we believe something we cannot see, trust something we cannot feel and stand firmly on something that we have never seen before. I know that Hebrews 11:1 tells us that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” I am well acquainted with the fact that “the righteous shall live by faith” (Habakkuk 2:4, Romans 1:17). But I do not believe that faith is pretending that all is well, and I do not believe that it is ignoring my current reality as I try to speak into existence a better situation. Sometimes faith is wrestling, sometimes believing requires weeping, sometimes faith is a loud argument and other times it is complete silence, but often faith is a song we sing until we believe, not because we believe. Faith does not get us what we want, it waits and hopes for what we need. 

In Acts 16, Paul and Silas seem to have wanted to go to spread the gospel in Asia but “the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them”. We do not know what that means or how it happened, but what they wanted to do for God was not what God had planned for them and so He stopped them. Instead, God gave Paul a vision that led them to go to preach the gospel in Macedonia. They arrived in the city of Philippi, a Roman colony. After a short time, a woman named Lydia became a follower of Jesus through their witness, she and all her household were baptized, and she urged Paul and Silas to come and stay at her house. God had spoken, they had obeyed and there was almost immediate fruit, that is exactly how we all expect God’s plan to work. 

Sometime after that, the gospel had the reverse effect on certain men in the city. They seized Paul and Silas and took them before the local magistrates. A crowd formed, there was what might be described as a riot, as they attacked Paul and Silas, they tore their robes off of them and then the magistrates ordered them to be beaten with rods and thrown in prison. The jailer took them into the inner prison and chained in stocks. If the LORD reigns and Paul and Silas were obedient, why did they end up beaten and in prison? 

The Bible says, “About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened.” I have always wondered what Paul and Silas were singing? What do you sing when beaten, bruised, in pain and in chains? These were two Jewish men; their hymns may have very well been the Psalms. I know it is conjecture, but can you not hear them singing Psalm 93, “The LORD reigns”? Can you not hear them singing songs they knew to be true even if those songs did not seem to fit their circumstances? 

When we sing “The LORD reigns”, it is not because all is going well, or all is as we thought it would be, it is to remind ourselves of what we know is true. For Paul and Silas, “The LORD reigns” may have been their song while they were in prison for preaching the gospel that the Holy Spirit had sent them to preach. It was a song of faith, not to get them out of jail, but to remind them of the truth while they were in jail. That is the beauty of faith, it does not magically provide us with what we want or free us from where we do not want to be, it fills us with the courage to believe in the face of fear, to trust in the season of doubt, to hold on when everything that can shake starts shaking. 

My encouragement to you today is sing the truth you know even in your struggle to believe. Sing of God’s goodness when all your news seems bad. Sing of His nearness when you feel all alone. Sing of His love when rejection has visited your life again. Sing of His mercy when shame has invaded your heart. 

“The LORD reigns” affirms God’s ongoing reign. He is not only reigning now, but His reign is also on-going and unending. All things are in His hands, He holds the pillars in place, He holds all things together. We do not have to see His reign to believe it, but sometimes the only way to believe it is to sing it. Do not give up, do not let go, but most of all do not stop singing. As the psalmist continued, “The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their roaring. Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the LORD on high is mighty!” Our trouble will come, it will come loudly, and it will come in a rush, even a roar, but God is, God has been, and God will always be mightier than our trouble. As Jesus told the apostles, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” Trouble comes. The earth shakes. The floods roar. The LORD reigns! Sing the songs of faith, sing the songs for faith, sing to yourself and let us sing to each other, sing it when we believe it and sing it until we believe it, the truth of every season and in every matter is not what we see or how we feel it is what we know, “The LORD reigns”!