The king shall joy in thy strength, O Lord; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!  Thou hast given him his heart’s desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah.  For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness: thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head.  He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever.  His glory is great in thy salvation: honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him.  For thou hast made him most blessed for ever: thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance.  For the king trusteth in the Lord, and through the mercy of the most High he shall not be moved.  Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies: thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee. Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.  Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men.  For they intended evil against thee: they imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform.  Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the face of them.  Be thou exalted, Lord, in thine own strength: so will we sing and praise thy power.

As I study this psalm I can’t help but see this as a psalm that refers to David’s reign as well as the coming reign of Christ.  As I read the first six verses I can picture David’s kingdom as it become one of the most powerful nations on the earth during this period of history.  However, the last seven verses seem to point to a coming King, one who will destroy the enemies of God.  This King is Christ.  In Deuteronomy 17 we are given instructions for a King to follow.  Verses eighteen through twenty reads:

And it shall be, when he sits upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the priests the Levites: and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear Jehovah his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them; that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the midst of Israel.

As we study these verses we realized that knowledge of the law of the Lord and the fear of the Lord are key to how a king rules.

As I read verse ten of this Psalm I must reflect on Peters words concerning the latter days (the times that we are living in today).   Verse ten states “you will destroy their descendants from the earth”.  In studying the scripture I realized that this had already happened once before in the history of mankind.  The Great Flood of Genesis.  In II Peter chapter three Peter writes about the last days in which men deny that this great flood ever happened.  He gives us two characteristics of the mockers that Christians will face during these times.

The first characteristic is they walk after their own lust.  As I reflect on the phrase “walking after one’s own lust” I ask myself “why is this an issue?”. Peter wrote this epistle to stir up the minds on the believers.  He wrote this epistle to remind them of the message of the gospel.  In fact in verses fifteen and sixteen of chapter three he reminds them that Paul wrote to them in words that were sometimes hard to understand the salvation of the Lord.  As I reflect on Paul’s writings about the gospel, the resurrection of Christ and our future resurrection I gain a new perceptive of the message of the gospel.   Paul states in I Corinthians 15:12-19

Now if Christ is preached that he hath been raised from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?  But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither hath Christ been raised: and if Christ hath not been raised, then is our preaching vain, your faith also is vain.  Yea, we are found false witnesses of God; because we witnessed of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead are not raised.  For if the dead are not raised, neither hath Christ been raised: and if Christ hath not been raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also that are fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable.

In other words if the message of the gospel was just to make the world a better place to live in and that this life we are living really is all there is then I am preaching the wrong message.  If my message does not focus on gaining eternal life with God, but just on how to make the world a better place to live; then why would people give up walking after their own lust?  They would not.  If all I had hope for in this life then I would be the Lord of my life and live my life for my pleasures only.  So until a man looks at the eternal value of their life the message of the gospel really has no meaning to him.

The second characteristic is they deny the Word of God.  They question the Word and the promises found in the Word.  They deny the creation, the flood, the call of Abraham, the law, the prophets and the ministry of Christ.  What is so sad about questioning God’s Word is that most believers do not even read it.  Yes it is true that the Word of God is often abused by many and twisted to support their own personal belief system; however that does not justified holding out the Word of God in your life.  You have the same freedom as others to study the Word.  You have as much access to the Word of God as any one else.  So as I look at the second characteristic of the latter days I must ask the question “what do you think of God’s Word?”.  Do you stand on the Word of God?  And what do you think about God’s son the King (Christ) in relationship to how you live your life?  Read Psalms 22 and study how He suffered for us when he came the first time to earth and then read Psalms 2 to see how he will reign the second time he comes to the earth.