Kings as Clay in Hand

From Psalm 68 – 28 [k]Your God has commanded your strength;
Strengthen, O God, what You have done for us.
29 Because of Your temple at Jerusalem,
Kings will bring presents to You.
30 Rebuke the beasts of the reeds,
The herd of bulls with the calves of the peoples,
Till everyone submits himself with pieces of silver.
Scatter the peoples who delight in war.
31 Envoys will come out of Egypt;
Ethiopia will quickly stretch out her hands to God.

"I think," considers Greg Forster in Joy for the World: How Christianity Lost Its Cultural Influence and Can Begin Rebuilding It, "the failure of The American church to affirm the goodness of civilizational life is our greatest failing today.”

Perhaps the seeds of regrowing a more holistic gratitude are offered by the Holy Spirit Psalm 68:29. Malcolm Gladwell makes much of the outsized influence of tipping points in a given culture, and there is this. If those wearing society's formal or informal crowns, if their hearts are softened toward God and their limbs are moved toward public confession of His greatness, an attitude of worship will resound in less exalted quarters.

Yet, what I consider is the projected impact of meditating on the reality that Psalm 68:29 transformations CAN happen. If we, Christian, and relatively subordinate strategies of society look up and see mainly men and women God can change regardless of how good this present age is to them, our attitude toward them and toward the situation in which God has placed us will change accordingly. If today's "pharaohs" are one dream away from declaring God supreme and using their power for His glory, what place has bitterness or cynicism toward earthly authorities in our lives and on our lips?

If we, whom Scripture declares a royal priesthood in waiting, see a kind of kinship with kings rather than caprices distance from them which is wholly unscriptural, how much more power will our intercession have? How much more readily and enthusiastically will we honor them with our service? Four, in serving them, we serve the King of Kings and His purposes.

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