Introduction:
All of the attributes of God are unchanging and constant, by definition. But they are not always equally conspicuous to us. The Lord’s right arm is always infinitely what it is, but there are times when He bares His right arm. He is always strong, but there are times when He is revealed as clothed with strength. His majesty is a given, but there are times when He is clothed, not in the trappings of majesty, but in the reality of majesty itself. We are talking about the glory of God.
The Text:
“The Lord reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; The Lord is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: The world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved. Thy throne is established of old: Thou art from everlasting. The floods have lifted up, O Lord, The floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea. Thy testimonies are very sure: Holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, for ever (Ps.93:1-5).
Summary of the Text:
God is the king; He is the one who reigns (v. 1). But His reign is also gloriously legitimate—He is clothed with majesty. It is not just a matter of power. He rules over all—over inanimate nature, over those who rebel against Him, and over those who obey Him. Jehovah reigns, and His reign is exhaustive and complete throughout the heavens and earth. Because He is clothed with strength, the world is established. God’s throne is ancient and everlasting because God is from eternity (v. 2). The floods have lifted up their rebellion by means of their great voice (v. 3). But God Himself, the Lord most high, is mightier than the sound of many waters (v. 4), and He is untroubled by the waves; He walks on them. When Jesus walked on the stormy water, He was a glorious fulfillment of this. Note the contrast between the world that is established by God’s throne, and the world of rebellious breakers that is turned into so much ocean spray. What this God reveals is certain; His testimonies are sure. Holiness befits His house, and it is that way forever and ever, amen (v. 5). His rule is eternal. His grace is absolute. His character is holy.
Jehovah and Majesty:
The power of God is not simply raw power. We do not worship an omnipotent fiend, as though power could ever be detached from goodness and glory. We are Christians who confess the omnipotent power of God, but we must not do this as though the doctrine of were somehow a regrettable intellectual necessity. No, the strength of Almighty God is splendid. It is not something for us to confess in embarrassed whispers. It is magnificent. The glory of God is brilliant, ineffably radiant.
When God spoke to Job, it was out of a whirlwind (Job 40:6). When He spoke to Elijah, His voice was not in the wind (1 Kings 19:11-12). So whether God shouts, or whether God whispers, His wisdom is glorious. If every thunderclap that had ever sounded in every storm were all gathered up together, and broke simultaneously about fifty feet over the top of our heads, the effect of that would be trivial compared to what the voice of God would be like. But not only that . . . it would also be beautiful. So we are talking about majesty, splendor, glory, honor, might, and everlasting dominion.
So it is not just that His Word is sure. It is that it is fitting that His Word is sure.
All Foam and Fury:
The rebellions of the godless are vanity itself. But to us, who often do not have the vantage point of Heaven, their grimaces can be scary. Their bluster does not seem like empty bluster to us. Their posturing does not seem like posturing. Their great swelling boasts seem like swelling breakers that threaten to sink us all. But the promises of God are like massive rocks on the Oregon coast. When the waves meet the rocks, the waves lose.
So the Most High God is mightier than their noise (v. 4). Does the Supreme Court say that men can marry men? This decision was made by 9 mortals, every last one of them in the process of dying. All the fruit flies of earth have declared war on the citadels of Heaven, and none of the watchmen on those celestial towers seem to have even noticed. The throne of God’s dominion is utterly and infinitely out of range. So if you want something here on earth to be secured, the place where it must be anchored or secured is there, in the realm of God, in the glory of God, in the will of God.
Truth, Holiness, Glory:
But the God who reigns, the God who has reigned from all eternity, is a God who speaks. He is an author; He has written and published a book. This God who laughs at the sea foam of secularism is a God who has testimonies. These testimonies are His Word, and the doctrines of that Word are truth itself, and the precepts of that Word are holiness itself. His doctrines don’t require edits. His commandments don’t require upgrades or adjustments or moral improvements. They do not change with the times. They are in fact utterly behind the times—how could they not be behind the times? They were written by the Ancient of Days, the ultimate ruler who is always behind the times. Another way of saying behind the times is before eternal ages.
Would you behold that splendor that this psalm speaks of? Would you see that majesty? We know from this psalm that God is in fact clothed with majesty. We know that it is true. But would you see Him clothed in majesty? Are you hungry for this the way Moses was, when Moses asked if He could see the glory of God? We are invited to do so, and have been given a special “glass” or mirror that we are appointed to use. That glass is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, crucified for sinners, and raised for His saints.
“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18).