Psalm 103:19                         “Our Sovereign God”

      Centuries ago, King Canute was one of the most powerful kings of England ever – but he also knew his limits.  Canute reigned over what is now England, Denmark, and much of Europe, and as a powerful king, he had a lot of flattering servants around him.  They kept telling him that there was none as powerful as he; that whatever he commanded would be done.  So Canute decided to teach his courtiers a lesson.  He ordered his throne to be taken to the edge of the sea.  He then proclaimed that no water would come up to touch his throne.  But a few moments later, a wave rolled up to the throne and “licked” it.  King Canute took off his crown at that spot, and said, “There is only One who is worthy to wear the crown – the Sovereign Lord of the uiniverse”, and he never wore it again! 

     Last week, in our study, “Our Great God”, we looked at the fact that God is a Triune God; that He is One God who exists eternally as three Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  God is a “personal” God; that is, He relates to us personally.  But we in contemporary times have often so emphasized the “personal” nature of God, that we have neglected His grandeur, majesty and power.  J.I. Packer wrote that we may have the same doctrines as some of the early church fathers, but if we read their writings, we may wonder whether we experientially know the same God!  (Knowing God, p. 83)  We have emphasized the personal nature of God so much, that we tend to think of Him as weak, and needy, and even “pathetic”!  That is NOT the God the Bible describes.  The God of the Bible is “Our Great God”, as our series title indicates.  Our passage for this morning speaks about that.  Psalm 103:19 says: “The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all.”  The Bible makes it clear that although God is a “personal” God, He is also Sovereign.  That word “sovereign” means “supreme ruler; having ultimate power.”  God is a personal God, who, incredibly, wants you to know Him.  But one of the things He wants you to know about Him is that He is the King, the Sovereign on the throne of this universe! 

I.  The Doctrine of God’s Sovereignty

     Psalm 103:19 says “The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all.”  “LORD” in all caps, as we have seen, means “Yahweh”, the personal name of the God of the Bible.  This verse teaches us that Yahweh God, as opposed to all others, sits as King of the universe.  He is in charge; He is on the throne.  Genesis 18:14 says, “Is anything too hard for the LORD?”  Psalm 115:3 says: “But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases”.  Ephesians 1:11 says He “works all things after the counsel of His will.”  Psalm 29:10 says, “The LORD sat as King at the flood; yes, the LORD sits as King forever.” 

     There is no contest or competition regarding who is on the throne; the LORD, Yahweh Elohim, the God of the Bible, is the uncontested Sovereign Lord of the universe.  In Zoroastrianism, an ancient Persian religion which still has adherents today, they believe in what theologians call “dualism” – that is, that there are TWO “gods” who are struggling for control of the universe:  there is Mazda, the “good” god, and “Ahriman”, the evil god.  They postulate that the story of history is the story of these two gods struggling for control of the universe. 

     Unfortunately, a lot of us as Christians act as if we were Zoroastrians, speaking as if there were a “struggle” between God and Satan for control of things.  There is no “struggle”.  You and I may “struggle” with spiritual warfare, but there is no battle for the throne of the universe!  “The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all.”  He sits as uncontested King over the universe!  We see examples of what that means, all through scripture:

II.  The Scope of God’s Sovereignty

A.  He is Sovereign over Creation

     God is the King of Creation, and everyone and everything in it.  Genesis 1 tells us, “In the beginning, GOD created the heavens and the earth.”  He made the world, and He is still sovereign over His creation.  Isaiah 40:12 says He “measures the waters in the hollow of His hand” and “weighed the mountains in a balance, and the hills in a pair of scales.”  God is sovereign over the created order.  Now, this can be a difficult concept to wrestle with when we experience what we sometimes call “natural disasters”, but even in those times, we need to remember Who is on the throne!

     I remember a few years ago, when a tornado had hit in Oklahoma, a very well-known pastor was interviewed in the paper, and he said something like, “There is a difference between “acts of nature” and “Acts of God”.  He said, God did not do this, this was just an act of nature.  Now, I think that kind of statement is well-intentioned, coming from a man who was trying to “protect God’s reputation”, in a sense.  If God was in charge of storms and earthquakes and that kind of thing, what would people think of Him? 

     But the truth is, the Bible shows no such squeamishness.  Scripture repeatedly attributes what we might call “acts of nature” to GOD.  One of the places where this is very prominent is the Book of Jonah.  In it, we repeatedly read that GOD is sovereign over so-called “acts of nature”:

— 1:4 “The LORD hurled a great wind on the sea, and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up.”

— 1:17 “The LORD appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah”

— 2:10 “The LORD commanded the fish and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land”

— 4:6 “The LORD appointed a plant, and it grew up over Jonah”

— 4:7 “But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered”

— 4:8 “When the sun came up, God appointed a scorching east wind …”

     We see this repeatedly: “GOD appointed …GOD commanded … God hurled a wind; God commanded a fish”, and over and over.  The Book of Jonah makes it clear: these things that happen are not “accidents of nature”, they are indeed “acts of God.”  Indeed, we can find such statements all through scripture.  “The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all.”  God is sovereign over creation.  He made it, and He directs it.  When things happen, we need to look for God’s purposes in them.  They do not happen by accident.  We need to recognize God’s sovereignty over His created order. 

B.  He is Sovereign over all spiritual powers

     Angels, demons, principalities, spiritual powers are all subject to the sovereignty of God.  Jesus demonstrated that dramatically when He was here, casting out demons and sending out His disciples to do the same.  “Even the demons are subject to us in Your name!”, the disciples exclaimed in Luke 10:17.  Jesus said, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like lightning”.  It took no time for God to cast Satan out of heaven.  There is no contest for the throne of heaven. 

     Sometimes Christians give too much credit to the devil: “The devil did this; the devil did that”.  Listen, the devil is not sovereign in this world; God is!  Even in Job, when Satan wanted to attack Job with lightning and wind, he had to come to God first and ask permission.  It all came through God.  I love the passage in Mark 5, where it says the demons had to ask Jesus’ PERMISSION to enter the swine!  They could do nothing without His “permission.”  It is God Who is on the throne!  There is no Zoroastrian dualism here; we are not waiting to see who is going to win out.  God is sovereign over all spiritual powers.  I believe it was John Piper who said that the devil is real — but he is on a leash! The peoples of Suriname and India and other places fear the spirits.  But God’s people need not do that.  I love going into Hindu temples and singing “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name”!  You do not need to fear Satan and demonic beings.  Do not foolishly open doors for them into your life through the occult, or any other means by which they might get a stronghold.  But as a Christian, sealed by the Holy Spirit of God, following the will of God, you need not fear the enemy.  “Greater is He who is in you, than he who is in the world.”  God is sovereign over all spiritual powers. 

C.  He is Sovereign in His dealings with Mankind

     Even though God in His sovereignty has delegated to us the freedom to make some choices (we will look at that some more in a moment) God is sovereign in His dealings with Mankind.  He is on the throne! 

     Psalm 2 reminds us of this.  It begins: “Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing?  The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, ‘Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us!’  He who sits in the heavens laughs, the LORD scoffs at them.  Then He will speak to them in His anger, and terrify them in His fury, saying ‘But as for Me, I have installed My King uponZion… You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.’”  The Bible says that all of mankind may line themselves up and rebel against God, but He just laughs at the combined assembly of their “might” – right before He brings the weight of His fury upon them.  God will have His way with man in the end. 

     At the end of all his dealings with God, Job said, “I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.”  What Job was saying was that through all of his experiences, he had learned about the Sovereignty of God.  God has the power to accomplish all of His purposes.  He is on the throne! 

     Job serves as a good reminder to us, that God is sovereign in our lives – not just “all mankind”, but in each of our lives personally.  He has a providential plan for YOUR life.  And everything that comes to you, comes through HIM first.  We saw that with Job. Satan wanted to do some things to Job, but he had to ask God’s permission first, before he could do anything!  That should comfort you; it should remind you that God has a sovereign plan for your life.  Everything that touches your life is allowed by God.   He causes it; He allows it; even if it is painful, He uses it for His kingdom purposes to be done.  Just like Romans 8:28 says, God “causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him, to those who are called according to His purpose.”  Just like Joseph told his brothers in Genesis 50:20, after all the hurt he had been through in prison in Egypt: “You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.”  Know that the same things are true in YOUR life, too.  You may be going through some difficult things, but they are not beyond God’s control.  He is sovereign; He has a plan.  He is holding you in His hand, and nothing is touching you apart from that sovereign plan.  Often times we can look back on an event after time has passed, and see what God was doing.  In other cases, we may not understand the reason for it until eternity.  But in the mean time, you can rest in God’s sovereignty.  He is sovereign in His dealings with mankind – and that means YOU personally, too! 

D.  He is Sovereign over the course of all history

     The prophecies we looked at during the Christmas season remind us of that.  Through the prophets Micah and Isaiah, God predicted 700 years in advance that the Messiah would be born inBethlehem, would be born a son of David, would be born of a virgin, would be “God with us.”  And He brought it all to pass; that is what we celebrate at Christmas.  God is sovereign in His plans for this world.

     God says in Isaiah 46:9, “For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times, things which have not been done, saying, ‘My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure … truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass, I have planned it, surely I will do it.’”  God was speaking there of how He would use the Persian leader Cyrus to set God’s people free – though Cyrus did not even know God, God would still use him to fulfill His purposes!  In the same way, all through Isaiah, God says that He is declaring things which are going to happen – including the coming of His Messiah to earth, and the end of the days.  Everything that God has planned in history will take place; everything He has predicted will come to pass.  And scripture says in Revelation 19:6 that at the end, great multitudes will shout together to the Lord:  “Hallelujah, for the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.”  And He shall reign, forever and ever!  Over the created order, over spiritual beings, over all mankind, and over all of the course of history; God is sovereign!

     In all these ways and more, we need to realize and appreciate the sovereignty of God.  We need to recapture this Biblical sense of the majesty and glory of God — which I am afriad is missing from much of contemporary Christianity! 

     I have enjoyed reading the book, Whosoever Will, which talks about how God does not determine man’s choices for salvation, but that He has, in His sovereignty, granted that choice to us.  Overall I think it is a good book, we need to get it in our church library.  But the book had different authors for each chapter, and like a number of books with that format, some chapters are better than others.  There is one story in the book that just makes me cringe.  The author is expounding on John 3:16, which of course says, “Whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”  And the sermon that comprises that chapter is, on the whole, good.  But the closing illustration is one of the worst I have ever read!  In it, the preacher tells the story of a little boy in an orphanage, who does not feel like he is loved, and so he climbs up a tree, and throws a rock with a note on it over the fence.  The note reads: “Whoever find this, I love you!”  The preacher said, that is what God is like; He loves the whole world, and He has given the gospel to the world, that whoever will believe in Him will be saved, and loved by God.  Now let me make it clear: I agree with the author’s point that God loves the whole world, and that whoever calls on Him will be saved.  But to me, this is a poor illustration, because it pictures God as a poor orphan boy, longing for someone to love Him, desperate for love, throwing the rock over the fence, hoping that someone will love Him.  That is NOT a proper view of God!  The God of the Bible is not desperate for love!  As we saw last week, He has enjoyed perfect love in His Triune nature for all eternity!  The story reflects an entirely inadequate view of God.  God is not some “poor thing” to be pitied.  He is “El Shaddai”, God Almighty; He is El Elyon, God Most High; He is Jehovah Sabbaoth, the Lord of Armies.  He is the Sovereign God!  God is the Sovereign King of the Universe! 

     And unfortunately, the way that a lot of people do evangelism plays into that same kind of sentiment; that same kind of inadequate picture of God, when they say things like: “Come to Jesus, He died for you, can’t you see His bleeding hands and feet?”, almost with the idea: “Feel sorry for Him; look at what He did for you, won’t you feel sorry for Him and do something for Him?  Just make Him feel better, and ask Him into your heart!”  Folks, we don’t need to “feel sorry” for God!  He doesn’t need our love; He doesn’t need our response.  He doesn’t need anything!  “Yahweh has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all”!   We need to recapture the doctrine – and the awe, and the worship — of the sovereignty of God! 

III.  The Balance of God’s Sovereignty

     Now any doctrine, any truth, may be pressed too far, to the neglect of complementary truths.  Some have done this with the doctrine of God’s sovereignty.  They believe that in order for God to truly be sovereign, then He must determine every single thing that happens.  In fact, J.P. Boyce, in his “Abstract of Systematic Theology” makes that very assertion: “He determines all things whatsoever that come to pass.”  Many others assert the same thing: that if God is truly sovereign, then He must decree, or determine, or predestine everything.  But this is taking the doctrine too far.  God IS sovereign; He IS on the throne.  But God has other attributes than being Sovereign.  He is also love; He is also holy; He is also good.  And a doctrine that declares that God in His sovereignty has decreed sin, and unconditionally chooses one person to be saved and another person sitting right beside them to be lost, cannot but compromise God’s love and holiness — no matter what verbal gymnastics one uses to dispute it!  But I do not believe that this “all-determining sovereignty” is an accurate, Biblical picture of the sovereignty of God.  Yes, God is sovereign.  But IN His sovereignty, He has chosen to delegate some real, consequential choices to His creatures.  II Peter 3:9 says “God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”  He does desire for all of us to be saved; but He does not force that decision upon us.  Luke 7:30 says the scribes and Pharisees “rejected God’s purpose for themselves.”  These and other verses tell us that there are real, meaningful decisions, with real consequences, which God has delegated to us.  The fact that He did that does not diminish His sovereignty at all.  That is the way that God, in His sovereignty, has chosen to do it! 

     At the end of his book, The Knowledge of the Holy, A.W. Tozer gives what he calls a “homely illustration” to help us understand how God is both sovereign, and in His sovereignty has permitted us to make free choices.  He says suppose that an ocean liner leavesNew York, bound forLiverpool,England.  He says its destination has been determined by proper authorities.  Nothing is going to change that destination; it has been set.  He says this is a picture of God’s sovereignty over the world; the world is going exactly where God’s plan says it will, and nothing will stop it.  But Tozer says that on the ocean liner, there are scores of passengers.  They are not in chains, and their activities have not been predetermined for them.  They are free to move about and eat, sleep, play, work, do whatever they will.  But all of their free choices, and all of their activities will not change the fact that the ocean liner is going to that predetermined spot, and nothing is going to change it.  That is an imperfect picture, for sure – no illustration perfectly pictures reality – but it can help us understand the nature of reality.  God is the uncontested sovereign on the throne of this universe.  He has determined the direction of this world, and nothing is going to change it.  That is why He can write a book like Revelation – He knows the first from the last; and He does not just “know” it; He has determined it.  When all is said and done, Revelation 11:15 tells us, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever.”  God is absolutely sovereign; absolutely in charge; absolutely King.  But in His sovereignty, He has chosen to give you and I real choices to make; choices which He does not “force” on us, but which are real, meaningful choices, with real, meaningful, consequences.  And in His sovereignty, God USES the free choices that we make to work together for His ultimate purposes.  God has determined the direction of the ship – it will absolutely arrive where and when HE says it will.  But in His sovereignty He has allowed us the freedom to make some real choices along the way – and He even uses those choices in His ultimate plan.  Exactly how the sovereignty of God and the free choices of man interact with each other in the unfolding of history to God’s end, is a mystery beyond mankind.    

     But what we do know is that God is the King; He is on the throne.  The Bible teaches that clearly.  But He is also holy, and is not the author of sin.  He is also Creator, who made creatures in His image, and decided in His sovereignty to give them the ability to make real, meaningful choices.  He is also love, and has not predestined people to hell in His sovereignty.  Yes, God is sovereign.  But that is not ALL He is!  He is also holy, and wise, and loving, and in His sovereignty, He has determined to given us real choices.  Among those choices is whether to accept what He did for you in His Son, Jesus Christ.  As Tozer writes: God has sovereignly decreed that your choice has consequences.  He  has not determined your choice, but He has determined that the consequences of your choice will be eternal.  He calls you today to repent of your sins, trust Jesus as your Savior, and surrender your life to the One who made you, who sits on the throne of the universe, and who will “reign forever and ever” — “Our Sovereign God”!