“I lift you high in praise, my God, O my King! And I’ll bless your name into eternity. ^10-11 Creation and creatures applaud you, God; your holy people bless you. They talk about the glories of your rule, they exclaim over your splendor, ¹² Letting the world know of your power for good, the lavish splendor of your kingdom. ¹³ Your kingdom is a kingdom eternal; you never get voted out of office. God always does what he says, and is gracious in everything he does.” Psalm 145:1, 10-13

“We notice certain themes in these songs. First, Israel’s God is celebrated as king especially in Jerusalem, in his home in the Temple. Second, when Israel’s God is enthroned as “King”, the nations are brought under his rule. Israel rejoices, but all the other nations will be included as well. Third, when God is king, the result is proper justice, real equity, the removal of all corruption and oppression.” (“God as King”, Simply Jesus,  N. T. Wright, p. 45)

We just survived the recent elections of Governors, Representatives, and Senators in our country. Each person running for office made certain promises – had particular issues they wanted to address – and “We the People” have placed our hopes that they will be people of integrity and honesty. Now, whether our elected leaders will comply with their promises, will actually work toward the things they promised, well that is yet to be determined. What scares me is the fact that so many people in our society vote for a party rather than for a person. Too many people vote straight party-line Republican or Democrat rather than take the time to look into the nature, the character, and the background of the person they are voting for.

The idea of Messiah was not a party-line option – there was going to be someone whom G-d had chosen to be Messiah – a person who was both for the individual Jew and the people of Israel. There already were parties – Pharisees and Sadducees – Romans and Greeks – Jesus the Messiah came for all people – as Paul writes: “In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and Non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal…Christ’s family.” (Galatians 3:28)

On the eve of this past election, I attended a prayer service in a Lutheran church. The purpose of the service, as I understood it, was three-fold: pray out loud about our trust in G-d; pray out loud about our anxiety about the elections; and to pray out loud for each other—Republicans praying for Democrats, Independents praying for Libertarians. If we all learned to pray for, and to love our enemies, maybe everyone’s anxiety might be lowered just a little—and there might be more love and less hate in the world.

Pastor Dave