Prayer, Praise and Promises 1/15

Author: Warren Wiersbe
Source: Prayer, Praise and Promises
Scripture Reference: Psalm 8:1-9

Live Like a King

Read Psalm 8:1-9

Psalm 8 deals with sovereignty. "O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth, You who set Your glory above the heavens!" (v. 1). The first Lord means "Jehovah," the covenant-keeping God, the God who keeps His promises. The second Lord means "the Sovereign," the One who has not only the ability but the authority. "O Lord (the promise-making God), our Lord (the Sovereign, who has the power to keep His promises), how excellent is your name in all the earth."

When God saved you, He made you a king. You may not look like one or act like one, but you are one. Your day of salvation was a day of coronation. God put you on the throne through Jesus Christ. Then why do you live like a slave?

We discover in this psalm that God gave Adam and Eve the first crowns. But what did they do? They handed their crowns and scepters to Satan, because they wanted to become like God, to be sovereign. And they lost their dominion. Man today does not have dominion over beasts and fowl and fish. But Jesus does. He had dominion over the fowl: He told a rooster to crow when Peter sinned. He had dominion over the fish: He gathered them into the net when Peter was fishing. He even had dominion over the animals of the field: He rode on a donkey that no one had ever ridden before.

We've lost that dominion, but we've regained our spiritual dominion in Jesus Christ. You were saved to live like a king. Don't live like a slave.

Believers have a responsibility to live like kings. Our kingship securely rests on the authority and character of God. Are you living beneath your station? Determine to live like a king.

Psalm 8:1-9 (New International Version, ©2010)

For the director of music. According to gittith.[b] A psalm of David.

1 LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory
in the heavens.
2 Through the praise of children and infants
you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?[c]

5 You have made them[d] a little lower than the angels[e]
and crowned them[f] with glory and honor.
6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their[g] feet:
7 all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
8 the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.

9 LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Footnotes:

1. Psalm 8:1 In Hebrew texts 8:1-9 is numbered 8:2-10.
2. Psalm 8:1 Title: Probably a musical term
3. Psalm 8:4 Or what is a human being that you are mindful of him, / a son of man that you care for him?
4. Psalm 8:5 Or him
5. Psalm 8:5 Or than God
6. Psalm 8:5 Or him
7. Psalm 8:6 Or made him ruler . . . ; / . . . his