Believers by their very existence demonstrate the truth of the Bible: that God’s kingdom will rule the earth.
Psalm 96:10, 12-13 – “Say among the nations: ‘Yahweh reigns.’ The world is firmly established; it cannot be shaken. He judges the peoples fairly. … Let the field and all that is in it exult. Then all the trees of the woods shall sing for joy before Yahweh, for he has come, for he has come to judge the earth. He judges the world in righteousness, And the peoples in His faithfulness!”
The entirety of this psalm in the totality of its context is speaking of the fulfillment of God’s rule over the entire earth. The psalmist, writing hundreds of years before Messiah, is speaking of the rule of God as even then being present over the entire earth.
However, some commentators view this only as a future time when Messiah returns and will judge all nations. In fact, they view this entire psalm as being descriptive of the messianic kingdom, a point with which I would not disagree. Where I would diverge from these commentaries would be regarding when this kingdom and when the rule of Yahweh over the entire earth is in place. They might place this in the future; I would place it in the present. In fact, from my perspective, I would view this psalm as being indicative of the eternal reign of Yahweh over the entire earth, from the ancient past, through the times of Israel and into the current Messianic kingdom, and further still out into our future. How can this be?
As Creator of all that is, Yahweh has always ruled over the entire earth, whether people have recognized his reign or not. In like fashion, he currently reigns over the entire world whether people recognize his reign or not. The difference in our current age is that Messiah has enabled all people to enter the kingdom of God through the representative sacrifice of himself. As God’s designated agent, he has delivered all people to the rulership of the father, Yahweh. As the Administrator and Mediator of this kingdom, he now rules at the Father’s right hand and represents the God-designated judgment of the Father. This was brought out in John’s gospel:
John 5:22-23 – Furthermore, the Father judges no one, but has assigned all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.
But this judgment is already in place, even while Yeshua walked the earth. It is not something just relegated to the future, as Yeshua explained to Nicodemus.
John 3:18: “He who believes in him [i.e., the Son] is not judged. He who doesn’t believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. “
Having faith in the Messiah is a demonstration in the truth of Yahweh. Believing in Yeshua shows that one has accepted the light that Yahweh has sent into the world. When one believes in Yeshua, there is a recognition of Yahweh God as the Creator and the kingdom of God being present in the world here and now with Messiah as Lord. The continuation of this process with every new believer is the growing of the kingdom until it fills the earth and Yahweh is “all in all.”
1 Corinthians 15:28 – When everything is subject to [the Lordship of] Messiah, then the Son himself will also be subject to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all.
Then the fullness of Psalm 96 will come to pass, then all nations will honor and worship the one God of the universe, Yahweh, and his kingdom will be firmly established upon all the earth.
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