Knowing the Presence of God in the PsalmsSample

King AND God

“You are my King and my God, who decrees victories for Jacob. Through you we push back our enemies; through your name we trample our foes.”

Psalm 44:4–5 (NIV84)

Why do you think the Psalmist referenced his allegiance to the Lord as his King AND his God? Was referencing both necessary? Is there a difference between the two references?

Consider this: What was true in the ancient days of the Psalmist is still true today. In the days of the Psalmist, accepting the Lord as your King AND God meant surrendering your life and choices to the Lord as your King AND placing your faith in Him as your God. In our language today, we align ourselves with the same principle when we describe a Christ-follower, a disciple of Jesus Christ, as one who has accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord AND Savior.

Accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior and surrendering to His rulership is part of our spiritual journey. But they are two distinctly different aspects of our relationship with Him. Saviorship (not an actual word!) and rulership are distinctly different elements of our relationship with the Lord. As we grow in our relationship with the Savior, we will be transformed by the renewing of our mind (Romans 12:2). As this transformation increases, His Lordship in our lives becomes an ever-increasing desire and pursuit.

Imagine standing before the King and God of all Creation. Imagine being granted the opportunity to be in His presence to declare your love for and allegiance to Him. As you stand before Him, He greets you with a heavenly countenance. You sense and feel His grace, love, and affirmation. He nods to you to encourage you to speak. What would you say? What words would you use? I want to suggest the following. Since the Psalmist mentions rulership first, so shall I.

KING: I declare you as the Sovereign Ruler of my life. I choose to bend the knee of my choices to you. I choose to live my life in allegiance to your direction and guidance. You are far more capable of ruling over my life than I am. Your wisdom and ability to lead me in all things is far greater than my own. I surrender, submit, and align my life according to your rule. Your ways are better than my ways. I will be happier and healthier because of your rule in my actions, attitudes, behaviors, and lifestyle. I bow in allegiance to you. I declare you as my KING.

GOD: I affirm I have placed my trust in you as my God. You are the supreme being I worship. You are the Sovereign Creator of all. As my God, I bow down to you and worship only you. Holy, holy, holy are you, God Almighty, who was, is, and is to come. I will not place any other gods before you. You are the Most High God. All other created beings, both spiritual and physical, were created by you and are subservient to you. I seek you as my God. I choose to hear, see, and know you as my one true God. I declare you are my GOD.

The Psalmist had learned the beauty and favor of such an allegiance. Look at verse four again. Notice there is a comma in the middle of the verse. The Psalmist could not finish his sentence without declaring the blessings (victories) he had experienced by having a King AND God relationship with the Lord! Furthermore, he could not stop his pen from writing about such a relationship. In four more verses, he writes about the blessings he experienced in his relationship with the Lord.

I believe many of our personal struggles or the struggles of those we know are due to the imbalance of these two aspects in our relationship with the Lord. There are many who call upon God the Son (Jesus Christ) as their Savior but hesitate to align their attitudes, values, and behaviors with the rulership of His Kingdom. Therein is the struggle. Jesus said a house divided against itself will fall. While grace may have saved their soul, God's ways and truth must be obeyed to overcome the damaging and unhealthy behaviors that have previously ruled their lives. His rulership leads to wholeness, healing, recovery, and victories. To deny His rulership is to accept a life of consequence instead of blessing.

There is another story in this Psalm, the story of verses nine through twenty-six. It is a story of a season of life where everything that could go wrong went wrong. To complicate the situation, the Lord’s lack of intervention did not make sense to the author. He was clearly confused by the silence he was experiencing in his relationship with the Lord. What do we know about how this second story ended? Did God show up? Did He speak? Were the people saved from the abuse of their enemy? Why didn’t the Psalmist share the end of the story? Why did the Psalmist write of two completely different experiences within the same Psalm?

Because life contains good days and difficult days, some days make sense, while others do not. Some are wonderful, and others are tragic. Some are like verses one through eight, while others are like verses nine through twenty-six. Through it all, God is still sovereign. That is the message of this Psalm. Our allegiance to Him as our King and God must remain the same throughout each day.

The Psalmist finishes with a beautiful prayer we can pray when our days are full of confusion and hardship. “Rise up and help us; redeem us because of your unfailing love.” I pray you hold on to your allegiance to the Lord as your King and God because His unfailing love will always be the end of your story.