"The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice;
let the many coastlands be glad!
2 Clouds and thick darkness are all round him;
righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
3 Fire goes before him
and burns up his adversaries all round.
4 His lightnings light up the world;
the earth sees and trembles.
5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,
before the Lord of all the earth.
6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness,
and all the peoples see his glory.
7 All worshippers of images are put to shame,
who make their boast in worthless idols;
worship him, all you gods!
8 Zion hears and is glad,
and the daughters of Judah rejoice,
because of your judgements, O Lord.
9 For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth;
you are exalted far above all gods.
10 O you who love the Lord, hate evil!
He preserves the lives of his saints;
he delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
11 Light is sown for the righteous,
and joy for the upright in heart.
12 Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous,
and give thanks to his holy name!"Psalm 97
It is because of our Lord's coming into the world, and of His having made atonement for sin and won the victory over evil in His death and resurrection, that He is Lord and that He in fact manifests that Lordship again and again before the final manifestation of it at His coming in glory. This is the message that comes over to us in the Psalm, for our encouragement and hope. The idea of a 'theophany' runs through the Psalm from 2 onwards. It will help us to understand the point here, if we look at another famous theophany, in Psalm 18, with its emphasis on the plight of man (4, 5), the despairing cry (6), and the movement of eternity for our help (7-19). God hears our cry, and will move heaven and earth to help us - this is what it means when we say 'the Lord is King'! The contrast is tremendous: one poor mortal's need, and the mighty Divine manifestation for His help! What disproportion! But that is how important our concerns are to God.
The sense of awe is very clear in 2, in the reference to the clouds and darkness. But this is not gloom and foreboding for the believer, though it is for the enemies of God. As Maclaren puts it, 'Faith, built on experience, enters into the cloud, and is not afraid, but confidently tells what it knows to be within the darkness. 'Righteousness and judgment - the eternal principle and the activity thereof in the several acts of the King - are the bases of His throne, more solid than the covering cloud. Earth can rejoice in His reign, even though darkness may make parts of it painful riddles, if the assurance is held fast that absolute righteousness is at the centre'.
