Our Sovereign Saviour

This is not a long psalm, and it’s worth memorising.

‘The LORD reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the LORD is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved. Thy throne is established of old: thou art from everlasting.

The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves.

The LORD on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea. Thy testimonies are very sure: holiness becometh thine house, O LORD, for ever.’

I write this having just heard that my father-in-law, Craig, has gone to be with his Lord and Saviour. In these past weeks we have personally known ‘the floods lifting up their waves’. We have felt a little of what Noah and his family would have felt on the ark, for while the ups and downs of Pop’s health, like the tossing sea, brought alternating sadness and joy; dismay and hope, yet throughout we have felt the stabilising and comforting hand of One who is ‘mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea’.

He has been with us throughout, His hand upon the rudder. How reassuring to look up to our Captain, and see Him ‘clothed with majesty’ and girded with might. We rest in Him, relieved to have entrusted our lives to the Sovereign Saviour.

What a difference from ‘the days of His flesh’ (Hebs 5:7) when at the beginning of His life, He was humbly ‘wrapped in swaddling clothes’ (Luke 2;12), and at the end, mockingly ‘clothed … with purple’ (Mark 15:17), before He would be taken out nailed to a cross, where He could say, ‘all thy waves and all thy billows gone over me’ (Psa 42:7). So He knows by experience what we go through.

Now from His ‘throne … established of old’, ‘from everlasting’, from outside of the turbulent seas of time, from the tranquility of the eternal day, our Saviour steers our boat with absolute assurance. With confidence, we say with Moses, ‘The eternal God is our refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms’ (Deut 33:27).

We don’t know all the whys and wherefores, but we do know that our Lord is in control of every circumstance, everyday of our lives. He would say to us:

‘I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure’ (Isa 46:9,10)

Indeed, His ‘testimonies are very sure, holiness becometh thine house, O LORD, for ever’, and what a beautiful end to the psalm. To think that because of our Sovereign Saviour’s sufferings, we can, and Craig has been made holy. And so we know with confidence that while we mourn the loss of Pop, he is now in the LORD’s house, to enjoy His presence forevermore. He is not there in garments of his own making, but He wears garments of holiness, prepared and given to Him by Christ; garments becoming to that heavenly abode.

We are not alone, and in these days especially, many have been through the same experience. I trust you will also find comfort and strength in our Sovereign Saviour.

If you do not know His steadying hand upon the rudder of your life, put your trust in Him today, He who can take your sins away, and clothe you too in garments fit for heaven.