The Word of a King

10/1/2018

At the beginning of September, Jewish New Year 5779, I heard the Lord give a warning. The enemy, it seems, is bent more than ever on undermining believers in this hour. (One glance at the Kavanaugh hearings is enough to convince me of that!) This is the year, the Lord emphasized, to go deep in Him. To hold on to the Word of Truth as never before, to guard against deception, to seek Him for greater revelation. We will need it!

You would think that most believers spend at least some time in the Bible daily, but research consistently proves otherwise. On any given day, you are more likely to encounter a Christian who heard the Word in church last Sunday than one who read the Word for him-/herself that morning. (Click here for more on these statistics from Bible Gateway/Barna Research).

These statistics still disturb me, and I don’t think it would be a stretch to say it might trouble the Holy Spirit as well. After all, the Word is our primary source of information about God, revelation from God, and the power of God. To abide in Jesus is – if we agree with the Gospel of John – to abide in the Word. (See John 1) A powerless Christian life is usually a life devoid of God’s Word.

Power to Rule and Reign

We are called to rule and reign in life with Jesus. It is by His authority that we overcome our struggles and win our battles. In a very real sense, we must be familiar enough with the “rulebook” to know how to fight and win this spiritual war. In fact, there is an oft-forgotten group of verses written to Jewish kings on this very subject:

“Also it shall be, when he (the king) sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law (Torah) in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites. And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes,
that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren…
that he may not turn aside from the commandment…
that he may prolong his days in the Kingdom,
he and his children in the midst of Israel.”
~Deuteronomy 17:18-20, NKJV

As I meditated on these verses, it occurred to me that of all the kings in the Old Testament, I am familiar with the writings of only two of them: David and Solomon. Many other kings read the Word; Josiah, Hezekiah and Jehoshaphat were known to call upon their scribes to consult the Word in times of distress. Yet of all the kings, none seemed to love the Word as much as David and Solomon did.

This father and son duo both meditated on the Word of God and inscribed their own thoughts, as God commanded kings to do. We credit them with the Psalms, the Proverbs, Song of Solomon, and Ecclesiastes.

Solomon alone is said to have written over three thousand proverbs and one thousand and five songs. In a similar, almost Herculean feat, David wrote Psalm 119, assigning to every letter of the Hebrew alphabet a section in his Psalm!

Psalm 119 has been one of my favorite chapters in the Bible since I was a little girl. David’s love for the Word – whom we now know as Jesus Himself – shines through every verse. In response to the word God gave me at the beginning of this post, I mined this Psalm again to see what I could discover about the Word. The results amazed me.

Today, as a special gift just for you, I want to share this PDF file (download below). It contains all the attributes, benefits and blessings David found as he meditated on God’s Word. As I created this list, I was again awed by how comprehensive and prophetic this Psalm really is! I pray this simple gift will encourage you to dig deeper in the Word.

Conclusion

The implication is clear. As kings and priests of a spiritual Kingdom, we are not made to rule and reign in this life apart from Christ. Where the Word of a King is, there is POWER! Far beyond Old Testament kings, who merely had a copy of the Torah, we now have the complete Word of God near us, even in our hearts. These words are words of power for every situation you will face. Dig deep. Know them well. They will sustain you.