This is another boisterous psalm of praise that also issues a call for the nations to believe. The linchpin for the whole thing is the declaration that YHWH reigns. The Hebrew is the verbal form of “king.” We don’t have an equivalent in English; the only place we use “king” as a verb is in chess. This declaration is good news. It should make the earth giddy with joy and the nations across many waters satisfied with gladness. In Romans, Paul indicates that there is a groaning in creation itself for this very rule of God.

The consequence of God being king cuts two ways. On the one hand, if God is king/ruler and you are not it is good news. At least it is good news to those who know the bitter taste of our own personal failures to rule. Whether it is your appetite, your bank account, or your family, if you have ruled for yourself and for your name, it results in disaster. But to rule with Jesus is freedom, rest, and joy.

But the other direction that “YHWH reigns” can cut is toward destruction and despair. We can see this in the fire that goes before him. John the Baptist declares that the coming Messiah would be the baptizer in the Holy Spirit and fire. These are not two separate things. For those who love God, his presence is a fire that consumes our dross and purifies in us what is earthly and fleshly. For those who do not love God, his presence is a destructive fire, for if they persist in loving created things in place of him, that fire burns everything without remainder. It is a fearful thing.

But the overall keynote of the psalm is one of joy and light. In fact, the KJV has the curious phrase in verse 11: “God sows light for the righteous.” What a beautiful mixed metaphor! God takes that light and glory that emanates from him and sows it in our lives as one sows a seed. Everyone knows what happens to sown seed: it grows, imperceptibly at first but soon in noticeable ways. The light that God plants in us reaches up toward him in worship and faith and stretches deep inside our lives with its warmth and light. The sown light, of course, is Christ himself who was sown in human nature and takes human nature up into the Triune life of God. Sown into human nature through incarnation he draws us to the Father in resurrection and transforms us by his Spirit in sanctification. The yield of this divine sowing is joy and gladness.