King Over All the Earth
Lord's Day Exhortation
In Psalm 47, all peoples are called by the psalmist to clap their hands and lift up their voices to God with joy, for He is the great King over all the earth. It is thought that this psalm was most likely written in celebration of the ark of the covenant being brought up Mount Zion by King David, for we read, “God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.” But even further, we can understand this psalm as a celebration of Christ’s ascension to the Heavenly Zion, where He was seated at the right hand of the Father and given all “dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him” (Dan. 7:13a).
You will recall that when our Lord gave the Great Commission to His apostles, He grounded His command in His authority as King – “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…” (Mt. 28:18–19a). What this means for us as a church is that when we participate in the work of foreign missions, we are not working out of our own strength, but by Christ’s authority. He has purchased all nations of the earth by His blood, and we are now willing participants in His victory march throughout the earth, gathering in His elect (Rev. 5:9, 2 Tim. 2:10). We can have confidence in the work of the mission because we are under orders, and our King has promised to be present with us in power, even to the end of the age (Mt. 28:20).
This morning, at the end of the service, we will pray for the Madsen family as they return to their mission in Zambia this coming week. We are very thankful to God for the opportunity to partner with them in this work, and I know they have been greatly encouraged by you all. So the exhortation this morning is to continue to remember the Madsens and the students they minister to in your prayers. Lift them up daily in your homes, remembering God’s promises to them and to the nations. Isaac has repeatedly said during this trip that the greatest way you can support them is through prayer, and he is absolutely right. Our God uses means, and chief among them are the prayers of His people for the advancement of His kingdom.
Prayer of Confession:
Merciful Father,
It is indeed right, our duty, and our joy, always and everywhere to give you thanks, for You are King over all the earth and a most gracious God to us. For though we readily acknowledge our many faults and weaknesses, the ways in which we have fallen short and sinned against You each day—we also know and remember that Your mercies are new every morning.
This morning we confess that though we believe You have given all nations to Your Son as His inheritance, we often do not live as if that were true. We lack faith in Your promises to fill the earth with Your glory. We do not evangelize with boldness. We do not pray with expectation, laying hold of Your promises. And our zeal falters with unbelief. Forgive us of these sins, O Lord, and renew within us an earnest desire to see Christ worshiped in obedience by every tribe, tongue, people, and nation as He so deserves.
Father, we also confess that our own nation has closed its eyes to Your light. And so we ask that we would not only believe these promises for missionaries in faraway lands, but also for our own neighbors right here in Moscow. May Your Spirit move Your church to pray for reformation and revival in a powerful way, and may You be pleased to answer that prayer in due time. We know that if we in the church regard any iniquity in our hearts, this prayer will be ineffectual. And so we silently confess our individual sins to you know. And Selah.
This exhortation was given on February 1, AD 2026, at King’s Cross Church in Moscow, Idaho.