“Then in anger he rebukes them, terrifying them with his fierce fury. For the Lord declares, “I have placed my chosen king on the throne in Jerusalem, on my holy mountain.””
Psalm 2:5-6 NLT
On the one hand we have a picture from this Psalm of rebellious and unbelieving nations warring against God, and then, on the other, we find that God has installed His “chosen king” in Jerusalem. Who is this “chosen king”? At the time this Psalm was written the king was David. He was the king chosen by God to replace Saul – the details are in 1 Samuel 16, 1, 13, “Now the Lord said to Samuel, “You have mourned long enough for Saul. I have rejected him as king of Israel, so fill your flask with olive oil and go to Bethlehem. Find a man named Jesse who lives there, for I have selected one of his sons to be my king.” … So as David stood there among his brothers, Samuel took the flask of olive oil he had brought and anointed David with the oil. And the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David from that day on. Then Samuel returned to Ramah”. David eventually took up residence in Jerusalem as the king of Israel and the “holy mountain” was the Temple Mount, still there in Jerusalem today.
But there was also a prophetic message about the King to come, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Although Jerusalem, up to now, has always been a minor city compared with the sprawling metropolises of the world capitals such as Paris, Tokyo, London, etc., it has always had huge implications for the global religious and political communities, in a time yet to come. In Isaiah 2:2 the verse starts,”In the last days …” and it will be there that Jesus will govern His global kingdom. In Acts 1:11 we read, ““Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!”” One day Jesus will return again to the very place He left this world, Jerusalem.
We pilgrims are a people of vision, and we look forward in anticipation to the time when Jesus, our Lord, returns. We know where Jesus will return to from Acts 1:11. Jesus gave us dome information about the manner of His coming in Matthew 24:30, “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory”. We will have no doubts about how Jesus will return to Planet Earth. But are we ready?
Dear Lord Jesus. We echo the words in Revelation – “Come Lord Jesus”. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 