Every time my mother announced she was going to bake a cake, anticipation would start to build. She would let us kids lick the batter from the mixing spoon. For thirty-five minutes we could smell the cake baking. We could check its progress by looking through the glass window on the oven door.
In a way, we were already experiencing it before it came out.
And so was the psalmist in Psalm 97, when he says,
“The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!
Clouds and thick darkness are all around him;
righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
Fire goes before him
and burns up his adversaries all around.
His lightnings light up the world;
the earth sees and trembles.
The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,
before the Lord of all the earth
The heavens proclaim his righteousness,
and all the peoples see his glory.
All worshipers of images are put to shame,
who make their boast in worthless idols;
worship him, all you gods!
Zion hears and is glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoice,
because of your judgments, O Lord.
For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth;
you are exalted far above all gods.
O you who love the Lord, hate evil!
He preserves the lives of his saints;
he delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
Light is sown for the righteous,
and joy for the upright in heart.
Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous,
and give thanks to his holy name!”
Though this Psalm was written before His coming, Christ is presented here as already manifested in worldwide glory, executing perfect justice on His throne. It’s as if the cake were already baked.
It took a strong “spirit of faith” (2 Cor. 4:13) to write Psalm 97. The passage is mostly written in the prophetic perfect, the already accomplished fact. The Psalmist’s spirit captured this reality in advance, by tasting it, smelling it, and seeing it–a small perfect sample of “the new heaven and new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pet. 3:13).
It takes an exercise of “the same spirit of faith” for you to also taste it, see it, and smell it. Such spiritual experience requires an internal connection of prayer and scripture, of inward parts accustomed to receiving God’s word. When this happens, we briefly reach over into the age to come and touch what the Psalm describes.
What other outcome could there be except rejoicing?
