The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” (Ps. 110:4)
IN THE HIDING PLACE, Corrie ten Boom painfully recounts her imprisonment in both a prison in Holland and then finally a German concentration camp during World War II. In this beautiful autobiographical sketch of enduring such a horrific experience, she often highlighted her source of hope: Christ himself. The stories of Jesus’ own imprisonment, beating, and death leapt off the pages of her hidden Bible. Christ had experienced what she was going through and stood with her.
As she stood malnourished, bruised, naked, and humiliated in the long inspection lines in front of sneering German soldiers, she recalled how Jesus hung naked on the cross, humiliated and scorned by the Roman soldiers. She truly rejoiced that in Christ “we are more than conquerors” (Rom. 8:37).
In today’s psalm, we read of Israel’s hope in a righteous king, a Messiah who would conquer Israel’s enemies and rule forever. Years of exile and enslavement caused the people to lose hope in the coming of this king. King after king had failed and as the New Testament era dawned, hopelessness prevailed. Jesus of Nazareth entered the story as the fulfillment of this messianic promise. He is the conquering King, not with military might or political savvy but by carrying our burdens with him to the cross. He has conquered sin and death so that we too can be conquerors in him.
Place your hope in Christ, our righteous, conquering King!
Mark Moore is the spiritual formation pastor at Faith Legacy Church in Sacramento, California, and an auxiliary professor at William Jessup University.
© 2019 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission.
