Mensa Otabil - God Reigns Over the Nations (10/03/2025)
Welcome to day number 34 of our 40 days of power. This week, we are proclaiming God’s rule; we are declaring that He rules over all things, and we are establishing His authority in the earth and over our lives. Psalm 47, verses 7 and 8 say, «For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with understanding. God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne.»
Psalm 47 is called an enthronement or ascension psalm, and it is named so because it establishes God’s throne or God’s rulership over the earth. In ancient Israel, it was also one of the psalms sung at the coronation of a king. When a new king was being coronated, they would sing Psalm 47 and other psalms to establish his rule and to remind the new king that he was subject to the King of Kings, so he does not think more highly of himself than he ought to. It is a very powerful psalm, and the first thing I want you to note is that the psalm states God exercises His power in holiness; He sits on a holy throne, and that is very important. It means God does not exercise power capriciously; He does not throw tantrums.
Everything God does comes from His wholeness, completeness, perfection, or what we also call holiness. Many times, when people become powerful, they become very capricious and temperamental, dispensing power here and there, disrupting people’s lives because their power lacks holiness at its base. God’s power has holiness at its core, and that is why God created man in His image and gave man free will-because God’s power is exercised in holiness.
Secondly, God wants all nations to know Him; He desires that every nation, every culture, will come to know who He is, and He wants true worship to emanate from the nations. He does not force the nations, but He wants the nations to willingly come to know Him. Thirdly, God wants the nations to praise Him with understanding. God does not want robots; He wants people who worship Him with understanding. This means our worship must arise from our knowledge. As we grow in knowledge, in education, in science, and in technology, knowledge should not take us away from God; rather, it should lead us to worship God.
The more we discover about nature and the creation of God, the more humble we should become to honor the One who put it there in the first place. Isn’t it amazing that scientists who observe all this profundity of creation sometimes turn away from the Creator? How can you discover His world and not acknowledge Him? So, knowledge and understanding must lead us to faith in God, for He is the One who placed everything here in the first place. God wants us to praise Him with understanding.
Lastly, we must proclaim the Lord as the Lord of the nations, and that is what we are doing this week; we are proclaiming the power of God. We declare God as ruler and the source of all power in every nation-over Africa, over every continent in the world, over Ghana, and over every nation globally. We proclaim God’s rule; we proclaim His holiness, His power, and His dominion over every nation on the earth. We believe that when God’s people in every nation acknowledge Him as the source of everything they have-the source of their knowledge, education, and wealth-then we turn our knowledge, our wealth, our experience, and all we possess, all the advantages we have, and place them at the feet of the Ruler of the universe, allowing Him to govern over them. This, in turn, allows us to be His ambassadors to touch the rest of the world for His glory.
May the Lord’s rule be felt in your life, in my life, in our world, in our families, and in our churches. Wherever we are, we proclaim God’s rule. Let us pray. Say with me: Heavenly Father, Your throne is holy. I worship You with all my heart and declare Your praises to the nations. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. Well, I will catch you again tomorrow. I’m Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom, peace, and life to you.