Our church at The Port has been going through a series called Imaginary Jesus. In this series, the aim is to strive toward a much bigger, accurate, ever growing idea of who Jesus was and is. A few weeks ago, the topic of the message was Jesus’ royalty. His Kingship. Jesus as king over our lives, sitting on the throne of our hearts. Christians today are so familiar with Jesus as friend, father, brother, lover, etc.–that we often forget about the reverence, honor, and glory that he is deserving of. These are perfectly fine attributes and identities to perceive him as, but not to limit him as. I was inspired that Sunday to write a Psalm to and for Jesus as King.
“You are The King,
though not like David.
Even he sung praises to you
He delivered to you
equal reverence, praise, and
the tender love of a
guilty and lost child.
I forget that you are a King
sometimes, because I am
so busy running my own
kingdom of one.
I try to have dominion over
my own life. Daily
I have many more
thoughts of me than
I have of you—even if
I try to be generous, and
think of others. Still, I am
always thinking of what
I am having for lunch,
or how many miles I will
run, and what my future
will look like. And what
I am lacking.
Me
Mine
Myself
My own.
Fear and love can
Go hand in hand—
Reverence can reclaim its
due place in our hearts.
In a culture
that claims the RIGHT
to access to you, I must
approach you humble and know
that before my chin is
tilted upwards fondly
by your carpenter hands.
I must approach you
on my knees
On my face.
We don’t
Deserve,
have a right to,
or earn,
the right to enter
the throne room,
where on your thigh
it is written King
of Kings, and Lord
of Lords. In our
limited hearts and minds,
we have
let you become too human.
When the other whole of
you is all God.
May I wonder and marvel
in your majesty as
I approach your blistered
bloody, and sun tanned
feet. May I fear not in a sense
of what you may do to me
but fear how vast you are and your
mystery. For such
awe is worship.
Which is sweet honey
to your lips.
In 2017, we don’t know a
ruler who has claimed the
whole world. Much less
did it with anyone’s interest
in mind other than his own.
By nature of the conquest
they would be cruel, and
selfish, and endlessly hungry
for more power, they would not
know even a small fraction of their subjects,
and they would have to be unjust and
violent. For none could achieve such a
feat without domination.
Except Abba, and Emmanuel.
God with us. Over us, and
with us. Though you have the
only right, you don’t claim it.
Instead of a hostile takeover,
You whisper to us by name, by heart.
You offer the most beautiful
freedom of will—to choose
to call you our King.”
