Who is this King of Glory?

An idiom is a statement that says something but using words that really won’t make sense without explanation. “The best of both worlds,” “Once in a blue moon,” “When pigs fly,” or “That costs an arm and a leg.” Most of us wouldn’t guess the meaning of these without some help. The same is true in most languages; in the German language they say, “You have tomatoes on your eyes.” It basically means you’re not seeing what everyone else can see.”

Or in Sweden, they say, “There’s no cow on the ice.” Which means there’s nothing to worry about. But what about scriptures? They are in there too. Things like: “kept in your word” (John 17:12), or “to walk in the Lord” (Col 2:6 - NASB). Some of these needs explaining; others don’t. But when it comes to the prophecies about Jesus… well, sometimes it’s not as obvious as we’d like them to be.

Jesus as a king, for instance. The people wanted Jesus to be their king (John 6:15), and just a week before his time had come to go to Jerusalem to die, we read in John 12:13, “[The people] took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” (which means save us), “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”, “Blessed is the king of Israel!” In spite of their recognizing him as a kind of king they’d want to rule Israel, they weren’t listening to his words. He’d been telling his followers quite often that he had to go to Jerusalem to die (Mark 8:31).

How obvious would it be to us? Consider this Psalm by David in Psalms 24 that talks in detail about this king that was coming to town.

“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters. Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god. They will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God their Savior. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, God of Jacob. Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is he, this King of glory? The Lord Almighty — he is the King of glory.”

Once Jesus had died, been buried, was resurrected, and had ascended into heaven, things began to make more sense the kind of kingdom he was ushering in. In Acts 2 we discover that the kingdom David spoke about wasn’t his own but a better kingdom, a kingdom of God. Take time to thank God for having a vision, and a plan of his kingdom regardless if we totally get it yet or not.