(Receive our blog posts in your email by clicking here. If the author links in this post are broken, please visit our Free PDF Library and click on the author’s page directly.)
The sovereignty of God over all nations was a Biblical doctrine of great comfort and practical value to the fugitive blacksmith-turned-Presbyterian minister, James W.C. Pennington (1807-1870). In 1856, he preached a sermon based on Psalm 22:28.
“All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the Lord’s; and He is the Governor among the nations.”
In the text from our Saviour’s own lips the subject is completed in every point of view. God the Father is not only declared to be Lord of Heaven and earth, but certain acts are ascribed to Him which indicate the effectiveness of His sovereignty over all nations.
Pennington teaches us from this text that the principle of God’s sovereignty over all the nations is one of great importance:
That God administers a supreme, holy, just, and all-powerful government over all the nations of the earth, including all creatures and things, both animate and inanimate, is a truth of profound interest to the Christian.
Further, Pennington takes a position that is rarely heard today from the pulpit: God is the ruler of not only individuals, but also nations.
Nations, as moral persons, are amenable to God as our moral Governor….The same God who is governor over nations, is also governor over individuals.
Thus, as the moral Governor of the universe, we may look to him to right wrongs, and to comfort the oppressed.
But to all this we may add the declaration in the text: — He is the governor among the nations.” He governs all the nations. His eye is in all places beholding the evil and the good. His ear hears and understands every language an speech beneath the sun. His superintending hand is in all national matters. He has to do with the Throne, and with the Chair of State, the Bench, the Bar, and the Jury Box.— The hearts of all men are in His hands and he turns them as the rivers of water are turned. The minds of all men are in His hands. He can control the thinking powers. He can communicate His own mind unto men. He can fasten conviction upon the souls of men.
In all his operations as our moral governor He has in view the best welfare of nations.
These truths comforted and animated the Hebrews under bondage in Egypt, slaves such as Pennington in the United States, and should be a source of comfort and strength to all Christians everywhere in all times. No matter what wrongs seem to prevail for a time, the God who truly governs among the kingdoms of the earth will hear the cry of the oppressed, and will cause justice to roll down like a river (Amos 5:24) as well as leaves to bring healing to the nations (Rev. 22:2).
