King David’s psalms are a miniature Bible. They contain law, history, poetry, the gospel, Christian living—and prophecy! Yes, David was a prophet (Acts 2:29-31). And much or most of his prophecy centers on the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
The first coming of God to Earth—as a human being, a descendant of King David (John 1:1-14; Mark 12:35-37)—wouldn’t happen for another 1,000 years. And the Second Coming of Jesus the Christ—as a glorified God Being—wouldn’t happen for another 2,000 years after that. Still, 3,000 years before it would happen, David was thinking about Christ’s return.
In fact, when you search the Psalms, you realize that he thought about it all the time! David looked forward to the time, long after his physical life would end, when he could personally watch God in action.
The coming of Jesus Christ to establish the Kingdom of God and conquer and rule all nations is represented by God’s biblical holy days, particularly the Feast of Trumpets—kept by David, kept by Christ and kept by God’s Church today. That holy day and those psalms point us to the one and only real solutionto the wrongs, injustices and suffering in the world.
This is why true Christians keep God’s holy days, why we read and search the Psalms with such fervor, and why we pray “Thy kingdom come” every day as Christ instructed (Luke 11:2). In that way, we are like King David, whose writings reveal that he truly had a Thy Kingdom come focus.
Psalm 2
Written by David (see Acts 4:25-26), this psalm begins with a fierce portrayal of the kings and rulers of this world fighting God and resisting His authority over them. Read the first three verses.
The governments of men have caused misery for millenniums. Now they are about to finally plunge the world into its worst tribulation ever. People are suffering the results of their own sins and rebellion. Billions are suffering; hundreds of millions are dying. Yet human beings refuse to recognize cause and effect, refuse to repent and turn toward God. They continue trying to improvise their own selfish, material solutions, hurting, oppressing and killing others in the process. Man’s incorrectability has never been easier to see, and it is about to become even more stark.
David vividly described mankind’s arrogant, self-willed rebellion against God. But he imagined the time when the nations and their leaders will suddenly recognize the fact that there is a power far greater than them! Throughout his psalms, David often develops this theme of prideful men being brought low.
The Feast of Trumpets is the turning point. The problem is government—specifically, the fact that human beings are incapable of governing other human beings properly. Psalm 2 is about a truly revolutionary change in government.
“Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee” (verses 6-7).
This is actually a prophecy of Jesus’s physical birth. Then verse 8 prophesies that this king will rule “the uttermost parts of the earth.” This did not happen at Jesus’s first coming—it will happen at His return as a Conqueror and King! “Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel” (verse 9).
David then warns: “Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling” (verses 10-11). “David is putting this world’s rulers on notice: Your reign is about up—turn to God in humility, and trust Him, if you are to have any hope!” Royal Vision editor in chief Gerald Flurry writes in his new book The Psalms of David and the Psalter of Tara. “How desperately this world needs leaders who serve God with fear and tremble at His word, striving never to violate it!”
God the Father and Jesus Christ are not merely disappointed or wrathful about the rebellious, sinful, self-destructive governments of mankind: They are preparing to replace them. In fact, that is the reason for God’s one true Church: to train king-priests to help Christ literally govern the Earth after His Second Coming.
“This psalm is quoted heavily in the New Testament! Why? The apostles and evangelists loved Psalm 2 because it describes the time when Christ will rule on David’s throne, and the firstfruits will be on that throne with Him! That future was real to those men—not some fantasy. They talked about it and quoted David over and again. Is it that real to us?” (ibid).
How much do you want to help God relieve the suffering in this world? How fervently do you pray “Thy Kingdom come” each day? How hard do you work to support God’s Work of reaching the world with a warning about where its rebellion is leading—and with the hope of how God is about to stop this madness?
Our problems today cannot be solved on the human level. The only hope is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ for the purpose of governing all nations.
Psalm 12
“Help, Lord; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.
They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak. … The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted” (Psalm 12:1-2, 8). This is our world today: Godly men are gone, the faithful have vanished, everyone lies, the vile are bold and in power.
No wonder David began, Help, Lord! And God will help. Here is His promise: “The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things:
Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us?” (verses 3-4).
What a perfect description of the arrogant people who fill society top to bottom and believe they can lie their way out of every problem! “They feel no accountability; they recognize no higher power,” Mr. Flurry writes (ibid). Romans 10:3 describes people being ignorant of and resistant to God’s righteousness and laboring to establish their own righteousness. In today’s world, it has become “righteous” to stop eating beef to reduce climate change, to riot for racial justice, to open our borders to illegal immigration, to encourage our children in transgenderism! These people are ignorant of God’s righteousness and not interested in submitting to anything! How can God correct them?
The first worldwide tribulation was the Flood. God drowned the entire world save eight people because humanity was irreversibly evil! Yet sadly, even with that terrible punishment in living memory, it took almost no time at all for the generations after Noah to band together and focus their energies on building a tower of defiance. They would rather do that than be taught by God!
Mankind has been trying to build literal and figurative towers of Babel over and again ever since. Man keeps trusting in man rather than God, and is cursed for it.
This world needs to get to know the real God! People then and now live their lives ignorant of their own Creator, the greatest and most powerful Being in the universe. They are cut off from Him, deceived and held in captivity by the devil. It was true in David’s day; it is true in our day: We need God, not just emotionally, mentally or religiously but literally, as our King!
This is what the Feast of Trumpets, representing the fourth milestone of God’s master plan, is all about.
In this psalm, David imagines God rising up to set matters right—saying, “Because the poor are despoiled, because the needy groan, I will now arise; … I will place him in the safety for which he longs” (verse 5; Revised Standard Version). What powerful vision David had! What faith He had in God’s goodness and in His Word.
We can totally trust God’s promise to set things right, because “The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times” (verse 6). This is the basis for our confidence in the Second Coming.
Psalm 11
David experienced a difficult, fraught life. His life was often in danger. He wrote Psalm 11 about one such time. The people around him had no faith, but he was resolute: “In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?” (verse 1).
Again, note David’s brilliant vision of the living God! “The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. … Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup” (verses 4, 6). Here, as in many other psalms, he emphasizes that God is there, watching all the evils, and He will act!
Even as conditions for David worsened and God had not yet acted to help him, David clung to that promise, the same promise that we celebrate on the Feast of Trumpets.
Psalm 94
This psalm is not attributed to David, but it was written in the same spirit of looking to God for protection from and judgment against the wicked. It begins with a forceful plea for God to exact vengeance on the evil of this world: “O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth; O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself. Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth: render a reward to the proud” (verses 1-2).
Then comes a question that God’s people have been asking for thousands of years: How long? “Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph? How long shall they utter and speak hard things? and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?” (verses 3-4). A righteous mind aches to see vanity, arrogance and evil. And we, like David and other biblical writers, ask, How long? How long will wicked elites deceive and oppress and experience no consequences? How long will Marxism, racism, homosexuality and other perversions continue and triumph? How long will the saints suffer persecution from Satan’s society (verse 5). How long will governments oppress, heedless of who they hurt, unaccountable to anyone, defiantly ignorant of the God of judgment? (verses 6-7). How long can God allow these sins to continue?
The answer: not much longer. “He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see? He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? …” (verses 9-10). God sees it all! And He is going to do something about it.
God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather in the destruction of their wickedness (Ezekiel 33:11). The day is coming soon when He will indeed step in and judge, and those who cling to their sins will be destroyed with them.
“And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; yea, the Lord our God shall cut them off” (Psalm 94:23). The Feast of Trumpets shows how severe God’s chastening can become. He loves all human beings as their Creator, and He will chasten and scourge them (Hebrews 12:6)—even to the point of death. False Christian churches cannot explain this, largely because many of them do not teach the biblical truth about the three resurrections. When you understand that, you understand that God will use—and has used throughout history—even physical death to chasten us. That too is highlighted in the Feast of Trumpets.
Psalm 18
“This is a psalm of a mighty spiritual warrior, a man who knew how to let God lead him in battle,” Mr. Flurry writes (ibid). This is a powerful example of godly boldness and faith. It is also very moving to read as an inspiring prophetic description of Christ’s perspective on Trumpets as He returns to Earth to exact judgment!
“In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears. Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet” (verses 6-9).
David was writing about God delivering him from the deadly agents of King Saul. There was no massive earthquake, smoke or fire. Yet David viewed God’s intervention in dynamic, epic terms—foreshadowing the day, pictured by the Feast of Trumpets, when the full power of God will be on supernatural display! When God delivers us from trial, we need to recognize it so clearly and intensely as David did!
“The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire. Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them” (verses 13-14). This is just what He will do in destroying the rebellious armies of this world!
Christ is a master Warrior and godly Commander. It is very moving to read this as if they are His words—at His Second Coming: “It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect” (verse 32). During His first coming, Christ demonstrated tremendous humility and submission to His Father. It is one of the most beautiful pictures in the Bible. He still has that submissiveness and will have it even at His return! He does nothing but what His Father gives Him to do. The Father is the one sending Him to wage war against rebellious mankind.
“He teacheth my hands to war …” (verse 34). David wrote this: God was his Trainer and Commander. He wrote it with the spirit of Christ. We too must become mighty spiritual warriors. We need God to teach our hands to war!
“I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them: neither did I turn again till they were consumed. I have wounded them that they were not able to rise: they are fallen under my feet.For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle: thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me” (verses 37-39). This is the spirit—of David, of Christ, of God the Father—that we need in our daily spiritual warfare, to attack our problems, our trials and our sins. We need the spirit of the Day of the Lord, of the Feast of Trumpets!
“Think deeply on the audacious, offensive-minded spirit of this psalm!” Mr. Flurry writes. “To win battles, we cannot be back-pedaling, timid and cowed. We need the spirit of the Lion of Judah! (Proverbs 28:1). We must harness God’s power, attack our weaknesses, take the fight to the enemy, press every advantage! … We all need this valiant, faith-filled spirit of David in our spiritual warfare—and this spirit of praise and thanks to God for the triumphs He gives us” (ibid).
Verses 43-50 are written in that prophetic spirit. These verses don’t apply to David nearly as well as to Christ at His Second Coming! The hearts of true Christians will leap for joy to see our Savior, our King, our Husband coming out of the clouds with power and great glory!
Psalm 21
Here is a glorious psalm to the king. And it is beautiful to think of it as being to the King of kings!
“The king shall joy in thy strength, O Lord; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!
Thou hast given him his heart’s desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah. … His glory is great in thy salvation: honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him.
For thou hast made him most blessed for ever: thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance” (Psalm 21:1-2, 5-6). “As much as these words apply to David,” Mr. Flurry writes, “they foreshadow and ultimately pertain to the King of kings, who will reign eternally” (ibid).
Verses 8-12 speak explicitly of the Day of the Lord: “the Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath,” it says. “Psalm 21:8-12 are a picture of the fierce war He will wage when He returns in power and glory. All who have fought against God and His way will be removed so that Christ can govern in their stead” (ibid).
“Be thou exalted, Lord, in thine own strength: so will we sing and praise thy power” (verse 13). “Is there any more inspiring vision to set our hearts on? David loved the government of God. He worked hard to use his office to implement it in Israel. And he yearned for the time when the King Himself would be governing in strength! This vision was so real to him that he was inspired to sing about it!” (ibid).
The vision of the Second Coming truly fired David’s imagination! We all ought to build more of this spirit of David—a “Thy Kingdom come” spirit in our daily lives.
Psalm 19
In this homage to God’s spectacular creation and the laws by which it operates, David embedded a prophecy about Christ’s return: “Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,
Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.
His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof” (Psalm 19:4-6).
Mr. Flurry explains these verses in his new book: “The sun is the most prominent body or symbol here illustrating God’s eminence. This is a prophecy—a picture of how Jesus Christ is about to bring light and growth to all the world. Righteousness will fill the Earth. Everybody will be touched, just like they are by the light of the physical sun. You can step outside on a sunny day and feel the sun’s heat. The ‘Sun of righteousness’ (Malachi 4:2) is about to fill this Earth! That is a prophecy you can see in the heavens every day! The whole world is about to see that prophecy fulfilled.”
He then draws attention to David comparing the sun to a “bridegroom” in verse 4. “If there is a bridegroom, then there must be a bride!” he writes. “There is a group of people submitting to the law of God and submitting to their Husband and to His rule and direction in their lives.” That group will be raised in the first resurrection, at the same last trump that announces Christ’s return! (1 Thessalonians 4:16). And we will then marry our Husband!
Psalm 110
Here is a phenomenal poetic description of events at Christ’s return. (Read more in the September-October 2023 Royal Vision, “The Father’s View of Trumpets.”)
It begins with a bang: “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool” (Psalm 110:1). This is incredible revelation God gave David: It describes God the Father speaking to Jesus Christ (David’s “Lord”)—in a prophetic vision of far after David’s lifetime, when Christ would come as a human being, die and be resurrected. The Father is anticipating the moment He will be able to send His Son a second time.
This is what these two universe Beings are anticipating right now! God is about to signal to His Son the perfect time to return to Earth, to “rule thou in the midst of thine enemies” (verse 2).
Verse 3 refers to people with a different attitude: “Your people will offer themselves freely on the day you lead your host …” (Revised Standard Version). These true Christians act on God’s message, repent, and surrender their lives to Him before His return. This evil world will be forced to submit, but the true Church, as a Bride, will happily submit to its Husband!
This verse depicts nothing less than the birth of God beings into God’s Family, the first of whom join Christ as His Bride, clothed in priestly garments (“the beauties of holiness”). Christ’s beautiful Bride, arrayed in holy garments, will be a willing free-will offering to Him. They will be born into His Family with even more joy, excitement and emotion than a physical human birth. They will help their Husband rule—to bring the whole world into that Family as their spiritual children!
Of all the many things that will happen at the Second Coming, what is the most exciting to God? The birth of His children into His Family!
The Feast of Trumpets gives us so much to look forward to: the miraculous descent of Jesus Christ to Earth, His conquest against the world’s armies, an end to the rebellion and oppression of man, the establishment of God’s Kingdom, and the marriage of Jesus Christ to His Bride, in preparation for massively expanding the Family of God still further.
David’s psalms express his excitement about this prophecy: the coming return of Jesus Christ. Christ is excited! God the Father is excited! True Christians are thrilled! We simply must open our eyes to what God is showing us: the coming victory, the coming justice, the coming marriage and Family!
Like David, we must focus on the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and let it refresh, inspire, motivate and galvanize us. It is coming soon!