How does God the Father view the Feast of Trumpets? We, ourselves, might think of it as the festival celebrating the role of Jesus Christ. Or we could even develop a slightly negative view of it—focusing on the bloody battle that takes place. But what does the Father focus on?

God sees this day as one of rejoicing. His focus is on family.

God inspired David—a man after His own heart (Acts 13:22)—to make this clear in one short psalm. All members of the God Family are mentioned in this psalm; in fact, it is one of the only places God the Father is mentioned in the Old Testament. And this psalm is all about the Feast of Trumpets. Psalm 110 shows us the roles that the Father, the Son and the Bride play in the fulfillment of the Feast of Trumpets.

Verse 1 states: “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” This verse mentions two God Beings—the Eternal and David’s Lord. Matthew 22:43-44 prove that this is actually God the Father speaking to Jesus Christ.

“What is David talking about then?” Gerald Flurry asks in The Key of David. “He is telling us that the Father was speaking to Christ. The Father promised Christ that He would sit at His (the Father’s) right hand, ‘until I make your enemies your footstool.’ Christ will sit at God’s right hand until Christ becomes King of kings.”

This psalm is all about Christ returning to rule all men. It even mentions children being born into the God Family. But notice who is mentioned first, right at the start of this psalm, as the central figure of the gospel: God the Father. He is giving instructions to His Son, and His Son obeys. Christ sits patiently at God’s right hand until His Father gives Him the word to go.

How easy is it to want to get things our own way, before it is God’s time. Yet here, Christ sets the perfect example for us, patiently waiting for His Father’s word. He is an Almighty God Being, too—yet He doesn’t have His own way of doing things (John 6:38). He is in complete harmony with the Father’s will.

In verse 2 of Psalm 110, God gives Christ the command, “[R]ule thou in the midst of thine enemies.” The Father tells Christ to go down to Zion, and rule the whole Earth from Jerusalem. “The Lord [the Father] shall send the rod of thy [Christ’s] strength out of Zion,” the verse states. A rod is a symbol of government. God the Father sets up His government on Earth through Jesus Christ. Imagine the emotion this moment has for God and Christ. They have been in heaven watching mankind destroy itself. But now, God sends Christ to step in and stop it.

Then, in verse 3, God’s firstfruits are brought into this Feast of Trumpets vision. “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power,” writes David to Christ. The Hebrew word for willing is translated “free(-will) offering” elsewhere. A better translation would be, “Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power” (English Standard Version). In other words, Christ’s people are living sacrifices. It is talking about you and me. We are to become living sacrifices, completely obedient to Him, as He obeys His Father. We learn to become living sacrifices today, so that we can sacrifice for the whole world in the future.

All members of the God Family have their part to do right now. Herbert W. Armstrong wrote, “Submission to authority is the basic theme of the Bible” (Good News, January 1957). We see that truth illustrated beautifully in this psalm. Christ submits to God as the Father patiently directs the whole plan. Then God’s firstfruits willingly submit to Christ. We must become those living sacrifices, those faithful soldiers whom Christ will use when He returns. Are we doing our part in this Family vision?

These people of God will be there “in the beauties of holiness” (verse 3). Most commentaries agree that this is referring to holy garments—an allusion to the beautiful garments of the high priest. If we are living sacrifices, we will be right here when this Feast of Trumpets unfolds, clothed in this priestly fine linen. God the Father says Go, Christ returns, and we are on Earth waiting for Him as living sacrifices.

David writes that God’s people come “from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.” What is this talking about? The Treasury of David by Charles H. Spurgeon states: “It seems, the oriental writers delighted to represent the dew as a kind of birth, as the offspring of the morning.” That is the metaphor used here. God’s saints are born like the dew at Christ’s return.

Imagine waking up early while it is still dark. You go out into a vast meadow. You wait a few minutes, and soon a red flame of sunlight flickers above the trees on the horizon. The morning is here! Within a few minutes the sun is fully risen. The scene is so much more beautiful than it was at night. And as you look around the meadow, you see the sun’s light reflected in thousands of tiny dewdrops. Those dewdrops were not there the night before. You cannot see them before the sun rises. But now, as they glisten and sparkle like crystal on every leaf and stem, they make the scene much more beautiful. Of course they are not as important as the sun—but still, the landscape would not look the same without them.

God’s called-out ones are those dewdrops, to be born in the morning, when Christ, the Day Star, rises. The Bible uses dew as a symbol of refreshing and renewing. As dew, we will help Christ, the sun, refresh and renew the whole Earth. Like dew, we will affect the whole surface of the Earth. Even the Sahara desert gets dew in the morning. That is our awesome potential: to be born, like dew—to appear as if from nowhere—when Christ returns. In this verse, David uses a beautiful metaphor to describe our role in the Feast of Trumpets.

Verse 3 also states that God’s people will be willing “in the day of thy power.” A better translation for this phrase would be “the day of your armies.” Christ, the new King, is now gathering His forces before He comes forth to conquer the world. How privileged are we to be part of those troops that will go forth and help Jesus Christ conquer. Verses 5-6 refer to this more sobering aspect of the Feast of Trumpets—the conquest that is necessary in order for Christ to rule. Yet God’s overall view is positive: This is the day that His Family is born to refresh and renew the Earth.

Verse 4 describes Christ’s role in gathering and preparing His forces right now. God the Father has made Him a High Priest forever. He is our High Priest—interceding for us, and pleading to God on our behalf (1 John 2:1).

Then Christ will go on, with our help, to conquer the rest of humanity. He will conquer them as He has already conquered us. He will be High Priest to all the inhabitants of the Earth—and the members of His Bride will assist Him as priests of a lesser rank.

The psalm ends with a victorious Christ lifting up His head in triumph (Psalm 110:7). To God, this day of Trumpets is a day of great rejoicing. We can see why He rejoices: His plan to be a Father of millions has come to fruition. In reality, it talks about the entire God Family—the Father, Son, Bride and all the children to be born during the Millennium and following the Great White Throne Judgment. This is what God thinks about when He anticipates the Feast of Trumpets.

In his Feast of Trumpets sermon in 1985, Mr. Armstrong stated that this day is “a foreshadow of the most tremendous event that has ever happened in the history, not of mankind, not of this Earth, but the most important event that has ever happened in the entire universe.” This is how the Father views this day. He sees His government finally restored to Earth. For the first time, the Godhead will expand beyond God and Christ. There will be thousands of other brand new God beings. These newly born God beings will immediately begin to turn human beings living on the Earth to the God Family way of life—righteousness; preparing them for birth in that Family. Of course God’s focus is on family. This is what the Father has been planning for for all of eternity! Think how much this day must excite Him.

King David was focused on this day over 3,000 years ago. How much more must we be when we live only a few short years from its fulfillment? Study this psalm, and others that talk about this day’s fulfillment, and catch that same excitement that the Father has for the Feast of Trumpets!