Psalms 103:22: “Bless the LORD, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the LORD, O my soul.”
The phrase all His works appears to be pretty comprehensive. Logically, it would seem that the places of His dominion has already been covered. I mentioned in the last chapter that all His works is limited to only those works that are in harmony with Him. There is a lot of his works that are out of harmony with Him and thus cannot join in and bless the Lord.
I think the words places of His dominion is meant to clarify what all his works are that can bless Him. The word places is meqom. It does mean a place but this is very specific. It is like an outpost or a region under the domain of a kingdom and power. Sort of like Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States but it is not a state of the union, yet it is under the protection of the United States and any attack on Puerto Rico would be an attack on the United States.
I believe this is an indication that there are places that God does not rule. I believe many churches fill this category. They may be what we evangelicals call called dead empty places devoid of the presence of God. Yet God has His remnant and just the presence of one or two true believers will give God a foot hold and be able to establish a meqom. Joseph was the only true believer in Potiphar’s house yet God bless Potiphar because of Joseph. He was the only believer in prison and God bless the overseer. In Luke 10:5 Jesus commanded His disciples Luke 10:5: “And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace [be] to this house.” We are called to establish that meqom that beachhead over that territory claimed by the enemy. You may be the only one at work that is a believer or the only one in your family that is a believer, well maybe God has called you to establish a beachhead or a meqom at work or in your family. You claim your workplace as a meqom for Jesus or your family as a meqom a beachhead for Jesus.
Once you plant your flag then God is ready to establish His dominion. The word dominion is memshalah from the root word mashal. This is not the word used in Exodus which is radah which means to dominate and tread down. One rabbi told me that we Christians are using the wrong root word here, that is should be yaradu which means to come down to the level of someone or something. That is kind of a blow to us arrogant humans. We are told to come down to the level of the animals, not dominate over them. The animals are out there not for our domination but for us to learn from, to see the beauty and nature of God and some ancient rabbis even believe to communicate with them about God’s relationship to us. However, in Psalms 103:22 we have a different word. This is the word mashal which means to rule or reign over. It does mean to rule over but in its Semitic root it carries the idea of being like something, being similar. It is also a word used for a parable where a parable has a parallelism, it is likened to something that is similar yet different.
So once God establishes His meqom, His beachhead through who are believers, He then proceeds mashal to bring it to His likeness or to bring it into harmony with Him. In other words, you may be the only believer in your family, what a privilege, He has asked to walk point to establish a beachhead. Only the bravest soldiers will walk point, yet someone has to establish their presence. Don’t despair, rejoice because God has shown enough confidence in you to walk point and establish that beachhead. Sure it is dangerous, anyone in the front lines are in danger. But the front lines is where the action is, not in the rear where you do the laundry. If you are the only believer in your family or on the job, you have a wonderful opportunity to gives God a foothold into your family. Once you plant His flag they no longer belong to the enemy. That is why your family may fight you tooth and nail to ostracize you, the enemy is not giving up his territory. Yet you have established that territory for God and He is working to bring it all to mashal, to be in harmony with Him. You may feel persecuted on your job but it is only the enemy who has claimed the workplace for his own and then you come along, establish a beachhead, raise the flag of God, for a meqom and the enemy will throw all he has at you. Don’t give up, hang in there because God is working to establish his mashal, bringing everyone into harmony with Him and before long only those who will not submit to God will be the ones to leave, not you. But you must trust Jesus completely, you cannot for a moment trust in yourself. Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” The enemy is a liar and you will face his lies and people will accuse you of all sorts of horrible things, but you must keep trusting God, don’t even for a minute lean to your own understandings. He promises to direct you path.
I know it can get discouraging, you feel like Elijah that you are the only one. But God has His 5,000 who have not bowed to Baal. There is only weapon the enemy can use against you. My father once told the story of how Satan decided to go out of business, so he had a big garage sale, and laid out all his tools to sell them off the demons who would take over for him. He had some of his finest tools, lust, jealousy, envy they were all there all his tools that he used to trip of the believer and cause him to desert his post, God’s meqom. These tools carried a great price and demons who could afford them quickly purchased them. But there was one tool that was so high priced no one could afford it. At the end of the day it was the only tool left. Satan looked at it and thought that he did not need any other tool, this one tool was all he needed. So he decided to stay in business using this one tool. He is using it today, he is using it on you, he is using it on me. That tool is called discouragement.
If you are tempted to give up on the people in your job, in your family and even your church, don’t, you have established a beachhead, a meqom and troops will be arriving soon and they will help bring God to establish His mashal so that even all the places of His dominion will be able to bless Him.
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