Psalm 109.8 and the King of kings

The part of my job that I like the least is the fact that I have to stay current with the news. All of it. I end up having to listen to a whole lot of talking heads in order to get my "news" and that makes my head hurt. And so, yesterday I began to hear rumblings of the Psalm 109.8 Obama bumper sticker flap. Apparently, some marketing whiz printed up some bumper stickers that say

Pray for Obama

Psalm 109.8

And Psalm 109.8 says, "May his days be few, may another take his place of leadership"

Kinda funny if you ask me. Misses the entire point of Psalm 109 and is one verse away from landing somebody in jail for threats against the President, but still kind of clever, even if I don't agree with it.

Anyway, the theological point of this whole flap is very timely. This Sunday the Church celebrates Christ the King. We pledge our allegiance to someone whose tenure is defined by the whim of the American public and the success or failure of his cleverly cloaked partisan politics. (BTW if Obama ever suggests a flat tax and the Republicans balk, my head will explode). We may be Americans, subject to all rights and privileges and laws thereof, but our kingdom is not of this world. Our rule of law is higher yet. Our leader is one who knows no nation, race, or probably even creed.

Jesus, the crucified one, is our King, and that means that we have been set free from sin in order to do good works. Unfortunately, most of us liked our sin (if only we were back in Egypt) and we spend most of our life fighting with it rather than doing the work of the Gospel. But still, no matter who is in office or for how long (Psalm 109.8) our King reigns for ever.