The Government of Gladness Text: Psalm 53:6
Introduction: A Longing for Laughter
We live in a sour and cynical age. The world is full of fools who say in their hearts, "There is no God," and their public life reflects this private atheism. They are corrupt, they do abominable things, and as a result, they live in a state of perpetual, low-grade fear, what the previous verse in this psalm calls a "great fear, where no fear was." They are terrified of the weather, terrified of viruses, terrified of free speech, terrified of the God they claim does not exist. And because they are ruled by fear, they have forgotten how to be glad. Their laughter is hollow, their joy is a cheap counterfeit, and their celebrations are grim and desperate affairs.
Into this grey landscape of functional atheism, the psalmist injects a cry of pure, unadulterated hope. It is a longing for a great reversal, a yearning for a divine intervention that will not just fix a few things on the margins but will fundamentally reorder the world. This is not a wish for a mere political turnover or a slight cultural improvement. It is a prayer for salvation, for a definitive restoration, for a joy so profound that it will make the people of God erupt in gladness.
This verse is the pivot point of the whole psalm. After describing the universal corruption of man and the coming judgment of God upon His enemies, the psalmist lifts his eyes to the horizon. He knows that the only answer to the foolishness of man is the salvation of God. And he knows where that salvation comes from, what it accomplishes, and what its ultimate result will be. This is a thoroughly postmillennial prayer. It is a prayer that expects God's salvation to have real, historical, and cultural consequences. It is a prayer that anticipates a time when the people of God will not be a beleaguered minority but a rejoicing and glad nation. And we, as the people of the new covenant, are the inheritors of this promise and the agents of its fulfillment.
The Text
Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion!
When God restores His captive people,
May Jacob rejoice, may Israel be glad.
(Psalm 53:6 LSB)
The Source of Salvation (v. 6a)
The psalmist begins with the source of his hope:
"Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion!" (Psalm 53:6a)
This is a cry of intense desire. "Oh, that..." It is the groan of a man who sees the world as it is, under the thumb of fools, and longs for the world as it ought to be, under the reign of God. And where does he look for this salvation to originate? He looks to Zion.
Now, in our day, this word Zion is freighted with all sorts of baggage, much of it connected to political Zionism and the modern state of Israel. But we must read our Bibles with biblical lenses. In the Old Testament, Zion was Mount Zion, the place of the temple, the seat of God's special presence, and the capital of David's kingdom in Jerusalem. It was God's command center on earth. It was the place from which His law went forth. So, to say that salvation comes "out of Zion" is to say that salvation is a governmental act. It is an official, authoritative rescue mission launched from the throne room of the King.
But for us, who live on this side of the cross, Zion has been elevated. The author of Hebrews tells us that when we gather for worship, we have not come to the physical mountain in Palestine, but we "have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem" (Hebrews 12:22). Zion is now the Church. The Church is the assembly of God's people, the place where He dwells by His Spirit, the capital city of the new creation. God's salvation for the world, His plan to rescue all of creation from the foolishness of the godless, comes "out of Zion." It comes out of the Church.
How does this work? It is from the Church that the gospel is preached. It is in the Church that the sacraments are administered. It is through the Church that God's wisdom is made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places (Ephesians 3:10). The world is not saved by think tanks, or political parties, or grassroots activism. The world is saved when the Church is faithful. When she preaches the unvarnished gospel, when she lives in joyful obedience, when she makes disciples of all nations, she is the instrument through which God's salvation flows out into a dry and thirsty land. The rod of Christ's strength is sent forth from Zion (Psalm 110:2). This is God's ordained method. He works through His people.
The Substance of Salvation (v. 6b)
Next, the psalmist describes the substance of this salvation, what it actually does.
"When God restores His captive people," (Psalm 53:6b LSB)
The great work of God is a work of restoration. The Hebrew here is "bringeth back the captivity." For the original audience, this would have immediately brought to mind the physical exiles, like the Babylonian captivity. It was a promise that God would one day gather His scattered people and bring them home. And He did.
But the Bible always moves from the type to the antitype, from the shadow to the substance. The ultimate captivity is not political or geographical; it is spiritual. Before Christ, every one of us was a captive. We were held in bondage to sin, in slavery to our own corrupt desires, and in fear of death (Hebrews 2:15). We were exiles from the presence of God, unable to return on our own. This is the state of all men who say in their hearts, "There is no God." They think they are free, but they are in the worst kind of chains.
Salvation is when God, by His sovereign grace, restores His captive people. He breaks the chains. He pays the ransom, which was the blood of His own Son. He leads captivity captive (Ephesians 4:8). This is, first and foremost, an individual restoration. When the gospel light breaks into a sinner's heart, that is a soul being brought back from exile. That is a captive being set free.
But we must not stop there. Because God saves individuals, and those individuals form families, and those families form churches, and those churches transform cultures, this restoration has massive historical and civilizational implications. As the gospel goes forth from Zion, it doesn't just free souls for heaven. It frees minds from error. It frees economies from theft and corruption. It frees governments from tyranny. The restoration of God's captive people is the engine of all true progress in human history. It is the great story of the world: God is, through the gospel, taking back everything that sin and Satan have stolen. He is restoring His people, and with them, He is restoring the world they are called to fill and subdue.
The Result of Salvation (v. 6c)
Finally, we see the glorious result of this divine rescue operation.
"May Jacob rejoice, may Israel be glad." (Genesis 53:6c LSB)
Who are Jacob and Israel? These are covenant names for the people of God. Jacob was the schemer, the supplanter, the heel-grabber. That name represents the people of God in their weakness, in their unworthiness, in their natural state. Israel was the name God gave to Jacob after he wrestled with God and prevailed. It means "he strives with God." That name represents the people of God in their new identity, as a prince with God, victorious through faith.
The psalmist is saying that when God's salvation comes, the entire people of God, in every aspect of their being, will erupt in joy. Jacob, the unworthy sinner saved by grace, will rejoice. Israel, the victorious saint, will be glad. There is no room for sorrow or shame in the presence of such a great salvation. The proper response to being rescued from the deepest pit is not a polite nod of thanks, but raucous, uninhibited gladness.
This joy is not a flimsy emotion based on circumstances. It is a deep, theological reality. It is the gladness that comes from knowing that the King is on His throne, that His salvation is rolling through the earth, and that His enemies are being put to shame. This is the joy that is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10). It is a weapon in our spiritual warfare. A glum Christian is a contradiction in terms. A fearful, hand-wringing church has forgotten that salvation has come out of Zion. When we truly grasp what God has done, is doing, and will do, the only possible response is for Jacob to rejoice and Israel to be glad.
Conclusion: The Government of God is Gladness
This verse is a prayer, but it is also a prophecy. The salvation of Israel has come out of Zion. His name is Jesus. He came forth from the true Israel, the covenant people, and He established the new and better Zion, the Church. Through His death and resurrection, He began the great restoration of His captive people.
And that restoration is not finished. We are living in the middle of it. The gospel is still going forth. Captives are still being set free. And because of this, Jacob is still rejoicing, and Israel is still being made glad. Our task is to live in the reality of this verse. We are not to be like the world, cowering in fear. We are to be the people of Zion, the source from which salvation flows.
We must believe that God is indeed restoring His people. He is not losing. The gates of Hell will not prevail against His Church. And as we believe this, as we live this out, we will be a people marked by a profound and contagious joy. The world is starving for this kind of gladness. They try to manufacture it with entertainment and distraction, but it always fails them. True, lasting, world-altering joy is a fruit of salvation, and salvation comes from God alone, out of Zion. So let us be the glad people of the great King, and let our rejoicing be a testimony to the fools that their day is done, and the day of the Lord is at hand.