JESUS and His Reign (Ps.97)

In Psalm 97, David goes right into another prophetic psalm about Jesus.  The first few verses give a basic description of the battle of Armageddon...

 (Psalm 97:1-6)  The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice;  let the many islands be glad.
2 Clouds and thick darkness surround Him;  righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.
3 Fire goes before Him and burns up His adversaries round about.
4 His lightnings lit up the world;  the earth saw and trembled.
5 The mountains melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.
6 The heavens declare His righteousness, and all the peoples have seen His glory.

To back this up using scripture from the New Testament, because I've used Revelation 19:11-16 a few times, I'm now going to use...

(2 Thessalonians 2:8)  Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming...

Then Jesus will sit on the throne of "Zion" (in Jerusalem).  King David describes the various reactions...

(Ps.97:7-12) Let all those be ashamed who serve graven images, who boast themselves of idols;  worship Him, all you gods.
8 Zion heard this and was glad, and the daughters of Judah have rejoiced because of Your judgments, O Lord.
9 For You are the Lord Most High over all the earth;  You are exalted far above all gods.

Right at Jesus' Second Coming, Jesus will judge the nations and the believers will enter the Millennium with Him (as described in Matthew 25:31-46).

(Matthew 25:31-33)  "...But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33 and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left..."  

Jesus judges the people with a few examples.  The response from the sinners will be...

(Matthew 25:44-46)  "...Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ 45 Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Back to what David was writing in his psalm - what should our response be?

 (Ps.97:11-12)  Hate evil, you who love the Lord, who preserves the souls of His godly ones;  He delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
11 Light is sown like seed for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart.
12 Be glad in the Lord, you righteous ones, and give thanks to His holy name.

This is not a works-based-salvation or faith!  Everything is based on what Jesus has done for us.  When we become Christians, we are (right then) sealed by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14); so no matter what we do or don't do - we cannot lose our salvation!  We are saved by Jesus' work on the cross, and then the fruit that comes from us - is from God!  Not based on our own efforts, but from abiding in God!

(Galatians 5:22-25)  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.