“For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive. Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation; they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it.” -Psalm 22:28–31
David envisions a boundless kingdom where the Gentile, the wealthy, the dying, and even the unborn shall bow down and serve the Lord. All humanity will one day banquet together; and not only in his own generation, but in that of his posterity, the righteousness and victory of the Lord will be proclaimed (“that he has done it”).
The passage is overtly Christological. His is not a pessimistic vision of the future. David’s eschatology is optimistic. John Calvin’s comments on this passage of the Psalm are helpful. He writes,
“Whence we again conclude, that what is here celebrated is not such a manifestation of the glory of God to the Gentile nations as proceeds from a transitory and fading rumour, but such as will enlighten the world with its beams, even to the end of time.
Rejoice, Christian. The flourishing of God’s church is perpetual. Though it does not always continue to grow in the same uniform and abundant course in every age, it is the fruit of incorruptible seed and will therefore grow abundantly until it fills the earth.
“He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”” -Matthew 13:31–32