Well, this
morning we are continuing with our series in
the Psalms, and we're looking at Psalm 2.
Please
listen to the reading of God's Word. Psalm
2.
Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together against the
Lord and against His anointed, saying,
let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us.
He who sits in the heavens laughs.
The Lord holds them in derision.
Then he will speak to them in his
wrath
and terrify them in his fury saying,
as for me, I have set my king
on Zion,
my holy hill.
I will tell of the decree, the Lord
said to me, you are my son.
Today I have begotten you.
Ask of me and I will make the
nations your heritage
and the ends of the earth your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of
iron and dash them in pieces
like a potter's vessel.
Now therefore, oh kings, be wise.
Be warned, oh rulers of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with
trembling.
Kiss the sun,
lest he be angry and you perish in
the way,
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God. Please be seated.
Well, today we're looking at Psalm 2,
which
together with Psalm 1 serves as an introduction
to the rest of the Psalter.
As Julio taught last week, Psalm 1 presents
2 paths before the reader.
The path of the rebellious man,
which results in judgment and destruction,
and the path of the righteous man,
which results in vindication
and eternal life.
And those same two paths
lie before us each,
each and every day. They lie before each
and every one of us
each and every day.
Do we like the rebellious man of Psalm
1,
listen to the arrogant advice of cynical
society
and imitate
the abhorrent actions of sinners
and appropriate and affirm
the blasphemy of scoffers?
Or
do we, like the righteous man,
meditate upon
and
model our lives
after the teachings
of God's
law? In other words,
there are two paths before you today.
God's promise is that the path of the
wicked
results in judgment,
while the path of the righteous
results
in joy.
Psalm 1 describes
man's paths.
Rebellion
or righteousness?
Psalm 2 declares God's promises.
Wrath and ruin for the renegade
or refuge and redemption
for the repentant.
These paths and these promises
lie behind every Psalm and they lie before
every one of us today.
And the main question I want you to
consider this morning
as we look at Psalm 2 is this,
are you living in rebellion
against Christ
or are you resting in him?
Are you living
in rebellion against Christ
or are you resting in Him?
So I want you to ponder this question
as we unpack this psalm
under 4 headings.
Number 1, the society's rebellion.
Number 2,
the sovereign's rebuke.
Number 3, the son's rule.
And number 4, the spirit's rescue.
So let's look at the first heading, the
society's rebellion.
Look at verses 1 to 3 with me
again.
Why do the nations rage and the peoples
plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves, and
the rulers take counsel together against the Lord
and against His anointed, saying,
'Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us.'
That is the all inclusive scope
of the rebellion that these verses describe.
We learn that individuals from every race
and entire nations, as well as their kings
and rulers,
are all involved
in this treacherous and ill fated conspiracy.
And against whom
are they conspiring?
Well, the text states that their rage and
schemes are set against the Lord
and against the Lord's anointed.
Now for the moment let us set aside
the identity of the Lord's anointed. We'll get
to that later.
But notice that in verse 2, the word
Lord appears in all capital letters.
You might recall that whenever Lord is in
all capital letters, it indicates
that it is translating the personal name of
God in Hebrew,
which is often pronounced
Yahweh
or even Jehovah.
In other words,
the rebellion described
in the opening verses of Psalm 2
is set against the Lord, that is to
say against God Himself.
Let me say that it shouldn't surprise us
to learn that people from every nation and
race,
and that people from every walk of life,
even those who wield great authority,
are in open rebellion against God.
Yet for many,
in our humanistic
Western culture,
this is a hard pill to swallow.
We refuse to believe it.
We refuse to have such a pessimistic view
on human nature, don't
we? In a recent interview with 60 minutes,
reporter Nora O'Donnell asked Pope Francis,
When you look at the world,
what gives you hope?
And Pope Francis answered,
People are fundamentally
good.
We are fundamentally good.
Yes, there are some rogues and sinners,
but the heart
is good.
In Genesis 6:5,
Moses writes,
The Lord saw that the wicked that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth,
and that the every intention
of the thoughts of his heart
was only evil continually.
Now you might complain that such assessment came
before the flood.
Well, in Jeremiah 17:9
the prophet offers this post diluvian diagnosis.
The heart is deceitful above all things
and desperately sick.
Who can understand it?
Ah, but that is before the incarnation of
Jesus you say.
Well, in Matthew 15 verses 18 and 19,
the incarnate Jesus
says,
but what comes out of the mouth proceeds
from the heart,
and this
defiles a person.
For out of the heart
come evil thoughts,
murder,
adultery,
sexual immorality,
theft,
false witness,
slander.
Surely the resurrection and ascension of Jesus remove
the impurity
from every human heart, you say.
Well, in Romans 3:23, the Apostle Paul, who
was converted after
the resurrection and ascension of Christ
writes,
For all have sinned
and fall short
of the glory of God. No, we are
not fundamentally good.
No, the human heart
is not good.
It is wicked,
deceitful,
desperately sick,
treacherous,
and murderous.
And the reason for this malady
is the fall, that wretched occasion
when Adam first sinned against God.
Therefore, since he is our first father,
every human being after him bears his guilt
and corruption
from the moment that we are conceived.
We inherit
his spiritual genetics
and bear the sinful family resemblance.
David himself tells us as much in Psalm
51 verse 5 where he writes,
Behold,
I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
In Ezekiel 36,
the prophet writes that since we carry this
curse,
we all have hearts of stone
and are incapable
of obeying God's law.
In Ephesians 2,
Paul describes his wretched condition as spiritual
death,
writing that this sinful nature makes all mankind
children of wrath.
So again, we should not be surprised
by how widespread the rebellion against God is.
In Matthew 7 verses 13 and 14, Jesus
says
that the way is easy
that leads to destruction
and those who enter by it are many.
For the gate is narrow and the way
is hard that leads to life, and those
who find it
are few.
Jesus is here referring to the same two
paths in Psalm 1,
the wide and well traveled
path that leads to destruction
and the narrow and scarcely trodden path
that leads to eternal
life.
Psalm 2's ruinous rebellion
rises and runs
along this wretched road.
Are you racing toward ruin
on this route?
Remember,
most people are.
Most people are.
Most people are regardless of race,
of nationality,
of education,
of social status.
You might ask yourself, well, how can I
know?
Well, verse 2 tells you how.
You see the rebellion is against the Lord
and against His anointed.
Rebellion against the Lord's anointed is the sure
marker
of the wicked.
So, this is where we get to ask,
who is the Lord's anointed?
In ancient Israel
it was customary for prophets,
priests, and kings to be consecrated for office
by being anointed
with oil.
This represented the conferring of the gifts of
the Holy Spirit upon them.
It is fitting therefore
that the Lord's anointed in Psalm 2
refers to none other
than the one who holds these three offices
perpetually.
The one who is a
prophet greater than Moses,
the one who is our High Priest after
the order of Melchizedek,
and the one who is King of kings,
who holds Judah's scepter and sits on David's
throne.
His identity becomes clear when we consider the
word
for anointed in Hebrew
is Mashiach
which we transliterate
as Messiah,
and in Greek Christos
which we transliterate
as Christ.
In other words, allegiance to Christ,
to the Messiah
is the touchstone of righteous living.
This is why Jesus is the way, the
truth, and the life.
This is why no one goes to the
righteous Father except
through Him.
Conversely,
whoever denies Christ,
denies the Father,
is in rebellion against the Lord and against
his anointed,
and is surely
on the path to perdition.
People might say, Well, I'm a spiritual person.
Or,
I believe that all paths lead to God.
Or, I believe that God is within each
and every one of us.
Or,
I believe in humanity.
Or I believe in science,
or simply
I believe in myself.
But what Psalm 2 makes clear
is that all this theoretical mumbo jumbo is
a complete waste of time,
that the test for fidelity
is much more concrete,
that the question everyone must answer is,
what is your relationship
to the Anointed One?
What is your relationship
to the Messiah?
What is your relationship
to Christ?
Because as long as you deny Christ,
you remain in rebellion against the Lord,
and are dead in your sin,
and are condemned to eternal damnation.
Why?
Because you are subverting the truth which is
revealed in God's word.
You oppose God's word.
You ignore it.
Or maybe you even despise it.
Either way you are running your own race
on your own road,
unaware that like Jonah
you will be swallowed up into the deep.
Is that what you are doing?
What is your relationship
to Christ?
What is your relationship
to the Lord's anointed?
Are you listening to his voice?
Are you obeying
his word?
When God delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt
and guided them into the promised land, He
did so by giving Israel His word
that they might possess the promised land and
live in it in righteousness.
Concerning this deliverance, look at what God says
in Hosea chapter 11
verse 4.
He says, I led my people with cords
of kindness,
with bands
of love.
Again, I led my people with cords of
kindness,
with bands of love.
I think of how excited my dog gets
when I place the collar and leash around
his neck and take him for a walk.
It is that band and that cord that
keeps him safe,
walking on the right path,
preventing him from wandering away and getting lost.
The band and cord keep him tied to
me.
The one who is committed to nurturing him
and caring for him.
How much more
does God care for us through his word,
his court of kindness, and his band of
love?
But now look again at what those in
rebellion against God say in verse 3.
They say, Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us.
Those in rebellion against God
reject the loving word of Christ.
They see it as an oppressive hindrance.
They come to despise it.
In verse 1 where we read that the
peoples plot in vain,
the word plot is the same Hebrew word
that in Psalm 1
Psalm 1 verse 2 is translated as meditates,
referring to the blessed man who meditates
on God's law day and night.
Same word.
So whereas the righteous
meditate
on Christ's word day and night,
rebellious people
with the same
religious devotion
scheme
against Christ.
Scheme,
plot
against the Lord's anointed with the same fervor.
In John 5, Jesus gives us great insight
into the relationship between obedience
to Christ's Word and eternal life.
Look at what
he says beginning in verse 24.
Truly, truly, I say to you,
whoever hears my word
and believes him who sent me
has eternal life.
He does not come into judgment,
but has passed from death to life.
Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour
is coming and is now here
when the dead will hear the voice of
the Son of God,
and those who hear
will live.
Then in verse 45 he continues,
Do not think that I will accuse you
to the Father.
There is one who accuses you,
Moses,
on whom you have set your hope.
For if you believed Moses,
you would believe me, for he wrote of
me.
But if you do not believe his writings,
how will you believe my words?
Society's rebellion against God therefore is characterized
by opposing
Christ's rule through the rejection
of His word.
Governments who redefine marriage,
rulers
who persecute Christians,
societies that celebrate sin
and ridicule righteousness,
schools
that teach and promote the lies
of gender ideology,
Church leaders
who abuse the sheep
to protect their own interests,
pastors
who perform on Sundays
to build their own kingdom,
and individuals devoted to the pursuit of money
and pleasure
and fame
are all part
of the society of satanic schemers
seeking to subvert
their sovereign.
So having looked at society's rebellion,
let us now consider our second heading,
the sovereign's rebuke.
In verse 1 the psalmist begins by asking,
Why do the nations rage?
The question is rhetorical.
The why is not meant to be answered.
Rather it is meant to underscore
the futility
of the rebellion.
He's asking,
Why do you guys bother?
Do you not know
who you are opposing?
Do you not think your treachery
has
do you do you think that your treachery
has any chance of prevailing?
Do you think that the Lord is worried
about your schemes?
Look at verses 4 to 6 with me.
He who sits in the heavens
laughs
The Lord holds them in derision.
Then he will speak to them in his
wrath and terrify them in his fury saying,
As for me,
I have set my king on Zion,
my holy hill.
One commentator notes that verse 4
is the only place in the Bible where
it says that God laughs.
When clay conspires to reshape the potter,
laughter is the potter's appropriate response.
The king is so unconcerned
that he doesn't even get up from his
throne.
He sits in the heavens and laughs.
Men and women decide
they can live without God,
yet inevitably
they all die
and meet His inescapable
fury.
Societies decide
they don't need God's wisdom,
yet they quickly forget
what a woman is.
Governments decide they don't need God's law,
yet they descend into chaos and become riddled
with crime.
Civilizations
decide
they can eradicate God's people,
yet they spread the gospel and grow the
church
before collapsing.
You'll notice in verse 4 that the word
Lord is not
in upper case this time.
The reason for this is that this time
it is translating the Hebrew word
Adonai
which indeed means Lord or Master
or Sovereign.
The psalmist is reminding the rebels that God
is their sovereign ruler,
that their rebellion has zero
chance of success.
Look at how the prophet Isaiah describes God's
greatness
in Isaiah chapter 40
beginning in verse 15.
Behold,
the nations are like a drop from a
bucket
and
are accounted
as the dust on the scales.
All the nations
are as nothing before Him.
They are accounted by Him as less than
nothing and emptiness.
To whom then
will you liken God?
Or what
likeness
will you compare with
him? Do you not know?
Do you not hear?
Has it not been told you from the
beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundation of
the earth?
It is he who sits above the circle
of the earth
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.
Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain
and spreads them like a tent to dwell
in?
Who brings princes to nothing
and makes the rulers of the earth as
emptiness?
Dear Christian,
are you worried
because the world is in rebellion against God?
Because people arrogantly mock
believers?
Because scholars
ridicule the Bible?
Because governments
persecute the church. Are you concerned about that?
Psalm 2 reminds you,
do not worry.
God is not worried.
He laughs.
In fact, it is the rebels who need
to worry
for God's laughter
is not one of joy,
it's not a pleasant laugh, it's not a
laugh of satisfaction.
Rather his laughter is a rebuke.
God scoffs
at their foolishness.
God mocks their audacity and derides their insolence.
Then in verse 5, He manifests his wrath
and fury against them.
The image in the Hebrew is that of
a person who is breathing
heavily,
menacing
to unleash his fury at any moment.
If the people who act wickedly against God,
and against God's plans,
and against God's people
could discern
God's present anger
against them,
they would either repent on the spot or
be undone
in abject
terror.
God will not be mocked.
His anger burns against injustice.
God is a dispassionate judge but he is
not uninterested.
He cares deeply about his creation, he hates
sin,
And he tells us in Exodus 30 four:seven
that he will by no means clear the
guilty.
Remember the question I want you to consider
this morning, are you living in rebellion against
Christ
or are you resting in him?
Vengeance is his, he will repay.
It is a fearful thing to fall into
the hands of the living God.
Today many schools have embraced curriculums that confuse
students.
Many governments prosecute Christians for obeying God's word.
Many companies
make anti biblical policies
compulsory.
Many social media platforms disseminate
content that deceives
and distorts.
It may seem like the wicked will prosper.
It may appear like the conspiracy of the
rulers of the world will prevail.
Yet despite
the rebellion,
in verse 6 God boldly proclaims that He
has set His King on Zion,
His holy hill.
In the middle of absurd scheming,
and while the wicked machinations of man are
running wild,
verse 4 tells us that God sits on
His throne in heaven and verse 6 says
that His King is enthroned on Mount Zion.
The spiritual realm
and the physical realm are both under God's
sovereign rule.
What a great comfort
this should provide to you, dear Christian.
Your salvation is entirely secure and your inheritance
completely
safe.
During the 1st temple period, the Ark of
the Covenant
which represented God's throne
was housed in the temple's
holy of holies
which faced east and was located on Mount
Moriah.
Mount Zion
was to its south, that is to say
at its right hand.
And
that is where the kings of Judah,
since the time of David, had their palace.
God's earthly ruler
sat
at his right hand.
It was a preview
of the permanent position
of privilege
that the divine heir to David's throne would
one day possess.
Mark, and Luke,
and Paul,
and Peter,
and the author of Hebrews all say that
after his resurrection,
Jesus ascends into heaven and sits
at the right hand of the Father,
ruling over angels, ruling over authorities, ruling over
all powers.
So having looked at the society's rebellion and
the sovereign's rebuke, this brings us to our
3rd heading, the sons rule.
In verses 7 to 9, the king who
sits on Mount Zion,
the Lord's anointed speaks.
He says,
I will tell of the decree.
The Lord said to me,
you are my son.
Today
I have begotten you.
Ask of me and I will make the
nations your heritage
and the ends of the earth your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of
iron and dash them in pieces
like a potter's
vessel.
Unlike the posers on earth who wield authority
without integrity,
who sit on their thrones illegitimately
through deception,
through pretense,
through bullying,
who make decisions and utter decrees to enrich
themselves and to pathetically
preserve their power,
the King who sits on Mount Zion
asserts his power
by declaring his
incontrovertible
credentials.
As to the flesh,
he is the legitimate heir to David's throne.
We know this because verse 7 comes from
2 Samuel 714,
where after declaring
that one of David's descendants will sit on
David's throne forever,
God declares, I will be to him a
father
and he shall be to me a son.
The Lord's anointed
is that son.
But in the fullness of time
we now know his identity is even greater
than that.
The Lord tells
the king,
You are my son.
Today
I have begotten you.
God the Father uses these words to describe
Jesus at his baptism
and at His transfiguration.
He says, This is my beloved Son with
whom I am well pleased.
Furthermore, in John 1 and 3,
the beloved disciple calls Jesus, The only begotten
Son of God.
When we recite the Nicene Creed,
we say that the Lord Jesus Christ is
begotten,
not made.
This is because
one can only beget
something
of the same nature.
A dog can only beget other dogs.
A cat can only beget other cats. A
human can only beget other humans.
But the Son of God is eternally begotten
of God the Father,
Precisely
because He is, as the Nicene Creed states,
of one substance with the Father. That is
to say,
He is God.
In other words,
the Lord's anointed
the king on Mount Zion,
the heir to David's throne is none other
than the Son of God made flesh.
The conspirators have no chance against him.
In verse 8, The Father is pleased to
give the Son all the nations even to
the ends of the earth as his inheritance.
In verse 9,
we learn that the Father gave the Son
the right to break the nations with a
rod of iron
and to dash them into pieces like a
potter's vessel.
Here the psalmist paints an image of judgment
for us by describing an Egyptian ritual of
cursing
where someone would write the name of a
person
or of a city on a piece of
pottery and then would pronounce a curse
and smash that pottery on the floor
dashing it to pieces.
If you are in rebellion
against Christ,
if you are living in unrepentant
sin,
raising your fist
against him as it were,
you should know
that it is he who raises his fist
against you,
and that your clay constitution is no match
for his rod of iron.
So having looked at the society's rebellion,
and the sovereign's rebuke,
and the son's rule, let us not consider
our final heading,
the Spirit's rescue.
Yes, the situation is very dire indeed for
those who are in rebellion against the Son.
But there is yet hope.
Look at verses 10 to 12 with me.
Now therefore, O kings, be wise.
Be warned, O rulers of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear
and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the son,
lest he be angry and you perish in
the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all
who take refuge
in him.
In this Psalm,
we've heard the voice of sinners scheming in
verses 1 to 3.
In verses 4 to 6,
we heard the voice of the father rebuking
them.
In verses 7 to 9, we heard the
voice of the son
asserting his authority.
And now in verses 10 to 12 we
hear the voice of the spirit
calling sinners
to repentance.
The rebellious king
might be too arrogant
to heed the call to wisdom
when he's supposed to be the wise one.
The treacherous ruler
might be too proud
to be on the receiving end of a
warning when he's the one
who has authority to issue warnings.
But what about you?
What will you allow
to stand in the way
between you
and eternal life?
The spirit says, Be wise
and heed my warning.
Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with
trembling.
In other words, the spirit is calling you
to never forget
who you are
and who God is.
Sincere service to God results in rejoicing,
we're made for it.
This is what we do when we worship
Him.
But as creatures we should never lose
the
sensation of fear and trembling
before God.
The more we understand his awesome
and terrible might,
the more we will marvel
at his grace and his love for us
sinners.
And this will help us grow in love
for him,
which is the greatest vaccine against insurrection.
As Christians our obedience to God
should not be rooted
in fear.
It should be rooted in love.
But fear and trembling remind us
of the awesome context
of our salvation.
In verse 12,
the Psalm ends with an imperative followed by
a benediction.
A command
followed by a blessing.
The command is this,
kiss the son.
And it includes this warning,
lest he be angry and you perish in
the way
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
The amazing thing
is that the word sun is not in
Hebrew.
It is in Aramaic.
Aramaic
was the language spoken by 2 of Israel's
greatest enemies,
the Assyrians and the Babylonians.
In other words, the Spirit's plea
is that all should kiss the sun,
not just Israel.
Our neighbors need the gospel.
Our enemies
need the gospel.
We
need the gospel.
All must pay homage to the son if
they are to have hope. To kiss the
son is to pay homage to him, it
is to submit to him.
Have you done that?
If you haven't, don't wait any longer.
His judgment can come at any moment.
When Judas betrayed Jesus,
he did it with a kiss.
He wasn't paying homage
to Jesus, he was just trying to get
paid.
And he did,
and he's still getting paid.
And the fiery wages of sin will never
run out.
In Luke 7 however, we read of a
sinful woman
who also
kissed Jesus.
She repented of her sin,
and she could not fathom
that someone like her
could be forgiven.
So she took
an expensive alabaster flask
with an expensive perfume,
probably her most precious possession,
and she raised it
and she shattered it to pieces.
But instead of invoking a curse,
it was her curse
that was undone forever.
So she took that perfume
which she purchased with with the wages of
her sin.
And God's anointed
allowed her
to anoint him
with the wages of her sin.
She plays the tools of her trade on
Jesus.
She used her hands and her hair to
clean his feet with her tears,
and to anoint them
with ointment.
Then she used her lips
to kiss his feet
and God's anointed
allowed that too.
And everyone was scandalized,
but not Christ.
He took her sin
and her shame
and he counted it as a joy.
On that day,
the sinful woman kissed the son
and took refuge in him.
Won't you do the same?
Won't we all
do the same?
Let us not wait any longer.
Blessed are those
who take refuge
in him. Let's pray.