All Hail King Jesus!
Psalm
2
Introduction: After Pentecost the young church
faced opposition. The leaders are first arrested and threatened in Acts 4, and
when they were released, they had a prayer meeting. We read about it in Acts
4:23-30…
23 When they were released, they
went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had
said to them. 24 And when
they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said,
"Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and
everything in them, 25 who
through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,
"' Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? 26 The kings of the earth set
themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against
his Anointed'- 27 for truly
in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom
you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the
peoples of Israel, 28 to do
whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. 29 And now, Lord, look upon their
threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all
boldness, 30 while you
stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the
name of your holy servant Jesus."
Over a thousand years after Psalm 2 was written, they saw current events in the light of this Psalm! A few years later Paul would tell the Philippians, the day is coming when “…at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil 2:10,11). Until that day, there is another fact exposed in this psalm: most people will choose to live in denial, denying the facts about Jesus and resisting that truth that He is their only hope! There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is the way of death...
The context: Psalm 2, along with Psalm 1,
introduces the book of Psalms, the Song Book of Israel. The First Psalm shows us that in this world
disoriented by sin, God has spoken. His word is true and His way is the path to
life with meaning, the abundant life he wants for us. Psalm 2 shows that God
has set a choice before us: will we surrender control of our life to the One
who is our Lord and King? The two psalms go together, Notice the inclusio
in 1:1 and
The Big Idea: The fact is, Jesus Christ is
Lord. Will you confess Him as your King and Master and worship Him, embracing
His mission to the world?
I. The Resistance: The current presidential election has been divisive,
but that is nothing new. Do you remember four years ago? The candidate that lost announced she was now
part of the resistance! Elections can be divisive, but one question that
divides humanity is much more important: what will you do with Jesus? Sinful
humans don’t want to acknowledge the sovereignty of God (Ps 2:1-3). No
one is “neutral and open” to spiritual things before coming to faith in Christ!
(cf. I Cor
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth set
themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against
his anointed, saying, 3
"Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from
us."
“Why do the nations rage and the people
plot a vain thing…” The psalmist uses a rhetorical question to express the
reality of a world in rebellion against God. That was the case then, is it any
different today? It is not a matter of
politics or philosophy, it is a question of authority. Fallen humans resist the
idea that God is real, and that He has authority over creation, and that we owe
Him our allegiance. People want to think they are in charge. What is being
described here is open rebellion against the rule of God. It is really the
refusal to recognize God is God, and He gets to make the rules! They like to
think they are “autonomous,” that they can make the rules for their own
lives. Bruce Larson, in Believe and
Belong, tells how he helped people struggling to surrender their lives to
Christ:
"For many years I worked in New
York City and counseled at my office any number of people who were wrestling
with this yes-or-no decision. Often I would suggest they walk with me from my
office down to the RCA Building on Fifth Avenue. In the entrance of that
building is a gigantic statue of Atlas, a beautifully proportioned man who,
with all his muscles straining, is holding the world upon his shoulders... 'Now
that's one way to live,' I would point out to my companion, 'trying to carry
the world on your shoulders. But now come across the street with me.'
"On the other side
of Fifth Avenue is Saint Patrick's Cathedral, and there behind the high altar
is a little shrine of the boy Jesus, perhaps eight or nine years old, and with
no effort he is holding the world in one hand. My point was illustrated
graphically: "We have a choice. We can carry the world on our shoulders,
or we can say, 'I give up, Lord; here's my life. I give you my world, the whole
world.'"
There
is another parallel here with Psalm 1. There the psalmist says the blessed man “meditates”
on God’s word. Here, the nations “plot” in vain. The same Hebrew word is used! Active,
intentional resistance to God. Jesus Christ is Lord. Will you
acknowledge His sovereignty, confess Him as your King and Master, worship Him,
and embrace His mission to the world?
II. The Reality: the fact is, whether people accept it or not, God is in
charge (4-6). Remember Paul’s exhortation in Philippians: “Every knee will
bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”
4 He who sits in the heavens
laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.
5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them
in his fury, saying, 6
"As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill."
v.3 “He
who sits in the heavens shall laugh…” If we reject God’s rule in our life,
we are essentially guilty of treason, not against men, but against God! Remember Ps 1 from last week, the wise man “delights
in the Law of the Lord.” Real wisdom is found recognizing who God as, and
longing to hear his truth. Remember the
story of the boy who made a toy boat? After
working on it for weeks, he took out to the harbor to see how it would float.
But suddenly a guest of wind took it out of his reach! He followed it along the
shore line as long as he could, but it soon disappeared out of his sight. He
was heart-broken. Then one day he was walking past a shop in town, and he
couldn’t believe his eyes, he looked in the window, and there was his little
boat! He went in and tried to reason with the shop owner, but he wouldn’t
budge, he’d have to buy the boat if he wanted it. He went home, broke open his
bank, counted out what he had and took to the store, and paid the price. He was
heard to say, “Little boat, you are two
times mine: you are mine because I made you, and you are mine because I bought
you…” We owe him our allegiance and our obedience. We are His because he
made us, He is the creator, we are His because He bought us, with His blood of
Christ.
Jesus is Lord, and he so loved us, that he
willing died to save us. He is the way, the truth and the life! We can take Him
at His word. That is an aspect of what we mean be faith, believing God. We
acknowledge who He is, and we respond to what He has done for us in Christ.
That is the other part of faith, we entrust ourselves to Him.
The poet’s perspective of faith lifts
his audience above the attitude of the rebels on earth to the resolve of the
great I AM. God is laughing, not because the resistance of the world is
funny, but because it is so ridiculous (v. 1). One writer pointed to the
absurdity of humans resisting God’s authority as drawing a parallel with the
classic tale, Gulliver’s Travels. The challenge of humans to God’s authority is as
ludicrous as that of the Lilliputians to shipwrecked Gulliver. As Gulliver
awakens from his sleep on the island’s shore, to his amazement he sees the
islanders laying scaling ladders against his prone body. The Lilliputians are
the size of his little finger. At one point, the king of the Lilliputians, who
is finger-nail taller than the others, mounts a ladder and walks upon
Gulliver’s chest giving orders... With a
clap of his hands, Gulliver could have smashed them, but instead he plays their
ludicrous game. How much more ridiculous is it for humans to resist God? “He
who sits in the Heavens laughs.” Gamaliel, in Acts 5, warned his colleagues on
the Sanhedrin as they examined the disciples, to be careful that they weren’t
fighting against God! Why do the nations rage and the people plot in vain?
Jesus is Lord. Will you acknowledge His sovereignty, confess Him as your
King and Master, worship Him, and embrace His mission to the world?
III. The Rein of Messiah: God has a mission, Jesus is King, and his plan will
be accomplished (Ps 2:7-9).
7 I will tell of the decree: The
LORD said to me, "You are my Son; today I have begotten you. 8 Ask of me, and I will make the
nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. 9 You shall break them with a rod
of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel."
Who is this Son? The language of sonship was applied to the Messiah at
least from the time of the covenant that God made with David, promising an
eternal kingdom that would be ruled by an ideal son. God said in 2 Sam 7:14, “I
will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.” At one level that
applied to the faithful descendants of David who would sit on the throne, but
aspects of the promise transcended what would be possible for any merely human
king. Then at the baptism of Jesus, we hear the testimony of the the Father, "You
are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased." (Lk 3:22; Mt 3:17; Mk
1:11). John doesn’t explicitly tell the story of Jesus’ baptism, but
nevertheless we have in John, the statement that John the baptizer is
baptizing, and that Jesus comes to him. We read John’s testimony in John
1:33-34,
33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to
baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and
remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' 34 And I have seen and have borne
witness that this is the Son of God."
A little
further on in the same context, Andrew tells his brother Peter that "We
have found the Messiah" (which means Christ) [John 1:41]. That is
striking because though the title “Christ” appears many times in the NT, only
twice do we see the Hebrew word “Messiah.” Why does John give us the Hebrew? It
seems to me he wants us to connect what is being said about Jesus with the
Hebrew Scriptures, including Psalm 2. To make it even more clear, Philip tells
Nathanael, "We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the
prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph…" (1:45). And
then, just a couple of verses later, Nathanael confesses, “Rabbi, you are
the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” All of that in the span of a
few verses in John 1! Where do the titles, Messiah, Son of God, and King all
come together? In Psalm 2. The synoptic Gospels point us there with the words
of the Father from heaven: “You are my Son…” (at the Baptism and
transfiguration). John gets us there by bringing together the titles Messiah,
Son, and King. Who is this Son? The Gospels flesh that out for us, the eternal
Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
By the way, it seems like all of the gospels add a note in the context that
invites us to think about how the story of Jesus will unfold. In the synoptics,
it is not only Psalm 2, but perhaps Isaiah 42:1 that is alluded to, which would
invite the reader to consider God’s plan for the servant, who would suffer as a
substitute for others. In John, the Baptizer explicitly calls Him the Lamb who
takes away sin. A suffering King? A King who is also the Lamb? That is not a story we would make up, but God had a
plan! The Gospel calls
on us to respond to Jesus: Consider the words of John 3:35,36…
35 The Father loves the Son and has
given all things into his hand. 36
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
John is reflecting on Psalm 2 as he
writes these words, Jesus is the fulfillment of the words of the psalmist. God
has given him the nations as an inheritance. Our mission is to proclaim Christ
to the ends of the earth. Great commission takes the prophecy of Psalm 2 and
makes it a command to us, His church: The psalmist records the oracle of God to
the Son, “Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as an inheritance…”
In the Great Commission Jesus says, “All authority is given unto me in
Heaven and on Earth, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…” We
have a part in that mission!
Our
assurance is that this is his Church, He is in control, and the nations will
bow before Him. Jesus is Lord, and He is building His church! “Lord” is a strong term when applied to Jesus.
It can be simply something like “sir” in certain contexts. But in the Greek
translation of the Old Testament, it was used for the name of God, “Yahweh,”
which Jews by then (and until this day) would not pronounce. They would
substitute “Adonai.” It is with that sense that the New Testament writers use
the title “Lord” when applying it to Jesus. When Thomas exclaims, “My Lord and
my God!” it is pretty clear He finally understands. When Paul says, “Confess
with your mouth Jesus as Lord…” he is saying recognize and affirm who Christ is
and what he has done. Jesus Christ is Lord. Will you acknowledge His sovereignty,
confess Him as your King and Master, worship Him, and embrace His mission to
the world?
IV. The Refuge: Will you
acknowledge the Lordship of Christ in your life? Will you urge others to
trust Him? (10-12).
10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
be warned, O rulers of the earth. 11
Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. 12 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.
After exposing the absurdity of the
world’s resistance to the Lord in the light of the fact of a sovereign God and
the Lordship of Christ, the psalmist calls the kings of the earth to face the
facts, to respond by crying out to God for mercy, and seeking refuge in Jesus, the
one and only savior. Jesus is Lord. Why resist him?
Psalm 1 began, “Blessed is the man…”
Psalm 2 ends with the same phrase “Blessed, happy is he who puts his trust
in Him.” Recognize who God is and who you are. Serve the
LORD, Yahweh, with “fear,” and rejoice with “trembling.”
Those words often appear together in contexts that acknowledge the awesome
power and absolute sovereignty of our great God and Savior. Was Paul reflecting
on this when he said to the Philippians,
12 Therefore, my beloved, as you
have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my
absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you,
both to will and to work for his good pleasure (2:12-13).
God calls us to believe, to trust
him, to submit to him. He is Lord, but he is a loving Father who spared not
his own Son, but delivered him up for us all. He sent the Son so that we
could have life, abundant life, life with meaning. He is the Creator and King
of the universe – if you trust Him as your Savior and Lord, you are a child of
the King! I Jn 3:1 says, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed
on us that we should be called the children of God, and so we are!” This next admonition in Psalm 2 seems odd to
us in our culture, “Kiss the Son…” When I thought about that, the
betrayal of Judas came to mind. That hypocritical outward act is the opposite
of what is pictured here. This is submission to the King, not out of
compulsion, but out of love, pledging our allegiance to Him as our sovereign.
What is God saying to me in this passage?
This psalm is an indictment of
unbelief, and a challenge to every human: Jesus Christ is Lord.
Will you acknowledge His sovereignty, confess Him as your King and worshipping
Him, embracing His mission to the world?
What
would God have me to do in response to this passage?
Have you trusted Christ as your Savior? Admit your need, Believe he died for
your sins and rose again, Confess Him as your Savior and Lord… Have you
submitted to Him as your Lord? Paul told
the Romans, “Confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your
heart that God has raised Him from the dead, and you will be saved…” Do you
believe that Jesus died for your sins, was buried, and rose again that the
third day? Will you entrust yourself to Him and follow Him? The facts are the facts.
But this is not only a matter of the head, but a call to our heart. Kiss the Son… bow to Him, our great God
and Savior… AMEN.
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