Psalms: The King and His Return (Part 1)

Introduction

The passage begin exposition on this evening is Psalm 2. Psalm 2 verse 1 - 12. We will not get to far into it this evening though.

Last time in Job, we thought about the redeemer that Job’s hope rested in and God sovereignty over Job’s suffering.

With Christ as our Archetype suffering is an expected part of the life of a believer.

How stark the contrast is between the mega-millions, health and wealth, abominable property gospel that seems to be everywhere today and the scripture reality that we are called to carry a cross and die to ourselves (Matthew 16:24-26), and go outside the gate to bare the reproach the Christ bore (Hebrews 13:13) in proclaiming to the world a message that is a stubbing block and foolish to those that are not being saved, but to us the gospel is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:23)

Our redeemer will stand on this earth (Job 19:25) and there is a day appointed when he will judge the world in righteousness. (Acts 17:31)

Those that repent, and turn to him a lone for righteousness through faith take comfort in this reality.

We started this golden thread series over a year ago in Genesis with the goal to investigate how each book of the Bible directly or indirectly points us to Christ.

The book of Psalms is the longest and most quoted book in the Bible. Its quoted 86 times in the new testament.

The book of Psalms is the Biblical book of Praise and that makes it a really unique feature of the Old Testament.

We must approach the book of psalms with

Genesis

protoevangelium

The promises to the patriarchs

Exodus

The revelation of the divine name. I AM says God and that means he is everything for his People. Christ is sufficient for all our righteousness and needs.

The blood of the lamb in the door posts at the passover. Under the blood we are saved from God avenging wrath.

God’s amazing statement about his faithfulness to 1000 generations to those the love him. Only in Christ we do receive these blessings.

Leviticus

The how serious God was about the priestly duties right down to the time of day a priest was to eat certain foods, nothing less then perfection. Only Christ can shoulder that duty.

Numbers

The Nazerite vow shows us how weak we are and how much we need Christ's righteousness.

Then we looked at the Aaronic blessing, Only in Christ does God make his face shine on you and give you peace.

And finally we looked at why God choose to save with a serpent on a poll and how Christ told us that was about himself.

Deuteronomy

We saw in the blessing and the cursing the prophecy of Moses that the people would fall under the curses but they would be returned by God and the fulfillment is in Christ.

Joshua

The commander of the army of the Lord.

The parable that is Jericho, we all live in the city of destruction and only by surrender to the king can we be saved.

The cities of refuge and how the person was restored by the death of the High Priest.

Judges

What does it look like when everyone does what is right in there own eyes. This is what happens when the people reject the true king Jesus

1 and 2 Samuel

We contrasted the evil king and the righteousness

The evil king takes from his servant while right righteous king provides for his servants. Christ provides.

The evil king hid in his war camp, while the righteous king fights for his people in the name of the Lord. Christ is the victor, he has slain that giant of sin and death.

The evil king brings destruction and the right king brings the sun and rain that are needed for growth.

1 and 2 Kings

If the worship of God, even if done with what seems like genuine affection for God, is off in it trajectory by even a little bit it will miss the mark. As Solomon did when he went for worship God in the high-places to worshiping all the gods. (Little g)

How that trajectory goes on to subsequent generations

How God restrained the Evil in Judah preserving the line of Christ until the time that he purposes are fulfilled. Not for them, but for himself and we will see more of that when we get to Ezekiel.

Ezra and Nehemiah

The problem in scripture, as Ezra said, “ iniquities have risen higher than our heads,” (Ezr 9:6, ESV) How can God be just and listen to our plea for mercy? Jesus, he is the only solution. In him God is just and the justify.

Esther

Show God’s faithfulness never when the people were in a land of slavery. Working sovereignty to in the life of Esther to preserve the line of Christ. God is never not in control. He was in control in the days of Esther and he was in control when he crushed Christ on the cross for our sins.

And now we come to the book of psalms.

Everything that has lead us to this point should lead us into this book with an attitude of worship.

Its actually five books and we are going to spend time in each of the 5 books. I hope we can keep that attitude of worship throughout our whole time in Psalms.

Just ask yourself the question, if I really believe all of the revelation of Christ that we have seen what a should that attitude breed in me? This is a question we should keep in mind thought our time in psalms.

As already mentioned this is the most quoted book in the new testament.

Calvin in the introduction to his commentary on Psalms said “The varied and resplendid riches which are contained in this treasury it is no easy matter to express in words; so much so, that I well know that whatever I shall be able to say will be far from approaching the excellence of the subject.” [1]

I have to say I feel the same as Calvin.

With you appetite hopefully whetted, lets read Psalm 2 verse 1 - 12

Psalm 2:1–12 ESV

1 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.” 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.” 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.” 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.

Transition

Psalm 90 is attributed to Moses, and the last psalms were written in the captivity. Mean that the book covers over a 1000 year period.

When you are talking about a book like Ezra, or Isaiah, or Jeremiah, there is a single person life time to consider, but the collection of literature on this book is not like that.

Not a lot of people venture to pined down exactly why the book of Psalms is organised the way it is but there are general themes we can see, these theme are not exclusive and they do over lap quite a-bit.

Book one of Psalms inauguration of the Davidic covenant [2]

Book two of the Psalms covenant of kingship being transferred to Solomon [3]

Book three concerns the suffering of the righteous [4]

Book four is about faith in the King even in suffering [5]

“Book 5 [calls for …] obedience (Ps. 119) that focuses on the true worship of God [6]

knowing the theme within the book gives us some of context for the exegetical work within the Psalm itself.

With Psalm 2 the first question we have to ask is, what King are we talking about.

Calvin comments this, “But it is now high time to come to the substance of the type. That David prophesied concerning Christ, is clearly manifest from this, that he knew his own kingdom to be merely a shadow. And in order to learn to apply to Christ whatever David, in times past, sang concerning himself, we must hold this principle, which we meet with everywhere in all the prophets, that he, with his posterity, was made king, not so much for his own sake as to be a type of the Redeemer. ... [this leads us] to place our faith beyond the reach of all cavils, [(make petty or unnecessary objections.)] it is plainly made manifest from all the prophets, that those things V 1, p 12 which David testified concerning his own kingdom are properly applicable to Christ. [7]

Conclusion

So next time we will look at those things “concerning Christ” place our faith beyond the reach of all cavils, that Calvin mentioned.

Benediction

Numbers 6:24–26 ESV

24 The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

References

[1] John Calvin and James Anderson, Commentary on the Book of Psalms, vol. 1 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), xxxvi.

[2] R. C. Sproul, ed., The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) (Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2015), 828.

[3] Ibid

[4] Ibid

[5] Ibid

[6] Ibid

[7] John Calvin and James Anderson, Commentary on the Book of Psalms, vol. 1 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 11–12.

Bibliography

Calvin, John, and James Anderson. Commentary on the Book of Psalms. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010.

Sproul, R. C., ed. The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition). Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2015.