King Jesus Has Come and Become Heir of the Nations

This Christmas, as a church we are looking at OT passages of Scripture that point us to the coming of Jesus. Today we are in the Second Psalm the most quoted psalm in all of the Bible.

The ESV Bible entitles the Psalm as The Reign of the Lord’s Anointed because it anticipates the kingly rule of Jesus, almost a thousand years before he came into the world. Many of the Christmas songs that we sing highlight the birth of this newborn king. He was a king, the Lord’s Anointed King, born of virgin, conceived in her by the Holy Spirit, he was destined to rule the nations of the world. And yet his birth, that is the circumstances surrounding his birth were not those befitting a king. For he wasn’t born in a ritzy palace surrounded by royal attendants and with fine linen sheets but he was born in a barn where a manger (a box that was used to feed animals) became his bed. And yet again this child, was none other than God’s very own Son, fully human, yet divine.

The halls of power around the world were not aware of what happened on that first Christmas night.

Take the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus, who ruled over a quarter of the population of the world at that time. Bethlehem of Judea was part of his domain. He had issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Romans world. Little did he know that his mandate would move populations around, and that his mandate would determine the motions of the Jewish nation as a whole, and of Mary and Joseph in particular in order that Scripture might be fulfilled as spoken by the prophet Micah saying...

Micah 5:2 ESV

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.

From you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel.

Psalm 2 is about Him. But we need one other word of explanation before we dig into the psalm. And that is, Jesus as we know from reading the gospels, that Jesus from the beginning of his earthly life to the end of his life had many enemies as they were threatened by him, hated him and even conspired against him. His own nation rejected him, because they were expecting a different kind of king, someone who would deliver then from Rome’s oppression. But what they didn’t realize is that they needed spiritual deliverance from their sins before they needed physical deliverance from Rome, and so they rejected him and said, we will not have this man to rule over us.

Now what Psalm 2 does for us, is that it gives us a heavenly perspective, God’s perspective on the earthly opposition that Jesus faced and his predetermined plan to have His anointed one to rule over the earth.

There are four parts to this psalm, each part consists of three verses. In verses 1-3 we have the nations raging against God’s Son; In verses 4-6 we have God’s responding to their rage In verses 7-9 we have the Son revealing God’s decree concerning Him ; Then in verses 10-12, we have a closing appeal from the Holy Spirit to the nations of the world and the people within them, that they might submit to the Son while there is still time.

Psalm 2 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.

1. THE NATIONS RAGING AGAINST GOD’S SON (VS. 1-3)

Psalm 2:1–3 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.”

The psalm begins with a question . And it’s not that he’s looking for an answer, It’s more like why are they doing this…they’re raging is it doesn’t make any sense their plotting is in vain. They will never succeed at what they are doing.

The word plot is an interesting word. The same Hebrew word is translated meditates in Psalm 1:2 where it refers to the godly person who meditates upon God’s Word.. Here the word has an altogether different meaning. Rather than meditating on God’s Word these individuals are meditating on ways in which they can oppose God and lives as they good and well please.

Verse 2 says The kings of the earth set themselves (this is military terminology, they are taking their positions in preparation for war) and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his Anointed that is Christ. The Hebrew word is mesiach from which we get the word Messiah.

They want nothing to do with him. There words are… Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”

We see these attitudes do we not, in the way the nations raged and the rulers conspired against the Lord and His Christ during his life on earth.

You will remember that shortly after Jesus had been born, Joseph and Mary took Jesus to the temple grounds where there was an old prophet named Simeon, to whom It had been revealed by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. 27 That time had finally come. Simeon we are told took the baby Jesus into his arms and said, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed 35 so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”

In other words, the nations are going to rage against this baby. The rulers will set themselves and take counsel together against him.

And we know it didn’t very long before this would happen.

Matthew Chapter 2, Herod the Great…better yet, Herod the not so great… was a very evil and insecure King So insecure as a matter of fact, that he killed two of his own sons who he saw as a threat to this throne. This is the same Herod who had all the baby boys two years old within Bethlehem and the surrounding area for fear that one of them should rise up and topple him from his throne. But what he does not realize is that it was impossible for him to harm Jesus, because He had God’s omnipotence protecting Him and keeping Him safe. He warns Joseph in a dream that he should flee to Egypt under the danger had passed, and they remained there until Herod had died.

But of course the opposition and hostility against Jesus didn’t end there. As we fast forward the life of Christ, his years of public ministry were under the intense scrutiny of the religious leaders of that day.

Matthew chapter 12 tells the story about Jesus healing a man on the Sabbath Day of all things, which was more than the Jewish leaders could take. So what do they do? They begin to counsel together on how they put an end to him once and for all. 14 chapters later in Matthew 26 hey are still going at it.

Mt 26:59 — Now the chief priests and the whole Council kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus, so that they might put Him to death. They were enraged by Him. He didn’t play according to their rules. He exposed their hypocrisy. They hated him and together plotted his death. They bribed Judas, orchestrated a mock trial, the put the pressure on Pontius Pilate to have him crucified and he was finally put to death, which is what they had wanted.

But what they did not realize is that by crucifying Him, they were accomplishing the very purpose for which God had sent His into the world; three days later He raised him from the dead.

And it wasn’t long after that bold and courageous followers of Jesus rose up in his place and began to preach the gospel, to the very people who had conspired to kill him.

In acts chapter 4 , we’re told that the priests, the captain of the temple and the Sadducees were not just annoyed, but greatly annoyed because Peter and John twere teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And so they conferred with one another and then charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus and then after threatening them, they let them go.

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.”

And so we have in verses 1-3 The Nations raging against God’s Son… we have

2. GOD RESPONDING TO THEIR RAGE (VS 4-6)

Psalm 2:4 ESV

4 He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.

Notice the contrast of moods between earth and heaven. While the nations are raging, and the people are plotting, and the kings are setting themselves, and the rulers are taking counsel, God sits in the heavens…and laughs.

The Amplified Bible says it this way…

He who sits [enthroned] in the heavens laughs [at their rebellion]; The [Sovereign] Lord scoffs at them [and in supreme contempt He mocks them].

He is so far above them, infinitely above them that he laughs at their futile attempts against him. He’s not pacing heaven wondering what to do. He’s not alarmed or intimidated by them. His laugh of derision is a measure of how threatened He is, which is not at all. It is good and it is glorious for us to hear God’s holy laughter.

AW Tozer in his book The knowledge of the Holy, said this… Forever God stands apart in light unapproachable. He is as far above an archangel as he is above a caterpillar. For the gulf that separates the archangel from the caterpillar is but finite. But the gulf between God and the archangel is infinite.”

The more we meditate on the infinite gap between creator and creature, the more we’ll understand how infinitely wise and how wonderfully powerful our God is. He’s undaunted, unfazed, he sees everything, he knows everything

Psalm 115:3 ESV

3 Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.

Psalm 2:5 (ESV)

5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying,

The word then is an important little word. It reminds us that God does gives a space of time for his creatures to oppose him and rebel against Him. Judgment for some comes sooner than others, but for any and all who would dig in their heals against him, a day of reckoning will come in which he will speak to them in his wrath, he will terrify them in his fury you do not want to be on the receiving end of that, but notice how in verse 6 that God punctuates what he has just said with the words...

Psalm 2:6 ESV

6 “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”

Or more literally, as for me, I myself have set my king (not a king or the king, but my King) on Zion, my holy hill. Zion represents the reign of God in the earth with its visible center in Jerusalem, but would hat ultimately extend over the whole earth.

Quote Plummer

3. GODS DECREE ABOUT HIS SON (VS 7-9)

Psalm 2:7 ESV

7 I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.

What we have before us, is an inter-trinitarian conversation that took place between the Father and the Son, between the first person in the Trinity and the second person in the Trinity.

Jesus is speaking in these verses and he’s telling us what the father told him. He is saying I want to tell you what the Father said to me.

Verse 7 begins with the words… I will tell of the decree. A decree is fixed rule of law, something that cannot be altered or changed. The decree that is spoken of here was made in heaven.

What is the decree?

The LORD said to me” You are my Son, today I have begotten you.” That’s the first part of the decree.

What does it mean when the Lord said, You are my son, today I have begotten you”.

This is difficult passage, one that has led to some different interpretations. But one thing we can be sure of it doesn’t mean there was a time when Jesus became the Son of God because he has always been the Son of God. There are a number of places in the Bible we could turn to to demonstrate that. So the eternal sonship of Jesus is not being questioned here. But the father does say to the Son, today I have begotten you so what does he mean when he says that? How are we to understand these words?

Samuel Storms a contemporary theologian and author says it best when he says,

This is simply a metaphorical way of describing the appointment of the king and his accession to the throne, (which would follow I have set my king on the throne) When applied to the true Davidic king, Jesus Christ, it points to the glorious and visible vindication of Jesus as Son. Thus the “day” of this “begetting” was the day of his resurrection and exaltation. It was only then that his absolute supremacy above even the angels was for all to see and know. It was only then that he entered into the full exercise of all the authority and prerogatives that being Son entailed.

Acts 13. Paul is in Antioch of Pasidea. He’s teaching in the synagogue.

26 “Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. 27 For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. 28 And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. 29 And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. 30 But God raised him from the dead, 31 and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people.

Acts 13:32–33 ESV

32 And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, 33 this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, “ ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you.’

By raising you from dead and by exalting his Fathers right hand

Romans 1:1–3 (ESV)

1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,

2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,

3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh

4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,

Psalm 2:8 ESV

8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.

The promise is made that his kingdom will ultimately extend to the ends of the earth. The very nations, that rage in verse 2 the father has been given to His Son. Its that there are 195 nations in the world today, however many there are, we have been commissioned by the one who has been given all authority in heaven and on the earth, to bring the gospel and the glory of his name to all the nations of the earth.

Revelation 5:9–10 ESV

9 And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, 10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

We will take part in that celebration as a believer in Jesus because we are gifts the father has given to the Son. We are part of his inheritance. In his priestly prayer in John 17, Jesus prayed in verse 24, Father I desire that they also whom you have given me maybe with me where I am, to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

Which brings us to verse 9, which actually lead us into verses 10-12… as part of the eternal decree that God made with His Son, and because of the authority which he has received, those who refuse to acknowledge Him and remain defiant against Him…God says

Psalm 2:9 ESV

9 You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

When Jesus came the first time, it a rather serene scene, quiet, silent. But it won’t be that way in the second coming of Jesus. The bible tells us that lightening will flash from one side of the heavens to the other.

Revelation 19: 11-16

11 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. 12 His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. 13 He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. 14 And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. 15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.

4. GOD’S INVITATION TO TAKE REFUGE IN HIS SON vs 10-12

Psalm 2:10 ESV

10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth.

The psalm ends with an invitation to the kings and rulers described in verse 12 that at they might come to their senses. Be wise. Be warned; you cannot escape from the dominion of the Lords anointed one. If you persist in your rebellion he will destroy you, so be wise. Be warned in view of the danger,

Psalm 2:11–12 (ESV)

11 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.

Serve the Lord in the way that he requires of you. Acknowledging him as your rightful Lord and King. Put your pride and your arrogance down

Surrender to Him. Rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, give him the homage that is do Him.