Sermon Tone Analysis
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Turn with me to Psalm 2. I said Wednesday that for a while at least, I am going to use the Psalms to fill in when I don’t have a series to preach.
I don’t want to start a new series yet, so I’ll stick with the Psalms.
Before I start I thought I’d bless you with some puns I came across this week.
What is a dentist’s favorite hymn?
Crown Him with Many Crowns
Second favorite: Holy, Holy, Holy
What’s a salesman’s favorite Scripture passage?
The Great Commission
Where was Solomon’s temple located?
On the side of his head.
Who was the smartest man in the Bible?
Abraham.
He knew a Lot.
Where is the first baseball game in the Bible?
Genesis – In the big inning.
Eve stole first, Adam stole second.
Cain struck out Abel.
The Giants and the Angels were rained out.
Who’s the patron saint of poverty?
St. Nickeless.
At what time of day was Adam created?
A little before Eve.
Why did Moses cross the Red Sea?
To get to the other side.
If Moses were alive today, why would he be considered a remarkable man?
Because he would be several thousand years old.
Need an ark?
I noah guy.
Perhaps they weren’t that funny.
Have you ever thought about why we laugh?
There are actually scientists who study why we laugh.
If you think that’s a waste of time don’t worry, they waste even more time by writing books about why we laugh.
One such scholar noted:
Laughter is part of the universal human vocabulary.
Every human understands it.
Unlike English or French or Swahili, we don’t have to learn to speak it.
We’re born with that capacity.
In fact, the first laughter appears at about 3.5 months of age – long before we’re able to speak.
One of the remarkable things about laughter is that it occurs unconsciously.
You don’t decide to do it.
We don’t consciously produce laughter.
That’s why it’s very hard to laugh on command or to fake laughter.
Another scientist said that:
Nervous laughter is a physical reaction to stress, tension, confusion, or anxiety. . . .
People laugh when they need to project dignity and control during times of stress and anxiety.
In these situations, people usually laugh in a subconscious attempt to reduce stress and calm down; however, it often works otherwise.
The Bible talks about people laughing.
Sarah laughed with unbelief when she was told she would have a baby in her old age.
Abraham laughed with joy when the child was born.
In fact Isaac’s name means laughter.
We also told about God laughing.
I don’t think either of those experts on laughter was thinking about Sarah or Abraham and certainly not about God when they explained laughter.
But we’re going to read about God laughing in this psalm.
A week ago I mentioned the different types of psalms:
Wisdom
Royal
Lament
Imprecatory
Thanksgiving
Pilgrimage
Enthronement
I thought it would be interesting to compare the first two psalms.
Psalm 1 is a wisdom psalm.
Psalm 2 is a royal or messianic psalm.
Psalm 1 tells us how to live a life that will be blessed by God.
Psalm 2 talks about the coming Messiah.
Psalm 1 begins with a beatitude.
Psalm 2 ends with one.
Psalm 1 is never quoted in the New Testament.
Psalm 2 is quoted or alluded to seventeen times, more than any other single psalm.
Psalm 1 talks about those who delight in the law of God.
Psalm 2 talks about those who rebel against it.
While we’re not told who wrote Psalm 2, Acts 4:26 attributes it to David.
The psalm is interesting in that it starts with a question.
1 Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?
(Psalm 2:1)
Some translations ask: “Why do the people rage?”
The real question is: “Why do people rebel against God?”
The psalmist isn’t asking this in jest, he really wants to know.
After all, what reason do people really have to rebel against God?
What has God done to deserve people rebelling against him?
And here’s another question, what benefit is there to rebelling against God?
Yet people do it and have been doing it almost since the beginning of time.
About a year-and-a-half ago, the president of the Philippines railed against religion and Christianity making derogatory statements against God including calling God stupid.
He even said that he’d resign if someone could prove that God did exist.
Statements like that are offensive and don’t make sense to us, but then again people have been making those kinds of statements for thousands of years.
The psalmist asks why.
2 The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, 3 “Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.”
(Psalm 2:2-3)
This is where we get to the messianic part, though there is more to come.
The word Messiah means “anointed one.”
So the psalmist says that the kings of the world are rising up against God and his Messiah – his anointed.
The reason for this rebellion is they think that the commands of God are like chains and shackles.
When people, like the president of the Philippines, argue against believing in God, they will give you everything but the real reason for their unbelief.
The real reason most people don’t want to believe in God is they don’t want to be constrained morally.
They don’t want God telling them what to do.
They want to do whatever they want to do.
More importantly, they don’t want to be held accountable for their actions.
Oswald Chambers once said:
The beginning of all sin is the suspicion that God is not good.
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