Surrender To The King!

Introduction:

As we continue with our worship of the Lord this morning and continue to walk through some of the Psalms together, I want to invite you to turn with me to Psalm 2. We said last week that our desire is to walk through some of these Psalms together so that we can have our hearts refreshed in the Lord.

We are created beings who do not often know how to handle the world around us… and that is true in both the good times and the bad times. We have to acknowledge that our hearts often want to drift from God, and that happens both when life is really hard and when life is really good. I think of the words in the book of Proverbs that says...

7 Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: 8 Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, 9 lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God (Pr 30:7–9).

The idea here is that he understands that it is really easy for us to take our eyes off of Christ in any situation. There has to be this daily reminder that we are created beings in the image of God whose lives are meant to be lived for His glory and Honor. We were created to show how awesome God is.

Sadly, however, what we find in our world, in a world that is broken with sin, we do not find ourselves living for God and His Glory, but rather we seek to live life our own way. And that is exactly what we find happening here in this Psalm this morning.

Let’s read the Word of the Lord together...

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 (Ps 2:1–12).

As we think about this text this morning, let’s go to the Lord in prayer.

Let’s pray together!

Body: There is something inside that wants to rebel against authority. We simply do not like being told what to do, do we? I don’t care who you are. You see this rebellion inside of us. Think of kids for a moment. What happens when you tell your kids what to do? They naturally want to fight you. From infancy, they want to fight you. Like, it is impossible to get a one-year-old to eat peas for crying out loud, why?! They have never had them. They don’t know what they taste like…if they did that would be a different story, but there is this natural tendency in our hearts to fight against the authority in our lives.

We see this all of the time. You see this when you tell your child to clean their room or take out the trash, and their natural response is, NO. Or, you see this in teenagers when they are told not to hang out with a certain group of people, or to do their homework before heading out on a Friday night. What do they do?

Why?

You even see this in adults! When our bosses tell us to do something that we think is completely and totally unnecessary, what do we do? We don’t readily submit to what is being said.

Or, take for example how we treat each other in our relationships…we don’t normally, or naturally, think of the other person and submit to what is being said. We fight for what we think is right.

Is this not the case? Is this not what is going on inside of our hearts….even from a very early age? We want things our way…we want to do what we want to do and there isn’t anyone who is going to tell us any different!!! Personal Autonomy is KING!!! EVERYTHING is about ME!!! It is about what I want…it is about how I want to run my life, it is about how I want to run my job, it is about how I want to run my own little world where I am King!

BUT, here is the problem….what happens when Self Autonomy rules? What happens to your life? Life doesn’t seem to work right. Something seems to be off. What you thought was going to lead you to a better, happier life, in the end, leads you to some kind of trouble for your rebellion.

This is precisely the picture that we are seeing here in this Pslam this morning. The idea that I want us to see from this text is....

Main Point: We are to Joyfully Surrender to our God and King!

The Whole Psalm revolves around that one major point. That is what everything in this passage is aiming to do in our lives. Sometimes it is easy to read through these Psalms and just kinda agree with them and then move on about our day….but we have to remember these are, as one commentator put in, the Song of Jesus…The Psalm were the Hymn book, so to speak, of the Jewish people….and they were used in worship and for teaching.

If this is the case, then we need to ask ourselves, what in the world does this passage have to teach us? What is it aiming at? Before we can answer that question though, we simply need to look at what is being said.

This psalm is broken down into 4 smaller points that moves the reader to the idea of submission.

The Psalm starts off in vv 1-3 with the same idea that we had started with this morning: People live in rebellion against God.

Look at the text with me.

2 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.” (Ps 2:1–3).

The Psalmist starts off with a really good question: “Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot in vain?” He is like, what in the world are these people doing? Why is everyone so upset? Then notice what he says next, not only are the complaining….the kings of the earth and the rulers of the earth (really that is the same group of people), but now they’re talking goes to action as the stand up against God and His Anointed One, which is Jesus Christ. Here is what they say, look at verse 3 “ Let’s tear off their chains and throw their ropes off of us.”

Listen to that language, here is what is going on, here is the picture that is being painted by this Psalm….these people…those who are the high and mighty in the World…are saying and acting out this out right rebellion against GOD…THE CREATOR…They are like…NO!!!!! You have no power OVER US. YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO TELL US WHAT TO DO. YOU ARE NOT OUR MASTER!!!! That is what it means to throw off their chains or ropes….WE WILL NOT BE ENSLAVED BY YOUR WAYS ANYMORE!! That is the Cry of their hearts.

Do we not see this same mindset going on in the world around us? Is this not what people in every age and culture are trying to run away from? Are people not trying to run away from God and His rule in their lives? Are they not wanting to “burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us?” We see this in the moral land scape off our time. We don’t like what God has to say about certain issues. They are too restraining for our lives. We should just be free to live however we feel is right.

Remember, we are a world that says Personal Automny is King. I am my own person and I will submit to no one.

And this Psalms starts off with saying that line of thinking and their plans to run their lives will be in vain. It is not going to work. The world may decide to do whatever they want, but as we see through this Pslam, it will not stand.

This is what we see happen next. Listen to God’s response. Look at verses 4-6 with me.

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.” ( Ps 2:4–6).

God Laughs at the Kings of the Earth.

You have to get this picture in your mind….the ones who sit on earthly thrones are making plans to rebel against God….but starting in verse 4 we are reminded…GOD IS ENTHRONED IN HEAVEN. They may sit on their little throne…but it is nothing compared to GOD’S THRONE. He laughs at them. He speaks to them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath. That is all that He has to do…and here is the message that He proclaims to them…I HAVE INSTALLED MY KING ON ZION…God reminds the people that HE has made a promise to sit a KING on the THRONE AND THAT KING will rule and Reign FOREVER AND EVER. These Kings can do and say whatever they want….but there is coming a day When God’s King Will Rule

God’s King Will Rule the Nations and will be Judge

That is what we see in verses 7-9 in this passage.

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.”( Ps 2:7–9).

God tells His King what He is going to do. God’s King is going to Come and He will be the Rulers over ALL people, Nations, and Kingdoms…there is coming a day when that King will come and He will judge them and he will break them like pottery. I don’t know if you have every broken a vase or anything….but when they are dropped they typically shatter into a billion little pieces….that is How this King will be…When He comes to Judge….it will be easy to overthrow these King of the world.

Notice also….what Does God Call this King? What does He say to Him… “YOU ARE MY SON” Does that sound familiar to anyone?

I want you to know, that Psalm 2 is one of the most quoted Psalms in the New Testament as it applies to Jesus.

We see a similar idea at Jesus’ baptism..... listen to these words...

16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”(Matthew 3:16-17)

Or you can think of the words that are spoken in John 3....

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (3:16–18.)

God has established His King by Sending Christ. And as we see in Psalm 2, Christ, as King, is one day going to come and bring Judgment upon the world.

We see this promised in the Old Testament in Daniel 13 “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed (Da 7:13–14).

And we see this coming as Jesus comes back in Revelation...

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 (Re 19:11–16)

How are people to respond to such a message? Look at verses 10-12 with me. 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 (Ps 2:10–12).

The People are to Submit to God or Face the Consequences.

To close out the Psalm, the Psalmist calls the people to action….much like the first Psalm…He lays two different paths for them. He calls them to listen to the warnings and instructions that they were just given. He tells them to serve the Lord with reverential awe…that is to be so caught up in who God is…and so focused on who God is…that you are glad to do so…Think about it…the God of the Universe, the One who created you….calls you to follow after HIM. TO Serve Him. To Listen to Him, and you are to do this with rejoicing and trembling.

He says “Kiss the Son”…some translations say “Pay Homage to the Son” It is the idea of showing respect and honor. It was a way of showing who you were going to be loyal too…not to Kiss  or pay Homage to someone…those who were in authority… was a sign of great disrespect. It was basically saying…NO, I WILL NOT FOLLOW YOU OR YOUR WAYS! It was an act or rebellion against the King.

If you do that…then the Son will be angry with you…. You will face His judgment. You will die in your SINS. For, His anger may ignite at any moment, really is a reference to that the Judgment might come at any moment.

But then, the Psalm ends with these words…they are the same words that Psalm 1 started off with…those who do submit to God… those who are taking refuge… or hiding in God…they are Happy.

Conclusion:

Again, here is the Main Point: We are to Joyfully Submit to our God and King!

We can so easily read through ths Psalm and think…. “Man I’m glad that I am not a King or a Rulers. I would hate to be one of those guys.” But that is not the point. When we read through this we have to see ourselves as the Kings and rulers. We may not be Kings or Rulers, although some of us may act that way at times, but it is not the position that is so important in the passage; it is the attitude that is being expressed.

If we are honest… there are a lot of times that we act like Kings, Queens, or rulers of our own little kingdoms. If things don’t go the way that We think that they should…then there will be a price to pay to our servants, otherwise known as those people around us. We naturally don’t like being told what to do. It has been this way since the beginning, right after the Fall of Adam and Eve, we have this natural bent in our hearts to be our own rulers.

So, as I was looking at this passage, I had to ask myself, and I want you to ask yourself the same question…in what ways do I take my stand against God? In what ways am I trying to free myself from listening to God? Those are hard questions to ask ourselves… but we need to see that this is not just about them…but about us!

Here is the beauty of the passage though…even in our rebellion against God…there is given to us Hope. There is given a better way. WE don’t have to live under our own rule any longer. God Has already supplied a King for us to Submit to. HE has made a way for us!!!

This Psalm speaks of a coming King who is going to come and be the Ruler of ALL and the Judge of All….we know that King to be JESUS!!! HE Is God’s Son. HE is the one who said “All Authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.” He is the one who has been given the name that is above all names that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that JESUS is LORD to the Glory of God the Father. Jesus is the one who is going to come back as the Judge and will rule with an iron scepter…. This is the One that we are called to submit to!!! HE is the one who calls us to come and follow Him. If we are going to get our hearts in tune with God’s, if we are going to fight the rebellion inside of our hearts, if we are going to going to get in line with God’s will and live under His rule…then we must submit to the SON.

This is precisely what Jesus Christ offers to us. He knows that we are rebellious. He knows that we have tried to live life apart from Him…and that there are still parts of our lives that we need to give to Him…. But yet, He so graciously calls out to us, and calls us to repent of our sins and to come and submit to His Rule and Reign. He tells us there is a better way. There is a correct way to live life, and it is not found in self-autonomy, but it is found through glad submission to Him and His Ways. To do otherwise is to face His wrath.

Listen to me, I don’t know about you this morning, but I don’t want to live life my way. I know how my way normally ends…. It does not lead me any where good. God has called us to live lives that are Joyfully Submissive to Him!

Let me ask you, what area of your life do you need to surrender over to Him? Maybe, you have not given your heart to the Lord, maybe that is your first step. Maybe you need to stop trying to rule your own life and you need to give it up and give your life to Christ.

Maybe, you are trying to rule your way at home. Maybe, you have been distant from the kids and you need to spend more time with them. Maybe, you have been rebellious against your parents and you think that their rules are not right and you want to live life your own way….

I don’t know your situation, but I do know this…GOD is the one who sets up how things are to be run both in our personal lives, if I can use that term, in our spiritual lives, and in our professional lives…there is not an area of your life that God has not given you some kind of direction in how you are supposed to live. You need to look at your life and ask, “God, what area of my life do I need to submit to you?” Let Him direct you.

Look at the outcome….think about what your life could be like when we submit to God… “All who take refuge in him are Happy.”  You can find joy in your life’s circumstances by submitting to Christ.

Surrender to the King Today!

Let’s pray together.