Psalm Two "The Messiah King"

Psalm 2

“The Messiah King”

Introduction: Good morning, Redemption Church. It is a great morning indeed. Today there are certainly children who will be born with the total worth and dignity they deserve being made in God’s image, which would not have been born two days ago. For 50 years, Christians worldwide have been praying for mothers and their unborn. On this Lord's day, there is much rejoicing. I want to make a few comments about the overturn of the Roe V Wade decision.

First, I want to say that this is not primarily a political issue; it is a Christian moral issue. In the earliest days of the church, Infanticide was prevalent. If a child were born who had any defect that would make it difficult for the family to raise the child, families would take the child out and leave it in the wilderness to the elements to die. One of the earliest Christian sermons written is called the “Didache,” which literally means doctrine. The Didache was written between 70 AD and 150 AD, and it explicitly forbids leaving children to the elements. It then advocates that the church must care for those who cannot care for themselves. This issue does not go back to 1972, but it goes back far into the annuls of history. God has created man and woman in his own image. This is what makes humanity distinct from all other forms of life in creation. We have dignity because we all are representatives of God’s image. Second, the overturning of Roe V Wade is a monumental victory for morality and the lives of the unborn. However, it is not the end of the fight for life. Now the real work begins. If any expecting mothers are watching on the live stream who are debating getting an abortion because you are worried about raising a child or providing for one, please reach out to us. We want to help. We are not blowing smoke; if there is anything that we can do to help you keep a child and raise it in the knowledge of the Lord, please reach out to us. We love you and are here to help.

With that being said, Praise the Lord in the highest heavens, praise the Lord all that has breath let us praise the Lord for he is good, he is faithful, and his steadfast love endures forever. His faithfulness endures for generations from children’s children to children's children, Hallelujah.

If this is your first time joining us at Redemption Church, we are in a brand-new sermon series called “Summer in the Psalms.” This is week three. In week one, we learned about the overview of the Psalter. All 150 Psalms tell a complete story of redemption for God’s people. The Psalms also teach us how to be an ideal citizens of God’s kingdom. Last week we jumped into Psalm one. For a reminder, Psalm one and Psalm two are connected and were probably written as one poem, but somewhere in the course of history, they were separated. Psalm one tells us of the “blessed man.” This blessed man is the ideal citizen of God’s kingdom. He doesn’t listen to the advice of the wicked, he does not walk in the way of the sinners, but he meditates upon God’s law. He is a lifelong student of the Torah. He delights in all of God’s word, and as a result, he is living a beautiful tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season and is ultimately blessed. Psalm two takes a shift. It is as if the Psalmist is going to zoom out of this “blessed man,” and the Psalmist will give a cosmic picture of all of human history. Psalm two is going to give us a look at who this blessed man really is and we are going to learn about his enemies and his people, and God’s plan for him as the Messiah King.

Read the Passage: Psalm II

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.

Pastoral Prayer: Most Sovereign Lord who has made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. You have chosen the way that things shall be. You have set the course of human history from beginning to the end; there is nothing and no one who is outside of your plan. When I look around at the world, I scratch my head in astonishment at how broken and how fractured the world is. I turn on the news and see violence, bloodshed, slander, sexual immorality, and, much worse, school shootings, terrorism, and the like. This cannot be all of life. Teach us from Psalm 2 what it looks like behind the veil, show us what is going on in the world, and teach us to love your son and serve him, lest we perish in his wrath. Blessed are all who take refuge in the Messiah, King Jesus.

Jump In:

Psalm 2 is very important. It is important because it is the second most quoted scripture from the Old Testament. This should tell us something. You would think that the New Testament writers would quote passages from Deuteronomy about loving your neighbor or courses from exodus about God delivering power. But this is not what happens. The New Testament writers always quote Psalm 2 because it reveals Jesus as the ultimate and true king over all the earth, and all who oppose him are fleeting.

Today's Sermon in a sentence: God’s Messiah-King will rule and reign in spite of the nation's plans to rebel against him.

In Acts 13, the Apostles quote Psalm two and attribute it to David, so for me, that is enough to believe that David was the author of this Psalm. There is something else that is special about this Psalm. It is a coronation, Psalm. When a King would be anointed before taking the throne for the first time, this Psalm would be read as they poured the oil over his head, and he would immediately go and take his seat.

This Psalm is like a play, broken into four scenes. In your bible, notice the four stanzas of three verses each. Each stanza is identical in length. This is a divine play; we will break it up according to scenes.

1. Act One: the nations rebel (1-3_

2. Act two: The Derision of God (4-6)

3. Act three: the Son speaks (7-9)

4. Act Four: a final warning to rebels(10-12)

Act One: The Nations Rebel (1-3)

“Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”

Act one depicts the insurrection of Man. “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?’ Church, do you hear the nations raging. You do not have to be a genius in interpreting the bible to know this is true. The world bears witness to this to us. The whole world is raging, nation against nation, brother against brother, father against son. Every major news out late in the world exists to cover the strife between men and women. Have you ever turned on the news and witnessed all of the violence and all the lying and deception and chaos and asked, “what is going on?” If you have a look no further, David answers the question for us. The reason the world is shattered is only because of one thing, men and woman are in active rebellion against God. This is not new. I hear people all of the time talk about how bad things are lately. We think that things have gotten worse in our lifetime? And maybe that’s true, but this is not a new problem. This goes all the way back to the beginning. The nations have been raging from the moment Adam and Eve looked at something they wanted more than God and took it. The nations have been raging since the time of Nimrod and the tower of Babel, who looked up to heaven and said, “we are going to build a great name for ourselves; let us build a tower to the heavens, that we might see God.” The nations have been raging since the time when Egypt sought to keep God’s people enslaved by killing all of the infants. The nations were raging when they perused the Israelites to the Red Sea. And when Israel went into the land, there were literal nations that sought to kill them always. They were always in battle because the nations were raging against them. The nations have always been raging. If you think about it the bible one big story of the nations rebelling against God and against his people, and most of the time its God’s own people rebelling against him. Israel comes into the land, and the philistine’s rebel against them, then the Assyrians, then the Babylonians, then the Persians, then the Greeks, then the romans, eventually Rome falls to the Visigoths, and so on so forth and they are still raging today. This theme of raging nations is going to come up many hundreds of times in the psalms it is unavoidable.

“The peoples plot in vain?” Remember Psalm one when the blessed man “Meditates day and night on the law of the Lord?” This word “plot” is the same word. On one hand you have the blessed man who turns his eyes words God’s law and towards God’s ways, but the nations are not so. They do not mummer or mutter the sweet words of God, but they meditate on vain ways to usurp God and his kingdom. But it is a vain thing. The Hebrew word for vanity is the same for smoke, it is here today and gone tomorrow. It was vain when Goliath, sought to kill David. It was vain when Saul sought to kill David, and it was vain when Absalom sought to kill David and take his throne. The same is true for Christ. It was vanity and futile for Herod to seek to kill all of the children to kill the messiah King. It was vain when the religious leaders of Jesus’s day gathered around him to kill him, and it was vain when the Romans took him and crucified him, because they were not defeating him, but he was defeating them! They thought that his blood was his weakness as he hangs on a cross dying, but they did not know that they were only lifting up the Son of man like the bronze serpent in the wilderness that is the salvation of the world. All of the worlds attempt to rebel against Christ are vanity.

Application: So are your attempts. Stop devising ways to subvert his authority.

“The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take council together”

The Kings of these raging nations, they all have one thing in common, they appoint themselves. Even in America and democratic nations men and women use their influence to put themselves in power. In 1534 king henry the eight declared the divine rights of kings and established himself as the sovereign ruler of England and the English church. Four hundred years later, In 1934 Adolph Hitler in one night had his military police execute at least 85 of his political opponents, this is how he was able to consolidate power. Church it is the pomp and arrogance of man, that from the beginning has desired to be God. When eve saw that the fruit was desirable to make her like God, she took, and she ate it. This is not the spirit of Christ, for we should “3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” There is no setting yourselves in God’s kingdom. There should be no powerplays, only submission to the King. Those who seek greatness in the Kingdom of God will be last, and those who are last shall be first, this is a kingdom unlike any other.

“the rulers take council together, against the Lord and against His anointed “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”

Notice who the nations are raging against. They are raging against the Lord and his “Anointed.”

The word “Anointed” is the word “Messiah.” This is important because it is easy to turn on the TV and see the nations raging. We all know this. Of course, the nations are raging against each other, but make no mistake this raging is not only against one and another, but it is against God. This rebellion is against God and against his chosen King. The world hates Christ. The world hates God. The world does not love God, the world does not choose to follow God. In fact, it cant, its heart is hardened against him. The nations cannot agree on anything. You cannot get 10 rulers in a room and have them all agree on anything. But all of the kings of the earth are in agreement on one thing, they stand unified against God and against his King. Look at what the kings say, “let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their chords from us.” In otherwards the nations cannot agree on anything, but they agree that they do not want to follow the instruction and the wisdom of YHWH of his King. They do not want anything to do with him. People think that God’s law is so restrictive, they compare it to chains and chords. I even hear Christians talk like this sometimes. This is a misunderstanding of the Law. The law is only for our good.

This is something that many unbelievers do not understand. God’s law and instruction is good. It is for our health, and prosperity. I have heard people say, “Christianity is all about rules, and it is so restrictive.” I like to respond, what is wrong with “loving your neighbor? What is restrictive about husbands loving you wife? What is wrong with wife’s loving their husbands? What is restrictive about helping the needy? What is restrictive about do not lie? Do not steal? Do not murder?” All of God’s ways are good for us. Those who think of God’s word as chains ultimately align themselves with the evil nations who are raging against God.

Act 2: The Derision of God

“he who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury, saying “as for me I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.”

All of the raging on earth does not fall on death ears. We see from the first clause, “He who sits is heavens” God is sitting, he is not threatened, he is not pacing back and forth like a king on earth when people are protesting outside his house. But he is sitting on the throne, surrounded by the mirids of angels. All of the raging in the world, does not even equal worthy for God to stand and investigate. He is confidant and in charge from his throne. When nations rage against kings, the kings always flee, or get anxious. I imagine it was the same feeling king louis had when the French peasants stormed the bastille and started the French revelation. Or the same feeling that king David had when he was forced to flee from his own son into the dessert and hiding. Our is not cowering in fear, but he sees the nations and he Laughs.

Is the Lord threatened by the raging nations? What Is the LORDS response! The Lord laughs at the nations. This laughing is a comic laughter, but it is a scoffing mocking laughter. If you look is psalm one, The wicked man is scoffing at the righteous, but is psalm 2 the Lord is scoffing at the wicked. Here is a word picture: In job we see this same picture.

“He counts iron as straw,and bronze as rotten wood.

The arrow cannot make him flee;for him, sling stones are turned to stubble.

Clubs are counted as stubble; he laughs at the rattle of javelins[1]

The levitation laughs at the weapons of men.

“then he will hold them in derision, then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury saying, “as for me I have set my king on Zion my holy hill”

God hears these nations in rebellion and he is not neutral. God is not indifferent to their rebellion. No look at the words on the page. “He hold them in derision.” When God sees rebellion he hates it, and he will set his face against rebels, these rebels will be addressed.

There are times when God responds in grace and mercy, but this is not one of them. If you challenge God and his messiah King, there will be no mercy, God will speak to you and terrify you with his anger that can blow out the sun like it is a candle stick. As soon as men think they have bested God, as soon as men think that they have established themselves against the Lord, God establishes his own King. And this King is the person of Jesus Christ. When Adam and eve thought that theory were going to be like God, God cursed them with the fall, When the tower of babel stood tall and man thought he was going to face God, The Lord dispersed them. When the Egyptians sought to peruse the Israelites and thought they had them defeated, the LORD God Split the red sea and the Jews were delivered and the Egyptians drowned. This is seen clearest in the person of Christ. The nations did rage agist him, and at the darkest hour in human history it appeared the nations were victorious, there is no doubt that the religious leaders were taking a victory lap, and on that precious third day. Christ rose from the grave victorious over sin and death, on that third day Christ was installed on the Thone. And the religious rulers of the day still would not repent and believe.

Church take heart Christ has been established as the King of Kings, God has established his kingdom from everlasting to everlasting, God has placed his own son on the throne as an advocate for us.

Act 3: the Decree of the King

“I will tell of the decree: the Lord said to me “you are my son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession.” The New Testament quotes this passage three times, and it always attributes Jesus Christ as the speaker. In Hebrews chapter one this passage is quoted to show that Jesus is superior to the angels. This is the messiah King speaking; he is rehearsing what he has heard from God the Father. Whoever this King is going to be God’s own son. He is going to be unlike any king that has ever been, he is going to be mightier than David, he is going to be Wiser than Solomon, he is going to the Messiah who comes to rule and reign forever.

Jesus is unlike kings of the earth who rise up and take power, who seek to kill to take the throne. Or like Kings who politic their way into power. Do not read this and think that there was ever a time that Jesus was not. That is not what this means when it says begotten. Jesus is the second member of the trinity, and his kingship extends from eternity to eternity. He has always been with the father perfectly ruling over the courts of heaven and extending his authority to the farthest recesses of the universe. This begotten language refers to the resurrection.

Hebrews 5 quotes this passage and tells us that Jesus is a different kind of King. He did not become king by demonstration of power, but by taking the form of a servant. Jesus at any point in his ministry he could have taken power by force and crushed all of his enemy’s, but he did not he choose to be a servant of all. He even went to the cross and was killed. Christ took the full weight of the wrath of God, and after he had accomplished his purpose. He was resurrected from the dead, and now Jesus ascended to the father, where now he is seated and ruling and reigning in the fullness of his power and majesty.

“ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession” Christs authority is not limited to mount Zion, it is not limited to his Holy City but Jesus Christs authority extends to the ends of the earth. All of the nations that have been raging against him and his kingdom there raging is vanity, even they shall come to recognize the king. This word for heritage, could also be translated inheritance. It is as if God looks at the raging nations who want to kill his son, and God says, “son they are yours, only speak and I will give them over to you.”

“you shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potters vessel” This just denotes Christ response to the raging nations, his judgment shall be quick and it shall be severe. Christ came the first time as a suffering servant, who took our sin on his shoulders and went to the cross. But make no mistake when he returns he will not return in meekness, but he will return as a mighty king. Those who oppose him shall be dashed to pieces like a piece of pottery that has been dashed into oblivion never to be put together again. He rules with strength, he rules in power. For those who are believers God has taken this wrath upon his own Son Jesus but for those who are not, it will be a great day of terror.

All of the kings and rulers who rebelled against him, like Stalin, whose last moment on earth was looking up at the heavens cursing God with a fist and dying.

“The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

This is the power and the strength of King Jesus, who can stand?

This is the Jesus we worship, but church take heart, Christ is king, but he is not a totalitarian, he does rule the rebellious nations with a rod of iron, but he rules his church with gentleness and meekness. This powerful king invites all of the nations to trust in him, which leads to our final act.

Act 4: Final warning to Rebels

“now therefore, O kings, Be wise, Be warned oh rulers of the earth. Serve the lord with fear and rejoice with trembling”

Christ the true king, is not like other kings, he does not seek the total destruction, but he calls upon the rebels to rethink their rebellion and to defect, into his loving kingdom. Christ freely invites the raging nations to be calmed and to come to Him. If you are a Christian than you know this great and rich truth “for we all once were by nature children under the wrath of God, we were constantly waging war against God in our flesh and with our desires, But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love, which with he loved us, while we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ” Ephesians 2:3-4

Christ is a radically different king than the kings of the earth, `what kind of king invites his enemy’s to come and sit at the table and receive all he has to give. What kind of king invites his subjects to share in his power, what king of king would give up his own life for the sake of his people?

“serve the lord with fear and trembling and rejoice with trembling”

Those who love the Lord still respect him as a mighty king, who rules and reigns on the throne, but we also rejoice because we know that he rules his own people with gentleness and compassion and this is the same Jesus who healed the sick and feed the hungry and gave sight to the blind, this is the same Jesus who came not the first time as a mighty ruler but as a baby boy born in a manger. When he came the first time he did not come as a mighty warrior king, but as a servant of all. Therefore we rejoice!

“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”

“Kiss the son” In the OT kissing the kids head or kissing the ring was always a sign of allegiance, When Saul was appointed king in 1 Samuel, Samuel anointed him with oil and kissed him, this was a sign of allegiance. We are seeing the same thing here. The Psalmist is inviting all the rebels to come and swear allegiance to Christ.

Then we close with a great balance.

If men don’t come to faith in Christ, make no mistake Jesus came the first time as a suffering servant, but when Christ returns he shall return as a great king. And all who oppose him shall be defeated by the very breath of his mouth. Oh but take heart, Christ will give refuge to all who seek it in Him, Blessed are all who take refuge in Him. God will not turn away any who come to him. This blessedness this true happiness only comes from placing our hope in one person. This is the person of Jesus Christ.

In closing: Redemption Chruch don’t miss this, our Jesus is a mighty king. The Jews misinterpreted this passage, because when they thought messiah they were looking for a man to raise up in their midst and burst the chains of the romans and to give them power to reign over their enemy’s. Israel was waiting for a warrior king but when Christ came, he did not ride into Jerusalem on a mighty stead, but on a humble donkey. Israel was looking for a king who would crush the nations, yet Christ came to be crushed by the nations. The Jews were looking for a king who would have a golden crown with many diadems, yet Christ accepted a crown of thorns. The Jews were looking for a king who would take lives, yet Christ came to give life and to give it abundantly. So Therefore Redemption Church, “Be wise, Serve the lord with fear and rejoice with trembling” “come and take refuge in him, and he shall never turn you away”

“Blessed are all who take refuge in him.