It's a tremendous blessing once again to be with you in the pulpit. I know I say this I've said it before but I'm deeply humbled and grateful for this opportunity, and just pray that the Lord will speak through the message and to each one of us and call us to greater obedience.
Our text this morning is found in Psalm 2, and that is found on page 528 of the Pew Bibles. It's a very familiar psalm. Some of you perhaps have even memorized it. Hear the word of the Lord.
"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. 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. 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. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Now, therefore, O kings, be wise. Be warned, O rulers of the earth. 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."
Here ends the reading of God's holy word. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of the Lord shall stand forever.
Every day we wake up and it seems like the world has gone mad. I don't know if you've had that experience, but I feel that from time to time. It's the noise that we hear, the boasting, the violence, the wars and rumors of wars, the arrogance of rulers and kings rattling their sabers. And it's not just some theory. There are people that are dying all around the world through war, through persecution. It can be kind of intimidating to anyone, but to those of us in the church, we just want to live a quiet and peaceable life, don't we? We want the gospel to be promoted throughout the world, and so we desire peace. And it's intimidating. There are enemies all around of God's people.
We don't have to go far from Psalm 2 to the next Psalm, Psalm 3, to find, "O Lord, how many are my foes. Many are rising up against me. Many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation with God. The enemies are numerous. They are arrogant, and they are threatening.
What, if anything, can be done? What can prayer do in the face of governments and rulers? Well, not much if God's not at work, but everything if God is at work.
Psalm 2, along with Psalm 1, for most scholars, see this as a beginning to the rest of the Psalms, the rest of the Psalter. Psalm 2 is considered a royal psalm, a coronation psalm used in ancient Israel in the inauguration of a king. It's not strictly a prayer, but as we observe in Psalm 1 and Psalm 2, we recognize that perhaps in God's wisdom, we are not ready to pray the Psalms until we read Psalm 1 and Psalm 2. They are orienting us to prayer. They're getting us ready. They're providing us a framework, a worldview, if you like, of what we're about to encounter as we pray through the Psalms.
We need encouragement, and Psalm 1 draws us in. It says, "Blessed are you if you meditate on God's law." Psalm 2 has so many links with Psalm 1, and so I'll be referring to Psalm 1 as well. But what we learn in these Psalms is that, in fact, God is at work in every aspect of life. He is sovereign over the nations as well as sovereign over individuals. He is Lord of the nations and Lord of the rulers.
Psalm 2 answers our need by presenting to us the Lord's King, His anointed, His Messiah. In his preface to one of the translations of the Psalter, Martin Luther wrote that the Psalter might well as be called a little Bible. "In it," "it is comprehended he said, most beautifully and briefly everything that is in the entire Bible. It's like a fine handbook." he would say. In fact, he said, "I have the notion that if the Holy Spirit wanted to take the trouble himself to compile a short Bible and book of examples of all Christendom, or of all saints, so that anyone who could not read the whole Bible would have anyway almost an entire summary of it comprised in one little book." He went on to say that the second psalm is one of the best psalms. "I love that psalm with all my heart," he said. "It strikes and flashes valiantly among kings and princes and counselors and judges."
So we looked this morning, and I'd like to ask you to consider with me Psalm 2 in three points. Are you surprised? The plotting of the nations, the planning of the Lord, and a plea from the psalmist.
So, first: the plotting of the nations.
The psalm begins, "Why do the nations rage and the people's plot in vain?" It's a question that gathers up the history of humankind. It gathers up kingdoms and governments and rulers and all those who've been grasping and gathering power and trying to work out their plans with force. And the main verb here that captures our attention is plot. People and nations are plotting. They're scheming. They're devising ways to reject God's rule and God's law.
Now, what's very interesting is that that word plot here used, the same Hebrew word is the main verb that's used in Psalm 1. "On His law I meditate day and night. Day and night." So meditate in Psalm 1 is plot in Psalm 2. Now you might ask, how does that happen? Context, right? In Psalm 1, we're talking about an individual reading and studying and meditating and saying the words again and again, rejoicing in God's Word, loving it, delighting in it. In Psalm 2, we find a group of people, nations, peoples, are rejecting God's law, and they're plotting against it.
While Psalm 1 directs us to approach that word with delight, receiving its life-giving energy, Psalm 2 shows people plotting against it, devising schemes to get rid of it and all of God's interference in their lives that's how they see it. And so they're rebellious against the Lord. These nations see His law not as His word, but as cords, as bonds that hold them, that tighten them. They can't do what they want to do.
So raging and plotting, these nations gather together. They're thronging together like a disorderly ruckus of gangs. But the nations, according to the Scriptures, are talking emptiness. They're conspiring in vain.
We've already been encountered with some of these in Psalm 1, right? They're the wicked, the scoffers, the sinners, those are the individuals who did not want to submit to God's instruction. But here in Psalm 2, their unwillingness to submit to God's law is now broadened to massive groups, nations, people. So in Psalm 1 to Psalm 2, we're moving from individuals to groups. The human plane has expanded.
Psalm 2 magnifies that great antithesis between God and those who reject Him as their creator. They are rebels.
Verse 2 even expands it more. It now includes "the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed." It's not simply nations and peoples here that are in rebellion. It's actually the leaders who perhaps are instigating. This is not your typical small-scale rebellion that's happening in the world. The whole world, it seems to indicate, is revolting against God. The psalmist wants us to understand the level of rebellion that's taking place. Ungodly nations must not be underestimated. They're taking their stand. They're presenting themselves before the Lord, and they're letting their intentions be known.
And so now we understand the why question at the beginning. "The why are the nations raging and the peoples plotting?" is not a question of, "I'm in the dark. I don't know what's going on. Why are they doing that?" No, in fact, the psalmist knows quite well why they're doing it. That's why he's asking. It's a rhetorical question. It's like a parent saying to a kid, "Why did you do that?" The parent knows why the kid did it. It's kind of a mocking challenge to what they've just done. "Why did you do that?" We know why they did it, and God knows why.
Those who are rejecting His law, It's utter foolishness. It's not surprising then that when you get to the book of Revelation, many of the images that are here found in the Psalms are portrayed in the book of Revelation again as rebellion against the Lord on social and political levels.
The whole history of humankind can be summarized as a history of wars and rumors of wars, of nations conquering and subjugating nations. In fact, when St. Augustine wrote that massive book called The City of God, he was reflecting on and defending the Christian faith against those who were saying, "Christianity has caused the downfall of the Roman Empire." And Augustine said, "No, that's not true at all. In fact, it's just the opposite. It's your pagan civil religion that has caused the downfall of the Roman Empire."
And as he explored the conflict of earthly and heavenly cities, Augustine wrote that it was the lust for domination, the lust to dominate other people that was the cause of all this warfare. He wrote this: "Therefore, I cannot refrain from speaking about the city of this world, a city which aims at dominion, which holds nations in enslavement, but is itself dominated by that very lust of domination." This lust to dominate, is according to Augustine, what drives and destroys life. Lust for domination results in, he said, lawsuits, wars, conflict. And he said once that gets established in the minds of people, he said, "How can that lust for mastery rest until by the usual succession of offices it has reached the highest power?" You see what he's saying? Pride and lust work their way up all the way to rulers and cause all kinds of problem.
Verse 3 tells us what exactly, again, these nations and rulers are doing. They are rejecting God's law. They see it as cords, as bonds that are binding them. They're like fetters, ropes that are used for animals, like oxen, to control them. And the peoples and the rulers are rejecting them. They don't want God's control. They don't want the Lord in their life. They don't want to be told what to do or how to do it in their life. They want to break those cords.
A couple of years ago, during COVID, I started reading a little bit more. I had a little bit more time, and so I was reading Dostoevsky's book, The Demons, which is about the revolutionaries in the late 19th century in Russia. And I was intrigued by that. I was intrigued by it. and so I started reading more and more about what caused these young revolutionaries to do all kinds of evil things. They were throwing bombs into railroad carriages and restaurants and theaters. They didn't care about people dying. They actually liked it. They liked to see the bourgeois suffer. And so I started reading a little bit more about it, and I came across this catechism for a revolutionary. It was written in 1869. Listen to what the writer says about revolutionaries: "The revolutionary is a doomed man. He has no personal interests, no business affairs, no emotions, no attachments, no property, and no name. Everything in him is wholly absorbed in the single thought and single passion for revolution. The revolutionary knows that in the very depths of his being, not only in words, but also in deeds, listen to this, he has broken all the bonds which tie him to the social order and the civilized world with all its laws and moralities and customs, with all its generally accepted conventions."
That's a snapshot of nations and rulers. They don't want God's law. They don't want God's rule in their lives. They cast aside those bonds. They ripped them off of them. That's what a revolutionary does. That's what people who reject God's law do.
Well, that is just a snapshot of the rebellion that takes place among the nations. And you know what? If we take a personal, honest assessment, we'd have to say that that same selfish, independent, rebellious spirit is actually in us as well. That's why we have to confess our sins. That's why we need the Lord. That's why we have to turn to Him day after day after day, because what happens in nations and rulers happens within our hearts as well.
Well, the Lord offers His plan to us, and He tells us in these next words from verses four through six what He has done. It says, "He sits in the heavens, He laughs, and He holds them in derision."
Now you might think, "Oh, God's just sitting back. He sits in the heavens. He's inactive. He doesn't care. He's withdrawn." Absolutely the opposite. The fact that He is sitting shows that He is royal. He is the King, and He is actively ruling over the whole cosmos. He is enthroned. He is sovereign. He sits. He is within the cosmos, and His reaction is laughter. I guess that could be understood in different ways, but I think it's partly an amusement, but it's a serious kind of amusement. It's not like, "Oh, that's really funny" kind of laugh. It's, "I see what you're doing. I know exactly who you are."
God laughs at the rule the world's rulers, and He allows us to see this because I think it gives us perspective on the world. Divine laughter reminds us that God is sovereign. He is sovereign over His people. We know because of His laughter how the end will be, and so we don't have to take the world's arrogance too seriously. God laughs, and we join with Him in that laughter.
In fact, of course, we know, as the Scripture says in Daniel chapter 2, "He is the one who changes the times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding."
Well, not only does God laugh and hold them in derision, but He speaks. He speaks a terrifying word. It's a word of wrath and fury, isn't it? Some people say, "I don't understand that. I thought God was a God of love and compassion. I thought you've said that. How can He speak a word of wrath and fury to the nations?"
Because God's wrath, as Paul says in Romans, is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth. In another part in the New Testament, it says God will not be mocked. Whatever we sow, we will reap. And so His wrath is revealed against ungodliness, against anyone who would reject Him and His kingdom. And so with an angry word, He speaks.
And what does He say? "As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill."
God has done something already about world rebellion. On Zion's summit is offered sacrifice that points with certainty to the work of Christ. You see, beloved, Jesus Christ came preaching the kingdom of God. We've been hearing about that every Lord's Day going through the Gospel of Matthew. Christ came preaching the kingdom of God. He preaches God's kingly power over earth, and He upholds all of it in His resurrection. It's in the work of Jesus Christ that we find certainty that God has given His answer. He has spoken His Word most clearly and decisively in Jesus Christ.
And if we couldn't get it already, He provides that explanation verses 7 through 9. And these are important verses, and it would be a mistake for me not to mention how important this is in our Reform doctrine. This is the covenant of redemption. This Scripture, along with other Scriptures, speaks of that covenant of redemption where God the Father agrees with His Son to ask His Son to give His life for His people's sake. And in doing so, He grants His Son His elect, and His Son voluntarily takes the place of those whom the Father has given Him. And the Spirit agrees to bless His people with the benefits of that covenant. It's a summation, a beautiful picture of the covenant of redemption. It represents the most basic of Reformed thinking in our theology.
And so the Holy Spirit takes this beautiful verse: "You are my Son, today I have begotten you." And as if again we don't get it quite yet, He says it again later on when Jesus is incarnate. And at His baptism: "You are my beloved Son." And then again at His transfiguration: "You are my beloved Son." And then later in Hebrews, in the book of Revelation, God says the Lord Jesus is His beloved Son. He is the Messiah. He is the King. And it's because of the character of Christ's work that this cannot fail.
And that's why He says God the Father says to His son, Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage." The blessing that the Son receives by offering Himself as a sacrifice for His people is His people. What a beautiful promise! "I will make, I will give you the nations."
Interestingly, that word, I will give you the nations, is the same word that's used in Psalm 1, where it says, "Those who delight in His law will be like a tree planted by streams of living water, and they will bear fruit. They will yield fruit in season." So yielding fruit in Psalm 1 now becomes the Lord Jesus Christ receiving the inheritance, the heritage of the nations. are His God transfers those nations to His Son as the fruit of His kingship. You see, my friends, the Lord Jesus, as it says in Colossians, disarmed the rulers and authorities. He disarmed them. He put them on open display, open shame, by triumphing over them on the cross. This is a different kind of king. He doesn't rule with the kind of scepter that destroys nations, but He offers Himself willingly in His weakness on the cross, and He disarmed the rulers, principalities, and authorities.
Well, the psalmist then ends this with the third part of this message with a plea. "Therefore, O kings, be wise. Be warned, O rulers of the earth."
Good rulers, you can show wisdom, but how do you do that? How do you have good sense? Well, He gives them the answer. "Serve the Lord with fear, rejoice with trembling, kiss the Son."
Serve the Lord with fear, but rejoice with trembling. Fear and rejoice. Awe and joy. Those are components that we can have as believers. We respect. We have reverence for, we love, we honor, we respect the Lord, but we do it with joy. It's not the kind of fear that we run from God, we run to Him. That kind of fear, that holy respect that we have for Him.
So, you rulers, you kings, serve the Lord. Come near to Him with fear and respect. You who think that you rule over all, you need to serve the Lord. He is the King. Submit to Him. Fear Him and rejoice in what He has done for you.
And then it says, "Kiss the Son." Of course, that's kind of royal language there, isn't it? It means to subject yourself to the Son. Give yourself to the Son. Love the Son. Serve Him again. Submit to Him sincerely.
What an unexpected and generous invitation from the King of kings to these kings who've been rebellious against Him. Come. Worship Me. Submit your lives to Me. Kiss the Son. Worship Him.
"Blessed are all who take refuge in Him." The psalm ends. It ends just as the same way that Psalm 1 began. And it makes it quite clear, doesn't it? If you rebel against the King, you will perish. The nations are being invited to choose whether they perish or whether they serve. They're told how to find protection from the Lord's wrath. It's coming. If rulers and nations do not submit to God's instruction, the end of their way is the way of death. They will perish.
But blessed are all who take refuge in Him. Do you hear that, beloved? Just so that we don't misunderstand how we approach God, it's not through moral effort. Blessed are those who take refuge in Him, who find shelter under His wings. Blessed are those who trust in the Lord.
This is where the Heidelberg Catechism 60 so beautifully states, "How is it that we can find refuge in the Lord? How do we find salvation in Him? How are you righteous before God?" it asks. Listen to the beautiful answer: "Only by true faith in Jesus Christ. Although my conscience accuses me that I have grievously sinned against all of God's commandments, have never kept any of them, and am still inclined to all evil, yet God, without any merit on my own, out of mere grace, imputes to me perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ. He grants these to me as if I had never nor commit in any sin and as if I myself had accomplished all the obedience which Christ has rendered for me if only I accept this gift with a believing heart."
Beloved, the nations need a king. Rulers need a king. Their kingdoms are too small without the Lord. We need a perspective that's more than just "the Lord is my Lord," but He is the Lord of the nations. He is the Lord of the rulers, of all kings who will find refuge in Him. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him. Happy is the person who submits their life to the King of kings. Happy is the ruler and the nation who submits to His instruction.
Take refuge in Him today, dear loved ones. Find in Him His great work for you on the cross, and you will be blessed.
Let us pray. Father, I pray that you will take these words and apply them to our hearts by your Spirit, and that you will increase in us greater love and affection, service and submission, that we would love your law, that we would delight in your law and not reject it, not be rebellious, but that we would turn to you and find in you refuge and strength. Will you grant to us that gift of faith through Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.