PM Psalm 2 & Acts 13:16-43

[0:00] 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.

[0:18] 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.

[0:38] 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.

[0:56] 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.

[1:15] 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.

[1:29] May God bless to us his word. Our New Testament reading is in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 13, and we'll be reading from verse 16.

[1:41] The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 13, and from 16. And this is entitled, Paul and Barnabas at Antioch in Pisidia. That's in the modern day Turkey.

[1:54] And it's an account of a sermon, really, that he gave in the synagogue there. Acts 13, from verse 16. So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hands said, Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen.

[2:12] The God of this people, Israel, chose our fathers, and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt. And with uplifted arm, he led them out of it.

[2:25] And for about 40 years, he put up with them in the wilderness. And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them the land as an inheritance. All this took about 450 years.

[2:39] And after that, he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for 40 years.

[2:53] And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, I have found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my will.

[3:05] Of this man's offspring, God has brought to Israel a saviour, Jesus, as he promised. Before his coming, John had proclaimed the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.

[3:20] And as John was finishing his course, he said, What do you suppose that I am? I am not he, no, but behold, after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.

[3:33] Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation.

[3:44] For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognise him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him.

[3:56] And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. 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.

[4:10] But God raised him from the dead, 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.

[4:21] And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, 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.

[4:38] And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way, I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David. Therefore he says also in another psalm, You will not let your holy ones see corruption.

[4:55] For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid with his fathers, and saw corruption. But he whom God raised up, did not see corruption.

[5:09] Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. And by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

[5:24] Beware therefore, lest what is said in the prophets should come about. Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish. For I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.

[5:39] As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God.

[5:59] Just to there, may God bless to us also this reading. Now we like to... We want to look at Psalm 2.

[6:11] In the book of Psalms, Psalm 2. And we're going to look at the whole of the psalm, go through it bit by bit, as we do with these passages. Now the psalm is clearly a piece of poetry.

[6:27] The way it's printed in our Bible shows that there are actually four stanzas of three verses each. And each of these stanzas has got a specific reference, a specific theme.

[6:43] And each one is different. And little by little, therefore, a picture is being built up. In the first stanza, which is verses 1 to 3, we've got a picture of things on earth.

[6:55] The nations are raging. And then we have a picture of heaven. God is laughing. Then we are taken back to the past.

[7:06] Christ is appointed king. And finally, we are back in the present. The nations are admonished. Varied pictures, yet all united in one simple message.

[7:19] God rules over the unruly nations. God reigns. Let the earth be glad. Now, even that makes us realize how suitable this is for ourselves today.

[7:36] What good news for a troubled world. God is in control. And that's, of course, as we've indicated really, the way that the Psalms in particular look at God's reign.

[7:49] It's not something fearful. It's not something that we have to tremble over. It is something we have to rejoice in. God rules. Let the earth be glad.

[8:01] So, let's look at this Psalm and we'll just go through it bit by bit and let its message speak to us so that at the end of it we can rejoice because God rules the unruly nations.

[8:17] Stanza 1, verses 1 to 3 the nations are raging. Here, there is the ungodliness, the unruliness of ungodly people. Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?

[8:33] Now, here, notice that we're not talking about individuals but we're actually talking about nations. And this may not be our natural way that we look at things but it's certainly the way that the Bible looks at things.

[8:51] It's not just that God rules the lives of individuals as they come to know Him. God rules the lives of nations which is quite a big vision to have.

[9:02] But what we've got here are the nations raging against God. And it's something official. It's a matter of public policy we might say.

[9:14] There's kings that set themselves up and there are rulers that take counsel together. So, it's the influential authoritative people in the nations that he's particularly got in mind here.

[9:29] Those responsible for public policy. They are leading this eventually a conspiracy against God because that's the word that's used at least in some translations.

[9:41] They take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed. And the idea is that they're working together on this. It isn't just an isolated nation that seeks to throw off the restraints that we speak about in a moment.

[9:55] It's that they get together on the matter and one supports another and one encourages others and they try and get everybody together into this conspiracy all working together to throw down the rule of God.

[10:10] And this is described here. in these terms they say let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. They want rid of all restrictions.

[10:23] They want rid of the restrictions that God according to them places on their conduct. And of course God has placed limits to human conduct.

[10:34] He has said that we can work six days of the week and the seventh day is his. We can indulge in sexual activity. within the marital bond. We can have property but we mustn't steal.

[10:48] We have control over life but not over others. We mustn't kill. Restraints have been placed. Limits have been placed. And that is the way that the nations look at them.

[11:00] But whereas we might look at them as beneficial restrictions and that's what they're intended to be. the nations see them as hostile. The nations see these as detrimental to their well-being.

[11:13] And they're saying these restrictions that God has placed in us away with them. That's their attitude of mind here. And they want to throw off all restraints so that they can be free to do just exactly what they want to do.

[11:28] They are masters of their own fate. They are governors of their own lives. And all restraints that God may seek to place on their conduct they want to throw away and destroy completely.

[11:41] That's the sort of picture that we've got here. They see these restraints as enslaving them. They see them as chains that keep them down.

[11:54] And therefore they want to throw them off and to be free to do what they want to do themselves. There's the unruliness of the nations. Now these words were applied of course in the New Testament to Christ.

[12:08] The nations conspired against the Christ. That's what we've got in the New Testament story. There were Jews and there were Gentiles involved in this.

[12:20] There were rulers and there were kings involved in this. They brought Jesus before the high priest. They brought them before the Jewish council. And then they transferred them from the Jewish authorities to the Roman authorities.

[12:33] And brought them before the governor Pilate. And he for a time transferred them to the authority of the king Herod of Galilee. And he examined them also.

[12:44] And then he was brought back to Pilate, the Roman governor. And so it's little wonder that in Acts chapter 4 this verse is applied to what was done to our Lord in his crucifixion.

[12:56] here they are the nations conspiring against Christ and seeking to destroy him and thereby throw off the restraints that we've talked about already. And it's the nations doing this, not just the Jewish nations, the Gentiles in general are doing this through the Roman governor and through the Jewish authorities.

[13:17] So no wonder that this is applied to our Lord and we shouldn't neglect to do so ourselves. but I don't really think we can limit it to that. Somebody has said that the Psalms are interesting because in general they don't have very much historical background to them.

[13:35] Some of them do but most of them don't. And the advantage this person said about that is this, they fit every age, they fit all sorts of situations in life and that's the way we can see this.

[13:49] Do the nations conspire against God and is Christ today? Do they seek to throw off the restraints that God has placed upon them? The answer is surely yes, that's what's going on at the moment.

[14:01] This is common practice today. In our own nation of course we're most aware of this, that standards are slipping as far as the Christian church is concerned and the moral standards that used to characterize us are no longer applied.

[14:18] And we see that as the nations throwing off the restraints that God had placed on them and they say no limitations to our days of working and enjoying ourselves all days alike, no seventh day set apart for God.

[14:33] They say no restrictions to our sexual activity. Marriage is for those that want it but otherwise you can do what you like and we can go down a longer list about these things.

[14:46] and it's quite obvious it seems to me that our nation is embarked on a path that has as its ultimate goal the secularization of every aspect of life in this country and therefore the application of the rule that we're all our own masters and nobody can tell us what to do and we can decide things for ourselves without anybody laying down moral standards for us.

[15:12] And it's not just our nation that is doing that. It seems to me there is a conspiracy of the nations in as much as this happens that they all copy one another. Once one nation has discovered some path of liberty as they think about it throwing off the restraints that God has placed they make it obligatory to their own people and then they encourage other nations to do the same and they won't maybe have political dealings with certain nations because they haven't followed some moral deviation that this nation or other nations similarly have put into practice in their own sphere.

[15:45] The nations are intent upon this in general throwing off the restraints or seeking to throw off the restraints that God has placed on them. So the importance of this part is that this is a picture of us.

[16:01] Now what are we going to make of it? What are we going to say to that? Well that's what the psalmist is speaking about. What does he make of it? What is it he wants us to bring in mind so that we can assess this situation?

[16:12] Because naturally we say oh isn't it terrible? Things aren't what they used to be and so on. What are things going to come to? If this is the way we are now what are they going to be the next generation, the generation after that?

[16:24] And already many especially older people are saying it's unthinkable what's happened now. Unimaginable even 10, 20 years ago unimaginable the place that we've got to now. And it fills us with a sense of real concern and sometimes anxiety and foreboding and a pessimistic outlook in regard to the future.

[16:46] And we must therefore ask how does the psalmist look at the matter? And that's what he then unfolds in the remaining part of this psalm. So we come then to the second stanza which is verses 4 to 6 6 and we've got it there quite simply.

[17:05] He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision. So there's the first way that God assesses this situation. He laughs at them.

[17:17] Now we might find it difficult to imagine that. And that's right. It should be difficult for us to imagine that because God is not as we are.

[17:30] This is poetry. This is a way of speaking. But it's a very simple idea that is unfolded here. God finds this situation laughable.

[17:41] Can these nations throw off the restraints? It's ridiculous. Can these nations rule themselves apart from the working and will of God? Absurd.

[17:53] That's what God says about the matter. And he goes on to explain a wee bit more about that. then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury.

[18:04] So there's going to be justice exercised against them. Judgment is going to come upon the nations if they continue in that path. Because they are in control.

[18:16] The nations are not able to throw off the restraints. I think it's a simple example. You may think it's not a very good example but it's one that I like myself.

[18:27] here's a bowl and there's a little ant in the bottom of the bowl and the ant climbs up the side of the bowl and then I just flick my finger and the ant is down at the bottom again.

[18:41] He may try again. The same result. As long as I want him to stay down there, he's going to stay down there. He may get a wee bit up, he may go well up but if I want him to stay down, he'll be put down.

[18:55] And that's the nations in the sight of God. Here they are climbing up to freedom as they see it. And it just is laughable to think that they can gain their freedom.

[19:08] No more than an ant and a bull can gain its freedom if we don't want it to gain its freedom. Can the nations do so? God laughs at them, God judges them. But the most important thing here is that God sets a king over the nations.

[19:23] And that's in verse 6. As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. Now, again, this is poetry. Zion is, of course, part of Jerusalem, the place where the temple was built.

[19:37] It's a picture of God's people. And this is what is in mind here. It's not that Christ is going to reign in Jerusalem, literally, but he is going to reign over his people.

[19:51] that's the basic idea, it seems to me, in this. And so we've got this idea, God doesn't just laugh at them. God sets up an alternative system that is going to control them and rule over them, and they are going to be subject to it.

[20:06] God has set his king. That's the big news that takes away anxiety and dread and foreboding. Okay, we're sad about things, terribly sad about things, and it upsets us to see the way that things are going in our nation and other nations as well.

[20:24] But there's another way of looking at it. Look at it from the point of view as heaven. It's ridiculous that the nation should prosper. God will act against them, and God has set a king over them.

[20:37] God reigns. That's the big thing that matters. In another psalm, Psalm 11, we've got a description of the foundations being destroyed.

[20:47] destroyed. Now, the moral foundations of society were, in David's day, people thought being undermined by certain actions. And this is what people came to David to say.

[21:01] The foundations are being destroyed. And they say, fly away like a bird to its mountain. Escape from it. That sort of attitude was prevalent. And there is the message that in the midst of the destruction of the foundations, as we might well say, this is the advice given.

[21:24] Just escape from it all. Turn within yourselves. And only be concerned about yourselves and don't bother about the world around you. Escapism in one form or another. And David rejects that.

[21:36] And he says, the Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord is on his heavenly throne. And that's what this psalm is saying. When you see the Andrulean nations, just remember this.

[21:48] The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord is on his heavenly throne. Now, this is amplified. And it's amplified in verse 3. Which is really the climax of this positive way of looking at things that God sets before us here.

[22:05] And stanza 3 speaks of Christ's ruling. Now, this has sometimes been a wee bit difficult to get. So, he says, I will tell of the decree.

[22:18] And who is speaking here? And the answer is, it's not God so much as the king that he's appointed. That's what's been mentioned. I've set my king on Zion, my holy hill.

[22:30] And then in comes the king himself. The appointed king, the Messiah. He's the one that's speaking. And he's speaking about himself. And the way that he was appointed.

[22:40] And what he was appointed for. And so, we've got Christ ruling here. And a very interesting and difficult, but revealing description of eternal matters.

[22:54] Entering into the secret purpose of God, we might say, that he has chosen to reveal to us here. I will tell of the decree. Sorry, I'm out of date here.

[23:07] But when Queen Elizabeth was appointed, there was a proclamation made at the Merkut Cross in Edinburgh, declaring this appointment. I should say King Charles III, but I never remembered that one.

[23:18] I do remember Queen Elizabeth being declared queen as a wee boy in her drosson academy. We were taken into the hall to hear from the wireless, as we called it then, the proclamation of Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth, at the Merkut Cross in Edinburgh.

[23:32] I don't remember that happening to King Charles, but I dare say it did. Anyway, what I'm getting at is this official proclamation of kingship.

[23:43] And that's what we've got here. Or, to use another analogy, I believe that in old times at least, when a ship's captain was appointed in the Royal Navy, he would receive orders from the Admiralty.

[23:58] And these orders would give him the authority over this ship that he was being appointed to and would lay down the terms of his appointment. And to take up that appointment, the captain had got to go to the ship that he had been appointed to and he would summon all the crew and the officers and he would read out the proclamation, the terms of his appointment.

[24:21] He would read himself in and for that moment he had authority over them. And that's what's happening here, as it were. Here is Jesus reading out the terms of appointment, reading himself in as king over his people and telling the terms on which this appointment came to him.

[24:41] That's the way we've got to look at this when it says, I will tell of the decree. So, what does this consist of? Well, here's the very wording. The Lord said to me, that is Jehovah, said to me, you are my son.

[24:54] Son, today I have begotten you or today I have become your father, as some translations have. Something of that nature. And this tells us the fact of his appointment.

[25:06] Now, this is the problem that we have and that makes this difficult for some people. When we think of Jesus as being begotten or as the son of the father, father, we naturally think, and this impinges on what we said this morning, we naturally think of him as the second person of what we call the trinity.

[25:30] We think of his divinity. And we think that this is some rather difficult way of describing that here. But I don't really think that that is the right way of looking at it.

[25:43] Because Jesus never became the son of God in that sense. He was never appointed to that rule, to that role. He was always that by nature.

[25:55] And so it can be his divinity as the second person of the trinity, as we call it, that is being spoken of here. Because, as I say, that was a role that he always fulfilled in the light of who he really was.

[26:12] This is something different. This is an appointment to the messiahship. This is an appointment as king. The appointment of Jesus as king is laid down especially in regard to David.

[26:27] And he's depicted as the son of David who is going to rule in David's house. And he's going to come from David's line and rule in David's house. And one psalm that refers to that appointment says, I will be his father and he shall be my son.

[26:46] And that's the king of David's line in his appointment. And God says, I will be a father to him and he will be a son.

[26:57] And what he meant by that was, I'm going to act towards him with paternal care. And I am going to support him as a father would his son. And he will be a son to me because he's going to represent me and act on my behalf.

[27:13] And there was this family sort of way of speaking of it. I will be his father and he shall be my son. And it's that sort of language that is echoed here.

[27:23] Here is Jesus being appointed as the son of God in the sense of being the Messiah who he had appointed, who was appointed. And the words of the psalm that we've quoted, I will be his father, fit into that sort of picture.

[27:39] So what this boils down to is that Jesus is saying, the Lord said to me, you are my appointed Messiah, the king of David's line, and I'm going to act like a father to you, and you are going to act like a son to me.

[27:55] Now along with that of course we do recognize him to be the second person of the Trinity. But that's not what this passage is speaking about. So that's the fact of his appointment. He has appointed as king over his people.

[28:07] And then there are the terms of his appointment. Ask of me, he says. And that is a pretty far-reaching statement. Ask of me. Here, Jesus is told, the Messiah is told, you just need to ask and it will be given to you.

[28:23] All the resources of heaven are open to you, are available to you in the prosecution of this task. Heaven is going to stand behind you, and you can come to the bank of heaven, as it were, and draw whatever you might need.

[28:38] You just need to ask for it, and it will be yours. And then he goes on to say more significantly, more specifically, what that will mean.

[28:50] I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. And of course, we've got here what we think about as the work of the gospel.

[29:03] Jesus, when he was raised from the dead, ascended to heaven, his last words to his disciples seem to be according to Matthew's gospel, go, you know, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

[29:18] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. And what we've got there, you see, is a re-echoing of what we've got here in Psalm 2. He was an appointed king.

[29:30] All authority has been given to me. It wasn't the authority that he had as creator. It was an authority that had been given to him because he had been appointed as king over his people.

[29:42] And on that basis, he says to his disciples, go and make disciples of the Gentiles of all nations. And that seems to me to fit in pretty well with the terms of the appointments as they're laid out in this Psalm.

[29:56] I will make the nations your inheritance and the ends of the earth your possession. Your kingdom is going to embrace all nations. Your kingdom is going to extend from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth, to use Old Testament terminology.

[30:10] There's no corner of the globe, no part of the globe that is not going to come under your control, under your influence. That's the extent of your kingship. That's the message that this is giving to us.

[30:23] And that's accomplished, of course, in practice through the church fulfilling that great commission that was given when Jesus said all authority is given to me.

[30:34] Therefore, go and make disciples. And then the last bit here is in verse 9. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

[30:45] Now, the problem with this is it's not the sort of picture that we're encouraged to think of Jesus having in the gospel. gospel. This is very harsh way of speaking.

[30:59] These are strong, strong words. And they're very physical, as it were, in the impact that they make.

[31:11] This is a tyrant that's laying down the law and bringing destruction and oppression to people. That's the way it sounds. So what do we say to that if we're trying to apply this to the kingdom of Christ and the gospel?

[31:25] And the answer is twofold. Firstly, this is poetry. A good thing you can say about most times if you get a difficulty about them. Don't take it literally because it's poetry.

[31:35] They use symbols. They use imagery. And what sort of imagery were we meant to use but this sort of martial imagery? After all, he is the king of David's house.

[31:47] He's the son of David, ruling in David's household. David was a martial man. He was a man of war. And to use this as a description of the kingdom of Christ, it's not unnatural given the historical background.

[32:03] But it's only a picture. It's a picture of his authority. It's a picture of his ability to bring people low, to bring the high down, and to bring them into submission to him by force.

[32:17] But that's one explanation we can give of this. another explanation is this. This doesn't sound like the Jesus of the Gospels. He spoke gently to people and said, come to me all you who labor and heavily and I will give you rest.

[32:35] He spoke with comfort and consolation to people. Son, daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. And it doesn't fit very well with the sort of description that we're given here.

[32:49] And the second explanation therefore of that difficulty is this. When Jesus says, come to me, he's speaking to those that are burdened and heavy laden. He's speaking to folks that have been trying to keep God's law and take up the burden that the Pharisees laid upon them and found it a crushing burden.

[33:08] He's speaking to people that are brought low and are needy and feel the poverty of their lives. And he speaks encouraging them to them and says, come to me and I'll give you rest.

[33:22] But the people being addressed in this psalm are not of that nature. They're not penitent sinners that need consolation. They're not people that have been brought low that need to be spoken to gently.

[33:37] They're unruly nations. They're people that are in rebellion. They're up in arms against the sovereign Lord. Why shouldn't they be brought low and crushed with an iron rod?

[33:49] It's appropriate to that situation that that sort of picture should be given. Here are people that are hard of heart. How will they be brought low but with a rod of iron?

[34:01] Here are people that are conspiring against God and seeking to throw off all restraints. How are they going to be brought into submission? But by force. The force of the Holy Spirit of course but nonetheless by force.

[34:13] That's the sort of picture that we've got here. To the lowly and the poor and the needy and those that are penitent. Jesus speaks kind words of comfort to the proud and haughty and arrogant who are still going on in their deliberate sin.

[34:31] He speaks in the words that are used here. So there you see is a picture of the authority of Christ that was given to him. You need but ask the nations will be yours and even the most unruly of nations will be brought low before you.

[34:48] You're king over all through the gospel. There's one, I should really have mentioned earlier, there's one thing that Jesus said that seems to me to fit in with this pretty well.

[35:02] When Jesus was arrested he said do you think I cannot call on my father and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels.

[35:15] I just need to ask my father he says. Well that's what he was told. Ask of me. What can he get? All the resources of heaven. Twelve legions of angels to do his bidding.

[35:28] That's what he's been given here. So this chimes in with the teaching we've got in the New Testament about the kingdom of Christ. So God is saying here okay the nations are unruly but don't worry it's ridiculous that they should succeed in throwing off restraints.

[35:46] I've appointed a king. He's got all the resources of me behind him and he's been given authority to bring all nations into subjection to him. And this leads to the last stanza here where the nations are admonished.

[36:04] Now therefore O kings be wise be warned O rulers of the earth. So here he's speaking directly to those that have been mentioned in the first stanza.

[36:16] Those that sought to conspire together and throw off authority. He's saying to them now listen what I've told you. See this picture of God and his appointed king.

[36:28] Just you take that into consideration and be wise and be warned. That's what he's saying here. So what have they to do? They have to serve the Lord with fear.

[36:40] They have to rejoice with trembling. And they have to kiss the sun. And these three things to me it's interesting that it's not the outward thing that is so important as the inner dimension.

[36:55] He doesn't say serve rejoice. He says serve with fear. Rejoice with trembling. Now if we speak about serving we might think about a service.

[37:08] Joining in a service. Or we might think of some service in the community. And what is emphasised here is the spirit in which we do this. We have to serve with fear.

[37:21] With due respect for God. For profound respect for who he is. And for his majesty and greatness. And it's this inner attitude of the heart that is the big thing.

[37:32] you can serve in this way or you can serve in that way or whatever. But make sure that you do it in a right spirit because that's what matters.

[37:44] You have to rejoice but you have to do so with trembling. So it's not the empty singing of songs and the loud cheering that you get at a football match when your team has won.

[37:58] it's not that secular rejoicing, that worldly rejoicing that unconverted people engage in when things are going well with them as they see it.

[38:11] This is to be a rejoicing that is mingled with another spirit, namely the spirit of trembling. And again you see it's the idea of godly fear. And he says that's what's going to happen to you.

[38:24] You can rejoice in the blessings that I give you when you come and submit to me but do so in that spirit of trembling. And this of course is pretty well applicable in our day and age still.

[38:40] In regard to worship we've to rejoice. But it's not to be the empty rejoicing of the world where we're stirred up to things by mechanical means that musical instruments actually might as well say it.

[38:54] when we're stirred up to things with musical instruments and other things of that nature. It's not a joy that is stimulated by human means and by techniques and gimmicks.

[39:09] It's the rejoicing that comes from realising that there's to be a trembling in it. A real deep respect for God and his greatness. And these things are not contradictory.

[39:21] You can serve with fear, you can rejoice with trembling. But the key to it all is that you should kiss the sun. Now this is a normal word for kiss, showing of affection.

[39:32] But it's got a particular application here. It's the kiss of homage. that's what matters in this respect.

[39:44] This is what God is asking for. Kiss the sun. In the old days, a new king was appointed. And all the lords and the gentry would come up to Scone, or Edinburgh perhaps, and they would in due course make obeisance to their king.

[40:06] They might kneel before him and kiss his hand, and the kiss was a sign of allegiance to him. And here we've got this picture of, I better watch what I say, an unruly highland tribe.

[40:21] And they've been not accepting the authority that came from Edinburgh. But this man has decided he's going to submit. And he comes with the others and he kneels before the king and he gives up his rebellion and he kisses the sovereign's hand.

[40:38] a sign of submission. A sign that rebellion is over and that it is now submissive to the king's authority. And that's an interesting way of looking at things in gospel terms.

[40:52] We do speak about surrendering, or at least some people speak about surrendering to Christ. And other people don't like that way very much because you don't have it specifically in the scriptures and for other reasons as well.

[41:06] But in this context, you know, that's a pretty good way of describing it. Because if you surrender, you acknowledge that you've been rebellious and you've given up your rebellion and it's been an absolute unconditional surrender that you're giving and you're now expressing your allegiance, your obedience to the rightful sovereign, the Lord Jesus.

[41:32] So here's a gospel way in which this can be applied. Here's a sinner, unrepentant and they're urged, kiss the son, give up your rebellion, come to him, make your pledge of allegiance to him and give up your rebellion and submit to his authority.

[41:53] That's the way that things are spoken of here. That's what nations have got to do and it can be applied in a gospel setting as well. Well, there's more that can be said about that but we're not going to see it.

[42:03] We'll leave the last two verses because that's the gist of the message here. The nations are raging, seeking throw off restraints but God thinks that ridiculous because he's appointed his king who has authority over all and he's now telling the unruly people be wise, be warned, come to the king and submit to him and that's the message.

[42:31] Now it says two big things for us. If we are concerned about the unruliness of the nations and the ungodly influences that work in our own nations and in others, it says two things, God rules just that and that's a simple idea that we have no doubt thought about often enough but let's just make sure we apply it in this situation.

[42:55] When we are disturbed and anxious and wonder what things we're coming to and what will happen next in the moral degradation of our nation, just do remember God is in control.

[43:08] He thinks these efforts ridiculous. God rules. We can comfort ourselves in that. Secondly, God's kingdom will come. Now there's different ideas about when it will come.

[43:21] I believe it will come in this world and what we've got here is this description of the climax of the gospel age. Others think differently but we can all agree on this. This speaks about the kingdom of Christ being established.

[43:36] As we pray, may your will be done on earth, may your kingdom come. We do not doubt that that is the purpose of God and that as we pray for it and work for it, it will be fulfilled.

[43:49] In our own day and age, it may not be obviously fulfilled but the day is coming one way or another when it will be fulfilled and we can take comfort in that.

[43:59] the unruly nations will be put down. People from all over the world will come to know Christ through the gospel and the nations will become submissive to him and acknowledge him to be king of kings and lord of lords.

[44:15] We can comfort each other with these words. May God bless to us his word.