Psalm 2.
We're taking a bit of a change in our sermon series.
We've finished the series on Philippians.
What an encouraging series that was to start the year off.
For the holidays though, for the rest of the year,
what we'll be doing is preaching on a small series of psalms.
And this particular holiday is obviously the Easter holidays.
So we're going to look at Messianic Psalms,
which is why we're starting with Psalm 2,
the first Messianic Psalm in the Psalter.
And so there'll be myself and Dave,
while David actually has some holiday during this period.
All right.
So as you've actually heard Psalm 2 read out,
and probably as you have it open in front of you,
you've probably realized that there's a little bit of a gear change
from the encouraging words of Philippians
to where we're going to now in Psalm 2.
Psalm 2 is quite confronting.
When you look at these two categories that Catherine used,
I think it's fair to say that if you look at the New Testament
or you look at the Bible as a whole,
you get to see them and how they interplay with each other.
But in Psalm 2, it's a little bit less clear.
It seems far more balanced,
more toward the thunderbolt kind of God
than the loving kind of God.
But what I'm hoping is that as we look through this psalm,
you'll actually get to see that love is very much in the picture
in what's going on here.
God's desire to show grace toward us is very much in the picture.
One of the other things that I hope you'll see
is that this psalm actually gives us a sense of
who we are and how we fit into the world.
I don't know if you've picked up on the Israel Folau comments
that he didn't tweet, did he?
He put them on his Instagram feed
and how the response to that has led to his...
Has he been sacked yet?
I'm not sure.
They want to sack him if they can actually get in touch with him.
So there's this reaction to what Israel Folau said
in expressing his faith
that has kind of shocked a lot of Christians.
I've noticed in my own Facebook feed
that folk have actually been responding to it
in a variety of different ways
and I guess one of the most common features of those responses
is a concern for where that leaves us as Christians.
Where does it leave us in our desire to express our faith,
in our desire to actually introduce other people to God?
What does it mean for us?
What is the future of Australia?
Where is this country going?
Well, this psalm tells us not just where our country is going
but it tells us the trajectory of the whole world, the universe.
It gives us a sense of the history of mankind
and where it's going under God's hands.
It gives us a sense of why people
are so strongly objecting to Israel Folau
and hearing only condemnation in his words
and it gives us, I hope, a sense of comfort
that God actually truly is in control.
So let's have a look at this passage then
and start to break it open.
We get verses 1 to 3,
we get to see the sense of rebellion
in the worldwide sense.
We read these words,
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 their cords from us.
You see here a picture of universal rebellion against God.
Now when I read this and when you read it
perhaps you read the nations and the peoples
as the whole world.
But when the Israelites read it and sang it
and meditated on it,
they read it as,
well, it's everyone who is not Israel.
They didn't read it as all of us,
they read it as,
they read it as from the perspective of us and them
and they are the nations,
they are the peoples.
And I've got to say that frankly
I'm inclined to want to read a psalm like this that way.
I'm inclined to want to read it as,
well, yeah, this applies to everyone else but me
or at least everyone else but me and you guys as well.
Yeah, we want to stay in fellowship.
So everyone else but us.
We're okay.
It's the world that's a mess.
And if they just turn to God like I have,
then everything would be fine.
So Israel,
they thought it was about everyone else
at the time that this psalm was written
and at the time when they were singing this
up until a certain point.
And they thought that the rest of the world
were the rebels who were actually deserving
of the kind of judgment that's described in this psalm.
But this psalm is sharp-edged
because those who anticipated this king,
this anointed one being in thrones and his rule,
those who anticipated this were the ones
who raged against him and ultimately killed him.
If you just take a note in your,
if you take notes in your bulletin or whatever,
take a note of Acts chapter 4 verses 25 to 28.
Because in those verses,
the disciples actually apply these verses
to the people who killed Jesus.
Now think of who they were.
They actually named them in this prayer
that they pray in Acts 4.
They named them Herod, Pilate,
and the peoples of Israel.
What the psalmist goes on to describe
is the shape and tone of the world we live in,
no exceptions.
What we need to do is to begin to hear these words
and ask, how?
How does it apply to me?
As I read or sing these words,
where am I positioned in this psalm?
Because this message is confronting.
They, that is the people of the world,
rage and plot.
Notice this is a heart attitude.
It starts with a heart attitude.
Raging and plotting isn't just something
that's an external thing.
It's actually something that comes from within us.
It's a passionate response.
Now maybe you're not thinking,
you're thinking that you're not passionate in that sense.
You're not a rager.
So you're wondering,
what does that actually look like?
Well, Bruce Waltke,
an Old Testament theologian,
summed it up really helpfully.
He describes it like this.
He says,
in the 21st century,
we want liberty without law,
freedom without form
and love without commitment.
Let me just flesh those out a little bit for you.
So liberty without law.
There's a growing perception
that limits remove liberty.
When someone writes a law
that restricts what I want to do,
well,
we feel like they're restricting my liberty.
It rises in us in thoughts like,
you don't have the right to tell me
what I can and can't do.
Funnily enough,
going down that path is anarchy,
where anarchy means without government.
So liberty without law
or freedom without form,
where freedom actually functions
on the level of personal identity
or expression.
Rather than coming up against rules,
we come up against perceptions.
I want to be free to be the version of myself
that I choose to be.
Freedom without reference to who or what I am.
And how much has that come out
in the way that laws are being shaped at the moment.
And any expectation that's contrary to my view
will be interpreted as an assault
to my personal freedom of choice
or expression.
And finally,
he said love without commitment.
You see,
I want to be unencumbered by demands.
Nobody should have a hold on me.
I should be free to move in and out of relationships
as I choose.
I don't want love to be unconditional.
I don't want to have to be giving
without guarantees that I'm going to receive.
I'm going to suggest to you that these three things
stand in direct opposition to God's character.
So this lifestyle actually requires life without God.
Our hearts turn from God.
And with our hearts go our minds.
This attitude of heart takes form in the mind
as they plot, set, take counsel.
We read in this section,
these first three verses.
What the psalmist describes here
is nothing other than rebellion.
Plotting to overthrow God.
Setting ourselves on God's throne
in place of the rightful king.
Taking counsel among ourselves.
Obviously rejecting God's counsel.
I don't naturally and easily move toward God
is what this psalm is saying.
Far from it.
Rebellion is in my blood.
Why?
Why though?
Notice this psalm starts with the question,
why?
As all this is being described,
the overarching question the psalmist asks is,
why?
Why do we rebel?
Well, the answer is in our perception,
the perception of the plotters.
They say in verse 3,
let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us.
Now we understand the desire for freedom,
but to desire it in this way
means that they believe
that they're currently slaves.
They feel like they're in chains.
They perceive their state
as tied down in bondage.
They believe that God
is holding them back.
And their claim carries echoes
of Satan's lie in Genesis chapter 3.
Do you remember that?
In the midst of the world of evidence
of the goodness of God,
they choose to believe otherwise.
So Genesis 3 verse 1.
Now the serpent was more crafty
than any other beast of the field
that the Lord God had made.
And he said to the woman,
did God actually say
you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?
Here's a law.
And the woman said to the serpent,
we may eat of the fruit
of the trees in the garden,
but God said,
you shall not eat of the fruit
of the tree that is
in the midst of the garden.
Neither shall you touch it
lest you die.
There's a perception of liberty
or lack of.
But the serpent said to the woman,
and here's the kicker,
the serpent said to the woman,
you will not surely die.
For God knows
that when you eat of it,
your eyes will be opened
and you will be like God,
knowing good and evil.
Why would they think
they're in bondage?
Because as long as God rules,
they believe there is no liberty,
no freedom.
In other words,
God is not good.
He's just our jailer.
The psalmist then goes on
to look at God's rule
and to reflect on that.
You see, humanity,
in his mind,
has actually picked a fight
with the biggest person
in the universe.
So what is going to happen next?
Well, in summary,
God will continue to reign
unchallenged and unimpeded.
In verses 4 to 6,
we discover this.
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.
Unchallenged,
God's rule.
God's rule persists unchallenged.
The psalmist explains,
God sits on a throne
far beyond our reach
to challenge.
So God looks on
from this position
and laughs
at their futile expressions
of defiance.
He holds them in derision.
Have you ever seen
this power difference
play out in your lives?
I know when I was a parent
with much younger children,
when they were very young,
we used to have play fights,
Friday night, fight night.
We'd have play fights
and they'd just pile on top of me,
drag me to the ground
and climb all over me
and jump up onto the lounge
and then jump off
of the lounge onto me.
And they'd just bounce off me.
And I only had to use one weapon
and that was,
the only weapon I was allowed to use
in the fight was tickling.
Now you might say
that's a pretty extreme weapon,
you know,
tickling is pretty bad
and maybe your sort of person
doesn't like that.
But that's all I was allowed to do
was tickle them
and that was enough
for me to defeat
those three kids
all in one go.
Let me tell you now,
I don't let them do this now.
But,
but I want to,
just want to point out
that we're not like that.
We're not like these children
that are going to grow up
and actually become
powerful enough
to resist anyone
and anything
that stands in our way.
We aren't growing
to a point
where we can challenge God
on any level.
There is no height
that we can launch ourselves from
that is above Him.
No weight
that we can bring to bear
that will move Him.
And no exercise of intellect
that will confound Him
in any way.
The only thing
that we've achieved
with our efforts
is to plunge the world
into turmoil.
and it's really interesting
that humanity
is so committed
to rebelling against God
that we blame
that turmoil
on Him too.
We've moved
from resting in paradise
to struggling for peace
and we still blame God.
But God's rule continues.
He rules unimpeded.
The psalmist makes this clear
by describing the effect
of God's rule
when he speaks
God exercises His wrath
and the response
humanity is terrified.
We have picked a fight
with the strongest person
in the universe
and he plans to fight back.
God's plan involves setting
or enthroning
the word setting
set there actually means enthrone.
the rightful king.
We're just pretenders
to the throne
when we try and claim it
for ourselves.
God's king
is able to take a seat
on the heavenly throne
far above any position
of authority
that we could claim.
And this is a terrifying event
because everyone
is a rebel.
And in the ancient Near East
there is only one outcome
for rebels.
That's death.
The nations of the time
reserved the worst form
of death
for rebels.
Methods that inflicted
the maximum pain
and humiliation.
Methods like crucifixion
were widely used
in the nations
around Israel.
I don't know if you know
of the story Spartacus.
That was 100 BC
where 6,000 rebel slaves
were crucified
on the Appian Way
on the way back into Rome,
one of the main roads
into Rome.
6,000 rebels
were crucified
one after the other.
And the enthronement
of this rightful king
would mean
that the rebellion
is over.
So punishment
of this kind of magnitude
is coming.
And this is what God,
this is what the psalmist
goes on to describe
as he lays out
God's plan
in verses 7 to 9.
We read the words,
Here he describes the king,
the enthronement of the king
and his complete victory.
Let's look at the king here.
The psalmist speaks in a way
that's actually reminiscent
of a coronation ceremony
of the time.
And it's also reminiscent
of God's promise to David
in 2 Samuel 7.
Again, something to note down
and have a look back at later.
But in that chapter
of 2 Samuel,
Yahweh promised
that a king of David's line
would be a son to him
and that that son
would rule forever.
Here, the Lord, Yahweh,
personally swears in
this new king.
You are my son.
Today, I have begotten you.
Although, I think it's in Acts 2
that this psalm is attributed
to David as having been
written by David.
David's obviously talking
about someone who isn't him.
He's actually referring
to the promise
that God made to him.
So he's not applying
this to himself.
He's not saying,
I am that king.
He's saying,
this king is coming.
The arrival of the eternal king.
It's past tense
to emphasize the certainty
of this king's arrival.
In the minds of the Israelites,
this was a king
who was very much expected
but hadn't arrived yet.
He was the one
that God's people
were waiting for
and they expected this king
to restore the fortunes
of Israel.
So it was an emphatic
declaration of kingship
with an emphatic expression
of victory involved too.
This was not just a king
but the king.
The king who would be universally
and emphatically victorious.
Not only would the king be eternal
but his rule would be universal.
The nations would become his right.
The world, his possession.
This ruler would be unimpeachable.
This would be no Donald Trump.
You could not resist
the rule of this king.
His rule would be bloody too.
And it's kind of uncomfortable
the way that he describes this.
But perhaps the worse your situation
and the more desperate you get,
the more willing you are
to hear the emphatic nature
of this victory.
The more willing you are perhaps
to accept a ruler
who will get the job done.
We have examples of that
in recent political history.
So for example,
the people of the Philippines
recently elected a president
to take on the drug gangs.
Zero tolerance.
The people were given the authority
to literally shoot on sight.
And they have.
They've killed 12,000 people
in the past two years.
The people of Brazil
have more recently done the same thing.
The country is struggling
under economic mismanagement,
under corruption.
And the violence is just rife
within the country.
Over 60,000 murders a year in Brazil.
So they elected an extremist.
A man who is allegedly
turning the country
into a police state
according to an interview
I heard on Radio National this week.
From a distance,
these kind of things
make us feel uncomfortable.
But when we read this psalm,
it almost sounds like,
is this where things are going?
Is this where this king
is going to go with things?
Because his rule is emphatic.
The psalmist's image
of the king's victory
over his opponents
is equally brutal.
The Lord says in verse 9,
You shall break them
with a rod of iron
and dash them in pieces
like a potter's vessel.
Not much lovey-dovey
in that, is there?
Break.
Smash.
If we open these words
up a little bit,
and you might see it
in some of your Bibles,
that word break
can actually be,
there's no vowels
in the Hebrew,
original Hebrew.
So you can actually
re-vocalize that word
to mean another word,
which is rule.
It may well be that
that's what's intended here.
And that's why your Bibles
may well actually
have a footnote here.
Where rule is actually
literally meaning shepherd.
And it fits with the imagery
that's actually being used
in this verse.
Because the rod of iron
is actually representative
of the shepherd's
weapon of defense.
The kings of the ancient
Near East carried a scepter
as a symbol of their
shepherding,
caring role
over their people.
They were to devote
themselves to defending
their sheep.
This imagery
that's being used here
is meant to be
defensive.
But does it make you
flinch that it's being
expressed in this kind
of way?
The psalmist writes
a song of introduction
to the book of songs
that encourages
God's people
to long
for this
kind of king.
They meditated
on these words
as they sang
the song.
And they hoped
for it to be fulfilled.
It almost makes you
wonder if religion
really is the cause
of all the violence
in the world
when you read
verses like this.
Until
you understand
who this king is
and how
this victory
was achieved.
then you realize
that this psalm
is grace filled.
It's offering
God's grace
to the world.
The psalmist
writes in verse 7
I will tell
of the decree
the Lord said
to me
you are my son
today
I have begotten
you.
This king
has come
and the New
Testament
writers
recognized him.
Again some
verses to take down
they're actually
up on the screen
as well for you
to take note
so you don't
have to just
get them down
as quickly as
you can.
They'll be there
for a few
moments.
In Hebrews 1.5
we discover
that this psalm
is about Jesus.
Jesus
is the son
who will rule
over everyone
and everything
higher than the
angels.
In Hebrews 5.5
this psalm
is about Jesus
as high priest.
He is appointed
to sacrifice
on behalf
of the people
to protect them
from their
greatest enemy
death.
In Acts 4.25
the opposition
in this psalm
results in
Jesus' death.
The disciples
understood
as I already
said earlier
the disciples
understood
that the
plotting
against the
Lord
and his
anointed
was fulfilled
in Jesus'
execution.
How?
A traitor's
death.
A rebel's
death.
The death
that we
deserved.
And in
Acts 13.
33.
This psalm
is about
Jesus'
resurrection.
Today I
have begotten
you is
applied
directly
to Jesus'
resurrection.
And it's
like we
picked a
fight with
the strongest
person in
the universe.
The new
Avengers movie
is coming
out.
They're all
still part of
the universe.
We're talking
about the
creator of the
universe.
the strongest
person who
exists in
the universe.
We stole
from him
what was
most precious.
We humiliated
him publicly.
We committed
the most
blatant injustice
and rebellion.
And there
he is,
ready to
fall on us
with the
full weight
of his
anger.
And he
had all the
power necessary
and every
reason to
crush us.
And yet
that person
fought back
by taking
it out on
himself.
The king
ruled by
establishing
justice.
And King
Jesus ruled
by choosing
to have the
full weight
of this
justice
bear down
on him.
The justice
we deserved
fell on
him.
Grace
filled
response.
People do
blame religion
for the
problems of
the world.
But when
they blame
Christianity,
do they
really understand
what's at the
heart of it?
at the
heart of the
Christian faith
is Christ,
this king.
The one who
has every
right to
punish us
and yet
chooses to
bear the
punishment
himself,
should we
only trust
him?
We do
get
Christianity
wrong.
Even
Christians
get
Christianity
wrong.
But friends,
the solution
isn't less
Christianity.
The truth
is the
world needs
more of
it.
We need
this king
to reign
over us.
And so
the
psalmist
concludes
with
presenting
us
with
a
choice
in
verses
10-12.
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.
be wise,
be warned,
there is a
real choice
to be made
here.
Accept
this king
or accept
the judgment
he offered
to bear
on your
behalf.
The
psalmist
has a
perspective
of God
that I
think we
struggle to
maintain,
that there
is no
equality
with God
to be
offered
here.
God
is God.
God
is God
to be
with fear
and rejoicing
with trembling
are clear
signs that
we really
do recognize
this king
for who
he is.
And
understanding
his anger
and his
right to
exercise
justice
are sure
signs that
we actually
recognize who
we are.
But
blessed
are all
who take
refuge in
him.
Blessed
are all
who take
refuge in
him.
Let me
finish by
saying that
this blessing
is not a
call to
religion.
It's a
call to
God.
Come to
the church
and hopefully
you'll find a
caring community.
You'll
discover a
principled and
appealing
lifestyle.
One that I
think actually
enriches life
for anybody.
But to
come for
those reasons
would be to
miss the
point.
The
psalmist
calls us to
kiss the
son.
It's a
sign of
covenant
commitment,
of
submission,
of
intimacy.
It's a
personal
relational
commitment to
this God,
this king,
this God,
king,
who personally
and relationally
and emphatically
broke into
history.
But this
choice in this
psalm is not
for a lifestyle,
that's religion.
And religion
is comfortable
nothingness
at best.
This choice
is for
God,
the God
who graciously
offers us
peace with
himself.
Friends,
don't settle
for comfortable.
Settle for
God,
for blessed
are all who
take refuge
in him.
Amen.