Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Psalm 2 | Date: July 30, 2017 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Open your Bibles, if you will, to Psalm 2, the second Psalm. All right, I’ll read through the entire psalm; you follow along.

“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. Rejoice with trembling. Kiss the sun, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way. For his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”

Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, we are grateful for this wonderful passage from your word. We ask again that you will open our hearts to see it, that we may rejoice in the glories of our Lord Jesus. In his name we pray, amen.

All of the Psalms, and for that matter all of the Bible, have a distinct relevance about them to our lives. The Bible tells us that. All scripture is profitable in various ways. But there are certain passages and certain Psalms that have a distinct contemporary ring to them. And this is one of those Psalms—at least by the time you’ve worked through it, you see how very much it sounds like a description of our own day.

This psalm had a particular reference to the Christians of the first century in a specific way, as we will see. It also has specific application to Christians in the last century when Jesus returns, as we will see. But the whole ring and atmosphere of the psalm is very familiar to us as well. It presents for us the whole world in fierce, organized, zealous rebellion against God, refusing his law, refusing to hear of the name Jesus, and doing their best to get away from his rule.

The psalm is written by David, God’s anointed king in Jerusalem. The psalm is not explicitly attributed to him in the title, but it does seem clearly to have been written during a time when he was challenged by some surrounding enemies. But more importantly, we have the opinion of the early church in Acts chapter 4, which I think we will see later on as well, where in their prayer collectively together in Acts 4, they cite Psalm 2 and cite it as the words of David. They cite it with the preface saying they look to the Sovereign Lord, who by the mouth of David has said, and then they quote Psalm 2 here.

So it was a psalm that was written by David, but clearly written about a later Davidic king who would come, and that of course is David’s greater son. God had promised David in 2 Samuel chapter 7, you remember, that he would have a descendant who would rule on the throne forever, and that is the theme of this psalm. Explicitly in several places, perhaps most explicitly we find in verse 6: “As for me,” God says, “I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.” And there is the theme of the psalm. God has established his anointed, his king, and his purpose then will be carried out.

Now it’s written by David and it’s written about his anointed, that is the Messiah who would come, great David’s greater son. All sides, I think, acknowledge that, but there is some question as to exactly how this psalm prophesies about the Messiah, Jesus. The way prophecy works is very often we’ll have a prophecy or a statement about David and suddenly the language goes beyond David and goes to something beyond him, and that is the Messianic King who is yet to come. And so in that sense David serves as a kind of type or a foreshadowing, prefiguring the Messiah who will come. That happens very often in the Psalms.

But very often as well, we find the Psalms prophesying directly about the Messiah. It’s not David that’s in view. It’s David’s greater son that’s in view, period. An oracular psalm, God speaking through the prophet about the great king who is to come. There’s some question as to exactly how this psalm gets to that point. In the end, I suppose it doesn’t matter because we agree at the end that it is about Jesus that the psalm is speaking.

A couple of details here. One, David never faced hostility of the Gentiles who had been subjected to him. Once he had conquered them, they never rebelled. And the picture here in the psalm is of those who had been subjected now rebelling against him. That may point to the fact that this is just a direct prophecy of the Messiah. More importantly, I think, David was anointed at Bethlehem and he was anointed again at Hebron, but here the picture seems to be of the Messiah anointed at Zion. At any rate, David as a prophet in one way or another is presenting to us the Messiah who will come and his work.

The psalm has 12 verses, and you will see that it falls together in four very symmetrical stanzas. First of all, verses 1 to 3; then verses 4 to 6; verses 7 to 9; and then verses 10 to 12.

In the first stanza, verses 1 to 3, we have described for us the rebellion, the revolt of the nations against God and against his anointed. And then verses 4 to 6, we have God’s response to that revolt. And as you may guess, God is not nervous. Verses 7 to 9, the third stanza, we have the King’s response. Now here he, the Messiah, quotes the words of God to him, and the Messiah responds and speaks up. And then in verses 10 to 12, we have the fourth stanza, where there are kind of concluding remarks, where David gives counsel to the nations, concerning all of this that we know about God’s King, whom he has installed and established in Zion.

All right, so we have the rebellion or the revolt of the nations in stanza one, God’s response in stanza two, the king’s response in verses seven to nine, and then some counsel, concluding counsel in the last stanza. Let’s work our way through that quickly this morning.

The Rebellion Or The Revolt Of The Nations

First of all, the rebellion or the revolt of the nations. Verses one and two present for us here rebellion of the nations that is global in scope. “Why do the nations rage?” Or, “Why do the Gentiles rage,” is the way it could be translated—the Gentile nations all around. “Why do the nations rage and the people plot in vain?” Notice that little key there at the beginning. They plot in vain. They plot against God, but it’s a foolish plot. It’s never going to work. They 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.” So we have a rebellion that’s global in scope, and it pictures all of humanity organized in rebellion against God. It’s the kings, the rulers of the earth, and the people, he specifies, all of them collectively revolting against God and against his Messiah. And it says they take counsel together. This is an organized coup attempt against God.

Verse two: the object of their rebellion is not only God, but also his anointed. And it’s marked by zeal; they have rage. Verse one: they “set themselves,” the idea in verse two is they have set themselves as an organized, settled, determined kind of rebellion, a unanimous effort against God and against his Christ. And then verse three, we get to the specifics of it. We don’t like his law. “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” We don’t like God’s rule. We don’t like Messiah’s rule. We don’t like the imposition of his law. Let’s throw it off. We don’t want it.

So the objective is a complete overthrow of God’s rule over us. Now this may have some reference to the time of David, as I mentioned, but it also has specific reference to the time of the earliest church in the book of Acts. In fact, why don’t we take the time to look at that, see how they handle it. Look at Acts chapter 4. We’ll be back to Psalm 2, and in fact we’ll be back to Acts chapter 4 again as well, so you might want to keep a marker.

But in Acts chapter 4, we have the disciples who’ve been preaching, these early Christians, preaching in the name of Christ. They’ve healed a lame man. Of course, they’ve got much popularity. Many people are believing. The Jewish authorities are pretty upset about that. They’re nervous. They’re losing their grip on the people. “We’ve got to stop this.” And so they bring the disciples in, and they threaten them. “Hey, you don’t preach anymore in the name of Jesus.” And the disciples say, “Well, you judge that for yourself. But we’ve got to speak in the name of Jesus. That’s the commission that we have. It’s not going to stop.”

And so they send them out with a warning. They return back to their company later in Acts chapter 4 now. And in, oh, I guess it would help if I looked at the right page. When they were released, verse 23: “When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and elders had said to them. When they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God.” So the response is to pray. And here’s what they said: “Sovereign Lord, who made heaven and earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit…” And here they quote Psalm 2: “Why did the Gentiles rage and the people plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed.”

And then notice how they apply it. “For truly, in this city, they were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had destined to take place.”

So here they take Psalm 2 and apply it directly to the events in Jerusalem in the crucifixion of Jesus. The nations plot against God. “We won’t have his rule.” And that’s what happened. The Messiah came. They said, “We won’t have him. We have no king but Caesar. We won’t have this Jesus.” And they crucified him. And now the Christians after the fact are saying, “That’s what David said.” So this has a particular reference to the events in Jerusalem around the crucifixion of Jesus.

It, I think, has reference as well to the final generation of believers when Jesus returns again, and that’ll have its ultimate fulfillment in all of that, and I think we’ll see that a little bit as we go along. But it also has, as I say, a very familiar ring to it, and it is a sort of a summary picture of what is always the case ever since Genesis chapter 3 in the world and its rebellion against God.

And it has a particular contemporary ring to it in our own setting now, or what we call a post-Christian society. We don’t mean by that that Christianity is losing, but what we do mean by that is that in our society, whereas Christianity used to have the upper hand societally, whereas Christianity and its laws and its rules and its standards and values all had a certain respect, all of that now more and more is being rejected and turned away. We won’t have this man rule over us. Let’s break the bands asunder.

And we see the whole world in our society, the whole society in revolt against God in this respect and against Christ. It’s okay if you want to have Islam taught in the public school, but not Christianity. It’s okay if you marry someone of the opposite sex, but don’t think that’s normal. Marrying someone of the same sex is just as normal, even though it’s not. And in one respect after another, more and more, the society becomes in revolt against God. “We won’t have him rule. Let’s break his bands asunder. Cast his cords from us. Let’s be done with all of these restrictions that he has imposed. Who is he to rule over us?” You can talk about Muhammad, you can talk about anybody else in our society, but don’t talk about Jesus. That’s offensive. We won’t have him. We won’t have him.

And so as I say, this has a real contemporary ring to it in our own society. But this is the whole story of humanity post-Genesis 3. This is the war of Satan with all of his seed against the woman and her seed. And here we have it portrayed in a very organized kind of rebellion with a particular zeal and anger against God and against his anointed.

God’s Response

Well then we come to stanza two. Stanza one: the world in revolt against God. “We won’t have him.” Stanza two: we have God’s response. “He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision.”

So we have a picture of God in verse four—verses four through six, actually—but verse four already presented to us as God sitting serenely on his throne. In fact, that’s often in the scriptures the connotations of this little word “sit.” In context, very often it means sitting enthroned, and that’s obviously an idea here. God sitting enthroned in the heavens, laughs. And it’s not just amusement—”Oh these cute little kids are acting up again”—but it’s a mocking amusement. It’s what one commentator called “majestic scorn.”

God looks down and says, “You think you’re going to get by with this? You think you’re going to pull this off? You really think you can oppose me? You really think you can pull off a coup against me?” Majestic scorn. God sitting on his throne, unthreatened, and not just laughing at them because they’re unable to carry out their coup, but laughing at them with derision. “You fools.” God mocking the people.

So God is unthreatened. He’s not nervous. That’s verse four. But verse five begins with an interesting word: “Then.” It’s kind of a dramatic thing, isn’t it? Okay, God’s done laughing now. And when he’s done laughing, he’s going to say something. “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.”

So God now has turned to them and says, “I’ve got something to say now.” And what he has to say, verse 5 says, will strike terror in them. And then in verse six, he tells them what he has to say. “I…”—and here we have the contrast—”you’ve been talking, you’ve been having your revolt, now I’ve got something to say, and here’s what I have to say. I’ve established my king on Zion, on my holy hill.” That is to say, there is nothing you can ever say or do that will ever alter that. My purpose will never, never be frustrated. You may be angry, you may be zealous, you may be organized in it, and it might be a unanimous revolt, but I’ve established my king on my holy hill.

Now again, I want you to look at Acts chapter 4 and see just how deeply they understand this statement. Acts chapter 4 that we’ve read, in verses 25 and 26, they quote the psalm: “Why did the Gentiles rage, the people plot in vain,” and so on. And then they apply it, verse 27: “For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.”

Isn’t that fascinating? They’ve rebelled against God, and here’s the ultimate show of rebellion against God. They gather together against his anointed, and what do they do? Well, you could say they crucify him. Or you could say they did just exactly what God had ordered to be done. And in all of their rebellion against God, they fulfilled His purpose exactly and crucified the Lord of glory and thereby established Him as King and Savior over all. And so the early Christians look at Psalm 2 and they say, “He that sits in the heavens shall laugh.” He’s not just laughing and saying, “Oh cute little kids, you can’t get by with it.” And it’s not just a mocking that you won’t pull it off. But they’re saying, “Yeah, in your rebellion, you’re right on time. This is just what God had ordered you to do to accomplish his saving purpose.” God’s sovereign rule over even the rebellion of those who gather against him. Fascinating statement.

The King’s Response

Well, we have the nations in revolt in stanza one. We have God’s response in stanza two. And now in stanza three, verses seven to nine, we have the response of the Messiah. Now the Messiah’s response here is the words of God to the Messiah. And so the Messiah here is quoting God’s word to him. And here’s what God says:

“I will tell of the decree,” Messiah says, “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.”

So the Messiah now is speaking. He says, “This is what God has said to me. I have begotten you. Today I’ve made you my son, and I’ll give you the nations for your inheritance. You’ll rule over them all, and you’ll crush them with a rod of iron.” So we have Messiah’s response.

Now verse 7: “You are my son. Today I have begotten you.” Some have wanted to find here the doctrine of eternal generation. I think the doctrine of eternal generation of the son and his relationship to the father eternally is a right doctrine. I’m not sure that that’s what’s being taught here though as well. This language—”You are my son. This day I have begotten you”—this is standard ancient Near Eastern terminology for enthronement and for making them a king.

You might remember, very importantly, in 2 Samuel chapter 7, where we have the Davidic covenant that is made, where God comes to David. David, you remember, wanted to build a house for God. God says, “You’re not going to build a house for me. I’m going to build a house for you.” And what he means by that is a dynasty. And this king, God says, “He will be my son, and I will be his father.” And there’s born this sonship theme in that sense regarding the Davidic king. He will be God’s son par excellence.

Now of course Jesus, as we know in the fuller teaching of the scriptures, is the son of God in even a fuller sense. But here the sense is that of enthronement. This is enthronement terminology. “I’ve made you my king.” This is an enthronement proclamation. And that was the ancient Jewish understanding of the psalm as well. And so, for example, you come to John chapter 1, and you remember Philip comes to Nathanael and says, “I found the Messiah.” And “I’m not sure I can believe that,” and back and forth. And finally, Nathanael comes to Jesus, and he hears things that amaze him. And you remember how he responds? “You are the Son of God, the King of Israel.” This is messianic terminology, kingship terminology. He’s recognizing his messiahship as David’s greater son.

Now the idea of “today,” “I’ve made you today my son, today I have begotten you”—this is the work of Christ through which he is made king. This is the work of Christ on his cross and resurrection and ascension. Here he becomes the messianic king par excellence. You remember we’ve looked at this some other times on Sunday evenings with regard to Philippians chapter 2, where Christ has come and has suffered, has died, been obedient all the way unto death so that at the name of Jesus, God has given him a name that is above every name so that at his name every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord. God has given him this name. That is, he’s given him this name of Lord as a result of his successful accomplishing of his saving work in his death, resurrection, and ascension. He has achieved lordship in another sense. He now has the right to rule, the right to judge, and the right to save. Peter talks about that in Acts chapter 2, that God has made him Lord in Christ. This one who was eternally Lord has now been made Lord in Christ as a result of his successful saving work.

And in fact, Jesus himself talks like this. You remember in Matthew chapter 28, the Great Commission. This is post-crucifixion, post-resurrection, just before his ascension now. And Jesus says, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations.” He has established saving, universal saving lordship. And that is the reference here then in Psalm 2:7 as well. He has been enthroned as king as a result of his saving work. God has established him as king.

Now that kingship will finally come to culmination, of course, in the second coming. As I’ve said so many times here, it’s very important to the early church. They would never have talked like we talk today: “Make Jesus Lord.” They would have found that just appalling. You can’t make him Lord. God has already done that. Jesus is Lord, and that’s a very important center of their proclamation. Now whether you have bowed to him and recognize that Lordship is the next question, but you must recognize that Jesus is Lord, and today or tomorrow you will acknowledge that. And that’s what the flavor of this psalm is as well. “I’ve established my king on Zion, my holy hill.” There he is, and nothing will change that.

And then the Messiah comes and says, “God has told me that. This day I have begotten you.” And now we find Jesus saying, “God has given me the nations,” verses 8 and 9. This is what God has promised: “Ask of me and I will give the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. You will break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

“Ask of me and I will give you the nations.” Here the son is claiming his rights. He has come on this saving work. He has successfully accomplished it and now he returns to the father and he says in effect, “Father, you have promised. You have promised that if I do this saving work, you will give me the nations.” And here the Messiah comes to claim what is His. This is Daniel chapter 7 where the Son of Man appears before the Ancient of Days to receive the kingdom. This is Revelation chapter 5 where the people from around the globe say, “You have redeemed us, you are worthy, you are worthy to take the scroll and undo the seals and carry out God’s purposes of salvation and judgment. You are worthy to do that because you have died and through your blood you’ve redeemed us to God out of every nation and kindred and tongue.”

Only here the imagery is more graphic. It’s that of the son having come on this errand of salvation, having successfully accomplished the work, ascends to the father and says, “Now I’ll take what you’ve promised.” And what’s promised? All the nations. And this takes us first of all to this gospel age with the advance of the gospel. Matthew 28 verses 18 and 20: “All authority has been given to me in heaven and earth. Go make disciples of all the nations.” We turn the page, we get to the book of Acts, and we find the advance of the gospel from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the uttermost parts of the earth. Of course that comes to culmination in the book of Revelation. We find the nations coming for healing into the holy city.

So this takes us then to the gospel age, where Christ is inheriting the nations. But clearly there’s more to it than that. When you get to verse 9: “You’ll break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” That’s not just saving work. That’s the work of judgment and condemnation. Enforced rule. That language is picked up in Revelation chapter 2, again in Revelation chapter 12, again in Revelation chapter 19, in reference to Jesus’ return when he comes with a rod of iron to rule and to break and to crush the nations in revolt against him.

And so this psalm, looking ahead as it does to this age of the gospel, looks ahead further than that, to the time when Jesus comes to enforce rule and establish God’s rule—establish His kingdom the world over. And then finally, every knee will bow before Him and acknowledge, every tongue will acknowledge that He is Lord. Just as that rebellion against Messiah in Jerusalem in the first century turned out to be frustrated and to accomplish, in fact, God’s purpose, so every rebellion and that final rebellion will be turned to bring about God’s saving purpose.

Concluding Remarks

Now, if that’s the case—if, stanza one, the world is in revolt against God, and in stanza two, God says, “Give it up; I’ve established my king and nothing will stop it,” and if in stanza three, the Messiah reinforces that: “This is what God has promised me in response to my successful saving work; He’s promised to give me the nations”—if all of that is true, well, stanza four: we’ve got some counsel to give you.

“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.”

God the Creator has established his purpose. The world is in revolt, but he has established his purpose. He’s established his king. This king will rule over all and this king will break every opponent. If that is the case, what utter folly to oppose him. That’s the counsel of the last stanza. Wise up! Be warned! You’ll see actually we have here the command is stated five times over. Different language each time, but all going to the same thing: be wise, be warned, serve the Lord with fear, rejoice with trembling, and then last, kiss the son. This is the counsel. Wise up and do homage to this king.

And so he explains, why should you do homage to this king? Verse 12: “Lest he be angry and you perish in the way. For his wrath is quickly kindled,” pointing ultimately to the day of the Lord when Jesus returns.

I love the language of verse 12: “Kiss the son, kiss the son.” You, I’m sure, have watched enough movies to see some reflection of this, the ancient way of showing homage. There might be some reflection of this actually in Samuel, where when Samuel anointed David as king, he kissed him—a show of homage. But you’ve probably seen it in movies or something where a great potentate of some kind puts out his ring and someone bows and kisses it, showing homage. In a very blasphemous way, we see a reflection of that today with the Pope, where people bow and kiss his ring. Or maybe an archbishop; they bow and kiss his ring. Blasphemous usurpation of authority.

But that’s the imagery here. Kiss the son. Do homage. Bow. Submit to this son. Submit to him and take refuge in him while you still may. And notice that language as well: “Kiss the son lest he be angry with you and you perish in the way. For his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”

Mark it well that this king will either be your savior or your judge. He will save you or he will condemn you. There is no escaping it. And you do homage to this king. He has offered terms of peace. Come to him, submit to his rule, and take refuge in him. Or rebel against him and be crushed. There is no escaping it.

And so this psalm looks ahead to the incarnation of Jesus. It looks ahead to the crucifixion of Jesus, the resurrection, the ascension, his receiving of his lordship, his rights to carry out God’s purpose in salvation and judgment. And it looks ahead to the second coming when he comes to wrap it all up and to bring God’s kingdom to consummation. It is attended with a counsel, a warning: submit to this king and be saved, or refuse him and perish in the way.

That in essence is the message of the whole Bible, isn’t it? That’s why it was written: to tell us that God has a saving purpose. The great given in the Bible is that you’re in revolt against God and you deserve to be condemned. The great message of the Bible is God has sent his King and he alone is qualified to save and to judge. Submit to him and be saved; refuse him and perish in the way. Amen.

Let’s bow together in prayer. Our Father, we thank you for passages like this that so graphically and so clearly present to us the glories of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Lord, may it be in the heart of every one of us to look to him with submission, grateful submission for his saving work. Lord, how we look forward to the great day when he will come and his glory will be recognized by all. How we long to see the world bow before him and how we long to see the whole world acknowledge him as Lord. We then will gratefully and joyfully acknowledge him as our King. Lord, hasten that day, we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

We need, excuse me, we need to take the offering. Why don’t we do that? Men, why don’t you come for the offering now and then we’ll, as soon as they get started, we can sing while they’re taking the collection. This is for Pastor Greg. We want, and by the way, this is, I think, still secret from Greg, so let’s try to keep that quiet, but we encourage you to give generously for that. All right, then we’ll sing as well. Number 217 in your Trinity Hymnals. Number 217. It might be easier for you to remain seated as you pass the plates. But, “Look, Ye Saints, the Sight Is Glorious.” “Look, Ye Saints, the Sight Is Glorious.” We are the