himself. God will not be upstaged. So the psalmist asked this question. I think it's a rhetorical. Verse 2, the kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord. against his anointed saying let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us he who sits in the heavens laughs the Lord scoffs at them then he will speak to them in his anger and terrify them in his fury saying but as for me I I've installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain. I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord. He said to me, you are my son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will surely give the nations as your inheritance and the very ends of the earth as your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall shatter them like earthenware. Now therefore, O kings, show discernment. take warning O judges of the earth. Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the son that he not become angry and you perish in a way for his wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in him. So I just think this, especially the first part of the Psalm is highly descriptive of the world in which we live. The peoples, the rulers, taking counsel together, devising vain things, conspiring together, what is the next step? What is the next move? And all of this is just earthly wisdom. It's just human wisdom. And then human wisdom that will rely on human strength to accomplish whatever their ends are. That's what goes on. I think it goes on 24-7. I think there's an energy there. It's not of the Lord. It's a malevolent force. Notice that these rulers, these kings of the earth, these peoples, verses two and then back to one, these nations are taking counsel. They're against the Lord. Ultimately, they're against the Lord. They're against His anointed. That means they're against God the Father and they're against Jesus. Well how do we know that? Well because they're against the truth of God. They're against God's word. I mean you could, we could probably list examples of of how this manifests, but something as simple as the sex of a child. What is our world saying about that? What did God say about that? Something that seems so simple, so commonsensical. Yet the world perverts it and twists it. And at the end of the day, and at the beginning of the day, try to use their earthly wisdom to entice or to lead children themselves to think in new ways or in a new way of understanding who they are. And this is against God and it's devious and it's demonic. It is just against God. It's a perversion of the highest order. But that's just one thing. That's enough to bring a burden. But that is who they're pitted against. They're pitted against the Lord. They're pitted against God's truth. They're against Jesus. And one thing that I've noticed is sometimes they even like to quote God's word or try to quote God's scripture. And what they do with this is they twist it. They don't even understand what they're quoting. Somebody high in government The other day was, I think they quoted one of the Beatitudes or one of the parables or something. It was like, you don't even know, what are you, a preacher? What are you doing? It just sounded so stupid to hear them try to quote this but take it completely out of context just to fit their story or their narrative. So just because they're quoting a verse doesn't really mean a whole lot. And so here's what they are saying. So they're against the Lord, against his anointed, and here's what they say. Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us. This is one way of saying we want to tear God's kingdom down. That's what they want to do. They want to tear God's kingdom down. So what is God's response? Does God see any of this? Does he notice? Well, we read on. He who sits in the heavens, that's where God is. What's he doing? Is he nervous? Is he wringing his hands? Is he wiping his brow because he's sweating bullets? No, he laughs. He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord scoffs at them. Then he will speak to them in his anger and terrify them in his fury, saying, but as for me, I have installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain. And period. Jesus is king. He's the everlasting king of the everlasting kingdom of God. of which you and I are a part because of the blood of Jesus and the forgiveness he offers by his grace I will surely tell of the Lord or of the decree of the Lord he said to me and this is he says you are my son today I have begotten you so this is his king that he's installed is his very son ask of me and I will surely give the nations as your inheritance of the very ends of the earth as your possessions So, you know, it's a new heaven and a new earth that we will one day inherit. But it will not go to the kings of the earth. It will not go to the rulers of this world. He says, you shall break them with a rod of iron and shatter them like earthenware. And then, verses 10 through 12, Apparently God has a delay in bringing things to a consummation and the reason for that delay is that the kings would show discernment. He says, now therefore, O kings, show discernment. Take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son. don't be against the sun worship the sun do homage to the sun that he not become angry and you perish in the way for his wrath may soon be kindled and how blessed are all who take refuge in him so here and it's a good way to go into the next next song but to take refuge in the Lord You know we're citizens of an everlasting kingdom. We're strangers passing through this world. Take refuge in the Lord. The Lord is our refuge. He is our strength. And those who take refuge in him are what? They are blessed. And that goes beyond mere happiness. That is a true eternal contentment and blessing that the world, the worldly world knows nothing of. So the next psalm, and this would be the most quoted psalm in the New Testament, would be Psalm 110. And this psalm is really helpful because it is a purely prophetic psalm. I think it's the easiest and best way to understand this Psalm is that it is future. So we've looked at Psalm 2 which characterizes the world in which we live and we do get a glimpse of God and his attitude toward the things going on in the world and that God is transcendent over all the things that are going on. This psalm tells us the Lord's plan for the future. This is a psalm of David. The Lord says to my Lord, so Lord, we have Lord twice, but we have two different beings here. The first Lord is Yahweh. The second Lord means my master. So two different, the Lord says to my Lord, this is David, the psalmist talking. So Yahweh says to my master, who we would take to be Jesus, that will unfold for us here in verse one. He says, what? Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. The Lord will stretch forth your strong scepter from Zion saying rule in the midst of your enemies your people will volunteer freely in the day of your power In holy array from the womb of the dawn your youth are to you as the dew. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. The Lord is at your right hand. He will shatter kings in the day of his wrath. He will judge among the nations. He will fill them with corpses. He will shatter the chief men over a broad country. He will drink from the brook by the wayside. Therefore, he will lift up his head. So in verse one, we see the exaltation of Jesus. So the exaltation of Jesus occurs right after his ascension from the Mount of Olives to the right hand of the Father. Right there it is, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. So there's the exaltation of Jesus. And what is so beautiful about this Psalm is that we see Jesus as a valiant warrior. And he's going to tread on his enemies. The Lord will, and this is future, the Lord will stretch forth your strong scepter from Zion. And here's what he's going to say, he's going to say rule in the midst of your enemies. And verse 3 is beautiful. He says your people will volunteer freely in the day of your power. And the picture here is yes we see Jesus as the valiant warrior and he's treading on his enemies. He is trampling his enemies but he's not doing this by himself. He has all of the saved of earth with him. There it is, your people. Who are his people? Well, they're the saved of earth. They're the people of God. And what are they doing? They're with him. They will volunteer freely in the day of his power. What's the day of his power? The day of this consummation. The day of this great victory over his enemies. He says, in holy array from the womb of the dawn, your youth are to you as the dew. And then this statement in verse four is just, it's flabbergasting. The Lord has sworn. Now anytime the Lord swears, I mean, it's, he's doubling down. I mean, he doesn't have to double down, because he says it, it is. But when he swears, he's doubling down. And most of the time when he swears, who's he swearing by? So there's no wiggle room here. There's no negotiation. There's no, well, this is 90% chance this is gonna happen. No, this is done. I mean it's like a, there's something called the prophetic present which is future but it's so certain that they talk about it like it is. It's that certain. When the Lord swears by himself it's that certain. Says he's sworn and he will not change his mind. And what does he say? And this is what's interesting. This valiant warrior that treads on his enemies is also a priest. And if you know anything or remember anything from your study of the Old Testament, for the children of Israel, you had kings, usually there was one at a time, but you also had a line of priests, like from the Aaronic priesthood or the Levitical priesthood, and there was a line of priests. But the king did not usurp priestly functions. Saul tried that one time. It didn't work out too well. So they were always separate. You always had your priests over here, your king over here. That's the way it works. But here in Jesus, we have both. He is king of kings and Lord of lords. And he is a valiant warrior, and he will tread on the heads his enemies. He will trample them down and at the same time he's a priest meaning he represents God's people to the Father. Not only does he represent us to the Father, but he prays for us. As a priest would pray for the people, Jesus prays for you and I. Hebrews 7 verse 25, he what? He lives to make intercession for his people. And I've always taken great comfort and encouragement in that. Hey listen, if Jesus is praying for you, I mean, I don't know how often I get my prayers answered, but I know this, Jesus, the great high priest, gets his prayers answered. And he's praying for you. So he says, the Lord is sworn, he will not change his mind about this. You, the you there is Jesus, are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. And there we have it in that one name, Melchizedek, Melech, King, Zedek, Priest. He is the King, Priest. And if you'll remember Melchizedek did not have any lineage. He just, remember that masked man over in Genesis 14? He just appears out of nowhere and he's offering bread and wine and he's receiving an offering from Abraham and that's Melchizedek. Jesus, Melchizedek is a type of Jesus. The king priest. And look at this, the Lord is at your right hand. He is at your right hand. That's a place, the right hand of the Father is a place of authority. It is a place of power and strength. The Lord is at your right hand and what's He going to do? He's going to shatter kings in the day of His wrath. He's going to judge among the nations. He will fill them with corpses. He will shatter the chief men over a broad country. He will drink, and this is a beautiful picture, he's gonna get, when the job's done, when the victory's won, when the battle's over, you know what he's gonna do? Bible tells us right here in verse seven, he, that is Jesus, our king priest, will drink from the brook by the wayside. Therefore, he will lift up his head. we give him praise and it's our times about gone so I will just commit Psalm 103 to you that is who we are that is where we live in the midst of this we're between two worlds we've got this worldly world and we've got this future kingdom we're looking forward to and here we are So what are we going to do? Well, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits. Who does what? He forgives all our sin. He heals all of our diseases. He redeems our life from the pit. He crowns us with loving kindness and compassion. He satisfies our years with good things so that our youth is renewed like the eagle and we have every reason to take refuge in him and to bring him blessing and praise and thanksgiving all the days of our life because we know one day we will reign with him our eternal king in the everlasting kingdom father in heaven we thank you for who you are and what you do and we thank you for your future plan for us We thank you that the victory is won. We thank you that the enemy is defeated. And one day that will be consummated. It will come true before our very eyes because you will make it happen. So thank you for that encouragement. And in the meantime, help us to have the wisdom to take refuge in Jesus, our Savior and Lord. and we pray in his name, amen, amen.