Well, it is wonderful to see you all, dear friends, and a happy 2020 to you all. I do pray that the new year has been a blessing to you, all four or five days of it thus far, because if it hasn't been, then this is going to be a real long year. I also do pray that this will be a year filled with the Lord's blessings and joys upon all of you as we celebrate the goodness, the grace that is bestowed upon us in our Lord Jesus Christ. So with that, let us turn to the Lord in a word of prayer. Ask for him to bless us this night as we meditate upon his word. Let's pray together. Our gracious God and heavenly Father, we come before you this evening and we thank you, Lord, for Jesus Christ. We thank you, Lord, for the blessings that we have in Christ, the new life of eternity, the forgiveness of our sins, that we have now victory in our great sovereign. As we reflect on those truths this evening, we pray that you will renew our hearts, bless us once again of who we are in Christ and the blessings that you have given to us in him. Hear us, dear Lord, for we pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. The word of the Lord this evening comes from Psalm 2. Several weeks ago, I had the opportunity to share with you all a word from Psalm 1. I'm sure all of you remember every point that I made that evening, just like my students in the seminary. Actually, that's a really discouraging thought. Let's not go there. The plan that was actually for me to come back the following week, and the following week I wanted to share just the obvious next text that is related to Psalm 1, which is, of course, Psalm 2. But as the Lord's plans had it, I couldn't be with you that evening, and so I thought, if I'm gonna be here tonight, I'm going to preach for you a word from Psalm 2. And so that is the text for this evening. Hear now the reading of God's word, Psalm 2, verses 1 through 12. 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, Ask 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 the potter's vessel. Now therefore, O kings, be wise. Be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son lest he be angry and you perish in the way for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. Amen. Folks, we really live in a world that is hostile to our Christian values. When we think of the scriptural teachings on things like marriage, religion, gender, it seems pretty clear that we are living in a world that is teaching very contrary to what the scripture is real clearly teaching on these subjects. At times it might be difficult to see what is obviously true in terms of the conflict that we have with this world. There are certain virtues that we hail in our days that we can be agreed upon with our secular society on things to condemn, regardless of our religious convictions. For example, we will all be agreed to oppose racism. No one is going to say that domestic violence is okay. Bullying is always bad. However, when we consider God himself, when we think of Jesus as our sovereign ruler, that is when we realize just how radically different we are with the world in which we live, and thus the hostility. At this point, either we acknowledge God as our true king and we submit to his authority, Or, we see ourselves as the true authority, the true rulers of our lives, and thus reject the Lord and His kingship over us. We either worship the one true God, or we ultimately really worship ourselves. Psalm 2 is a psalm that ultimately recognizes that the Lord is the true King of Israel. Not just Israel, but really all of creation. not any earthly king, but it is God who is the true king over everything that we see. Now, to a certain degree, Psalm 2 kind of has to be read in light of Psalm 1. Psalm 1, Psalm 2 are really sort of twin Psalms that really need to be read together that introduces the book of Psalms. Whereas Psalm 1 introduces us to a blessed man, one who meditates upon the law of the Lord daily and is blessed, So Psalm 2 tells us that this blessed man is actually a royal man. He is a king. That is, the messianic king in the line of David. In that sense, once we enter into the book of Psalms and get past Psalm 1, we are introduced in many ways to the primary theme of the book of Psalms here in Psalm 2, the Lord is king. But the way that in fact he is going to exercise his dominion and his rule is going to be through his earthly messianic son. So the main message of Psalm 2 here that I'd like to share with you tonight is this, that God, the true king of Israel, the true king of creation, provides victory to his messianic king, the king that is in the line of David, over all of his enemies, and establishes his universal kingdom over all creation. The application that I hope that we'll gain from Psalm 2 is really to acknowledge that the Lord is in fact the true King, to submit to Him, and to find that we also have victory by faith in the true Son of God, that is Jesus Christ. Now there are four points here in Psalm 2 that I'd like for us to reflect on this evening. First is the plan of the nations in verses 1 through 3. And what you'll see is that this is not a very good plan. The second thing is to see the Lord's response to the nations in verses 4 through 6. Then to see this earthly king, his response in verses seven through nine, and then the application for the nations in verses 10 through 12. It's actually a very nicely ordered and flowing psalm in terms of the overall message. The plan of the nations, the Lord's response to the nations, the king's response, and then the application that is to be given to the nations. First, the plan to the nations in verses one through three. The psalm here opens with a question asked by the psalmist of why. Why do the nations rage? He asks this sort of in a sense of futility, kind of frustrated, because after all, in light of who God is, in light of everything that he has done, it makes no sense for the nations to rebel against him, but that's exactly what they are doing. There are actually three developments or movements that you see here in these first opening verses. First, you see a movement from rage to plotting amongst the nations. This word rage really has a sense of sort of a kinetic, frenetic energy that the nations are rallying together against the Lord. It seems aggressive because it is. But it's actually not just physical, but it's actually somewhat verbal. Because, in fact, it is corresponding with this word plotting. Notice what it says there in verse 1. Why do the nations rage? And why do the peoples plot in vain? Notice how the word rage and the word plotting are kind of mirroring each other. It's sort of a poetic parallelism. This word plot is actually the Hebrew word haggah. This actually occurs in Psalm 1 as well. It is a word that actually seems to refer to something more auditory. It is used in reference to the groaning sound of lions as they are about to catch their prey. It is a word that is used for the cooing sound of doves. It's also used in the sense of the rumbling sound of thunder. It's again the same word that you see in Psalm 1 for the blessed man who meditates upon the law of the Lord. If you recall in Psalm 1 when it says that the blessed man is the one who meditates upon the law of the Lord, it's this word ha-gah. So this word here, when it says to meditate upon the law of God, it's probably talking about something very verbal. The man who is sort of uttering the words of the Word of God everywhere that he goes. He is sort of muttering it out loud to say it to himself on a regular basis. That is a blessed man. That's in contrary here to the wicked, to the nations here in Psalm 2, because here the nations are not muttering or uttering the Word of God to themselves. What they are doing is haggaing, you could say, against the Lord. Where the blessed man haggaz, that is, meditates, utters the word of God, the law of God to himself on a regular basis, the nations here utters against the Lord. They are speaking against the Lord, verbally opposing the Lord. In other words, the nations, the peoples, are doing the complete opposite of Psalm 1. They are not meditating on the law of the Lord, they are rather speaking against the Lord himself in rebellion. And this, folks, is all in vain. Why do the nations do this? Why do the peoples plot in vain? Because, in fact, God is God. It makes no sense, but in fact, that's exactly what they are doing. The second movement that you see in this opening stanza of the psalm is a movement from the nations to the peoples. They're in verse one again. Why do the nations rage? Why do the peoples plot in vain? You see, when you think of nations, you probably are thinking like I would of more of You know, social entities. It really is hard to kind of see a social entity and personify it as rebelling, raging, speaking against the Lord. In one sense, we are asked to remember that we are talking about nations, but not to think of it in terms of a socio-political concept, because again, this is in parallelism with the word peoples. You see, it's not just nations, it's the people that make up those nations. It's the actual flesh and blood that makes up the citizenship of these peoples. It's not just going to be nations, but peoples that are rebelling against the Lord. That is what you're seeing here, nations that lead to peoples. A third movement that you see in this opening stanza, again, is from nations and peoples, now to kings and rulers. Notice the shift in the development there from verse one to verse two. Why do the nations and the peoples plot and rage in vain? And then in verse two, notice the shift in the direction of the psalmist. He is now focusing not on the peoples, but he is now focusing on the leaders, the kings of the earth, the rulers. Again, as leadership goes, so go the people. As the leaders lead the people and they follow, so the people follow in the same exact footsteps. In one sense, you could say that Psalm 2's primary audience really are these earthly nations and kings, the leaders of these peoples and nations and kings. These rulers are doing two different things here against the Lord. In the first part of verse 2, it says that they are setting themselves up. This word of setting themselves up is really talking about taking a strategic military position. They are preparing themselves for war, and they are taking positions in their war. The second part of verse 2 says that they are not only taking up a military position strategically, tactically, but they are taking counsel together. Notice it's not just one earthly king that is standing against the Lord, it is a whole bunch of them who are setting aside whatever struggles and issues they may have had against one another and now forming this sort of unholy alliance. They are setting aside their differences, they are rallying together, and they are opposing the Lord and his anointed one. in one, organized rebellion against the Lord. Against who? It's against the Lord, it says, and his anointed one. The Hebrew word here for anointed is the word Mashiach. This is where we get our word Messiah. Another way of saying this, I guess that might make it a little bit more clear, They are opposing the Lord God and His Messiah. That is who they are opposing. And what they are saying, you see there in verse 3. This is what the nations are saying. Let us burst their bonds apart. Notice the nations here do not want to live under the authority of God. They are rebelling against him. Let us cast away their courts from us. They want to a certain degree establish their own kingship, their own authority, and not live in humility, not live under the lordship of God himself. Overall then here in verses one through three, the picture that you have is a world in rebellion. from the leadership to the very individual citizens that are under their rule, they are all in unity against the Lord. So how does the Lord respond to this? This you find then in verses four through six, the Lord's response to the nations. First, in verse four, notice how the psalmist identifies the Lord. It identifies him as he who sits on the heavens. It immediately wants you to get a sense of God enthroned in his divine throne room. He is sitting as the sovereign. He is sitting as the king. This is who the nations are opposing. He is the Lord. He is the Lord God. He is the Lord God who is the king over all of creation. Even the title Lord that you see in the second part of verse 4, the Lord, holds him in derision is sort of implicit in that idea of the kingship of God, but he already tells you that right there at the very beginning of verse four. This is who God is. He is enthroned. He is the king. And what is he doing? It says that he laughs. I mean, to a certain degree, the nations can perhaps are taking themselves rather seriously, but before the almighty power of our sovereign God, See, all God can do is laugh. laugh at the authority of men to think that they can dare challenge him. The military alliance of the world would be formidable. It would be dominant in the context of the world. But against the Lord, he can do nothing but laugh in amusement. Not only does he laugh in amusement in terms of the arrogance of man and the audacity of man, he is definitely irritated, as you see in verse five. He speaks to them in his wrath. and terrifies them in his fury. This king, and what does he do then in light of the wickedness of these nations? The Lord says in verse six that he will establish his own king. What is the Lord going to do in light of the rebellion of the world around him? He is going to establish his own Messiah. And this Messiah, this earthly king of the Lord, it will be the instrument upon which the Lord will establish his righteous rule and exercise his dominion and authority over against these nations. So what about this earthly king? How does he respond to the Lord? How does he respond to the nations? You see this then in verses seven to nine, where in verses four to six, we really were in the eternal throne room of God, where God is enthroned as a great creator king. Here in verses seven to nine, we are now taken into earth. And now you are dealing with the thoughts of this earthly ruler, who has been established as king by the Lord himself. And what is it that he is reflecting on here in verse 7? He identifies himself as one who is a son of God. I will tell of the decree the Lord said to me, you are my son. Today, I have begotten you. This is an extraordinary idea where an earthly son of David is being made now as a representative king over Israel, really over all of the earth, and in so doing, he has now been made a son of God. And in that sense, he has now been sort of reborn as now becoming a king, which is helpful to remember that that title, Son of God, that is so prevalent, not just in the Old Testament, but definitely in the New Testament as well, you see, is very much a term of royalty. It is a messianic designation that refers to kingship. In verses eight to nine, notice what the Lord offers this earthly son, this earthly Messiah that he has now just established. He says to this earthly son, to ask of me, again, to be willing to make a bold request, and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession." Notice how the request there is so tightly knit together. Here is the boldness that you can make of your request, because this is my plan for you all along. Ask of me for the nations as your heritage, because that's exactly what I'm going to do, is to give the nations to you. Notice the next part of that, the ends of the earth, your possession. It's not just the request that is significant, but the extent of what God is encouraging the Son here to ask of him, to ask of him the nations, even to the ends of the earth, all of creation. This is what you can ask of me. You are going to be king, not over just some small little area of ancient Canaan, you're going to be king over all of the earth. Verse nine, you shall break them, that is these rebellious nations with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. This earthly messianic son, this messianic king of the Lord is going to be the way that God is going to now judge these nations. This messianic son using this iron rod is going to now crush and devastate and judge these rebellious nations against them. And so in light of this, After all, in light of the rebellious plan of the nations of verses 1-3, in light of the response of the Lord in verses 4-6 to establish his son, his messianic son, in light of this king in verses 7-9 being given the earth, to the ends of the earth, what is the application that Psalm 2 is encouraging here? It tells us here in verses 10 and following, Notice how the psalmist here is addressing the secular earthly rebellious kings. Be wise. Be warned, O rulers of the earth. The words here for to be wise, to be warned, are actually wisdom words, words that you actually see very prevalent in the book of Psalms. It is encouraging these earthly rulers to practice wisdom. In light of who God is, in his sovereignty, in his rule, be wise and practice wise things. How can you do that? What will that look like? One way, verse 11, serve the Lord. This is always a difficult thing for people, for earthly leaders in positions of leadership, who have been given to a certain degree of endowed authority. It is a very difficult thing to surrender that, because in fact, we don't want to submit, we want to exercise our authority. But biblical kingship is to acknowledge that our rule, our authority comes from God himself, who is the true sovereign, who is the true king. Not only does it tell us to serve the Lord, it says to rejoice with trembling, rejoice in fear. Serving the Lord is not a burden. Being humble before God is not a struggle. It is something that we embrace with joy, and so it calls us here to do so with joy, to rejoice in our humility before God, but to also do so trembling, since we know who it is that we serve. It is a king. but it is also our God, our creator God, that is whom we serve. Therefore, feel fearful reverence, or rejoicing and trembling maintains that creator-creature distinction. God is king, but our God is God, and we are always going to be creatures. And then finally, it tells us to kiss the sun, the messianic sun. You cannot serve God and reject his Messiah. You can only serve God by also embracing his Messiah, honoring him with respect and with dignity, to embrace him, to kiss him in joy and reverence. Overall, dear friends, the message of Psalm 2 is clear. The Lord God reigns. The Lord is the one who sits in the heavens. He is ruling, judging the whole earth, including these rebellious earthly kings. There is no authority that is above him because in fact he is God and all peoples are called to submit to him, even the most powerful of earthly rulers. Thus the Lord, he reigns. But the Lord God reigns through his messianic son. It isn't just the Lord reigning in some sort of abstract sense in a very concrete, in a real flesh and blood way. The way that he is going to establish his rule is going to be through this messianic son. The Lord installs his anointed, his king, his Messiah in Zion. He encourages this Messiah to be bold in his request of God, to ask of the nations as far as to the ends of the earth. Let it be the whole earth that you ask for because that is what God wants to give to him. All of the earth. This is going to be the extent of this Messiah's rule, all of creation. So, Psalm 2 is about the Lord reigning through this earthly king. In the context, again, of the Old Testament, these messianic kings, of course, are going to be the sons of David. For, in fact, it is through David, the promise that is given through David, that he and his sons would rule over all of the earth. For this reason, Psalm 2 has been generally recognized as a coronation psalm, that whenever a son of David was coronated or installed as a king, in fact, Psalm 2 was part of the liturgy that was probably used in that coronation service, and you could almost see and envision the way that Psalm 2 would have worked there, that you would have had a prophet or a priest Perhaps say the words in verse 7, I tell of you, the Lord has said to me, you are my son, today I have begotten you. And the way that in verses 8 and 9, this is spoken then by the coronated king in response to the words of the prophet or priest there in verse 7. But we really can't stop there. We really have to go further. The Lord God reigns and he does so through his messianic son, that is true. But the Lord God reigns truly through his great messianic son. his true messianic son, and that is in the person of Jesus Christ. When we read the New Testament, we see that the New Testament frequently alludes to Psalm 2 on a regular basis, all throughout the New Testament, in more places than I can point out to you here this evening. But a few prominent places where it is actually quoted For example, in the passage that we read this evening in the Book of Acts, chapter 4, verses 24-25, that section there, and following, where it says, when they heard this, they lifted their voices together to God and said, Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our David father, your servant said, by the Holy Spirit, And then he quotes from Psalm 2 verse 1, why did the Gentiles rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed. It goes on to say there in Acts 4 in verse 27, for truly in this city, that is the city of Jerusalem, there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod, Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel. Notice what the book of Acts is doing there, folks. It is talking about this unholy alliance of nations and the way that they are setting aside their private agendas to rally their forces together in a battle against the Lord, the way that Psalm 2 is describing and is saying that this has been fulfilled in Christ. Because this is exactly what happened to Jesus. Herod, with whatever political agendas he had, was set aside. Pontius Pilate, whatever agendas that he may have had that is contrary to Herod, he sets aside. The Gentiles, whoever these Gentiles that the text might be referring to, they set aside their agendas. The Jews set aside whatever issues they had, and all of these different people groups come together for one rallying force because they have one common enemy, and that is Jesus Christ himself. And then to set aside their issues to gather together in this one alliance, this one conglomeration, so to speak, of the ungodly to stand before and against the Lord and his anointed. And you see there in Jesus Christ the fulfillment here of Psalm 2 in verse 1. The conspiracy then against the Lord and against his anointed though is not limited just here to the first coming of Christ. Because, in fact, what we read later is that the evil one, Satan himself, when he is released, he will deceive the nations, it says, to rally to them together for one last battle. He will deceive them to rally this conspiracy one last time, to gather them for one last battle and lead them to the mountain of God where they will oppose the Lord and His anointed one last time. only to be defeated, because in fact you cannot defeat the Lord. And in that final destruction against Satan and against his evil forces and the evil nations that dare to oppose our God, they are defeated and ushers in then the eternal kingdom of God in triumph and in victory. Not only do we see Psalm 2 quoted there in Acts chapter 4, you see it again cited and quoted in Acts chapter 13 in verse 33, where it says, and we bring you the good news that what God promised to our fathers, this he has fulfilled to us, their children, by raising Jesus. It is talking about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, As also it is written in the second Psalm, you are my son, today I have begotten you. In an extraordinary way here, it is talking about the birthing language here in Psalm 2, not as the doctrine of regeneration as we might conceive of it, but it seems to be seeing that as the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In other words, when Jesus is raised from the dead, he is now made son of God in a way that he was not son of God before. He is now son of God in victory. He is now son of God in triumph, in terms of his victory over sin and death. But finally, not only does the New Testament quote this in fulfillment of Christ, it does something even more extraordinary. Well, I don't know, more extraordinary, but extraordinary Also, Revelation chapter 2 in verse 27, the words of the Lord Jesus to the church of Thyatira as he is condemning the church for their following of the wicked ways of the harlot Jezebel and the false blasphemous teachings of this cultic group. It says though in verse 26 in Revelation chapter 2, the one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, that is the believers who stands true to the Lord and to the word of God, to him I will give authority over the nations and Quoting Psalm 2 verse 9, he will rule them with an iron rod as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my father. Now folks, I don't know if you got this, but when Revelation 2 here is citing from Psalm 2, it isn't applying it in fulfillment in Christ. It is talking about the church, those who are going to be faithful, who are going to hold to the word and not succumb to the blasphemous teachings of this false teacher. In other words, you could say Psalm 2 is being applied here in the book of Revelation to us. For that reason, Psalm 2 is not just about an earthly messianic son of David of the Old Testament. It is not just talking about Jesus Christ. Psalm 2 is also talking about us in our union with Christ. We are the anointed servant of Psalm 2 in our union with Christ. We are the sons of God, the children of God, if you want to put it that way, that Psalm 2 speaks of by faith in Jesus Christ. Thus, the victory that the Lord guarantees for his anointed one in Psalm 2 is Jesus's victory, but by faith, it is also our victory. And this is an encouraging thought. especially as we start off 2020 in a hostile world, a world that is hostile to all gospel, as we live in this world where our foes are not flesh and blood, but powers and principalities of this fallen world. Praise God that we can begin this year with such hope. Praise God for the victory of the anointed Son of God, Jesus Christ. Praise God for Psalm 2. Let's bow in a word of prayer together. Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, we thank you for Jesus Christ. We thank you for Jesus, who is the true Son of God. To Him, Lord, has been given all of the nations. To Him, Lord, has been given the ends of the earth. And we rejoice, O Lord, to know that His rule is cosmic, it is global, it is universal. And though, Lord, there are many now within this world that will not succumb to His authority, that will not bow the knee before Him, that dare, O Lord, to challenge Him and blaspheme His name, Lord, we know a time will come where that will not continue, where the name of Jesus Christ will be exalted to the highest place. We long for that time. We pray that it'll come soon. And until it does, Lord, help us to live humbly. Help us to live wisely in submission to him who is our great king, to our sovereign, and to live, Lord, knowing that the victory, the war that we are called to battle in, is a battle, Lord, that has been already won in Jesus Christ. Victory is ours by faith in Jesus Christ. Thank you, dear Lord, for these truths. Thank you for your word. Thank you, Lord, for your son. Hear our prayers, dear Lord, and comfort our hearts as we start this new year together. Hear our prayers, dear Lord, for we pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.