Psalm 2 in the Word of God. And last week in Psalm 1, we were confronted as individuals, how will we respond to the law of God? Which way will you take? Many scholars actually recognize a connection between Psalms 1 and 2, and there's some interesting reasons and evidence for that, that these were at one time indeed one combined psalm. That's interesting. We won't explore all that, but I do mention it because that should advise us, brothers and sisters, that just as we heard last week from God's Word, there are two ways of life. We should understand then from this morning's text that those two ways of life, the way of the wise, the way of the word, and the way of the wicked, and the way of destruction, are really two ways, different ways, of responding to God's Christ. Responding to the Messiah, as we will see. So if you're able, I'd ask you to stand with me together for the reading of God's word. And let's read our text, Psalm chapter two. There we read. Why are the nations in an uproar, and the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and 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 have 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 at the very ends of the earth for 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 the way. For his wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in him. That's the reading of God's word. You may be seated. Let's ask our Lord to guide us and help us in prayer. Our Father, the Almighty God, our Creator, our Sovereign Lord, we acknowledge you this morning and we acknowledge your word is law. Your word is good. Your word is life to all who follow it. And while we live in a world that loathes your word and denies your rule, yet we desire to hear from your law this morning. And we desire to be changed by it. We ask that you would give us ears to hear your words to us and hearts to respond in obedience to what you have to say. We ask that you would leave no soul untouched, that you would leave none of us the same, but that you would draw us close to yourself by drawing us to better know and love and serve our Lord and King that you sent your Son. And it's in His name we ask, Jesus' name. Amen. Well, just a couple of months ago, in the United Kingdom, they celebrated the coronation of Charles III. Charles III and Camilla were the first of a British monarch in the third millennium actually to be coronated, the 40th coronation since the first that was held at Westminster Abbey, going all the way back, the very first, to William the Conqueror in 1066. Now for us Americans, We booted our king, what, about 250 years ago? A lot of that coronation stuff is just pomp and circumstance, and many of us could care less. In fact, many Americans are very, just probably didn't know at all what's going on over in the United Kingdom. We don't really care. But at the same time, if you do look it up, if you were able to watch or even go back and watch some of this incredible ceremony of this great grand coronation of this king, It was really quite impressive in some ways. And I must say, what I loved most about the British coronation, as with any one of them, is the music. I love the music. I took a minor in French horn in college, and as such, I had the opportunity to play in Many different symphonies, we did many different chorales, ensembles, and things like that. But I have to say, probably the most moving of any piece I ever performed in was this full orchestra choir rendition of I Was Glad. That is this British coronation anthem, the same that they did again a couple months ago. And it's really based on Psalm 122 in your Bible. And it's beautiful. It's amazing. It's a coronation anthem. And the psalm before us in Psalm chapter 2 is in the minds of most scholars a coronation anthem. It is a song sung at the coronation of a king. Some scholars believe this psalm was written to be sung on occasion of a newly anointed king. And that it would be sung again and again as Israel received a new king on the throne from time to time. But whatever the case, this psalm really wasn't about, it wasn't written about David. It wasn't written about any of David's descendants except that descendant who would be his everlasting descendant. That descendant of all descendants, the greater son of David who is called the Messiah. We know that the early Christians knew this psalm. They attributed it to David. And we know that Psalm 2 was of immense importance to early Christians because it is cited or quoted, alluded to at least 18 times. That is more than any other single psalm in the Bible. And here's the reason for that. The Christians understood this psalm is plainly messianic. And as messianic, it is fulfilled in Jesus, our Messiah, Jesus, whom we believe is the Christ. Now, I know, again, Americans could care less about the coronation of some British monarch like Charles III. That's because he's not our king. But you see, why you should be interested in this coronation anthem is the fact that this is your king, whether you will have him or not. Whoever you are, God would want you to know that this king he is sending is a king he's sending to reign over you. And the central point of this psalm really comes down to the final strophe, that is the final poetic paragraph, where the psalmist directly addresses us to show discernment and to Take warning, verse 10, and he warns us to worship the Lord with reverence, verse 11, and ultimately do homage to the Son. Do homage. Swear fealty. You give your loyalty to this King. That's the central thrust of this psalm. And maybe you're interested in exploring all the parallels between Jesus and the Messiah as presented here in Psalm 2. I certainly am as well. And I'd invite you perhaps to go back to our website and you can listen to an Advent study we did in December of 21. We did four weeks on the coming King and we spent some time examining several parallels between Jesus Christ and this Messiah as presented in Psalm 2. Well today for sake of time we're really gonna focus more on what the coming reign of this Christ. What the coming reign of Christ has to do with us directly? What does it have to do with our world? That's where we're gonna be looking at and the Psalm ultimately challenges us as the readers and the nations collectively to submit to Christ's rule before it's too late. Now's the time. Now's the time to submit to Christ's rule before it's too late. Psalm 2, before us, neatly divides. You probably already see that in your Bible, perhaps, with how the paragraphs are broken up. It divides into four strophes, four paragraphs of three verses each, and each strophe represents a different speaker. It's going to advance more description of this coming reign of Christ and why we must submit to his rules. So notice the first, in the very first strophe, we see the world's rebellion. Verses 1 through 3 is really the world's rebellion. And please notice, the peoples and rulers of this world are portrayed as taking, in these verses, three actions against the Lord and against his anointed. Verse 1, why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing? The first thing they're doing here is they are devising a vain thing. They are devising hatred against a rival king. It's like the image here is that of these nations of the world and all their rulers being stirred into a frenzy, kind of like when you stir up an angry hive of wasps. And the psalmist wants us to know why. Why? What's all the uproar about? What's all the excitement? What's your problem? Well, given the context, it's the message that another king has come. Another king will come, and that king is the king of kings. This king is the one who's laying claim to all, and his rival claim then to the world is a threat to anyone's throne, and so the psalm opens up with the kings of the earth restless and raging because they don't want to give place to this rival. We know this all began when it was first noised abroad that this king had been born on the earth, and Herod, so-called the Great, Herod the Great, raged with such envy at this news that he slaughtered all the males, two years and down, in Bethlehem, the surrounding area, hoping to eliminate his rival. Well, there would be other attempts on this king's life, attempts that would ultimately culminate in Jew and Gentile coming together and conspiring together and succeeding in his crucifixion. And they thought that was the end of him, but then His disciples began preaching his resurrection in the very place where they crucified him, of all things. And it was then these disciples of this king met with another uproar. You see, when they began to preach, Jesus is king and you must submit to him. They were met with the uproar, an uproar from the Jewish religious sect. And they were told never again to preach in that name. And they were threatened. And many were persecuted, even some to the point of death. And brothers and sisters, this uproar has not ceased, has it? Even in history, during the time when the Roman Catholic Church ruled over the West, as it were, We can find in sources such as Fox's Book of Martyrs, for instance, and see how popes and kings alike still raged against the true gospel of Christ that threatened their power and their sway over the people. And many Christians around the world, even today as I speak, especially those in Africa and in Asia, are meeting with this uproar. They are suffering intensely for their allegiance to this king, even now in the so-called free societies of the West. We who would genuinely live out allegiance to Jesus as our King of Kings, no competitors, no alternative, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, that kind of faith, that kind of a life meets with increasing pressure from an increasingly intolerant society. And friends, this is no coincidence. The uproar has not ceased. It will not cease until he returns. But in all this, David says the peoples are devising a vain thing. What is the vain thing they devise? Hatred. Hatred against a rival king. It's their hatred against this rival king that God brands as vain. All the rebellion is vain. How can God say that? Because he has decreed that his son will rule as we will see. So they devise hatred against this rival king and a second action these rebels take in verse 2 is that they deliberate together against God. The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed. And then we're told what they say. The idea here of taking their stand means to station oneself. It means to take one's stand as against an opponent, as in preparation for an armed conflict. In fact, the same verb is used in 1 Samuel 17 with a story that you're quite familiar with. It's the story of Goliath. And we're told, he came forward morning and evening for 40 days and took his stand against the armies of Israel. Well, here in Psalm 2, it's the kings and rulers of this world taking a stand against God. against his anointed king. And notice they gather together and they take counsel together as if in their defiance somehow there were strength in numbers. Let's unite together and together we will overthrow what God has decreed. Well, the early Christians first identified this sort of conspiracy with Jesus' trial in Acts 4, 24 through 27, where they recognized both ethnic and political rivals coming together to eliminate a common enemy, Jesus Christ. But really, this co-conspiring together against God, against His laws, His will, also goes back to the Tower of Babel, where we see all the world uniting as one against God. And what does God do? What does God do when the world unites together against His will and way? Well, He scattered man. He confuses man, he scatters him across the face of the earth and so prevents man mercifully from being enslaved at that time to a corrupt form of globalism. But ironically, in the very last book of the Bible, in Revelation, we read of the world coming together once again at a second Babel. And it is here that the nations are gathered together where the prince of rebels eventually succeeds now in uniting all nations against the Lord Jesus. And this great deceiver, we're told, will even raise up his own man, his own anti-Christ to power. Is it any coincidence there's a trending globalism in our world? Don't get me wrong. We should rejoice to see a nation at peace with another nation. We should desire world peace. Who doesn't want to live in a world at peace? But the Bible warns, there are those who will cry, peace, peace, when there is no peace. And this world will not have peace when it's not at peace with God. That's the peace we need. And this one world movement that is presently taking shape wants nothing to do with the kingship of Christ. What does that tell you about the peace it promises? In fact, there were no stretch to say that this globalism openly defies Christ and his laws. How so? Is this just a conspiracy theory? Well, let's see. Let's listen in. Please listen as the psalmist now brings us into the very midst of these conspirators so close that we can hear them conspiring. And what is it they're saying? Well, it's the third action this world takes against God. They declare their independence from God. What are the nations saying? Verse three, let us tear their fetters apart. Let us cast away their cords from us. They're declaring, we will not submit to God. We will not live under his yoke. We will not do what he has said. We will do what we want. We will rule ourselves. Now, for some sinners, this rebellion is not evident on their lips, nor is it perhaps even on their mind many times, but it is in their heart. And that is evident in the way they live day in, day out, violating the will of the one who made them and gave them life. You see, loyalty to Christ, loyalty to the anointed King of God means wearing his yoke. Jesus Himself said, take my yoke upon you, where the yoke is the symbol of His authority over our lives. Do you wear the yoke of Christ? Are you His subject? Are you subject to his laws? Are you his bond slave? How many times do we read in the New Testament where Christ's apostles, mind you, if anybody was above the law of Christ, right, like the Roman Catholic Church created this Greek hierarchy, what about the apostles? How do they identify themselves with respect to Christ? Bond slaves. Bond servants. Peter, Paul, James, Jude, all opened their letters as a bondservant of Jesus Christ. Do you know why? Because Jesus, they recognized, is King. Jesus is Lord. He's either Lord of all and calls the shots in your life, and he rules your life, or he's not really Lord at all, is he? He's something else. He's there when you want him, like the genie in the lamp kind of thing. What about you? Are you the slave of Christ? Are you submitting to his lordship over your life? Well, these kings and rulers refuse to submit themselves to any such monarch established by God. Instead, they declare themselves free of God's authority. And is this not the spirit of today's so-called progressive globalism? that condemns God's laws as repressive and celebrates independence from his rule. Our culture even takes pride in its so-called self-declared liberty from biblical morality. And that's the spirit of this age. Indeed, modern humanism has even recast rebellion against God as something romantic, even heroic. Taking after Milton's words from the devil, They say, better to reign in hell than serve in heaven. My, my friend, please realize there is no place you can go. There is no place you will go. No, not even in hell itself where you will reign. God doesn't leave anything to these rebels. God assures us even if we should make our dwelling in hell, behold, he is there. Psalm 139.8, well, Charles Haddon Spurgeon was right when he summarized these first three verses as a description of the hatred of human nature against the Christ of God. It is this world's rebellion. We won't have this man to reign over us. We will rule over ourselves. You don't submit to Christ completely as your Lord and King. That's exactly where you are. He's either Lord of all, or he's not Lord at all. That's this world's rebellion. They want to throw off the yoke of Jesus Christ. But in the second stroke, we hear the Lord speaking, so verses 4 through 6 is now the Lord's response. And I want you to notice God, in response, takes three actions to this world's rebellion. First, He mocks their creaturely defiance, verse 4. He who sits in the heavens laughs, but Lord scoffs at them. The global rulers of this world, they take counsel against the Lord. But scripture tells us that while a wicked man displays a bold face, there is no wisdom or understanding and no counsel against the Lord. He brings to foolishness the greatest wisdom of this world. And he does have a sense of humor. Because the psalmist here describes God laughing. This is God in human terms for the sake of our human minds, but he's described here as sitting, laughing, scoffing at these who think they can throw off his rule. Now just try to imagine with me for a moment a tiny ant this morning. Say over in the Midwest of the United States, in the state of Iowa, okay, there's a tiny ant somewhere out there on a tiny pebble. in the middle of a 100-acre field in the middle of the state of Iowa, and as we zoom out from this field, we zoom out from the United States, we see the great North American continent, we see planet Earth, and we zoom out further, and there's our solar system, and we're just, you know, there. And then the Milky Way galaxy, it's no longer just the pale blue dot, we're just one galaxy we find among, there's now over 100 billion galaxies, they say, that we have only discovered. Oh yeah, remember that tiny ant I was telling you about? I forgot to tell you. Oh yeah, it's shaking its little tiny ant fist at God. And it's saying, I dare you to do something about it. That's the folly. That is the absurdity of a man, a woman, a child. I don't care who you are. I don't care how many degrees you have for your name or what you think you know. That is the absurdity of any one of us defying God. You see, what flies off the page here is, who do you think you are? Who are you to defy God, to think you can recast man in your own imagination? And you can re-devise, re-invent morality and right and wrong. God did not leave that to you. He did not set you on the throne of this world. That is for His Messiah, that's His prerogative. To use a famous expression then, everything the world is doing against God is all sound and fury signifying nothing. It amounts to nothing and God mocks it. There's just something delusional about defying God as well as arrogant. You could mock God, you could say anything you want about Jesus Christ, but God will mock you and he will have the last laugh. The second action we see God taking in verse five is God will destroy their vain confidence, verse five. Then he will speak to them in his anger and terrify them in his fury. How? How will he do so? He speaks. He speaks. Nothing is more comforting than that still small voice of God, right? But nothing, nothing could be more terrifying and the voice of his anger. My friend, what could be more terrible to hear than from God to hear the words, depart from me, you workers of lawlessness, depart from me into hell, prepare for the devil and his angels. What could be more terrifying than to hear the words of God's anger? And can you imagine how sinners will, how terrified sinners will be? As they look and behold the stars of the sky falling to the earth, and as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind, and the sky splitting apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island moved out of its place. And then, as Revelation 6.15 says, then the kings of the earth And the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free men hid themselves in the caves and rocks of the mountains. And they said to the mountains and the rocks, fall on us and hide us and cover us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of their wrath has come and who shall be able to stand? None will stand. God will see to that. He will terrify them. And generally speaking, people with lots of money and power, they do tend to talk big, don't they? They do tend to have quite an ego. There are people in this world, they really do think they are God. And they're in for a surprise, because God is telling you here, He mocks any creaturely defiance, and He will destroy the vain confidence of any rebel, any rival to His plan. Now, the third action God takes is in verse 6, God will install His King on earth. Verse 6, God is saying, but as for me, I have installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain. This king God installs upon Zion is none other than the everlasting king. It's the son, the king, that he promised David in the Davidic covenant. 7. First Chronicles 17, you can read about that. And when Jesus returns, He will return to Zion in fulfillment of this prophecy. Jesus is a descendant of David. Jesus is the greater Son of David, the everlasting Son of David. And Jesus will fulfill this when in Zion He returns to earth to set up His throne. This is fulfilled, listen, in Revelation 11 15, where heaven finally declares the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and the kingdom of his Christ. And he will reign forever and ever. Jesus isn't coming to set up a democracy. This is a monarchy. And God himself is going to see to it. Jesus, his son, is on the throne. He will install this king of all kings. Again, we Americans don't like kings, do we? We don't want a king to rule over us, but here's the deal. The problem with any monarchy is that no monarch is perfect. And the advantage of any democracy is that, at least in theory, it checks the greed of any single ruler. But even a democracy has its disadvantages, because what is to prevent us from the tyranny of the 51%? Who is to say that the 51% is right? If history teaches us anything, it's often that the 51% is wrong. And we'll continue to get it wrong. You see, we ought to echo the battle cry of the American Revolution, which was no king but Jesus. Even the American colonists who were casting off the yoke of a tyrant, King George III, they recognized Jesus is different. No king but Jesus. Jesus, you're okay. Because Jesus is a good and gracious king, and Jesus, the king of kings, is the king we need. He's the only king who's going to set it right in this world. Like Psalm 72 says, we need a king who will crush oppressors. Not some man who's a sinner just like you and I, who wants us to believe he or her is God. But this is the king that God is sending. The Father has decreed will come. It's His King. And in the first two strophes then, the world is rebelling at the news of the coming King of Kings. Then we see how the Lord is responding in the next three verses by installing this King, His King, on earth. But in the third strophe, we hear the Messiah Himself speaking. And this is verses 7 through 9, where we see the Son's triumph. Look at that with me. And these verses reveal three truths about this triumphant King. First, this King is uniquely identified as God's Son. Verse seven, he says, I will surely tell, this is the son speaking. I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord. He said to me, you are my son. Today I begotten you. In other words, this is where this triumph begins because it is first and foremost who the son is. It is his unique person that has to do with his sure triumph. He is the son of God. Now in the ancient Near East, it's no secret that kings were often regarded to be sons of God. That was how they got their supposed divine right as king, right? I got this throne from God and everything. I am a son of God, so worship me, do what I say, and so on. But this is no ordinary king in Psalm 27. Nor is he, like any other, ever called a son, a son of God. For this king is truly the son of God. He is the only begotten son of God. You say, where are you going with this? Well, At the outset of Jesus' public ministry in Matthew 3.17, the Father himself declares from heaven of Jesus Christ, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Then again, on the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus is recognized by the Father with these words from heaven, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him, listen to Him, follow Him. The Father, specifically, uniquely, identifies Jesus as his son. And how can we disagree when we look at Jesus? In Jesus, we witness a man exercising divine authority. He performed the works of God, miracles, casting out demons, healing the sick and handicapped, commanding nature, touching the untouchables, and forgiving sin, and loving his enemies. A holy man, yet a friend of sinners. One who claimed equality with the Father, and received the worship of men, and had all the works to prove his equality with the Father, while giving his own life as a servant of all. Where do we see anything like Jesus? We don't. My friends, He is the only begotten Son of God. And so as we examine the life of Jesus in the Gospels, we're compelled to recognize with the centurion, truly this man was the Son of God. And as we do that, as we recognize Jesus as the only begotten of the Father, we're just echoing what God the Father has already said of Christ. And by the way, in the New Testament, when Jesus is described as the only begotten Son of God, that is not a reference to Jesus being made. It is a reference to Jesus being of the same essence and substance of the Father. Jesus is begotten, yet not created. He is of the same essence and substance as God the Father, God the Holy Spirit. Hebrews 1.3 puts it this way, Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature. Or as Colossians 2.9 tells us, all that is in God, get this, is in Jesus. All that's in God is in Jesus Christ. You couldn't affirm Jesus' deity any more clearly than that. This King is uniquely identified as God's Son and as God the Son, but this King is uniquely destined to rule over all the world. Verse 8, the Father says to the Son, ask of me and I will surely give the nations as your inheritance and the very ends of the earth as your possession. You know, David was never given the nations of the earth as his possession. No king has ever owned all the earth. But the global dominion of this prophecy, that this prophecy describes, clearly goes then beyond David and speaks of David's greater son, the Messiah. There's no contest about that. This is talking about the greater son of David. And Jesus' inheritance, we're told, is the nations, Revelation 5, 9. One day men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation will gather to worship him. Just like this morning, there are people from every tribe and tongue and kindred and nation gathering to worship Jesus Christ. And Jesus' dominion will encompass, as the psalm predicts, the ends, the very ends of the earth. He won't leave a single stone to his enemies. There won't be a single square inch of rebel ground when Jesus comes. It's to rule and reign over all. A Messiah, it's said in Zechariah 9, 10, His dominion will be from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. You might have a wealthy father or wealthy relative that has left you some vast tract of land or wealth or perhaps an entire estate. But to this son, God has willed all the kingdoms of the world, even all the earth, to rule and reign over it. It's his. That's why the devil can promise you anything, but it's not his to give, just like it wasn't his to give the world to Jesus. He's an imposter. The devil can promise you anything. When Jesus returns, he's taken it all. And he's giving to his people who served him faithfully. the privilege of reigning and ruling with him. What an amazing thought. This king is uniquely identified as God's son. He's uniquely destined to rule over all the world. But we see in verse 9, this king is uniquely destined to reign over all his enemies. Verse 9 says, you shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall shatter them like earthenware. And if you want to know what David's talking about, just take an aluminum bat to a clay pot and you just hit that thing a few times. And you get the idea. God is saying, This king will completely dominate, shatter to pieces all his enemies, all the resistance. No king in Israel's history ever commanded such power. But here's what we read of Christ in Revelation 19. From his mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it he may strike down the nations. And he will rule them with a rod of iron. And he treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty. And on his robe and on his thigh is a name written, King of Kings. and Lord of Lords. You see, Jesus the Messiah is the one who will shatter his enemies. He will rule over them with a rod of iron. As it is written, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord. So in the end, anyone, I don't care how much they hate Christ and what they say about him, how many books they publish about him, how convinced they are, all will confess with Julian the Apostate. You know, Julian the Apostate who made it his business to return the Roman Empire back to paganism. And at the end of his life, it is reported he said, thou hast conquered Galilean. Thou hast conquered, O Thou Galilean." Referring to Jesus of Galilee. Jesus will conquer. And we've seen the world's rebellion then, the Lord's response, the Son's triumph. But in the fourth and final strove, The psalmist speaks to us directly now. So verses 10 through 12 show us the psalmist's warning. And there's really five imperatives in these final three verses, but we'll just condense them into three basic commands. First, verse 10, take warning. Now therefore, O kings, show discernment, take warning, O judges of the earth. I know David's addressing kings here. and rulers, those in positions of authority, but we must understand that if Christ has authority over those rulers of this world, He certainly has authority over us who have no say, no prestige or authority in this world. It's just an argument from a greater to a lesser. This applies to us. Friend, I don't know what's going on in your heart. I don't know if there'd be some objection you have to the rule of Christ in your life, some objection to the claim that he would lay to you and his will for you. But whatever the case, if you're holding out on Christ, you need to consider yourself warned. You need to show discernment this morning. And like the scriptures say, Take warning. Consider yourself warned. Verse 11, worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. The second command is to worship the Lord, from verse 11. But this worship isn't dancing around like you're at a party, like a lot of the chaos that goes on in some so-called houses of worship. This is a worship that God commands with reverence. It is rejoicing, yes, but joy accompanied with trembling. Why? How's that? This isn't a party, friends, because it is worship to the one who is our creator. It is worship to our king. And we are that tiny little particle in this vast universe God has created, and we as that tiny particle are in rebellion to God so often in our lives. Think of all the times we've broken his laws. How dare we worship him in any trite manner? He is a holy, almighty God. So we must worship him the way he prescribes. But verse 12, it all comes down to this. The ultimate command. Do homage to the son that he not become angry and you perish in the way for his wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in him. The ultimate command is to kiss the son. Now you say, I don't see that here. Well, The Nazbi translates the final imperative as do homage to the sun. But more literally, the Hebrew verb nashach means to kiss. And that's some translations will say that kiss the sun here. Of course, that is because the kiss here was a symbol of swearing fealty to your king, of doing homage to your Lord. Just imagine to appreciate what David's saying. You're a prisoner of war and you have been captured and brought in chains by this king, to this anointed. And as you are summoned to suddenly appear before his throne room and you don't know what's going to happen, you are ushered into his presence and there he lifts his scepter so that you are allowed to solemnly approach his throne with your head down. And as you reach the foot of his throne at his feet, you are to bow, of course. And so you're on your knees before him and you're wondering what he will do with you. Will he have any mercy? He certainly isn't obligated to because of how you have violated his laws already. You deserve to be punished. But then you notice he extends to you his hand. And he's extending his hand to you because it is your choice. You may either kiss his hand as a token of your unconditional surrender to his authority or By turning away your face, you are embracing the consequences of your insubordination. What will you do? That's your choice this morning. Christ extends to you His hand. Will you kiss the Son? Will you take that nail-pierced hand, recognizing that Christ has done everything necessary for the forgiveness of your sins and for your reconciliation with God? So then if you will receive Him, you are receiving the grace and forgiveness of God. Or will you reject Him? That's your choice this morning. What will you do with the Christ, the Son of God? The psalm ends with this promise, how blessed are all who take refuge in Him, the Son. This can't be talking about David for sure, because God explicitly forbids trust in human kings. Psalm 146.3, do not trust in princes, in mortal man in whom there is no salvation. This isn't talking about a moral man, this is talking about the Son of Man, the Son of God, David's greater son, Jesus Christ. And the New Testament carries this forward by revealing how God is offering to you eternal life, and this eternal life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God will not see life. 1 John 5, 11 through 12. Have you taken refuge in the Son? All your prayers, all your best efforts, all your religiosity will not shelter you from the wrath to come. the only refuge where you will find eternal security is in the Son that God has sent. That's the main thrust of Psalm 2. It is that it's time to submit to the rule of Christ. Now's the time to submit to Christ's rule before it's too late. I'm told that during Charles III's coronation There were many protesters gathered in Trafalgar Square in London, and they were eager to prove to the world with signs and all, this is not my king. Not my king. You know, that's exactly what most of this world is saying, has been saying, and continues to say about Jesus. Not my king. Great inspiration, great story. Great moral example, not my king. Not the one to rule and reign over my life, not entirely. But when Jesus returns, it won't be to preach repentance or to parley with rebels. It will be to rule and to judge the world. Revelation 19 makes that plain. In fact, here in our song, we see his wrath will soon be kindled. Now's the time. Now's the time to find shelter, refuge in Him. Others will say this morning, perhaps, well, Jesus is my King. But if you were to follow their lives for the week, you'd find out they were only fooling themselves. Jesus said, why do you call me Lord? Lord, why do you call me your King? But you don't do the things I say. Is He really your King? Are you really submitting to His rule over your life? If you're listening to the Word of God this morning and the Spirit of God is impressing on you, you know what? You don't think the way Jesus wants you to think. You don't say the things Jesus wants you to say. You don't do the things Jesus wants you to do. Who are you kidding yourself? It's time to submit to Him. It's time to repent. There's no better time to do it than now. That's what this is. This is a song of repentance. Jesus is king. Jesus is king. And he's coming here to fully manifest that in his coronation on this earth. But let me tell you, now's the time to get right with him. Now's the time to follow him while there's still an opportunity. Let's pray.