The Coming King
Notes
Transcript
The Coming King
The Coming King
For this Christmas season, we are going to look at 4 different Psalms over the course of the next 4 Sundays.
This morning we are going to look at an examine Psalm 2, then we will look at Ps. 45, Ps 72, and wrap up on Christmas Eve looking at Psalm 110.
In the corpus of the Psalms these are all called the royal Psalms.
These are for the king.
They were performed in the presence of kings or dignitaries.
Now the kings of Israel were often called the Anointed of God. or the anointed one.
The word for the Anointed one in Hebrew is Mesiah or for English Speakers, Messiah.
Which is also translated to Christos in Greek, or our word Christ.
So as you’re reading your new testament and you see Jesus Christ, know that Christ isn’t Jesus’ last name.
Christ is the title of who he is.
The anointed one.
The one chosen by God as the King over all.
So when we read these Royal Psalms though they are talking about the kings of Israel, in most cases specifically about David, know that they are simply a type or a foreshadow of Jesus as king.
The royal psalms are composed and written by David pointing to the reality that the David Lineage, or David’s descendant is going to be the path of blessing.
The path of the true and better Messiah.
Jesus is the true anointed one.
He is the King of Kings.
He is the true and perfect Messiah.
One of the things I really want us to take away from this short Advent Sermon Series, is that Jesus was the plan from the beginning.
That his life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension isn’t plan b for the Trinity.
From the beginning God knew what had to be done and we can see that even in the songbook of the OT.
This mornings text in Ps. 2, is asking the question of who’s the boss.
Who’s really in charge?
As I was thinking about this Psalm over the last couple of weeks, I couldn’t help but think about the dynamic in our home and probably in many of your homes too.
Often times, after giving the kids instructions on what they need to do, they have come back with the response “You’re not the boss.”
Or if they don’t like the response they received from one of us they will come and ask the other parent.
Here’s what’s happening, They are wanting to submit to the authority that most closely relates to their own desires.
B/c they don’t really want to submit, they want to get what they want, but they know that they aren’t in charge.
B/c, in general, we don’t like authority.
Even from a young age, we instinctively want to do our own thing.
We don’t want people to tell us how to live.
We don’t want rules and guidelines.
We don’t want limits and boundaries.
We want freedom.
Freedom to choose, freedom from consequences.
Freedom to do whatever we want.
This is pervasive and universal.
So any authority can be seen as restricting and something that needs to be fought against.
This is what we will see in the Ps. 2.
But before we get to Ps. 2, I need us to understand something.
Ps. 1 and Ps. 2, are the open doorway to the Psalter.
They are the gateway to understanding what the whole of the book of Psalms is all about.
And we aren’t going to spend a whole lot of time looking at them as the doorway, but know that through these 2 psalms we see that people live one of two ways.
We either live on the path of the righteous, living in submission to God, or we live on the path of the fool walking against God and how he as designed life.
We talked about this extensively through the Ecclesiastes Sermon Series at the beginning of the year.
Both Ps. 1 and Ps. 2, show us that if you live a life following God you will be blessed, but if you live in rebellion against him you will face his wrath.
In fact, the end of both verses are parallel to one another
6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to ruin.
12 Pay homage to the Son or he will be angry and you will perish in your rebellion, for his anger may ignite at any moment. All who take refuge in him are happy.
Knowing this framework gets us ready to analyze and dive into the importance of Ps 2.
This Psalm is specifically a Psalm that announces the coronation of a King.
If you don’t know what a coronation is, it is the installation of a ruler over a kingdom.
It is speculated that this specific Psalm was spoken at the coronations of kings.
However, that’s not the point we are going to look at this morning.
I know that you may be asking what in the world does this Psalm have to do with Christmas?
Well that’s a good Question.
It has to do with Jesus being the foremost and perfect Anointed one of the Father.
The one that came and will come again.
The whole of Scripture points to Jesus.
Now this psalm in particular is a beautiful picture of the coronation of the king.
It can be split into 4 different parts.
v.1-3 is about the hatred of the people toward God.
v. 4-6 is God’s response to the people
v. 7-9 is the king’s Coronation
v. 10-12 is an appeal to the rebellious
So before we open it up, let’s go to the lord in prayer and get started.
1 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
2 The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers conspire together against the Lord and his Anointed One:
3 “Let’s tear off their chains and throw their ropes off of us.”
Rebellion
Rebellion
In these first few verses, what we see is a rebellious people.
A people who hate God and his chosen people.
The nations and the people are raging against God.
But the question is why?
Why do these people and nations hate God?
They hate him b/c of his power and authority.
They don’t want to submit to him they don’t want.
Recognizing and submitting to God’s Authority isn’t the natural thing to do.
Instead, our default position is to rebel against him.
This has been true since the garden.
Submitting to God and his design for life means denying what we want.
It means that we have lay aside our own desires and let him rule and lead.
And for many people, this feels like chains.
It feels like ropes binding us.
Most of humanity has bought into the lie that true freedom is being able to do whatever you want whenever you want to do it.
But that’s not freedom.
It’s bondage.
We think we are free, but in reality we are in a bondage to sin.
And sin always takes us further than we want to go and keeps us longer than we want to stay.
But yet we think this is freedom.
This is the kings response to God and his anointed.
They don’t want God’s authority.
They want their own authority.
And they will do anything to try and get it.
These kings of the earth stand firm against God and not only that, they conspire together.
They believe that there is strength in numbers.
They believe that God couldn’t stand against them when they stood together.
But even here in the opening verse the author of this psalm, tells us that it’s vain.
They plot in vain.
This word plot is interesting.
A better understanding would be they meditate, they constantly think about and think of ways to stand against the Lord.
In fact, it’s the same word used for meditate in Ps 1.2
2 Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night.
So instead of being the wise men who delight and meditate on the word of God, these kings and people meditate on how to live in rebellion against God.
There very heart is against God and his people.
What’s interesting is that this verse is used in the NT.
and it is used as a comfort and to build confidence in God’s plan.
In fact, in the book of Acts Peter looks back on these verses and attributes them to those who crucified Jesus.
25 You said through the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of our father David your servant: Why do the Gentiles rage and the peoples plot futile things?
26 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers assemble together against the Lord and against his Messiah.
27 “For, in fact, in this city both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, assembled together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed,
28 to do whatever your hand and your will had predestined to take place.
So Peter and other followers of Jesus see the importance of this Psalm in the life of Jesus.
And therefore the importance of how the world reacts to them as they spread the good news of the gospel message.
They noticed the beauty of God’s plan and purposes for the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.
But what about this passage gave them confidence?
How were they comforted by God’s plan?
The answer is found in the next set of verses.
4 The one enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord ridicules them.
5 Then he speaks to them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath:
6 “I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.”
Divine Response
Divine Response
Here we read that God watches all the people of earth.
He is a witness to all their plots.
He knows all of their actions.
And how does he respond?
He doesn’t respond in panic.
He doesn’t worry about their plots and desires.
No, he stays seated.
And he laughs at their plans.
He is amused by their raging.
Their plots are of no significance to them.
It doesn’t matter what the kings of the earth try to do.
It doesn’t matter how people respond to God’s plan.
God isn’t shaken.
He isn’t caught off guard.
He isn’t worried.
He isn’t bothered by the raging nations.
How can he be so calm?
How can he actually sit back and be amused by the nations that are against him?
B/c he knows that regardless of how they feel, think, and act, he is in absolute, total, and complete control.
There is nothing that the nations can do that is going to thwart His plans.
There is no stumbling block or barricade that can be laid before the Lord that will stop him from accomplishing his mission.
He is the true and ultimate king.
He is the ruler over all the earth.
The people and kings can try as they might, but they will never accomplish what they set out to do.
Think about it this way, no matter how much power, influence, and might someone on earth may have, nothing is going to stop the Lord.
This is what we talked about several weeks ago when we spoke about God’s Sovereignty.
He is in ultimate control.
He is the point, plan, and purpose of all creation.
And he will not and cannot let his creation stop him from achieving what he has set out to do.
I love how Isaiah puts it in
23 He reduces princes to nothing and makes judges of the earth like a wasteland.
There is no power or authority on earth that isn’t first given by God.
Any authority, any power, and any influence that a nation has or will have is derived from God alone.
Not only does the Lord mock the futile and feeble attempts of the nations.
He also let’s them know that his wrath is coming.
He is angry at the disposition of the rebellious.
They are going to get what they deserve.
And he is going to show them just how much power, might, and majesty he has.
Though they may think they are stopping God.
The day of Judgement is coming.
There will be a day of reckoning for all of those who continue to live in rebellion against the Lord.
But there is hope.
There are those who stand in rebellion against God.
Those who rage against his goodness and authority that can and will come to submit to him.
I can’t help but think of one of the great persecutors of the church, Paul.
We read in the book of Acts that Paul was going around seeking and searching for those who worshipped God so that he could imprison them.
He was even one of the bystanders when Stephen was murdered for his faith.
But God who is in control
God who has mercy. God who is gracious.
Saved Paul.
Not b/c of who Paul is or what Paul did, but b/c it was God’s pleasure to save him.
And so we see that even those who rage against God, and rage against his people are not outside of God’s Grace.
If we turn to him.
If we submit to him we will be saved from the wrath that he is going to pour out.
But if we continue in our wickedness and rebellion we will have to face his wrath.
For those of us who have believed in God and trusted in Jesus, we can know that there will be those who stand against us.
We can know that the reason they hate us is b/c they hate Jesus.
But we can also hold fast to the truth that God is going to win.
It doesn’t matter what the enemies of God try, God will and has overcome.
So we need to remind ourselves that God is in control.
He is never not at the wheel.
And we know this b/c God has installed his King, Jesus on the holy mountain.
I want us to think about the gospels of Jesus.
Satan had thought that he won.
The enemies of Jesus thought that they had silenced Jesus and his disciples.
They thought that at the crucifixion of Christ that the battle had been won and that Jesus was defeated.
But three days later, on that beautiful Sunday Morning Jesus rose from the grave.
Though the enemy thought he won, Jesus rose.
Vindicating and proving that he is the Son of God who accomplished the mission He had been sent by the Father to accomplish.
The beginning of the coronation of King Jesus started on that Cross and now he is sitting at the right hand of the Father in Glory.
Though the whole plan of the crucifixion looked like God’s plan gone awry.
The truth is Jesus knew he was sent to die.
He knew that the crucifixion was the going to be the redeeming work of the Lord.
And he also knew that he would rise again.
He knew that through his obedience and sacrifice, that the trinitarian plan of redemption would succeed.
So we can trust in God’s plan.
We can trust in his control.
When everything looks crazy and chaotic, we can know and rest in God’s knowledge and Sovereignty.
Knowing and trusting in God’s plan means knowing the King.
7 I will declare the Lord’s decree. He said to me, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.
8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance and the ends of the earth your possession.
9 You will break them with an iron scepter; you will shatter them like pottery.”
Coronation
Coronation
This is the coronation of the king.
Here the king is speaking these words from God’s perspective.
Something we need to know about the kings of Israel is that they were supposed to be the representative of God the King in Heaven.
This is why the language of “Son” is used here in v. 7.
This use of father and son language is used to relay the meaning of God’s authority through the one raised as king.
So to simplify, to be Israel’s King was to be God’s Son.
As we talked about earlier, this is a type and foreshadow of Jesus.
He is God’s one and Only Son.
Jesus’ rule and reign are different than the other kings of Israel.
And the definitive difference is the resurrection.
Jesus’ divine sonship was demonstrated at the resurrection.
And you may be thinking that we are supposed to be thinking about Jesus’ coming at Christmas.
That this is a christmas sermon series, but I’m talking about the resurrection.
Here’s what we need to know, Christmas is only good news b/c Easter is true.
Christmas only has meaning b/c of the resurrection.
If it wasn’t for Jesus’ resurrection we wouldn’t have anything to celebrate.
Jesus isn’t simply a baby in a manger, he is a King resurrected to reign.
Not only that, but the NT authors knew the importance of this phrase in Psalm 2:7 “7 I will declare the Lord’s decree. He said to me, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.”
This phrase is alluded to and spoken by God himself to Jesus at his baptism.
11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well-pleased.”
Luk 3:22. Matt 3.17.
And at the transfiguration
35 Then a voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, the Chosen One; listen to him!”
This sonship language is important b/c it shows us that Jesus is the representation of God the Father on Earth.
And the resurrection is proof of Jesus’ Sonship too.
33 God has fulfilled this for us, their children, by raising up Jesus, as it is written in the second Psalm: You are my Son; today I have become your Father.
Jesus is the truest king.
He is the one who reigns forever.
In all of history, there has never been a king like Jesus.
He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
He is the perfect, holy, and righteous king.
He is the one worthy of all worship, honor, and praise.
He is the one who was raised up to rule and reign over all the earth.
Here’s what I want us to know about this, Jesus’ Kingship was fully intentional.
He is the Son who has come to reign.
Now we can look at this, and some have, and say that Jesus’ rule and reign is only for the Jewish people.
He is their king.
But they are missing a big chunk of Jesus’ purpose.
It wasn’t just to save the Jewish people, but to save all people and nations that believe.
Look again at Ps 2.8
8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance and the ends of the earth your possession.
The nations an the ends of the earth are the possessions of Jesus.
From Louise, Texas, to Jerusalem.
From Moscow, Russia, to Mexico City, all those who believe.
All those who submit.
All those who recognize Jesus as king are his inheritance.
This is why missions is so important.
This is why we partner with the SBC and the Lottie Moon Christmas offering.
We want to give to those who have given their lives to reach people with the gospel message.
And we can support, financially and prayerfully, in reaching those unreached people groups.
So that they will turn to and worship Jesus.
B/c there are going to be consequences for those who continue in rebellion.
They will be crushed with an Iron Scepter like pottery.
This is the wrath of God being poured out on the rebellious ones who won’t turn to him.
And notice who’s doing the crushing.
It’s Jesus.
He is going to crush the raging nations.
He is going to pour out God’s wrath on those who don’t repent and believe.
It wasn’t until the last few years that I really started to think about the power, might, and justice of Jesus.
Often time, when we think of Jesus all we think about is the compassion, love, and gentleness of Jesus.
And in those thoughts, we tend to think that Jesus is soft.
And whether many of us want to admit it our not, to many who think about Jesus he is not view as he is presented in the NT.
For many Jesus is an effeminate male who is spreading love and peace.
I want us to know that Jesus is gentle, but he isn’t soft.
I love how C.S Lewis put it in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
If you haven’t read the book, its an allegory meant to mirror the gospels.
And the Jesus character in the story is a Lion named Aslan.
One of the girls in the book is speaking with another character and this is the conversation they had.
“Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion." "Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"..."Safe?" said Mr Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”
Here’s how we have to think of Jesus.
Jesus isn’t safe. But he is good.
To those who love him, trust him, and follow after him we do find refuge, but to those who stand against him, they will be shattered.
He’s good and he’s Just.
He demonstrated his love and he pours out wrath.
So how are we to respond to this king?
The psalmist under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit makes a plea with those who read this psalm.
10 So now, kings, be wise; receive instruction, you judges of the earth.
11 Serve the Lord with reverential awe and rejoice with trembling.
12 Pay homage to the Son or he will be angry and you will perish in your rebellion, for his anger may ignite at any moment. All who take refuge in him are happy.
Be Wise
Be Wise
Here we conclude with a call to action.
This call to action leads to either honoring the King or rebelling against him.
The whole earth is receiving an invitation to worship.
Like the gospel message we need to know the bad news before we truly understand how good the the good news actually is.
There is a wrath that is going to be poured out on the rebellious, but there is grace that will be given to the ones who submit to God.
And the wise thing for the people to do is the receive Jesus’ instruction. to listen to him and follow after him.
Serve the Lord with awe and wonder.
Serve him rejoicing and trembling.
This means that we look at God and his Son for who he truly is.
There is joy in salvation.
And there is unlimited power in God’s Hands.
When we stand before him we need to know that he has the power of life and death.
So we stand before him not presuming upon him, but grateful for his love, mercy and grace.
And the way that we do that is through paying homage to the son.
The literal translation of that phrase is probably in most of your translations, but to “Kiss the Son”.
And there are two ways to kiss the son.
We can either kiss the son in rebellion like Judas did.
Turning our backs on him.
Demonstrating that we don’t want or need him.
Or we can kiss him in love, affection, devotion and submission.
And the way we respond to him.
The way that we choose to kiss the son will either protect us from his wrath or condemn to his wrath.
I love what one preacher said “There is no refuge from Jesus only refuge in him.”
You are either safe from his wrath in him or you are doomed to face his wrath outside of him.
So we should be satisfied in him.
We should Kiss the Son in love and affection.
We should find our satisfaction in him.
B/c as we have seen King Jesus is in charge.
And we will either bow in submission to him, or we will be made to bow in our rebellion.
I want to close out reading from
9 For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow— in heaven and on earth and under the earth—
11 and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Where do you stand today?
Are you honoring the Son in love or are you cursing him in rebellion.
I beg of you to submit to him today and find life, joy, and freedom in Jesus today.
As a response we are going to have a time of reflection as we take the lord’s supper.
Know that the Lord’s Supper is only for those who have Kissed the Son.
It is only for those who have bowed to King Jesus.
If you haven’t done that let the plate pass by you and I pray that today you will.
26 As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take and eat it; this is my body.”
27 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he gave it to them and said, “Drink from it, all of you.
28 For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
29 But I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
30 After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.