Psalm 2
Notes
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Intro
Intro
King who appoints workers to oversee different parts of his kingdom.
What should he do when they get together and try to oppose the king?
Recap
Psalms - set songs and prayers for God’s faithful (set prayers are great!)
The first few Psalms set the scenes for the whole book. These are like two guide posts, stay to the left of the white one, and to the right of the red one. They mark the direction that we are going.
Messianic - it all point to Jesus, and they make sense with Jesus as our worship leader. Some Psalms point especially to Jesus, like Ps 22, 110, etc. But the collection as a whole is all messianic, and you see this in the way that alot of the Psalms are written by King David who was an anointed king who was a foreshadow of Jesus to come.
Psalm 2 is one of those really obvious messianic psalms.
Preacher’s dream, the psalm is 12 verses, and it divides nicely into 4 sections of 3 verses each!
Look at each section and lets see if we can trace the arc of the Psalm. Where does it go? What does it mean?
The Kings Rebel (v1-3)
The Kings Rebel (v1-3)
Straight off the bat with this psalm we will see that the theme is groups of peoples and their leaders. Nations and rulers, peoples and kings. Quite unlike Psalm 1 which was dealing with individuals and their course of life under God, now we’re looking at whole nations and their course under God.
What does it say?
Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, “Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.”
We open with a rhetorical question: “Why do the nations conspire, and the peoples plot in vain?” It gets us asking, why are they doing what they’re doing? What is the point? But first...
Who are these nations? In the bible “the nations” is language that is uses to describe all the countries of the world who are not God’s people. Back in the day when this was written, God’s people had a clear identity as the nation of Israel, and so they could talk of “the nations” as all the other countries that were not serving the LORD God.
Unlike the godly person of Psalm 1 These nations aren’t meditating on the Law of the LORD, rather they’re meditating on their schemes and plans.
But!
These plans are vain, there’s no point because they will come to nothing. Even so, what are these plans?
Well, we see that the leaders of these nations are colluding to try and break away from God and God’s chosen king: “The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the LORD and against his anointed, saying, “Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.”
So these kings and rulers feel as though they are prisoners of God and God’s chosen King. God of course has every right to rule over all the nations of the world! But they want to reject God’s rule as though they were slaves that needed to throw off their shackles.
Like employees who think they know better than their CEO. They want to ditch the “burden” of leadership so they can do their own thing.
The other countries of the world were trying to throw off the control and authority of God. And they want to get rid of God’s anointed one too.
Remember “Anointed” means Messiah in Hebrew, and Christ in Greek. They want to ditch the LORD and His Messiah!
In this context, back in the day this would have been traditionally understood to refer to King David, as the one chosen and anointed by God to be king over God’s people. God promised that his descendants would be kings over God’s people and that the House of David would be the royal house over God’s people forever.
So in the time of David, they understood David to be their anointed king, but after him, the people looked forward to a another king like David, anointed by God to lead the people. A bunch of David’s descendants did reign in Judah for many generations, but none of them were able to fill David’s boots. They were all pretty lack-luster. This, along with other promises from God, left the people with a great hunger for another anointed King from the LORD and could lead God's people to a wonderful future of prosperity, blessing and faithfulness.
This Psalm pointed forward to the greater anointed/messiah/Christ from the LORD.
That one was Jesus. He is the one whom God anointed as King over His people. He was a descendant of David. He could take up the throne of David and even outdo David as king.
But the nations don’t want to be subjected to Jesus. They rise up, and their leaders conspire to get rid of the Christ. They can’t stand the idea of submitting to the LORD and Jesus Christ!
We saw the fruit of this in the first century, where the Jews and Romans conspired to put Jesus to death. They crucified Jesus the Christ. They thought the problem would go away if only they killed Him.
But the LORD can’t be defeated that easily! In fact lets see what happens next!
The Lord installs His King (v4-6)
The Lord installs His King (v4-6)
God is utterly un-phased by this scheming of the nations. They can’t stop His plans to install the Messiah as King!
In fact, God laughs at them! He is amused by their futile efforts! Let’s look:
The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. He rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying, “I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.”
“Haha, you think you can undo my plans?”
In response to their open rebellion God gives them the consequences they deserve!
He rebukes them, that is he reprimands them. And he terrifies them with the news that the LORD has installed His own king on Zion, the holy mountain!
This news is terrifying for those who had made it their mission to undo God’s authority and rule!
They had murdered Jesus, and yet it did nothing to stop God’s intention to install Jesus as the anointed king on Zion!
Zion is the name given to the mountain that Jerusalem was built on and around. This was the place where God chose to have his temple built, and it became the focal point for worship and kingship over Israel. Now while this refered to a literal place, the idea of Zion has grown to hold wider significance. The idea of Zion is much more than just the literal mountain top in Jerusalem - it is the place where God and humanity meet. It is the center of the universe where God’s authority emanates from.
And so, for the leaders of the nations, the news that God installed his chosen King on Zion is a sign that their own power and authority is going to come to an end. Like bad managers in a company, if they are discovered conspiring to oust the CEO, they will be fired.
Despite the attempts of the rulers to take out Jesus, this was infact his coronation. They lifted him up on a cross with a crown of thorns - they doing it in ridicule and shame, but it was through that spectacle that Jesus would overcome the powers of the world!
After he died, he was raised to life and ascended to the right hand of the Father in victory.
When God installs his own king, all the other leaders of the world should be shaking in their boots!
And for good reason! See what happens next!
The Son defeats the Rebels (v7-9)
The Son defeats the Rebels (v7-9)
Now in this part of the psalm, this king speaks up! He responds to his coronation as king. But instead of reveling in his own glory, he actually repeats a commission that he has received from the LORD. Lets look:
I will proclaim the Lord’s decree: He said to me, “You are my son; today I have become your father. Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will break them with a rod of iron; you will dash them to pieces like pottery.”
The king says he will proclaim the LORDs decree - he will speak what the LORD has said! Reminds me of what you see across the pages of John’s Gospel, where Jesus continually says “I only say what the Father tells me to say”....
So what is the decree given to the King?
Firstly: “You are my son; today I have become your father.”
This is a wonderful statement. Not because it’s cute or gives us the warm fuzzies, but because it is a statement of power and authority. It is the LORD God of the universe recognizing this King as the divine representative of God. He is from God, and the representative of God.
The kings of Old, David and his descendants, were essentially “adopted” by God as His representatives on earth, but Jesus is the fulfillment of them all, the literal Son of God, the eternally begotten Son from the Father. And God spoke from heaven during Jesus earthly ministry to proclaim just that!
The Second part of the decree is: “Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will break them with a rod of iron; you will dash them to pieces like pottery.”
So the LORD invites the anointed Son-King to excersize his rule and authority. But he does it in an interesting way, the Son is to ask the Father to act on his behalf. He is to ask the father to give the son the nations! Those nations that were in rebellion! The son need only ask and those who were pushing the LORD and his anointed away will be brought into subjection.
And how will this happen? the Son will destroy them. They will be broken to pieces. They will be “disassembled” to put in mildly!
This is the present reign of Jesus, at the right hand of the Father, reigning now as the LORD makes footstools out of Jesus enemies!
So what do we do? How do we respond to this news? See the next and final section!
The Charge to Kings (v10-12)
The Charge to Kings (v10-12)
As a result of all that has come before, here there is a charge given to all leaders everywhere. Anyone who rules over people:
Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and celebrate his rule with trembling. Kiss his son, or he will be angry and your way will lead to your destruction, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
Here is the proper response! Take heed of the warning and be wise about your next moves!
You need to humble yourself before the Son, “kiss the ring” so to speak.
There is real danger, he is no tame lion! So do not stir up His anger against you by standing against Him.
Instead serve with fear and celebrate with trembling.
Jesus will overcome every rebel authority - rings and rulers. Prime Ministers and queens, Premiers and Presidents. All who oppose him will have to face the rod! all their planning and schemes will be overturned.
Jesus is the one who rules and reigns even today, and all the other leaders need to humble themselves before Him. It’s not a voluntary association, or a democratic election, Jesus is King now.
We like to divide politics and relgion - but this Psalm clearly taches that all political powers must bend the knee to Jesus and serve him. The will of the people is not our ultimate authority, nor is our Queen, it is Jesus and all authorities are accountable to Him.
They MUST serve the LORD and celebrate his rule with trembling.
The MUST Kiss the Son or face His righteous wrath.
Ending with a beatitude! - “Blessed is” - there is refuge from God’s wrath - Bookends the two first Psalms.
One for the Individual - one for the Nation. Two Guide posts.
Praying this Psalm
Praying this Psalm
The nations conspire to throw off the LORD & Jesus, just like they did in crucifying Jesus.
But the LORD is unperturbed, he has installed his king!