Psalm 2: A Song for the Son
This world as we know it is passing away. A new world is coming that will be ruled by Jesus Christ, the King of Israel, the King of Earth. Satan knows his time is short and so he is working hard to line up the nations and the peoples of the world to reject God and to worship themselves and him. The devil is ready to introduce his servant, the antichrist, to lead the world and solve all the world’s problems. But… God the Father has decreed that his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, the Messiah of Israel will rule the Earth from Jerusalem.
We are going to be looking at Psalm 2 this morning. The Psalms are the hymn book of Israel. There are 150 songs of worship and praise recorded in the Bible that make up the book of Psalms. The first and second Psalms go together as a pair. Psalm 1 begins with the word “blessed” and Psalm 2 ends with the word “blessed”. These two uses of the word “blessed” stand like bookends holding Psalm 1 and Psalm 2 together. Both Psalms were written by David who was a prophet as well as the King of Israel. The second Psalm doesn’t have a superscription saying who wrote it but in Acts chapter 4 its authorship is attributed to David.
Psalm 2 is the first of the Messianic Psalms which give a picture of the coming Messiah of Israel. The word Messiah comes from the Hebrew word “mashiach” which means “anointed” one. The Greek equivalent of Messiah is the word, “Christ”. Messianic Psalms are a special type of Psalm which have dual meaning. They refer both to the reigning King of Israel, like David and his son Solomon, but they also refer to the final glorious reign of the coming king of Israel who would be a descendant of David by God’s promise. In 2 Samuel 7:11-16 and 1 Chronicles 17:11-15 the Lord promised David that one of his descendants would rule over God’s house and kingdom forever.
In Psalm 2 we get a peek into the eternal counsels of God. Psalm 2 is like the high priestly prayer in John 17 where we hear Jesus, God the Son, talking to God the Father about his coming suffering, death, and glorification. In Psalm 2 we also get to hear a discussion that happened in eternity past as each of the three members of the Holy Trinity of God speak.
If you brought your Bible with you, please open it to the book of Psalms. If you didn’t bring one you can use the one on the pew in front of you. The book of Psalms is roughly in the middle of the Bible.
We will analyze this Psalm in four sections or parts.
1. The rebellion of the world against the Lord and his Christ. (Psalm 2:1-3)
Please, read along with me in your Bible as we look at the first 3 verses of Psalm Chapter 2.
1 Why do the nations conspire, and the peoples plot in vain?
2 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together
against the Lord and against his Anointed One.
3 “Let us break their chains,” they say, “and throw off their fetters.”
David starts off the Psalm by asking two questions that show his amazement that the people of earth are in rebellion against their creator, the Lord God of Israel, and his anointed ruler.
The first question David asks is, “Why do the Gentile nations conspire?”.
The peoples of the Gentile nations of the earth, along with their leaders, gather together to take their stand against the Lord. Rebellion against evil powers is a righteous thing. But, since Christ’s rule is infinitely just and good and merciful, this is an unrighteous rebellion.
The second question is, “Why do the peoples plot in vain?”.
This rebellion by the nations and the peoples of the earth is an unsuccessful rebellion. The scripture says, “The people plot in vain”. If the people of the world think that they can overthrow the rule of Christ, then they are badly mistaken. We will see that His reign over them has been established by the eternal decree of God. Try as they might all their efforts are futile and doomed to utter failure. The throne of Jesus Christ will be established in Jerusalem, and he will reign over all the nations as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
As a prophet, David foresaw that the kings and the peoples of the world would unite in their contempt against the Lord and his “anointed one”. The scripture prophetically says that the enmity of the kings of the earth against the Lord will be uniquely directed toward His anointed Son, the Messiah. Jesus spoke of the hatred the world had toward him and his Father. He said, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first” and “He who hates me hates my Father as well” (John 15:18, 23).
In Psalm 83:2-4 Asaph also foresaw earthly rulers plotting together against the Lord and the nation of Israel. The hostility of the kings of the earth against the Lord and his anointed king is open and obvious. They proudly boast saying, “Let’s break their chains and throw off their fetters.” Man is by nature God’s enemy. The human creature is in open revolt against his creator, being deceived by his desire to be his own god. He considers God’s absolute standards and values to be fetters that must be broken.
The only absolute fallen men will tolerate is the absolute right for each of them to determine for themselves what is good and what is evil. Sinful men are outraged at anyone who teaches an external standard of right and wrong based on the objective truth of God’s Word. When Jesus came to earth the first time, his enemies considered Him and His teachings a threat to their perception of their own righteousness. They preferred enslavement to their sins over obedience to his teaching and commands.
Now look again at your Bible as I read verses 4 through 6.
4The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.
5Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,
6“I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill.”
Despite the universal opposition of the world against him, the Lord will install His Son as King. His voice thunders from heaven, “I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill!”. God has determined to enthrone His own Son as King on the temple mount in Jerusalem. There is nothing that can stop this from happening. What the Lord ordains will never be stopped by men. He is never frustrated over human attempts to hinder His purposes. Instead, He laughs at the schemes of evil men.
Isaiah chapter 14 tells us that God has determined a plan for the world and his purposes cannot be thwarted. (Isaiah 14:26–27). And Isaiah chapter 40 says about the Lord, “He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. (Isaiah 40:23).
God’s Eternal redemptive purpose was for His son to become a man, to provide salvation through his death, to be raised from the dead, to be exalted to his former glory and to reign forever as the eternal king of all nations and of every person. We see details of God’s plan of redemption through his Son in the Old Testament in Isaiah chapter 53 and in the New Testament in Philippians 2.
What the Lord ordains to happen will certainly come to pass regardless of the opposition and scheming of men. There is no clearer picture of this than what is found in Acts chapter 4. After the apostles were beaten for healing a cripple on the Sabbath and told by the leaders of Israel not to speak in the name of Jesus; they gathered the believers in Jerusalem together and prayed in one accord quoting from Psalm 2 as follows:
24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:
“‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
26The kings of the earth take their stand
and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.’
27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.” (Acts 4:24–28)
Even though Herod and Pontius Pilate plotted Christ’s death at the urging of the leaders of Israel, they were unknowingly accomplishing the eternal purpose of God, the sacrificial death of the Son to redeem a chosen group of people from the earth.
The leaders of the nations of our world today, are plotting to create a new world which excludes God, and his son Jesus Christ. We know from scripture that this attempt will be short lived and end in disaster for them.
Is God in heaven wringing his hands and saying, “Oh no! We are suffering great losses in the battle of good against evil!”? Is he saying, “The kingdom of darkness is gaining ground against the kingdom of light!”? Based on what is recorded here in Psalm 2, I don’t think God feels the least bit anxious because things down here are spiraling out of control. The Lord already told us that his response to His adversaries would be to reveal His Son as king in Jerusalem.
Instead of being concerned that the conspiracy against him and his Son Jesus will succeed; I think God the Father is laughing at the rich and powerful elites who are pulling the puppet strings of the presidents and ruling political parties of the countries in the western world. These presidents and politicians with the help of left leaning mainstream media and big tech companies are using lies and deception to destroy economies and enslave and kill the people they were elected to serve. All this is being done to prepare the world for the “Great Reset”. From the ashes of the world’s decimated countries, the elites, and the politicians that they control say that they will “Build Back Better” to create a whole new, reimagined world. They dream of a utopian paradise with a Global Economy controlled by a Global Communist government.
The two flagship organizations promoting this new vision of the future are the World Economic Forum and the United Nations and its World Health Organization division. Those behind this plan understand that when they succeed in creating this new world, they themselves as the Global Elite ruling class, will be only ones left in the world with any wealth or freedom. Everyone else will be reduced to poverty and slavery. Their own website says that in this new world they are creating, “You will own nothing and be happy.”. History shows us that Communism always promises to re-distribute wealth evenly by taking away money from the rich and giving it to the poor but instead it always takes away the right of personal property ownership from everyone except the privileged few who are in power.
In this brand-new world, you won’t have to think for yourself or make any of your own decisions. There will be State endorsed experts to do that for you. In fact, you will not have any freedom to think or act on your own. You will think only what you are permitted to think. You will do only what you are told you can do. You will go only where the government permits you to go. Your whole purpose in life will be to serve and worship the State. The behavioral training of the masses for this new government arrangement has already started with social distancing, mask mandates, church and business closures, lock downs, forced vaccinations and vaccination passports.
Today, the United States of America is in a steep descent into totalitarian communism. If you are unaware that this is happening right now in our country then you are either fast asleep, terribly deceived or in serious denial of reality. Today’s United States of America has rejected God and has fallen under his judgement. Like Humpty Dumpty in the nursery rhyme, America has had a great fall and I don’t think all the king’s horses and all the king’s men can put America back together again. The reality is that America the Beautiful, the land of the Free and the home of the Brave that we once knew and loved is GONE!
The Bible tells us that this coming Global Communist government will morph quickly into a Global Dictatorship under the antichrist. I have provided Bible references about the antichrist in the sermon notes for your further study (Mark 13:20-23, 1 John 2:18-27, 1 John 4:1-3, 2 Thess 2:3-10, Revelation 13:1-18, 17:7-14, Daniel 7:8-14, 8:25, 11:45).
As things are ramping up to the one world government under the antichrist, God the Father is not feeling threatened. Instead, I think he is calmy talking to his beloved son, Jesus, and asking him, “Are you ready to go get your Church and bring her back here to my house?” I think that the Lord of Heaven is also saying to Jesus, “I’ve been patient, but I have had just about enough of a world full of men and women who hate you and refuse to submit to you as their king and to obey your commands. I am ready to deal with them now!”.
Now let’s read verses 7 through 9.
7 I will proclaim the decree of the Lord: 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, the ends of the earth your possession.
9 You will rule them with an iron scepter; you will dash them to pieces like pottery.”
God’s Son came to earth and was born as a human baby. By God’s predetermined plan, Jesus would be conceived by the Holy Spirit in Mary, born as a human baby boy in Bethlehem, grow up to be a man and then offer himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world so that he could become our Savior and Lord. We learn in the New Testament accounts of the birth of Jesus how the angels announced that he was special because he was God’s son and he had a special mission on earth to fulfill (Matthew 1:1-2:12, Luke 1:26-2:22).
Jesus was biologically a descendant of Abraham and David through his mother Mary, as can be seen in the genealogy of Jesus recorded in the Gospel of Luke at his baptism. He was legally a descendant of Abraham and David through his adopted father Joseph as can be seen in the genealogy of Jesus recorded in the Gospel of Matthew in the account of his birth. We Christians believe, because the Bible teaches it, that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is God’s son in his human nature (he was conceived by the Holy Spirit) and has always been God’s son in his divine nature.
Twice in the Gospels we hear God the Father speaking in an audible voice from heaven to affirm that Jesus is his own son, echoing his statement in Psalm 2.
The first time the Father spoke from heaven was when Jesus was baptized. “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17).
The second time the Father spoke from heaven was on the Mount of Transfiguration. “…a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”” (Matthew 17:5).
The New Testament is full of evidence proving that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God. Many times, in the Gospels Jesus calls God “My Father” so that people would know about his unique and special relationship with God. One of the favorite titles Jesus used for himself was “son of Man”. He used that title to let people know that as God’s Son he deserved worship and obedience based on a description of the “son of Man” in Daniel 7:13-14. When asked at his trial if he was the “Son of God” he accepted the title (Matthew 26:62–64). The demons recognized that Jesus was the Son of God (Matthew 8:29). His disciples called him the Son of God (Matthew 14:32–33, Matthew 16:16, 1 John 5:20). And even a Roman centurion recognized that Jesus was the Son of God when he saw how he died (Matthew 27:54).
Here in verse 8 of Psalm 2 God the Father invites his Son to ask for the nations and the earth as his inheritance and in verse 9 the Father tells his Son that He will rule over the nations and dash them to pieces like pottery.
The 19th chapter of Revelation foretells the future event when King Jesus will return to earth at the end of the tribulation period in judgement, which is the fulfillment of this prophecy in Psalm 2. The Revelation passage reads,
I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh, he has this name written: king of kings and lord of lords. (Revelation 19:11–16)
When Jesus, the son of God returns to Earth, he will destroy the enemies of the kingdom of God by striking them with his iron shepherd’s staff and breaking them into tiny pieces. Then King Jesus, the son of Man, will sort out the survivors of the Tribulation period into sheep and goats based on how they treated his Jewish brothers during the tribulation period. The goats will be the ones who didn’t feed and care for the Jewish believers in Jesus the Messiah. King Jesus will kill them and cast their souls into hell. The sheep will be the ones who were kind to the Jewish believers and took care of them during the 7-year tribulation period. King Jesus will allow them to live and enter the kingdom of His Father which has been prepared for them since the creation of the world (Matthew 25:31-46).
Finally, read with me verses 10 and 12.
10 Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth.
11 Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
The Kings and Rulers of the Earth are admonished; “Be Wise! Be Warned!”. This is Jesus Christ who is coming to set up his kingdom and He will judge the living and the dead (2 Timothy 4:1). Since it is foolish to continue in rebellion against him, those resisting him should stop fighting against him and submit to him. The Kings are commanded to “Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.” This admonishment applies to everyone since a life of true joy only comes from reverent service to the Son of God.
The call goes out to all people to “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way”. “Kiss the Son” means to submit to him with worship and love!
In Luke chapter 7 there is a story about a woman who had been a prostitute but when she met Jesus she repented of her sins and trusted him. Notice how Jesus received her and forgave her sins though they were many.
Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” (Luke 7:44-50)
The unnamed woman in the story quite literally “Kissed the Son” of God as this passage tells the kings and rulers of the earth to do. Those who “Kiss the Son” by loving Jesus and submitting to his authority and rule in their lives will be blessed. They will rejoice when he comes back to judge to world and establish his kingdom. But those who foolishly resist him will be punished and cast into hell when he comes back to establish his kingdom on earth.
The Son of God should be feared by those who rebel against him; but he is gracious and kind to those who come humbly to him and put their trust in him. Those who refuse to “Kiss the Son” are in danger of him becoming angry and destroying them.
God the Father showed his love toward us by sending His Son to bear God’s wrath against us because of our sins. We can avoid falling under God’s wrath by turning away from our sins and turning to his Son for forgiveness and cleansing. The apostle John wrote in 1 John chapter 4,
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:9-10)
The word translated “atoning sacrifice” and in some other English translations, “propitiation” means one who bears wrath. God sent his Son, Jesus to bear his wrath against us when he died on the cross for our sins.
We can only be saved from our sins and be given eternal life by believing in Jesus, the Son of God. However, the Bible clearly says that those who don’t believe in him are still under God’s wrath and will be condemned.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. (John 3:16-18).
The Song of the Son ends with a blessing. It says, “Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”. You can avoid falling under the wrath of God by humbly taking refuge in the death of Jesus on the cross for you.
Jesus is coming back in blazing glory to judge and destroy the people of this world for their sin and rebellion against him. But He will also be gracious to those who stop fighting against him and surrender to him now.
The good news is that if you come to Jesus today and ask him for mercy and forgiveness, he will give it to you! If you put your trust in Jesus, today, he will rescue from God’s coming wrath by taking you to heaven before it begins (1 Thess 1:10).
Are your sins covered by the blood of Jesus? If not, then I urge you to go to Jesus today in prayer. Tell him that you are an unworthy sinner. Ask him to have mercy on you and forgive you. Ask him to change you. Call on the name of the Lord and you will be saved! (Romans 10:13).
If you have not already come to Jesus, don’t wait! Before you go to sleep tonight, tell him, that you are going to turn away from your sins and start obeying his commands. Pledge your love and loyalty to the Son of God as YOUR eternal King.
