Kiss the Son

Well, this

morning we are continuing with our series in

the Psalms, and we're looking at Psalm 2.

Please

listen to the reading of God's Word. Psalm

2.

Why do the nations rage

and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth set themselves,

and the rulers take counsel together against the

Lord and against His anointed, saying,

let us burst their bonds apart

and cast away their cords from us.

He who sits in the heavens laughs.

The Lord holds them in derision.

Then he will speak to them in his

wrath

and terrify them in his fury saying,

as for me, I have set my king

on Zion,

my holy hill.

I will tell of the decree, the Lord

said to me, you are my son.

Today I have begotten you.

Ask of me and I will make the

nations your heritage

and the ends of the earth your possession.

You shall break them with a rod of

iron and dash them in pieces

like a potter's vessel.

Now therefore, oh kings, be wise.

Be warned, oh rulers of the earth.

Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with

trembling.

Kiss the sun,

lest he be angry and you perish in

the way,

for his wrath is quickly kindled.

Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God. Please be seated.

Well, today we're looking at Psalm 2,

which

together with Psalm 1 serves as an introduction

to the rest of the Psalter.

As Julio taught last week, Psalm 1 presents

2 paths before the reader.

The path of the rebellious man,

which results in judgment and destruction,

and the path of the righteous man,

which results in vindication

and eternal life.

And those same two paths

lie before us each,

each and every day. They lie before each

and every one of us

each and every day.

Do we like the rebellious man of Psalm

1,

listen to the arrogant advice of cynical

society

and imitate

the abhorrent actions of sinners

and appropriate and affirm

the blasphemy of scoffers?

Or

do we, like the righteous man,

meditate upon

and

model our lives

after the teachings

of God's

law? In other words,

there are two paths before you today.

God's promise is that the path of the

wicked

results in judgment,

while the path of the righteous

results

in joy.

Psalm 1 describes

man's paths.

Rebellion

or righteousness?

Psalm 2 declares God's promises.

Wrath and ruin for the renegade

or refuge and redemption

for the repentant.

These paths and these promises

lie behind every Psalm and they lie before

every one of us today.

And the main question I want you to

consider this morning

as we look at Psalm 2 is this,

are you living in rebellion

against Christ

or are you resting in him?

Are you living

in rebellion against Christ

or are you resting in Him?

So I want you to ponder this question

as we unpack this psalm

under 4 headings.

Number 1, the society's rebellion.

Number 2,

the sovereign's rebuke.

Number 3, the son's rule.

And number 4, the spirit's rescue.

So let's look at the first heading, the

society's rebellion.

Look at verses 1 to 3 with me

again.

Why do the nations rage and the peoples

plot in vain?

The kings of the earth set themselves, and

the rulers take counsel together against the Lord

and against His anointed, saying,

'Let us burst their bonds apart

and cast away their cords from us.'

That is the all inclusive scope

of the rebellion that these verses describe.

We learn that individuals from every race

and entire nations, as well as their kings

and rulers,

are all involved

in this treacherous and ill fated conspiracy.

And against whom

are they conspiring?

Well, the text states that their rage and

schemes are set against the Lord

and against the Lord's anointed.

Now for the moment let us set aside

the identity of the Lord's anointed. We'll get

to that later.

But notice that in verse 2, the word

Lord appears in all capital letters.

You might recall that whenever Lord is in

all capital letters, it indicates

that it is translating the personal name of

God in Hebrew,

which is often pronounced

Yahweh

or even Jehovah.

In other words,

the rebellion described

in the opening verses of Psalm 2

is set against the Lord, that is to

say against God Himself.

Let me say that it shouldn't surprise us

to learn that people from every nation and

race,

and that people from every walk of life,

even those who wield great authority,

are in open rebellion against God.

Yet for many,

in our humanistic

Western culture,

this is a hard pill to swallow.

We refuse to believe it.

We refuse to have such a pessimistic view

on human nature, don't

we? In a recent interview with 60 minutes,

reporter Nora O'Donnell asked Pope Francis,

When you look at the world,

what gives you hope?

And Pope Francis answered,

People are fundamentally

good.

We are fundamentally good.

Yes, there are some rogues and sinners,

but the heart

is good.

In Genesis 6:5,

Genesis 6:5

Moses writes,

The Lord saw that the wicked that the

wickedness of man was great in the earth,

and that the every intention

of the thoughts of his heart

was only evil continually.

Now you might complain that such assessment came

before the flood.

Well, in Jeremiah 17:9

Jeremiah 17:9

the prophet offers this post diluvian diagnosis.

The heart is deceitful above all things

and desperately sick.

Who can understand it?

Ah, but that is before the incarnation of

Jesus you say.

Well, in Matthew 15 verses 18 and 19,

Matthew 15:18

the incarnate Jesus

says,

but what comes out of the mouth proceeds

from the heart,

and this

defiles a person.

For out of the heart

come evil thoughts,

murder,

adultery,

sexual immorality,

theft,

false witness,

slander.

Surely the resurrection and ascension of Jesus remove

the impurity

from every human heart, you say.

Well, in Romans 3:23, the Apostle Paul, who

Romans 3:23

was converted after

the resurrection and ascension of Christ

writes,

For all have sinned

and fall short

of the glory of God. No, we are

not fundamentally good.

No, the human heart

is not good.

It is wicked,

deceitful,

desperately sick,

treacherous,

and murderous.

And the reason for this malady

is the fall, that wretched occasion

when Adam first sinned against God.

Therefore, since he is our first father,

every human being after him bears his guilt

and corruption

from the moment that we are conceived.

We inherit

his spiritual genetics

and bear the sinful family resemblance.

David himself tells us as much in Psalm

Psalms 51:5

51 verse 5 where he writes,

Behold,

I was brought forth in iniquity,

and in sin did my mother conceive me.

In Ezekiel 36,

the prophet writes that since we carry this

curse,

we all have hearts of stone

and are incapable

of obeying God's law.

In Ephesians 2,

Paul describes his wretched condition as spiritual

death,

writing that this sinful nature makes all mankind

children of wrath.

So again, we should not be surprised

by how widespread the rebellion against God is.

In Matthew 7 verses 13 and 14, Jesus

Matthew 7:13

says

that the way is easy

that leads to destruction

and those who enter by it are many.

For the gate is narrow and the way

is hard that leads to life, and those

who find it

are few.

Jesus is here referring to the same two

paths in Psalm 1,

the wide and well traveled

path that leads to destruction

and the narrow and scarcely trodden path

that leads to eternal

life.

Psalm 2's ruinous rebellion

rises and runs

along this wretched road.

Are you racing toward ruin

on this route?

Remember,

most people are.

Most people are.

Most people are regardless of race,

of nationality,

of education,

of social status.

You might ask yourself, well, how can I

know?

Well, verse 2 tells you how.

You see the rebellion is against the Lord

and against His anointed.

Rebellion against the Lord's anointed is the sure

marker

of the wicked.

So, this is where we get to ask,

who is the Lord's anointed?

In ancient Israel

it was customary for prophets,

priests, and kings to be consecrated for office

by being anointed

with oil.

This represented the conferring of the gifts of

the Holy Spirit upon them.

It is fitting therefore

that the Lord's anointed in Psalm 2

refers to none other

than the one who holds these three offices

perpetually.

The one who is a

prophet greater than Moses,

the one who is our High Priest after

the order of Melchizedek,

and the one who is King of kings,

who holds Judah's scepter and sits on David's

throne.

His identity becomes clear when we consider the

word

for anointed in Hebrew

is Mashiach

which we transliterate

as Messiah,

and in Greek Christos

which we transliterate

as Christ.

In other words, allegiance to Christ,

to the Messiah

is the touchstone of righteous living.

This is why Jesus is the way, the

truth, and the life.

This is why no one goes to the

righteous Father except

through Him.

Conversely,

whoever denies Christ,

denies the Father,

is in rebellion against the Lord and against

his anointed,

and is surely

on the path to perdition.

People might say, Well, I'm a spiritual person.

Or,

I believe that all paths lead to God.

Or, I believe that God is within each

and every one of us.

Or,

I believe in humanity.

Or I believe in science,

or simply

I believe in myself.

But what Psalm 2 makes clear

is that all this theoretical mumbo jumbo is

a complete waste of time,

that the test for fidelity

is much more concrete,

that the question everyone must answer is,

what is your relationship

to the Anointed One?

What is your relationship

to the Messiah?

What is your relationship

to Christ?

Because as long as you deny Christ,

you remain in rebellion against the Lord,

and are dead in your sin,

and are condemned to eternal damnation.

Why?

Because you are subverting the truth which is

revealed in God's word.

You oppose God's word.

You ignore it.

Or maybe you even despise it.

Either way you are running your own race

on your own road,

unaware that like Jonah

you will be swallowed up into the deep.

Is that what you are doing?

What is your relationship

to Christ?

What is your relationship

to the Lord's anointed?

Are you listening to his voice?

Are you obeying

his word?

When God delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt

and guided them into the promised land, He

did so by giving Israel His word

that they might possess the promised land and

live in it in righteousness.

Concerning this deliverance, look at what God says

in Hosea chapter 11

Hosea 11:4

verse 4.

He says, I led my people with cords

of kindness,

with bands

of love.

Again, I led my people with cords of

kindness,

with bands of love.

I think of how excited my dog gets

when I place the collar and leash around

his neck and take him for a walk.

It is that band and that cord that

keeps him safe,

walking on the right path,

preventing him from wandering away and getting lost.

The band and cord keep him tied to

me.

The one who is committed to nurturing him

and caring for him.

How much more

does God care for us through his word,

his court of kindness, and his band of

love?

But now look again at what those in

rebellion against God say in verse 3.

They say, Let us burst their bonds apart

and cast away their cords from us.

Those in rebellion against God

reject the loving word of Christ.

They see it as an oppressive hindrance.

They come to despise it.

In verse 1 where we read that the

peoples plot in vain,

the word plot is the same Hebrew word

that in Psalm 1

Psalm 1 verse 2 is translated as meditates,

Psalms 1:2

referring to the blessed man who meditates

on God's law day and night.

Same word.

So whereas the righteous

meditate

on Christ's word day and night,

rebellious people

with the same

religious devotion

scheme

against Christ.

Scheme,

plot

against the Lord's anointed with the same fervor.

In John 5, Jesus gives us great insight

into the relationship between obedience

to Christ's Word and eternal life.

Look at what

he says beginning in verse 24.

Truly, truly, I say to you,

whoever hears my word

and believes him who sent me

has eternal life.

He does not come into judgment,

but has passed from death to life.

Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour

is coming and is now here

when the dead will hear the voice of

the Son of God,

and those who hear

will live.

Then in verse 45 he continues,

Do not think that I will accuse you

to the Father.

There is one who accuses you,

Moses,

on whom you have set your hope.

For if you believed Moses,

you would believe me, for he wrote of

me.

But if you do not believe his writings,

how will you believe my words?

Society's rebellion against God therefore is characterized

by opposing

Christ's rule through the rejection

of His word.

Governments who redefine marriage,

rulers

who persecute Christians,

societies that celebrate sin

and ridicule righteousness,

schools

that teach and promote the lies

of gender ideology,

Church leaders

who abuse the sheep

to protect their own interests,

pastors

who perform on Sundays

to build their own kingdom,

and individuals devoted to the pursuit of money

and pleasure

and fame

are all part

of the society of satanic schemers

seeking to subvert

their sovereign.

So having looked at society's rebellion,

let us now consider our second heading,

the sovereign's rebuke.

In verse 1 the psalmist begins by asking,

Why do the nations rage?

The question is rhetorical.

The why is not meant to be answered.

Rather it is meant to underscore

the futility

of the rebellion.

He's asking,

Why do you guys bother?

Do you not know

who you are opposing?

Do you not think your treachery

has

do you do you think that your treachery

has any chance of prevailing?

Do you think that the Lord is worried

about your schemes?

Look at verses 4 to 6 with me.

He who sits in the heavens

laughs

The Lord holds them in derision.

Then he will speak to them in his

wrath and terrify them in his fury saying,

As for me,

I have set my king on Zion,

my holy hill.

One commentator notes that verse 4

is the only place in the Bible where

it says that God laughs.

When clay conspires to reshape the potter,

laughter is the potter's appropriate response.

The king is so unconcerned

that he doesn't even get up from his

throne.

He sits in the heavens and laughs.

Men and women decide

they can live without God,

yet inevitably

they all die

and meet His inescapable

fury.

Societies decide

they don't need God's wisdom,

yet they quickly forget

what a woman is.

Governments decide they don't need God's law,

yet they descend into chaos and become riddled

with crime.

Civilizations

decide

they can eradicate God's people,

yet they spread the gospel and grow the

church

before collapsing.

You'll notice in verse 4 that the word

Lord is not

in upper case this time.

The reason for this is that this time

it is translating the Hebrew word

Adonai

which indeed means Lord or Master

or Sovereign.

The psalmist is reminding the rebels that God

is their sovereign ruler,

that their rebellion has zero

chance of success.

Look at how the prophet Isaiah describes God's

greatness

in Isaiah chapter 40

Isaiah 40 · chapter mention

beginning in verse 15.

Behold,

the nations are like a drop from a

bucket

and

are accounted

as the dust on the scales.

All the nations

are as nothing before Him.

They are accounted by Him as less than

nothing and emptiness.

To whom then

will you liken God?

Or what

likeness

will you compare with

him? Do you not know?

Do you not hear?

Has it not been told you from the

beginning?

Have you not understood from the foundation of

the earth?

It is he who sits above the circle

of the earth

and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.

Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain

and spreads them like a tent to dwell

in?

Who brings princes to nothing

and makes the rulers of the earth as

emptiness?

Dear Christian,

are you worried

because the world is in rebellion against God?

Because people arrogantly mock

believers?

Because scholars

ridicule the Bible?

Because governments

persecute the church. Are you concerned about that?

Psalm 2 reminds you,

do not worry.

God is not worried.

He laughs.

In fact, it is the rebels who need

to worry

for God's laughter

is not one of joy,

it's not a pleasant laugh, it's not a

laugh of satisfaction.

Rather his laughter is a rebuke.

God scoffs

at their foolishness.

God mocks their audacity and derides their insolence.

Then in verse 5, He manifests his wrath

and fury against them.

The image in the Hebrew is that of

a person who is breathing

heavily,

menacing

to unleash his fury at any moment.

If the people who act wickedly against God,

and against God's plans,

and against God's people

could discern

God's present anger

against them,

they would either repent on the spot or

be undone

in abject

terror.

God will not be mocked.

His anger burns against injustice.

God is a dispassionate judge but he is

not uninterested.

He cares deeply about his creation, he hates

sin,

And he tells us in Exodus 30 four:seven

that he will by no means clear the

guilty.

Remember the question I want you to consider

this morning, are you living in rebellion against

Christ

or are you resting in him?

Vengeance is his, he will repay.

It is a fearful thing to fall into

the hands of the living God.

Today many schools have embraced curriculums that confuse

students.

Many governments prosecute Christians for obeying God's word.

Many companies

make anti biblical policies

compulsory.

Many social media platforms disseminate

content that deceives

and distorts.

It may seem like the wicked will prosper.

It may appear like the conspiracy of the

rulers of the world will prevail.

Yet despite

the rebellion,

in verse 6 God boldly proclaims that He

has set His King on Zion,

His holy hill.

In the middle of absurd scheming,

and while the wicked machinations of man are

running wild,

verse 4 tells us that God sits on

His throne in heaven and verse 6 says

that His King is enthroned on Mount Zion.

The spiritual realm

and the physical realm are both under God's

sovereign rule.

What a great comfort

this should provide to you, dear Christian.

Your salvation is entirely secure and your inheritance

completely

safe.

During the 1st temple period, the Ark of

the Covenant

which represented God's throne

was housed in the temple's

holy of holies

which faced east and was located on Mount

Moriah.

Mount Zion

was to its south, that is to say

at its right hand.

And

that is where the kings of Judah,

since the time of David, had their palace.

God's earthly ruler

sat

at his right hand.

It was a preview

of the permanent position

of privilege

that the divine heir to David's throne would

one day possess.

Mark, and Luke,

and Paul,

and Peter,

and the author of Hebrews all say that

after his resurrection,

Jesus ascends into heaven and sits

at the right hand of the Father,

ruling over angels, ruling over authorities, ruling over

all powers.

So having looked at the society's rebellion and

the sovereign's rebuke, this brings us to our

3rd heading, the sons rule.

In verses 7 to 9, the king who

sits on Mount Zion,

the Lord's anointed speaks.

He says,

I will tell of the decree.

The Lord said to me,

you are my son.

Today

I have begotten you.

Ask of me and I will make the

nations your heritage

and the ends of the earth your possession.

You shall break them with a rod of

iron and dash them in pieces

like a potter's

vessel.

Unlike the posers on earth who wield authority

without integrity,

who sit on their thrones illegitimately

through deception,

through pretense,

through bullying,

who make decisions and utter decrees to enrich

themselves and to pathetically

preserve their power,

the King who sits on Mount Zion

asserts his power

by declaring his

incontrovertible

credentials.

As to the flesh,

he is the legitimate heir to David's throne.

We know this because verse 7 comes from

2 Samuel 714,

where after declaring

that one of David's descendants will sit on

David's throne forever,

God declares, I will be to him a

father

and he shall be to me a son.

The Lord's anointed

is that son.

But in the fullness of time

we now know his identity is even greater

than that.

The Lord tells

the king,

You are my son.

Today

I have begotten you.

God the Father uses these words to describe

Jesus at his baptism

and at His transfiguration.

He says, This is my beloved Son with

whom I am well pleased.

Furthermore, in John 1 and 3,

the beloved disciple calls Jesus, The only begotten

Son of God.

When we recite the Nicene Creed,

we say that the Lord Jesus Christ is

begotten,

not made.

This is because

one can only beget

something

of the same nature.

A dog can only beget other dogs.

A cat can only beget other cats. A

human can only beget other humans.

But the Son of God is eternally begotten

of God the Father,

Precisely

because He is, as the Nicene Creed states,

of one substance with the Father. That is

to say,

He is God.

In other words,

the Lord's anointed

the king on Mount Zion,

the heir to David's throne is none other

than the Son of God made flesh.

The conspirators have no chance against him.

In verse 8, The Father is pleased to

give the Son all the nations even to

the ends of the earth as his inheritance.

In verse 9,

we learn that the Father gave the Son

the right to break the nations with a

rod of iron

and to dash them into pieces like a

potter's vessel.

Here the psalmist paints an image of judgment

for us by describing an Egyptian ritual of

cursing

where someone would write the name of a

person

or of a city on a piece of

pottery and then would pronounce a curse

and smash that pottery on the floor

dashing it to pieces.

If you are in rebellion

against Christ,

if you are living in unrepentant

sin,

raising your fist

against him as it were,

you should know

that it is he who raises his fist

against you,

and that your clay constitution is no match

for his rod of iron.

So having looked at the society's rebellion,

and the sovereign's rebuke,

and the son's rule, let us not consider

our final heading,

the Spirit's rescue.

Yes, the situation is very dire indeed for

those who are in rebellion against the Son.

But there is yet hope.

Look at verses 10 to 12 with me.

Now therefore, O kings, be wise.

Be warned, O rulers of the earth.

Serve the Lord with fear

and rejoice with trembling.

Kiss the son,

lest he be angry and you perish in

the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.

Blessed are all

who take refuge

in him.

In this Psalm,

we've heard the voice of sinners scheming in

verses 1 to 3.

In verses 4 to 6,

we heard the voice of the father rebuking

them.

In verses 7 to 9, we heard the

voice of the son

asserting his authority.

And now in verses 10 to 12 we

hear the voice of the spirit

calling sinners

to repentance.

The rebellious king

might be too arrogant

to heed the call to wisdom

when he's supposed to be the wise one.

The treacherous ruler

might be too proud

to be on the receiving end of a

warning when he's the one

who has authority to issue warnings.

But what about you?

What will you allow

to stand in the way

between you

and eternal life?

The spirit says, Be wise

and heed my warning.

Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with

trembling.

In other words, the spirit is calling you

to never forget

who you are

and who God is.

Sincere service to God results in rejoicing,

we're made for it.

This is what we do when we worship

Him.

But as creatures we should never lose

the

sensation of fear and trembling

before God.

The more we understand his awesome

and terrible might,

the more we will marvel

at his grace and his love for us

sinners.

And this will help us grow in love

for him,

which is the greatest vaccine against insurrection.

As Christians our obedience to God

should not be rooted

in fear.

It should be rooted in love.

But fear and trembling remind us

of the awesome context

of our salvation.

In verse 12,

the Psalm ends with an imperative followed by

a benediction.

A command

followed by a blessing.

The command is this,

kiss the son.

And it includes this warning,

lest he be angry and you perish in

the way

for his wrath is quickly kindled.

The amazing thing

is that the word sun is not in

Hebrew.

It is in Aramaic.

Aramaic

was the language spoken by 2 of Israel's

greatest enemies,

the Assyrians and the Babylonians.

In other words, the Spirit's plea

is that all should kiss the sun,

not just Israel.

Our neighbors need the gospel.

Our enemies

need the gospel.

We

need the gospel.

All must pay homage to the son if

they are to have hope. To kiss the

son is to pay homage to him, it

is to submit to him.

Have you done that?

If you haven't, don't wait any longer.

His judgment can come at any moment.

When Judas betrayed Jesus,

he did it with a kiss.

He wasn't paying homage

to Jesus, he was just trying to get

paid.

And he did,

and he's still getting paid.

And the fiery wages of sin will never

run out.

In Luke 7 however, we read of a

sinful woman

who also

kissed Jesus.

She repented of her sin,

and she could not fathom

that someone like her

could be forgiven.

So she took

an expensive alabaster flask

with an expensive perfume,

probably her most precious possession,

and she raised it

and she shattered it to pieces.

But instead of invoking a curse,

it was her curse

that was undone forever.

So she took that perfume

which she purchased with with the wages of

her sin.

And God's anointed

allowed her

to anoint him

with the wages of her sin.

She plays the tools of her trade on

Jesus.

She used her hands and her hair to

clean his feet with her tears,

and to anoint them

with ointment.

Then she used her lips

to kiss his feet

and God's anointed

allowed that too.

And everyone was scandalized,

but not Christ.

He took her sin

and her shame

and he counted it as a joy.

On that day,

the sinful woman kissed the son

and took refuge in him.

Won't you do the same?

Won't we all

do the same?

Let us not wait any longer.

Blessed are those

who take refuge

in him. Let's pray.