Enthroned Above the Embattled

Psalm 2, verses 1 to 12, let the whole psalm begin, read it out loud for us.

Psalms 2 · chapter mention

Why do the nations rage, and the peoples fought 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 courts 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,

Ask 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, 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.

Amen.

This is what people call an enthronement psalm,

a psalm that Israelites used during the coronation ceremony of their kings.

And frequently it speaks of the theological reality,

the spiritual reality of God's reign,

and what seems to be the earthly reality of people not living under that reign,

people revolting and rebelling against God.

And frequently we too feel very small in this world.

We feel like we can't control our relationships,

the trajectory of our careers.

We can't control our own lives,

let alone the things that happen at the national scale,

the political movements, the cultural trends, the global happenings.

We feel like just little minions that have little control

over the things that happen in this world.

And so frequently people feel disempowered and disenfranchised.

And Christians in certain parts of the world

feel particularly disenfranchised and disempowered.

And sometimes that leads us to turn to other champions,

which may explain some of what's happening this season,

you know, in the U.S.

during the election cycle.

But in their best moments in church history,

Christians have always turned to God as their champion

and not to men as their champion.

And this passage speaks about that reality.

And the main point that the psalm reminds us of

is that even though we battle with the sense of embattlement,

that we're kind of being attacked

or that we are surrounded by enemies

or people that don't share our values,

really we can take refuge in God

because God remains enthroned as king overall.

So when we are embattled, we can take refuge in Him

because He remains enthroned as king overall.

So let's first look at how the Israelites felt

embattled by the nations.

And then secondly, how God remains enthroned above the nations

by looking at Psalm 2.

So first, it tells us about the nations' rage

and how Israelites felt embattled by them

in verses 1 to 3.

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.

The words are telling, their nations are raging,

they're plotting, they're setting themselves

against God and His anointed.

They're taking counsel together.

And this could be, this is not very threatening

because we know that men are capable of accomplishing a lot.

People are capable of accomplishing a lot

when they put their heads together,

when they get counseled together,

when the nations gather together.

And we see an example of this in Genesis

when just before Abrahamic covenant,

Genesis 11, people try to build a tower of Babel.

They try to build a tower that reaches the heavens

for their own glory

and so that they don't have to be scattered

throughout the earth,

which is in direct affront to God's glory

and in direct violation of God's command

to spread throughout the earth.

So God punishes them,

but as He does that,

He says this in chapter 11, verse 9,

Behold, they are one people

and they have all one language

and this is only the beginning of what they will do.

And nothing that they propose to do

will now be impossible for them.

So nothing that they propose to do

will be impossible for them.

And when the nations conspire together,

and of course this is kind of general comment

on the ingenuity of men,

what they're able to do,

not an expression of God feeling threatened by men.

And we know that,

and especially in this psalm,

it shows this because if you look at verse 4,

starting in verse 4,

it says,

He who sits in the heavens laughs.

The Lord holds them in division.

So this is in stark contrast

to what the people are doing.

They're plotting.

They're busy.

They're putting their heads

to get a council together.

But the Lord is not anxiously standing

looking to see what can happen

or pacing around in anxiety.

He's sitting.

I mean,

He's enthroned.

That's what it literally is.

He says,

He sits.

He's enthroned in the heavens.

He laughs.

He laughs at them

and He holds them in division.

And it says that He's the Lord, right?

The Lord holds them in division.

So the word Lord occurs several times

in this chapter,

but this is different from the other occurrences

because it's not capitalized.

It's not in all caps.

So that when it's all in all caps,

it's referring to the personal name of God,

the covenant name of God

that He revealed to Israel.

But here,

because it's not in all caps,

it's actually the word Lord that is used.

And the reason why the Lord sits enthroned

and laughs and holds them in division

is because He's the Lord.

He's the master.

He's the one in charge.

And He's not afraid.

He's undaunted by what these nations are plotting.

I kind of think of it in my image

like these people are like busy bees

buzzing around and forming,

doing stuff in their honeycomb.

And God's like this 800-pound grizzly bear

that just comes and takes the honey

and actually grizzly bears eat not just the honey,

but along with it,

the bees and the honeycomb as well.

So,

and in real life,

it's not like Winnie the Pooh

that runs away from the honeybees.

You know,

the grizzly bears don't care

about the bees stinging them

because the fur is too thick.

They can't penetrate the fur.

So,

the bear comes,

takes the honey

and then saunters off.

And all he needs to do

is just vigorously shake himself

to shake off the dead bees,

dead honeybees from his fur

just like he shakes off water

and then he goes off to his next destination.

He's unfazed

as he sees these busy bees

buzzing about him.

And it's kind of like that.

It's the nations raise,

they plot,

they counsel together,

yet the Lord sits,

is enthroned.

When the nations,

when his people feel embattled,

when the nations seem to wage war against him,

he sits enthroned and laughs

and holds them in the nation.

And similarly,

God responds that way

if you look at verses 5 to 6.

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.

God speaks to them in his wrath

and then just terrifies the people

that are plying against him.

And how he responds

is by setting up his own king.

As the earthly kings rage against him,

he sets up his own king

on his own holy hill.

And this is significant

because Israel,

though it was a monarchy in a sense,

they had kings,

it was strictly speaking not a monarchy,

it was a theocracy

because the king was viewed

not as a sovereign ruler,

but as God's representative.

He ruled as God's representative.

And that's the case here.

So if you look at verses 7 to 9,

the anointed one,

the king that God puts in place,

then speaks about the decree

that God gave him.

So verses 7 to 9,

read with me.

It 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.

And this has very clear

Christological implications.

It speaks of Christ.

This is why Psalm 2

is one of the most frequently cited

Old Testament passages

in the New Testament.

And Christians throughout the ages

have seen a prediction

or prophecy of Christ

in this passage.

And the connection is very obvious

in verse 7,

he calls this,

You are my son.

Today I have begotten you.

There is,

of course,

the kings were referred to

as sons of God,

but Israelite kings

were distinctly earthly.

They were humans.

They were not considered divine

like some of the pagan nations

consider their kings

to be divine.

Yet here,

it speaks of him

being begotten,

which later in John

gets picked up

as language of the unique

son of God.

And not only that,

it looks forward to the time

when Christ will come

because this sonship language

is the language of God

originally used

when he made a covenant

with King David

saying that Solomon

will be to him

like a son.

He'll be like a father to him.

And he promised him

an everlasting kingdom.

Yet, of course,

no earthly kingdom

is everlasting.

So the kingdom here in view,

the king here in view

points ultimately to Christ

who alone reigns forever.

So he's the son

that's in view here.

And Christ,

as it says here,

also inherits nations.

It's verse 8.

It says,

I will make the nations

your heritage

and the ends of the earth

your possession.

And if you look at

the book of Acts,

it chronicles how

the gospel of Jesus Christ

goes from Jerusalem

to Judea and Samaria

and to the ends

of the earth.

So he goes to all nations.

Christ inherits

all the nations

because he reigns

over the entire universe.

And then finally,

God promises,

you shall break them

with a rod of iron

and dash them in pieces

like a potter's vessel.

This is a really powerful image

of unbreakable iron

shattering something

that's weak and brittle

like pottery.

I mean,

when you take an iron

to pottery,

you know what's going to break.

And that's Jesus.

He destroys his enemies.

And even though

he died on the cross

and that seemed,

appeared to be

like a defeat,

yet he was triumphing

over sin and death.

He was defeating

his enemies

because the true enemy

is the world

flesh and the devil,

right?

It's not ultimately

the people,

but it's the world

flesh and the devil

that are the enemies

of God

that lead people astray,

that lead people

in this rebellion

against God.

And Christ

definitively destroys

and defeats

the enemies

sin and death.

And that's,

and so Christ

is the ultimate

anointed one.

So anointed one,

actually Christ

means anointed one,

right?

And he's the ultimate

anointed one

in view

as this passage

was used

in the coronation

of Israelite kings.

It envisioned

the time

when the ultimate king,

the ultimate

anointed one

would come.

And then verses

10 to 12

conclude this passage.

It says,

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.

the language

of kiss the son

means be subject

to him.

You kiss loyalty.

You kiss

your suzerain king,

the king that reigns

over you.

And he's basically

calling his earthly kings

to become vassal kings

as kings who are subject

to this high king.

And because Christ

reigns,

even in our embattlement

because Christ is enthroned,

because God is enthroned,

those who take refuge

in him are blessed.

So he concludes,

Blessed are all

who take refuge

in him.

And so if we think

about that,

we need to apply

this to our lives.

In a way,

think of our world,

our lives,

as kind of

a virtual reality.

I mean,

it seems like

the world we live in

is real,

it's raw,

that's what's most real

in our lives sometimes.

But really,

things are not

as they seem.

When we feel

oppressed by the

daily pressures

at work,

where maybe they

herald

the values

that are contrary

to the values

of Christ,

or when

we are oppressed

by society

where their own vision

of human flourishing

and goodness

contradicts that of God

and that of God's word,

when you feel grieved

by people's sinfulness,

maybe your own sinfulness

in your life,

when you feel

embattled by all the things

that are going on

around you

and in you,

we remember

that Christ

came to destroy

sin and death,

that he's the one

that breaks them

with the rod of iron

and dashes them

in pieces

like a potter's vessel.

We have to remember

that Christ,

who broke the potter

of sin,

killed death,

and he subjected

the spiritual powers

and authorities

of the world.

And that's why

no matter what

situation we're in,

we can take refuge

in God

when we are embattled,

because we remember

that God

may be enthroned

as king over all.

So with that in mind,

let's sing,

sing glorious Christ

and let's begin

a prayer

in response to Christ.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.