Well, I want to invite you to
take your Bibles and turn with me, if you will, to the book
of Psalms, to Psalm 2. And I want to bring a message
to you entitled, Our Sovereign King. I want to begin by reading
this psalm, setting it before your eyes again, reintroducing
it to your heart. And then we will spend this hour
looking carefully at this psalm, Psalm 2. This is the inspired
and the inerrant and the infallible Word of the living God. Why are the nations in an uproar
and the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth
take their stand. And the rulers take counsel together
against the Lord and against His anointed saying, let us tear
their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens lasts. The Lord scoffs at them. Then
He will speak to them in His anger. and terrify them in his
fury, saying, but as for me, I have installed my king upon
Zion, my holy mountain. I will surely tell of the decree
of the Lord. He said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask
of me. And I will surely give the nations
as your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as your
possession. You shall break them with a rod
of iron. You shall shatter them like earthenware. Now therefore, O kings, show
discernment. Take warning, O judges of the
earth. Worship the Lord with reverence. and rejoice with trembling. Do
homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish
in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled." How blessed
are all who take refuge in Him. We live in a hostile world. That
is at war with the truth of God. This is a day in which the moral
restraints of the Word of God are being thrown off by the godless
culture in which we find ourselves. Our society is pushing the moral
limits as never before. This day would make Sodom and
Gomorrah blush. What was once unthinkable is
now uncensored and unfettered. What was previously abhorrent
is now applauded. And what once sloughed down the
back alley now struts down Main Street. The wickedness of man
is now pushing out the boundaries to the new limits never before
imagined in our society. The new morality is very simply
the old immorality but on steroids. This is precisely what we read
in Psalm 2. Here is the total depravity of
the human race in revolt against God and against His Son. It is
this psalm that explains what we see going on all around us,
the rebellion of the world against the law of God and against the
Son of God. Here is the explanation for the
sexual revolution that we see in our day. And moreover, here
is God's response. Here is God speaking the truth,
but it is not God speaking exclusively in love. Rather it is God also
speaking in anger and in fury. God does speak in love at the
end of this psalm, but He also speaks in wrath. And this is
a psalm in which the Lord speaks very clearly. There are several
things by way of introduction that I want to bring to your
attention about Psalm 2 before we begin to exposit what is here. And first, I want you to note
its placement. It is the second psalm. It was not the second
psalm to be written. The first psalm to be written
is Psalm 90. It was written by Moses over fourteen hundred years
before the coming of Christ. The last psalm to be written
is Psalm 126, a thousand years later. There is a thousand year
span, a millennium. that separates the first psalm
from the last psalm. And as the compilers of the Psalter
arranged the order of the psalms, as you know, it was done in five
separate projects. But Psalm 2 is intentionally
placed here with Psalm 1 because it is so important, because its
message must be heard. It is front-loaded, if you will,
at the beginning of the Psalter so that everyone who comes into
the house of the Lord must hear this psalm. And second, I would
want you to know its partnership and because it forms a unit with
Psalm 1. Psalm 1 and Psalm 2 stand shoulder
to shoulder as two gatekeepers as one enters the book of Psalms. You'll notice how Psalm 1 verse
1 begins, how blessed is the man. You will note how Psalm
2 concludes the final line of verse 12, how blessed are all
who take refuge in Him. That is a literary device known
as inclusio or inclusion. And that little phrase, how blessed
is the man, functions as bookends around these first two Psalms. They are to be read together.
In fact, they probably at one point were combined and have
been separated. So they stand and they speak
with one voice. Third, you will notice divisions.
There are four stanzas of three verses each, and each of the
four stanzas presents four vivid scenes with four different speakers. Its authorship is a dual authorship. The secondary author is David,
according to Acts 4 verse 25. The primary author is God the
Holy Spirit, according to the same text. Its fulfillment is
both near and far. And this second psalm has a near
fulfillment in the day of David, and this psalm was, we believe,
read at the coronation of one of ancient Israel's kings, one
of the Davidic kings. When they would assume the throne
of Israel, this psalm would be read. And the king is the anointed
in verse 2, against the Lord and against His anointed. And
you'll recall how David was anointed as a young man by Samuel and
it signified the empowering of the Holy Spirit to enable him
to carry out his duties in the office of king. But there's more
than merely an initial fulfillment in the days of Israel's kings. There is an ultimate fulfillment
that we see very clearly in the New Testament as it looks ahead
to the greater Son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. James Montgomery Boyce, who was
mentioned earlier this morning, writes, "'If any psalm can rightly
be regarded as messianic, it is this psalm.'" Its importance is obvious. Psalm 2 is one of the most quoted
psalms by the writers of the New Testament. Acts 4, Acts 13,
Hebrews 1, Hebrews 5, Revelation 19, and many other allusions,
especially in the book of Revelation, are drawn from the pure wells
of Psalm 2. And so, as we look at Psalm 2,
I want to give you the overview for the outline where we're headed
as we will look at this psalm. In the first three verses, we
will see the insurrection of the world, the anarchy of the
world in its rebellion against God. And then second, in verses
4 through 6, we will see the indignation of the Lord. as the
Lord Himself will respond to the insurrection of the world. And then in verses 7 through
9, the inheritance of the Son, as there will be a legacy that
will be passed down from the Father to the Son as He will
claim His inheritance from the ends of the earth. And then finally,
verses 10 through 12, the invitation of the psalmist. as the free
offer of the gospel is extended, and as sinners are called to
come to the Son and to kiss the Son and to do homage to the Son. Let's begin now in verse 1. And I want you to note first
the insurrection of the nations. As this psalm begins, the narrator
describes the human race in defiant rebellion against God and against
His anointed. Look at verse 1. Why are the
nations in an uproar? Why the madness on the earth? Why the turmoil in this world? This is not really a question.
This is really a statement of astonishment and amazement. at the cosmic rebellion being
launched against God and against the moral government of God. And please note, nations is in
the plural. It's not just one nation. It's
all of the nations. It is a global conspiracy against
God to rise up against God. And when He says the upward,
why are the nations? in an uproar. The nations here
are pictured as the angry waves of the sea with its unrest, with
its stormy conditions, with its chaos, with its turbulence. This is not a quiet resistance
against God, but it is a raucous rebellion that is loud and boisterous
against God. He says, and why are the peoples
devising a vain thing? The peoples here represent all
who are outside the kingdom of God. Peoples is in the plural
and it represents the totality of the human race independent
of the Father and the Son. And they are devising. They are
scheming. They are plotting. They are planning. They are conniving. They're diabolical
wickedness to rise up against God. And he says, why are they
devising a vain thing? It is doomed for failure from
the start. It is futile. It is in vain. It is senseless. It is hopeless. It is foolish, this attempt by
the human race to rise up against the government and the law of
God. In verse 2, the kings of the
earth are those who lead the nations and lead the peoples.
The kings of the earth take their stand. They dig in their heels. They set their jaw. The kings here represent all
of the great rulers of the world seen. They set themselves against
God and they lead in this opposition against the moral law of God. They are brazen. They are bold
in their stand. And he says, and the rulers take
counsel together. They cannot agree on economics.
They cannot agree on politics. They cannot agree on international
trade. But where they can come together
and where they stand as one is in their counsel together against
God. They are intolerant of God. They convene and they consult
with each other. They collaborate. They take counsel
against the Lord and His anointed. The anointed here in David's
day was the king of Israel to rise up against the theocracy
of Israel, to rise up against the king of Israel who was in
charge of the affairs of the nation. And it speaks here of
in David's day of the surrounding nations around Israel as they
would rise up against the people of God. But it also looks ahead
to the One who would be the Messiah, who would be the Christ, who
would be the One anointed with power by the Holy Spirit to carry
out the work of God. Here is a global anarchy against
God, and this is what they are saying. Let us tear their fetters
apart. and cast away their cords from
us. It's metaphorical language. They
do not want to be tied down by God. They do not want to become
under the restraining influence of what God's design for the
family is, what God's plan of salvation is, what God's purposes
on the earth are. They do not want to be tied down
by God's moral law. They want none of it and they
will have none of it. They do not want to be constrained
by God's established plan for human living. This is a panoramic
survey of human history. This is God's inspired commentary
of the effects of total depravity over the whole world. This is
human history in a nutshell, beginning with Adam and Eve in
the garden and extending down to the very end of the age. This
is human history at 36,000 feet. This is the big picture of human
history. This is the generation in the
day of the psalmist. This is the generation that crucified
Jesus. This is every successive generation
since. And this is the generation in
the last day immediately preceding the coming of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ as this world will come together and band together
in its stand against Almighty God and against the Lord Jesus
Christ. I believe this is what we see
all around us in this very hour. We are living out the reality
of verses 1 through 3. Here is the rebellion of this
present generation to throw off the fetters that tie them down. This is the anarchy of this present
day to no longer be confined. to one man married to one woman
for life. Here is the upheaval that we
see all around us in society and it's clamoring for euthanasia,
for abortion, for transgender operations, for homosexuality,
for lesbianism, for pornography, etc., etc., etc. This is what
we're up against. This is the reality of the world
in which we preach the Word of God. This is the reality of the
culture and the society that is all around us. As we seek
to plant the flag for the Lord Jesus Christ and to extend the
work of the kingdom of God, there is this tsunami that is coming
against us. This is the insurrection of the
world. Second, I want you to note the
indignation of the Lord, because the Lord does not take this lightly.
In response to man's arrogant boastings, God now speaks. And as God speaks, it is terrifying. And we read in verse 4, He, referring
to God the Father, who sits in the heavens last." Please note
he is seated. The world is standing against
the Lord and the Lord is seated upon His throne in heaven. The
throne is not empty. God is in session as He is presiding
over the affairs of the world. This is what John saw at the
end of the first century when on the island of Patmos, he was
in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. And in Revelation 4 verse 1,
a door was opened in heaven and he was caught up into heaven
and immediately what captured his attention was not who's there
and who's not there. It was not gates of pearl and
streets of gold. What John saw immediately was
a throne. standing in heaven, a throne
that was fixed, was not being moved around, that was at the
very highest point of the entire created order. And that is what
the psalmist David is describing here. He who sits presiding in
session over the affairs of the world. While it looks here upon
the earth that it is total madness and chaos in heaven, God is seated. And we read that He who sits
in the heavens laughs. Yes, laughs. But it is not the
laughter of hilarity. It is not the laughter of joviality. It is the laughter of derision.
It is the laughter of mockery and ridicule. It is the laughter
of scoffing and disdain at the absolute insanity of man to rise
up against God and to try to throw off. His fetters and His
cords, how utterly foolish. And as God looks down from heaven,
much as we see in Genesis 11 where it's almost as though God
has to squint to look down at puny little man. What? You would rise up against Me? All of you? would rise up against Me, he
who sits in the heavens lasts," says the Lord, scoffs at them. Do you see how He is represented
here as the Lord? In the Hebrew, Adonai, which
means the Sovereign One. There is only one Sovereign in
the universe, and that is the One who occupies this throne.
He is the despot. He is the ruler with supreme
authority. And the psalmist will go on to
describe this supreme authority that God exercises over the entire
world in Psalm 33 and verse 8. Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the
world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. The Lord nullifies the counsel
of the nations. He frustrates the plans of the
peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands
forever. The plans of His heart from generation
to generation. And later in Psalm 103 verse
19. The Lord has established His
throne in the heavens and His sovereignty rules over all. Proverbs 21 verse 1, the heart
of the king is in the hand of the Lord. Like rivers of water,
He channels it whichever way He will. I've gone down the Nile
River in Egypt. And I've seen the farmers on
the banks of the Nile as they open up their channels for water
to come flowing out of the Nile onto their land. And they have
built a series of canals and channels and they have positioned
boards along the way so that they can pull up a board or leave
one in place and by so doing, the farmer can direct the water
to whatever part of his field he so desires. And he can flood
a field here simply by putting a board down here. Or He can
raise the board and redirect it in another direction. That
is the imagery in Proverbs 21, verse 1. Hear it again, the heart
of the King is in the hand of the Lord. As rivers of water,
He, God, channels it whichever way He wills. Ask Pharaoh. Ask Cyrus. Ask the rulers in
the day of the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Lord scoffs at them. He belittles their pygmy efforts,
their Lilliputian efforts to overturn His omnipotence and
His supreme sovereignty. He mocks. He scoffs. He belittles
in Isaiah chapter 40 and in verse 15 we read, behold the nations
are like a drop from a bucket and are regarded as a speck of
dust on the scales. A speck of dust is a subcategory
of dust. It's less than dust. And all
of the nations collectively together, every person, every king, every
judge are like a speck of dust when they are all brought together. Let me read it again. Behold, the nations are like
a drop from a bucket and are regarded as a speck of dust on
the scales. Behold He lifts up the islands
like fine dust. And then we read in verse 21,
do you not know? That's a rhetorical question
meaning surely you know this. If you're breathing, you know
this. If you have two brain cells touching between your ears, you
know this. Do you not know? Have you not
heard? Has it not been declared to you
from the beginning? Have you not understood from
the foundations 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 out like a tent
to dwell in. It is He who reduces rulers to
nothing. who makes the judges of the earth
meaningless. Scarcely have they been planted,
scarcely have they been sown, scarcely has their stock taken
root in the earth and He merely blows on them and they wither
and the storm carries them away like stubble. To whom then will
you liken Me, says the Holy One of heaven? Lift up your eyes
on high and see who created the stars. The One who leads forth
their hosts by number, He calls them all by name. Because of
the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, not
one of them is missing. Of course He scoffs at them.
Of course, he laughs at the...at the insanity and the idiocrity
of their attempts to throw off the government of God from them. Now, verse 5, the scoffing turns to speaking. And God now speaks. The laughter
is over. sobriety speaks, then He will speak to them in
His anger. And this word, anger, carries
the idea of flaring the nostrils with heavy breathing because
of incited anger. It's a war-like passion as the
soldiers go into battle with heated vengeance that speaks
of the righteous indignation of God to be unleashed upon those
who would rise up against Him. And he goes on to say in verse
5, and He will terrify them. He will put them in dread. He
will terrify them in His fury. And this word for fury comes
from a root word which means to be set ablaze. It is the flaming
fury of the Lord. It is the red-hot indignation. It is the kindled wrath of God. This is a long way from smile,
God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. I'm going to come back to Psalm
2. The psalmist will trace this
out. And in many ways, Psalm 2 is
but a preview of the whole rest of the Psalter. And what we see
in this verse, in verse 5, is carried out in the next psalms. Look at Psalm 5, if you will,
in verse 4. Psalm 5, verse 4. And David, again, is the author
of this psalm. And he says, for you are not
a god who takes pleasure in wickedness and no evil dwells with you. Habakkuk will say, you're of
pure eyes and to behold iniquity. Verse 5, the boastful shall not
stand before your eyes, you hate all who do iniquity. Not just
their iniquity but all who do iniquity are subject to this
utter rejection by God. And verse 6, you destroy those
who speak falsehood. The Lord abhors the man of bloodshed
and deceit. Look at Psalm 7 and verse 11. This continues to have a ripple
effect through these early psalms. And in Psalm 7 and verse 11 we
read, God is a righteous judge and a God who has indignation
every day. Not just the last day, but every
day. Verse 12, if a man does not repent,
he, God, will sharpen his sword. He has bent his bow and made
it ready. Spurgeon says in Treasury of
David, when God bends His bow and puts the arrow of His wrath
into that bow and lets it fly at the center, God never misses
the mark. And look at verse 13. He who...He
has also prepared Himself for Himself deadly weapons. He makes
His arrows fiery, shafts. And look at Psalm 11 and verse
4...or excuse me, Psalm 9...Psalm 9 verse 7, the Lord abides forever. He has
established His throne for judgment and He will judge the world in
righteousness and will execute judgment for the peoples with
equity. Look at verse 15, the nations
have sunk down in the pit which they have made, in the net which
they hid, their own foot has been caught. The Lord has made
Himself known, He has executed judgment in the work of His hands,
the wicked are snared. The wicked will return to Sheol,
even all the nations who forget God." And then verse 19, "'Arise,
O Lord, do not let man prevail. Let the nations be judged before
You. Put them in fear, O Lord. Let the nations know that they
are but men.'" And then Psalm 11 and verse 4. The Lord is in His holy temple.
The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes behold, His eyelids
test the sons of men. The Lord tests the righteous
and the wicked, and the one who loves violence His soul hates. Upon the wicked He will rain
snares, fire and brimstone, and burning wind will be the portion
of their cup." And this is precisely what we see in Psalm 2, which
is echoed throughout the rest of these early Psalms. And we
see that the Lord in verse 5 of Psalm 2 will speak to them in
His anger and will terrify them in His fury. And this is what
God says, verse 6, but as for me, which is in stark contrast
to the anarchy of the nations and the peoples, they will do
this, but God says, I will do this. And this is what God says
He will do. I have installed my king." To
install the king means to enthrone the king and to crown him the
king over every other king. I have installed my king, and
this king will rule with me, and this king will rule for me,
and this king will be given all authority in heaven and in earth. And where He will be installed,
He says, upon Zion, My holy mountain. In David's day, this was Jerusalem.
But ultimately, it speaks of the heights of heaven, the heavenly
Zion, where Jesus is now seated at the right hand of God the
Father. Despite the attempts of the world
to cast off the cords of God and the fetters of His reign,
God moves forward with His purposes and His plans upon the earth.
No matter how much they are in uprage, no matter how turbulent
the times may be, God is unchanging and God is immutable and God
has established His Son upon the throne at His right hand.
And regardless of what the defiant peoples may conspire, the eternal
purposes of God move forward unaltered and unchanged. Man
proposes but God disposes. This world is not run as a democracy
but as a theocracy. It is not run by majority vote
but by the rule of one. In heaven there are no caucuses. There are no debates. There are
no primaries. There is no...there are no delegated
votes. There is no brokered convention.
There is just God and God alone, and God ruling and reigning in
the heavens. And that is the message that
comes through, bursting through the clouds, shining down into
this world from heaven above. that God has established His
throne in the heavens and His sovereignty rules over all. What
confidence this should be for you and me as we minister in
these desperate days, that God has everything under control
and He will make even the wickedness of men to praise Him. Now I want
you to note third, beginning in verse 7, the inheritance of
the Son. The speaker now changes. And
it is not God the Father who speaks, but it is God the Son
who speaks. And in verse 7 we read, I will
surely tell of the decree of the Lord. The speaker here is
the Anointed One who co-reigns with God. Initially, this referred
to the Davidic King, but ultimately here, it refers to the greater
King, the greater Son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ, and it
speaks of an inner Trinitarian conversation between the Father
and the Son from before time began where there is only the
Father, the Son, and the Spirit. And there were none other to
hear what the father said to the son. And the son now, through
the psalmist, reveals to us what the father said to him. I will
surely tell of the decree of the Lord. I refers to the son,
the Lord refers to the father. The son now chooses to go public
with what the father said to him in private. He, the father,
said to me, the son, you are my son, today I have begotten
you. This does not mean that there
was ever a time in which the Son came into existence. This does not mean that there
was ever a time when the Father created the Son. The Son is co-equal
and co-eternal with God the Father. His days have...He has stepped
out of eternity past as He's come into time. This day referred
to in verse 7, this day is a specific reference. to the day of the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Acts 13, verse 33,
Paul makes it abundantly clear as he preaches to the church
in Galatia, and he says, God has fulfilled this promise to
our children. in that he raised up Jesus. Now we would ask, when did God
make this promise that He would raise up His Son? And Paul gives
the answer and he says, quote, as it is written in the second
Psalm, you are my Son, today I have begotten you, close quote. In the imagery of this psalm,
the earth is pictured as the womb of a pregnant woman, fertile
and productive. And on the day of the resurrection,
the earth gives birth to its firstborn in the resurrection
of Jesus Christ. Jesus came forth from the tomb
as though it were a womb. It is in this sense that God
has begotten His Son in His resurrection by bringing Him forth to new
life. And then in Hebrews 1 and verse
5, it further indicates that Psalm 2-7 is inseparably connected
to the exaltation of Christ that follows His resurrection. In
Hebrews 1 verse 3 we read, when He made purification of sins,
He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having
become as much better than the angels as He has inherited a
more excellent name than they, for to which of the angels did
He ever say, You are My Son, today I have begotten You? The Father said this to the Son
upon the occasion of His resurrection, His ascension, His exaltation,
and His coronation, you are My Son. And Psalm 110 verse 1, the
Lord said to My Lord, sit at My right hand until I make My
enemies a footstool for you. They rejected Christ in death,
God raised Him up. They buried Him in the tomb,
God enthroned Him on high. Man did his worse and God was
at his best. Ephesians 1 verse 20, God raised
Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the
heavenly places far above all rule and authority and power
and dominion and every name that is named. In Psalm 2 verse 9,
God highly exalted Him and bestowed upon Him the name which is above
every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow,
of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father. And these are the purposes of
God that are advancing relentlessly regardless of what this world
does. So look at verse 8, this is what
the son heard the father say to him, ask of me. It's what the father says to
the son, ask of me and I will surely give you the nations as
your inheritance. These nations that are in uproar,
these nations that are in rebellion, these nations that are in anarchy,
these nations that are in revolt. The Father says, ask Me and I
will give them to you to be your inheritance. And then He adds,
and the very ends of the earth as your possession. There will
be no nation excluded. There will be no person and no
nation omitted. to the very ends of the earth,
it will all be passed over into the hands of God's anointed Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And what will the Son do with
this inheritance? What will the Father do with...what
will the Son do with these angry nations? In verse 9, He tells
us, shall break them." This is what
the Father says to the Son. In fact, this is what the Father
commands the Son. You shall break them with a rod
of iron. This is the scepter that is put
into the right hand of God the Son as He is enthroned at the
right hand of God the Father. The scepter is a rod of iron. And the Father says to the Son,
You shall break them with a rod of anger, of iron, and you shall
shatter them like earthenware." Once enthroned at the right hand
of God the Father, the Son is charged by the Father to destroy
the defiant nations. This looks ahead to the final
judgment at the end of time in Revelation 19 and verse 15, and
the imagery is one of taking a piece of earthen pottery that
is fragile and frail and shattering it with a rod of iron into a
thousand pieces. The pottery is defenseless against
the iron rod in this day. And so it is, Hebrews 10 verse
30, vengeance is mine, I will repay. And again, the Lord will
judge His people. It is a terrifying thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. As Spurgeon said, the wrath
of God does not end with death. This is a truth which a preacher
cannot mention without trembling, nor without wondering that he
does not tremble more. You have buried the man, yet
you have not buried his sins. His sins live on and are immortal. They have gone before Him to
the judgment, or they will follow after Him to the judgment to
bear their witness as to the evil of His heart and the rebellion
of His life. The Lord God is slow to anger,
but when He is once aroused to it, as He will be against these
who finally reject His Son, He will put forth all His omnipotence
to crush His enemies. This is the inheritance of the
Son. The Son will receive the nations
from the ends of the earth. And they will be placed into
His hands as they continue in their defiance and in their rejection
and in their rebellion. And He will take the scepter
entrusted to Him by the Father, represented as a rod of iron,
and He will crush them and damn them forever and ever. And I agree with Jonathan Edwards
drawing upon Revelation 14 verse 10 that the Son will be in hell
inflicting the wrath upon the damned. So look finally at the invitation
of grace. This is like towards the end
of Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, after Edwards has
thrown out all of his metaphors of you're dangling over the pit
of hell, you're held by a mere thread, the boards beneath you
are shaking, and Edwards has painted this scene of dark doom. And then Edwards towards the
end says, but a door is open, it is a door of grace. There
is a door of hope for sinners. to come and to escape their sure
destruction. And that is what we see in this
final stanza, beginning in verse 10, the speaker yet changes again. And the psalmist himself now
speaks on behalf of God. And in light of the terrifying
judgment that awaits these nations that are in mutiny against God,
they must repent, they must turn to the Lord and to His anointed
now. So note verse 10, now, and there's
a sense of urgency about this. Behold, now is the accepted time.
Behold, today is the day of salvation. He who hardens his heart being
often reproved shall suddenly be cut off and that without remedy.
Now, while it is a day of grace. Now, while there is opportunity. Now, while you may come and kiss
the sun. Now, therefore. O kings, show
discernment. Wise up. You're about to be made
subject, you kings, to the King of kings. Take warning, O judges
of the earth. You judges are about to be judged
by the judge of all judges, the judge of heaven and earth. You
have been summoned. You have been subpoenaed to stand
in His court, and there is no higher court of appeal. It is
the supreme court of the universe. And if you continue as you are,
you have an unbreakable appointment in court ahead of you. Take warning. Wise up. Verse 11, here is the
invitation. Worship the Lord. With reverence,
fall down. Come bow down before the Lord. Give Him the glory. Lower yourself
before Him. Deny yourself. Fall at His feet. Acknowledge Him as Lord over
your life. Become a true worshiper by faith. Change loyalties, turn away from
your false gods, and turn away from your false religion, and
turn away from yourselves, and turn to the one true living God
through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Worship the Lord with
reverence. It's what the eagle will preach
to the world in the last days during the tribulation as it
flies in the sky above the earth. Worship the Lord. It's the last
call. And rejoice with trembling. You should rejoice that there
is this opportunity. You should rejoice that the wrath
of God has been damned up by the dam of His mercy. And there
is a day, there is an opportunity now for you to come to the Son
and to receive the Son. Rejoice that you can now worship
the Lord. Rejoice with trembling. And verse
12, do homage to the Son. The King James says, kiss the
Son. And the idea is that conquered kings would be brought back to
the home city of the conquering king, and they would be brought
into the palace, and they would be brought before the throne,
and the conquered king must now kiss the feet of the victorious
King and fall down before Him and kiss His feet, signifying
that you are bowed low and surrendered to Him. That is what He is saying
here in verse 12. Kiss the Son, kiss His nail-pierced
feet. Look up upon His enthronement
at the right hand of the Father and cast yourself upon His mercy. And here is why. That, this introduces
a purpose clause, that He not become angry, for His wrath may soon be kindled. This is not a happy Christ. He is now smoldering in wrath
and He will soon be ignited with the wrath that will consume His
enemies as He will break them with His rod of iron. So now
the last line of the psalm. There is this message of mercy,
this gospel of grace. this extension of forgiveness,
that in the midst of the swirling, gathering storm of judgment,
there is now extended this invitation, this free offer. He says how blessed. Blessed
is in the plural. Oh, the blessednesses. Blessing
upon blessing upon blessing upon blessing exponentially. Oh, how
graced, how favored, how delivered from destruction, how rescued
from ruin, how blessed, note, are all. You hear, whosoever. The gates of paradise thrown
wide open to all who will...who will come. How blessed are all. Here's the qualifier. Here is
the sole qualification to escape the wrath and to enter into the
grace and mercy to take refuge in Him. The hymn refers to the
Son, the Son who must be worshipped, the Son who must be kissed. You
take refuge. It's a decisive act of faith
that involves repentance, to turn away from one's lawless
deeds and self-efforts to rise up against God. Now, come to
Him who would smite you. and entrust your soul and your
life to this newly installed King and do so in lowly submission
and humble repentance. As we have so many gathered here
today, it would be impossible for all of us to be converted
to Christ. in such a large gathering of
over 3,000 people. There would be those here among
us today who are still outside the kingdom of God, who are a
part of these nations and these peoples who are in turmoil against
God. And the Lord has brought you
here by His ordered steps for your life and by His goodness.
And if you have never believed upon Jesus Christ, I call you
to take refuge in Him. Run to the Lord. Throw yourself
upon His mercy. He says, him who comes unto me
I will in no wise cast out. He is the friend of sinners while
He is the enemy of sinners. His mercy triumphs over His wrath. If you will come to the Lord
Jesus Christ, if you will believe upon Him, if you will take refuge
in Him, if you will cast yourself upon Him, if you will repent
of your sins, if you will deny yourself, you will find grace
and forgiveness and mercy from this King who has been appointed
by the Father and who is enthroned at His right hand. He says, whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. If you have never believed upon
Christ, call upon the Lord. Seek the Lord while He may be
found. Call upon Him while He is near. And He will receive
you if you come as He bids you come. He says, come unto Me,
all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I'm meek and lowly
in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls. For My burden
is easy and My yoke is light. He says, if any man thirsts,
let him come unto Me and drink. And out of His innermost being
shall flow rivers of living water." Just come to Christ. He says,
enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the
way is broad that leads to destruction and many are those who find it.
But the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life
and few are those who find it. This psalm is intentionally placed
at the beginning of the book of Psalms. Psalm 1, there are
only two roads in life, the way of the righteous and the way
of the wicked. And Psalm 2 immediately follows up and says, if you're
on the way of the wicked, wise up, take warning, take refuge
in the Lord, for His wrath may soon be kindled. This is the
gospel that we preach. This is the gospel that we must
preach. We must preach as David preaches
in this psalm. We must urge. We must plead. We must warn. We must invite. We must offer. We must persuade
that those who are among the nations and those who are among
the peoples who are in rebellion against God, will turn from their
evil ways and will turn to the Lord and find refuge in Him. May we invest every inch and
every ounce of what we have to give to the Lord's work to be
a part of this end gathering of lost souls who are perishing
all around us. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, this psalm
is so high, so deep, so broad. It stretches our mind, our heart. It's impossible
for us to totally get our arms around it. Father, help us to
truly hear the angry cry of the nations rising up against You.
Help us to be confident of Your sovereign purposes throughout
history, that You have appointed Your Son, Your Anointed, the
Lord Jesus Christ, to rule and reign forever. And may our hearts
be gripped that the Son will inherit these nations and strike
them with a rod of iron. May we go to the nations. May
we go to the peoples, to the very ends of the earth, and may
we call them to the mercy and the grace that is offered to
them in Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And may they be blessed
and favored and graced by You as they take refuge in Your Son. Father, stir our hearts and propel
us forward in Your will and in Your work. In Jesus' name we
pray. Amen.