Let us turn in our Bibles to
the book of Psalms, and tonight let's look at Psalm 2. Psalm 2. Why do the heathen rage and the
people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
his anointed, saying, let us break their bands asunder and
cast away their cards from us. He that said it in the heavens
shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision.
Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in
a sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my
holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree the
Lord has said unto me, thou art my son, this day have I begotten
thee. Ask of me and I shall give thee
the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the
earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a
rod of iron, thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's
vessel. Be wise now, therefore, O you
kings. Be instructed, you judges of
the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and
rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry
and you perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but
a little. Blessed are all they that put
their trust in him. I mentioned last week as we looked
at the blessed man in Psalm 1, that I want to bring a few messages
to us on Wednesday evening from the Psalms. And we will not look
at each and every Psalm, but a few of them. But I couldn't
skip over this one, the second Psalm. It is quoted several times
in the New Testament. Let me just say this, one of
the writers pointed out that the second psalm, in comparison
to the first psalm, the second psalm has twice as many verses. The first psalm has six verses,
the second psalm has 12 verses. He also pointed out that it begins
as the first psalm ended. The first psalm ended with the
heathen, or the first, it begins, the
second psalm begins with the heathen, and the first ended
with the ungodly. Plus, the first began, blessed
is the man, and the second ends, blessed are they that put their
trust in him. This psalm, as far as it's date,
and its author, we know from the New Testament that David
wrote the psalm, and as far as its date is concerned, 1050 BC,
1050 before Christ came into this world. That's approximate
date, of course. Tonight, I will point five things
out to us in this psalm. First, First thing we see is
man acting out his hatred of God and his anointed is foretold
in the first three verses. In Romans 8 and verse 7, the
Apostle Paul wrote, the carnal mind is enmity with God, enmity
against God. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. Enmity. The definition for enmity
is, it is a principle which expresses itself by opposition against
its object. A principle. The carnal mind
is enmity against God. The carnal mind has a principle
which expresses itself by opposition against its object. And against
its object, of course, is the Lord God. And that which is described
in verses one through three, the apostles confessed in their
prayer. I want you to turn with me to
Acts chapter four and verse 24, but we see in the prayer of the
apostles here in Acts chapter four and beginning with verse
24, these first three verses were fulfilled by the crucifixion
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Chapter four and verse 24, this
is when John and Peter were released, being let go, verse 23, being
let go, they went to their own company, that is to the apostles,
and reported all that the chief priest and elders had said unto
them. And when they, that is all the
apostles, when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to
God with one accord and said, Lord, thou God which has made
heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them is, who
by the mouth of thy servant David has said, why did the heathen
rage and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth
stood up and the rulers were gathered together against the
Lord and against his Christ, that is, his anointed. For of
a truth against the holy child, Jesus, whom thou hast anointed,
both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people
of Israel, were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand
and thy counsel determined before to be done. The heathen rage,
that is the Gentiles, that is who is meant here in our text
by the heathen, the Gentiles, those who did not have the gospel. As the heathen, those who were
not part of the nation of Israel, they didn't have the gospel during
the Old Testament time. We recognize that. But the people
who imagine a vain thing, this refers, of course, to the Jews.
And then the kings of the earth, as we read here, the kings of
the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together.
We know that Herod, Herod the Great, was a king and he set
himself against the Lord Jesus Christ by commanding that all
of the male children from three years old that were born around
Bethlehem should be slaughtered. The king set themselves against
the Lord. And then the rulers, Pontius
Pilate and Herod the Tetrarch, they set themselves against the
Lord. And what we should say tonight
about this enmity, this is very important. I know we realize
this, but let me remind us of this and reinforce it to all
of us again. What we should say about the
enmity of men is that it is universal. It is universal. the heathen,
the people, the kings, the rulers, the enmity of man against its
object that is against God and His law is universal among all
peoples of the world and among all ranks of people in the world. The message of the heart of all
lost men and women, all fallen men, is the same, no matter where
we are found, where they are found, the message is the same. Depart from us, and this is in
Job chapter 21 and verse 14, depart from us, for we desire
not the knowledge of thy ways. We will not have this man to
rule over us. That's the enmity that all men
have toward God. We read in the scripture, he
came unto his own, that is to the Jewish nation, he came unto
his own and his own received him not. The prophet Isaiah said
that he was despised and rejected of man. And John the apostle
tells us that he was hated, hated without a cause. Man's hatred
of God, man's hatred, his inbred enmity against God could not
be appeased until They nailed the Lord, we, I should say we,
until the Lord Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross. The enmity,
the inbred enmity with which all of us come into this world
as part of our depraved nature, the enmity, we're set against
God, in opposition against Him and His law. And the important
thing, as I said, to say it's universal. This was not the Jews
alone who took counsel, but all Jews and Gentiles, they all,
we all took counsel against the Lord and against his anointed. The second thing for us to say
in verses four through seven is God accomplishing his purpose
is foretold. God accomplishing his purpose
is foretold. He that saith in the heaven shall
laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision.
Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in
his shortest pleasure. Yet have I set my king upon my
holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree The
Lord has said unto me, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten
thee. We ask this question, are men
so vain? Are men so vain that they really
imagine that they can defeat the purpose of Almighty God? Are men so vain that we would
believe that we could somehow defeat God's purpose, God's decree. He that setteth upon the circle
of the earth, as we read in Isaiah, he that setteth upon the circle
of the earth and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers. That is, in comparison to him,
men are as grasshoppers. He is the one who stretcheth
out the heavens as a curtain and spreadeth them out as a tent
to dwell in. Are men so vain, so empty, so
devoid of wisdom and understanding that men believe somehow they
can defeat God's purpose? God who reigns and rules over
all his creation. The scripture describes him in
Isaiah 46 declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient
times the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel,
my purpose, my will shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. When we read here of God laughing
at man's vain attempts to defeat God's purpose, This is what is
called an anthropopathy. Anthropopathy. It's a long word. It's hard for me to say. Anthropopathy. When we read that God laughs. But what it is, it means, that
word means to attribute the language of man to God. as we might laugh
at some little creature that's trying to disrupt us and do harm
to us. I'm talking about some small
insect or something like that. We might laugh at it, have it
in derision, scorn it. Even so, this language is used
of God as laughing, as laughing at vain man's attempt to defeat
his purpose, that is, God's purpose. The grasshopper, the grasshopper
rises up against he that sits upon the circle of the earth.
That's what Pharaoh did, isn't it? Who is the Lord? When Moses went in to Pharaoh,
and he was just God's messenger, He took God's message into Pharaoh,
and he said, let my people go that they may worship me. And
you remember what Pharaoh said at first. He said, who is the
Lord that I should obey his voice? Don't you know who I am? Don't
you know that I'm king here in Egypt? Don't you know I have
all these armies at my disposal? Who's the Lord that I should
obey him? But he got a lesson, didn't he?
as to who the Lord is. The Lord taught him the same
way he taught Nebuchadnezzar when he walked in his palace
there in Babylon and said, is not this the great Babylon which
I have built? And the Lord sent him out to
live like an animal for seven years until his understanding,
the scripture says, returned unto him and then he confessed. that God reigns, God rules, both
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
The Lord shall laugh at man's vain attempt to defeat His purpose. The Scripture speaks of the Lord
Jesus Christ who is here, the Lord's anointed, as being foreordained
before the foundation of the world. And Peter In his message
on the day of Pentecost, he said, therefore, let all the house
of Israel know assuredly, assuredly, that God hath made that same
Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. God, as this text tells us, God
has set him upon his holy hill. Yet have I set my king God's
king, your king, my king, the king of all. God has set my king
upon my holy hill of Zion. What does Zion refer to here? Well, I believe it refers to
the church, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that
as a mediator, of the eternal covenant that the Lord Jesus,
he's our prophet, he's our priest, and he's our king. And he has
the rights of his kingship to reign and to rule over all. I say I believe this speaks of
the church because of what we read in Hebrews 12. If you want
to turn there with me, I'll read Hebrews chapter 12. And verses 22 and 23, the scripture here says, yet have
I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion, but you are calm unto
Mount Zion and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general
assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven,
and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men
made perfect. Now in Jerusalem, Mount Zion
was the mount upon which the temple was built. And in that temple, it was a
place where worship, where God was worshiped, where his word
was taught. And it is in the church. And
that was temple was called built upon Mount Zion, even as the
church is built upon the Lord Jesus Christ, who is that rock,
like a mount, like a mountain, the rock of ages. The Lord has set him upon his
holy hill of Zion. Now the third thing that I see
in this psalm is the calling of the Gentiles is foretold.
All these things were foretold. The calling of the Gentiles is
foretold in verses eight and nine. Ask of me and I shall give
thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the
earth for thy possession. This appears to be still the
Son who is speaking. And he continues to tell what
the Father said unto him. The Father said unto him, I will
declare the decree the Lord has said unto me. This is what God
said to him. Thou art my son, this day have
I begotten thee. And we know that as the eternal
son of God, he had no beginning, he's equal with the Father and
the Holy Spirit. But as the mediator, as the Christ,
he was set up from everlasting. You know, I read recently an
illustration of eternity. And there's no way that any of
us can understand eternity. Because our minds from the very
beginning, see things that happen in a successive way. But this
man tried to illustrate eternity like this, and it's about as
good as anything I've ever read. But can you imagine a roll of
paper, 24 inches wide, a roll of paper, and it's rolled as
far, as far, as far, and then further, as you can see. in that
direction, and then it's rolled as far, as far, and it keeps
on going in this direction. And there on about a 12 by 24
inch part of the paper are some things written, and that's time. Time. We live in time, but God
is eternal. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit have no beginning and have no end. But as a mediator, he was set
up from of old, the scriptures tell us. And in this eternal
covenant that was made before time began, Christ is set up
as the mediator of the covenant of grace. And he asked things,
he asked things of his father, which were granted unto him.
And I quote John Gill now, he asked, he asked for the persons
of all the elect to be his bride and spouse. And his heart's desire
was given him and the request of his lips was not withheld
from him. He asked for all the blessings
of grace for them. for spiritual life here and eternal
life hereafter. And all were given him and put
into his hands for them. And we say here, he also asked
for God's elect among the Gentiles. Here as mentioned, the uttermost
parts of the earth. In Isaiah chapter 49 and verse
six, God the Father speaking to the Son, the Mediator. He said, it is a light thing
that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to restore the preserved of Israel. Now listen, I will
also give thee for a light to the Gentiles that thou mayest
be my salvation unto the end of the earth. The Apostle Paul
in the letter of Ephesians, he tells us that this was a mystery,
a mystery that God would call the Gentiles and make them of
the same body with the Jews. It was a mystery that had not
been made known, Paul says, as it was now made known. It had
been made known through these prophecies that God would call
the Gentiles and save many of the Gentiles. But it was given
to Paul to preach and to teach this truth. There's a fourth
thing in the psalm, an earnest exhortation. Kiss the son. Verse 10, Be wise now, therefore,
O you kings. Be instructed, you judges of
the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and
rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry
and you perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but
a little. What does it mean to kiss the
Son? We know Judas kissed the Lord
Jesus, didn't he? When he betrayed him, when he
led the temple police and the soldiers and the priest out to
the Garden of Gethsemane that night, he betrayed the Lord Jesus
Christ with a kiss. He pointed him out, the one that
he kissed, he's the one. We read in Luke chapter seven
that our Lord told another woman, thy sins Thy faith hath saved
thee, go in peace. And we read that she kissed his
feet as she bathed them with her tears. But a kiss, a kiss
in that society could mean several things. First of all, there's
a kiss of reconciliation. We still have that saying, don't
we? Kiss and make up. Parents sometimes tell their
children, brothers and sisters, they get in a squabble and mother
and dad makes them kiss and make up. And of course, husband and
wife sometimes. kiss and make up. It's a kiss
of reconciliation. And kiss the Son, recognize that
through Him and Him alone, through His blood, the blood of the cross,
that He has made peace, that we've been reconciled unto God. Kiss the Son. A kiss may signify
loyalty as well. When a person came under submission. I was reading this morning, I
believe in the last chapter of 1 Chronicles, where Solomon was
put upon the throne by David. But you know, there was that
one son of David, Adonijah, who tried to become king before David
installed Solomon. But then the scripture reads
that all the rest of David's sons, and he had many of them,
they all served Solomon. They were all loyal to Solomon,
and I would imagine they all kissed him. Kissed him, a kiss
of loyalty, submission. And then there's a kiss that
may signify worship. Kiss the son, worship him. Many of the, and I saw this in
Mexico, that riding a bus, When we would go, bus would go in
front of one of those church buildings down there. It was
very common for the people to make the sign of the cross. That
was very common. That's supposed to be a prayer,
you know. But I noticed some people, and you read in the scriptures
that the idols that men kissed, they're idols. It was a form
of worship. And so we should kiss the Son,
we should worship Him as our Lord, as our Savior. There's
a kiss of friendship, isn't there? When you're made to be friends
with someone, and isn't the Lord Jesus Christ our friend? A friend
that sticketh closer than a brother. And lastly, a kiss may signify
love. And I thought about that father
of the prodigal son in our Lord's parable. When he saw his son
coming home, he ran and embraced him and kissed him, didn't he?
Kissed him, showing his love for his son. This my son was
lost, but now is found. And the last thing, notice the
benediction. Blessed are all they that put
their trust in him. Do you put your trust in him
tonight? I know if you do, you are blessed. You're blessed. You say, well,
I don't feel blessed. Well, you're blessed. You know,
so many times today, false religion has taught that blessings are
only material things, you know. God bless you. Gives you a high-paying
job, and that may be a blessing. I'm not saying it's not. But
God's people are blessed all the time. Whether they have a
high-paying job or a low-paying job, they're blessed. They're
blessed because God blesses them. And the scripture here said,
blessed are all they that put their trust in Him. What a blessing
tonight to know Him. our Lord and as our Savior to
trust in him with the God-given faith that he gives and has given
unto his people. I pray the Lord will bless these
thoughts to each of us tonight. I want to mention before we sing
our last hymn the fifth