Day 17 (Tuesday): Psalm 2
Today’s Passage
Read the passage – Psalm 2
Psalm 2 is seen as a Messianic psalm. At its heart is a prayer asking God to give the nations as a heritage. This is directed to the Son of God, that he would receive all authority. When we look at the nations sometimes it is frightening to see war, tyranny and corruption, yet the psalmist tells us that God laughs at them. He is so much more powerful than the nations and as we pray that he gives the nations to his Son, God is more than able to do so.
Questions to Consider
- How does God view the politics of the nations?
- What does God say to his king in Zion (the Messiah)?
- What does God say to kings (those in authority)?
Prayer
- Lord, give us boldness and love to reach out and share the invitation.
- When we ask for the nations, we are asking not that they be given to us but given to the Messiah, Jesus Christ our Lord. Ask God that he would give the nations to Jesus in our area. In our area there are many Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims. Ask God that they would start serving the one true Lord.
- Ask that Christians would be sensitive in their witness to people of other religions, being able to speak across cultures and yet to challenge the beliefs of others.
Go Deeper
Roger Ellsworth, Opening up Psalms, Opening Up Commentary (Leominster: Day One Publications, 2006), 182–185.
This psalm begins abruptly with a scene of profound turbulence and turmoil. The nations of the earth and their kings are pictured as raging against persons in authority. They meet together to plot the overthrow of these persons (v. 2), ….
Who is the object or focus of such virulent opposition? The psalmist leaves no doubt. It is directed against ‘the Lord’ and ‘his anointed’ (v. 2).
Hate all they want, plan all they like, fret and fuss all they wish, men can never rid themselves of God. Hostility is futile. Why? God is sovereign. He sits in heaven. In other words, he transcends men. He is far superior. And how does this scene of raging hostility strike him? Is he stricken with terror? Does he fly into a panic? Does he call an emergency session of the heavenly cabinet? No. He just laughs. He scoffs at puny men as they parade briefly across the stage of history, as they fume and fuss (v. 4).
After laughing, God speaks:
Yet I have set my king
On my holy hill of Zion (v. 6).
The Lord God has already done the very thing his enemies most want to prevent. He has already made Christ King. Charles Spurgeon writes: ‘While they are proposing, he has disposed the matter. Jehovah’s will is done, and man’s will frets and raves in vain. God’s Anointed is appointed and shall not be disappointed.’
At this juncture the Anointed one himself, Jesus Christ, speaks. His words take us back to the moment when God decreed that he should reign. There was a time even before this world existed, when the triune God planned the redemption of sinners. At that time the Second Person of the Trinity agreed to take unto himself human flesh in ‘the fullness of time’ (Gal. 4:4).
At that point the Father said to the Son: ‘You are my Son; Today I have begotten you’ (v. 7). God anointed Christ then to become king through the work of redemption, and no one can ever change it.
As the Anointed continues to speak, he reveals that which God will yet do. This one who has been anointed as God’s king will someday receive all nations as his inheritance and the ends of the earth as his possession (v. 8). In other words, he will eventually enjoy absolute dominion, and those who resist will be crushed by his power (v. 9; 1 Cor. 15:24–28; Phil. 2:9–11).
Jesus shall reign where’er the sun
Does his successive journeys run;
His kingdom spread from shore to shore,
Till moons shall wax and wane no more.
The psalm concludes with David counselling the opposers of Christ. If hostility is futile, the only reasonable thing for men to do is throw down their arms and submit to God. His injunctions are swift and abrupt.
‘Be wise’ (v. 10) means to think this thing out. Recognize the situation for what it is. Don’t nurse hope of succeeding against God.
‘Serve the Lord with fear’ (v. 11) means to worship God. Recognize God’s greatness and bow in awe before him.
‘Rejoice with trembling’ (v. 11) means that in submitting to God we shall find our true happiness and joy. We might think serving the Lord is a miserable thing, but it’s really the greatest joy we can ever have. If we would only recognize this, we would be more willing to cease our rebellion.
‘Kiss the Son’ (v. 12) means to show him homage and true affection. The admonition is to cease hating God’s king and start loving him.
What about those who refuse to submit, continuing in their hostile rebellion? Verse 12 gives the answer:
Kiss the Son, lest he be angry,
And you perish in the way,
When his wrath is kindled but a little.
The option is clear. Those who refuse to submit will someday be cut off while they are still walking ‘in the way’ of rebellion. They will be going along in their hatred, spewing out their venom against God, and he will step in, cut them off, and send them into eternal destruction. In short, we are presented with this option concerning Christ: cherish or perish!
Ye sinners seek his grace,
Whose wrath ye cannot bear;
Fly to the shelter of his cross,
And find salvation there.
Songs for Worship and Reflection
