"Kingdom Defiance and Devotion" (Middlebrooks) | Psalm 2

Fellowship Hall

06.07.2026

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Please stand for a reading from 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, 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. This is the word of the Lord. Please be seated.

SPEAKER_02 2:07

Well, good morning. My name is Chad Middlebrooks. I'm one of the other pastors, and I add my welcome to John Marks. It's great to be back together opening God's word this morning. And we are taking a break from our sermon series in John's Gospel. And we'll return to that in August. But last summer we began summer in the Psalms, beginning where the Psalter begins in Psalm chapter 1. And so as you just heard read, this summer we're picking back up in Psalm chapter 2, which is fitting because these two psalms were never meant to be read apart. Together they form the front door into the rest of the Psalm book itself. Psalm 1, as we read and learned last summer, said the righteous man that is rooted like a tree by the water, against the wicked man who is blown away like chaff. And now in Psalm 2, as you just heard read, it sets the raging of the nations against the exalted Son of God, who shatters their rebellion like a clay pot, and who reigns over all of them. So one psalm calls us to delight in God's word, and the other psalm calls us to bow before God's king. You can't read either one of these Psalms rightly without the other psalm. Together, they make this single claim, as we're going to see throughout our summer in the Psalms this summer. And that is, the Lord reigns. Already and not yet. And so with that as context, let's pray as we come to God's word, dependent upon the Spirit to work in and through our lives. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, as we have gathered as your people, as you have called us to this morning, we do so not to hear from a man, but we've come to hear from you. And so we ask that you would speak clearly, that you would give us grace to hear and listen well this morning. And may Christ be exalted, and may our hearts be humbled to receive your food, your manna this morning from your word, that we might leave here differently. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Alright, as we begin, I want to ask you: do you ever look around at the chaos of this world and even the messiness of your own heart and ask the question, okay, if God's really in control, why do things look the way they do? Why do I feel the way that I feel? Russia continuing in its third year of war against Ukraine, China moving on Taiwan, the Middle East on edge, the trafficking of minors and young children, or maybe closer to home, a relationship that's fracturing, a diagnosis that you didn't plan to hear about, or maybe a door that you just knew was going to open, but yet has remained shut. And even beneath all of this, I think there's maybe even a quieter question that most of us are not willing to say out loud. And that is, can I actually trust that there is a God who sees all this, who holds all this, even though I can't see him and I can't hear him? Well, Psalm 2 is written exactly for these kind of moments. It was written for people who look at the raging of the nations, who look at the messiness of their own lives, and need to be reminded that the chaos has a king over it, and his name is Jesus Christ. This psalm, Psalm 2, is a royal psalm. It's a coronation psalm that was sung in the enthronement of all the Davidic kings in the Old Testament. But the Christian church from her earliest of days has read this psalm and proclaimed that it's more than just about David or Solomon or the sons of Jesse. No, this psalm speaks about the Son of God, the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, the Messiah Jesus Christ. And the New Testament actually quotes Psalm 2 more than almost any other Old Testament passage. Only Psalm 110 is quoted more. So this Psalm is very foundational for us as believers in Christ. And so this morning, this Psalm gives us two great truths that it wants to see. First, that defiance against the king is futile, but devotion to the king is wise. Now the psalm opens with this question, this dripping with sarcasm here. The psalmist writes Why do the nations rage? And why do the peoples plot in vain? It's a question really that's echoed throughout human history. The world with all of its powers, all of its rulers and its philosophies, conspiring against the Lord and against his anointed, which that word is the word for Messiah. And notice in verse 1, that word plot. The Hebrew word used there is the same word that's translated meditate in Psalm chapter 1, verse 2, where it says the righteous man meditates on God's law day and night. So the psalmist is making a very deliberate but ironic contrast here between the righteous man who fills his mind with God's word and lets it shape his imagination and his desires and his plans over against the kings of the nations who are also meditating. But they're meditating on how to set their minds on rebellion, how to throw off the king's authority. But all that devoted plotting amounts to absolutely nothing. Their schemes are ultimately futile before they even begin. Now, the reason for the kings and the rulers raging is not a complicated reason. They were created, which means they have a creator who has authority over them. And they hate that. They want nothing to do with that. Look at their battle cry in verse 3. Let us burst their bonds apart, cast away their cords. That word bonds there, I think, is probably better translated as yoke. So yoke, cords. That's the vocabulary of prisoners who were shackled and chained by someone who's conquered them. That's how the rulers of the earth see God's authority over them. Shackles, chains. They will not be yoked and submit to one greater than themselves. But these kings, these rulers, they're representative image of all of humankind. Because remember what God said in the garden to mankind, rule over, have authority. So this is not just for the kings and the pagan nations. This is the natural inclination of your heart and my heart. We don't want to have an authority over us. That picture of a yoke, God's authority is something that's burdensome and oppressive. That's a lie that we are tempted to believe every single day about God. His commands aren't gifts to us. No, they're chains. His authority is not love and kindness towards us. It's stifling, it's controlling. We'd be freer and better off if we just ruled our own lives. We hate God in our flesh just as much as these rulers and these kings did. And we have to recognize that. Where even this morning are you feeling the pull to throw off God's authority in your life? Maybe it's something financial, a financial decision that you know what faithfulness requires of you, but that cost just seems a little too high to pay. Or maybe it's a relationship that's pulling you away from fidelity to God. Or maybe it's your tongue and the way that you speak to your spouse or your children or your coworkers. Or maybe it's something quieter, something more subtle, that you are slowly drifting away from communion and prayer consistently with your Savior. Or growing indifference to God's word in your life. Or maybe this creeping sense that, you know what, I'm doing okay managing life on my own. All of this is the rebellion of verse 3 here, it's just dressed up in ordinary rhythms of daily life. And see, this lie is as old as the garden. Remember, God created and everything was good. And he lavished a lush garden on Adam and Eve. He gave them one another, he gave them dominion over creation, and he gave them fellowship with himself. And it was into that abundance, that kindness of God, that the snake slithered with one devastating question before them and said, Did God really say that? Not to eat from that tree? Is that command really a gift to you? Or is he trying to keep something from you? See, Satan came not with a sermon, he came with a slander against God's character. Is he really good? The fact that God has not answered your prayer, is that a gift to you this morning? Where are you believing that God is holding out on you? We move from earth now to heaven in verses four through six. The Lord holds them in derision. This is not a nervous laughter of God. This is a laughter of mockery, of absolute unshakable sovereignty, as the nations with all their forces, with all their scheming, with all their planning, God laughs. Not because he's indifferent to human evil, but because their rebellion is so far beneath his power and his authority that it's absurd what they think they're doing and how they're going to usurp the authority of God. Parents, maybe you've experienced this. Picture a two-year-old that is in full-blown tantrum mode. I'm talking on the kitchen floor, flailing about, hands and legs kicking, face beat red from screaming. Because the parent had the audacity to offer scrambled eggs instead of cake for breakfast. And so after a while of exhaustion, the parent finally just smiles and kind of chuckles under his breath. Not meanly, but because the parent realizes that the child doesn't yet grasp what she needs to. She's completely provided for, deeply loved, and utterly dependent upon the very person that she's treating like a war criminal. She thinks she's fighting for her freedom, but in reality, she's revolting against the very one who has given her everything. That's the nation's raging here. And yet, God, he's not threatened by it. He remains on his throne. See, I want you to see this morning that you can reject God's rule over your life. You are free to do that. But the reality is he still remains on his throne, ruling over all things. But God's laughter, as we see, gives way to a declaration. Verse 6, I have set my king. Over against all the noise of all the human ambition of trying to usurp God's power and authority, God asserts his sovereign act. He has anointed his true king. The coronation's already happened. Zion is occupied this morning. We have a king who is ruling and reigning on his throne over everything. When was the last time that that truth alone made you exhale and rest? See, the throne is not empty. And that changes everything in how you and I carry the responsibilities and the circumstances that God brings into our lives. And the early church discovered the power of this very truth when they needed it most. In Acts, if you remember when Peter and John were arrested at the temple and they were taken before the authorities, the same authorities that crucified Jesus. But then they were later let go. And they go back to the brothers and sisters of the church there. What was the first thing that they did when they got back there? They prayed. But they prayed this psalm. Psalm 2. Sovereign Lord, why do the nation, the Gentiles rage and why do the peoples plot in vain? They were not naive about the danger of following Christ, but something happened when they heard the laughter of God in Psalm 2. If God's purposes can't be stopped by the raging of the nations, then it sure can't be stopped by one city's religious council either. And so their prayer was not protection from suffering. They prayed for continued boldness to proclaim the very gospel that they had staked their lives on. That's the faith that Psalm 2 is designed to produce in the life of the believer. That when the world is raging around us, world wars going on, looking at our own lives and seeing the mess that is there, that we hear the laughter of the cross, and it gives us persevering faith to continue on. Are you panicking this morning because of the circumstances that you're walking through? Or because of the headlines that you read in the news? Or are you hearing the laughter of heaven to move forward in boldness and in courage? Because the God who moved Peter from prison to prayer is the same God who is at work this morning by the power of his spirit. His laughter is not contempt for your suffering, it's actually confidence for you. To know that nothing that you are walking through or nothing that is going on in the outside world is outside the hand of God. Defiance against the king is futile. Devotion to the king is wise. But to understand why devotion is wise, we have to understand who this king is. So now we move again, different scene in verse 7 to the anointed king who now speaks. The Lord said to me, You are my son. Today I have begotten you. To hear this and fully understand this, we have to understand a little bit of the ancient world. When a great king conquered surrounding nations and defeated the other nations, then the other kings of those lesser nations that were defeated were oftentimes permitted to continue to serve as king, but under certain circumstances. They were known as vassal kings. They were lesser kings who were having to pay tribute to swear loyalty to the greater king who had conquered them. And so this lesser king would bow. They would kiss the sovereign's hand and pledge allegiance to them, or they would face annihilation. There was no middle ground, no third option for them. And this is the background of Psalm 2 here. Be wise, O kings. Be warned, O rulers. That's the language of ancient treaties there. And kiss the son in verse 12. That's a gesture of the conquered king bowing before the conquering king. But what sets this psalm apart from every other ancient treaty text is that this psalm says that the conquering king here is the son of God. The foundation is the Davidic covenant back in 2 Samuel 7. The promise that David's heir would be his son and he would be his father. And every Davidic king embodied this in some form, but imperfectly. Because all the Davidic kings were sinful. They all died. And Israel was led into exile because of their disobedience. And so they waited, they wondered when was the greater king, the greater David, going to arrive? So then we come to the New Testament. Jesus begins his ministry at the Jordan River. Sinless, he takes his place in the waters of baptism among those who repent it. And as he rises from that water, his father speaks from heaven over him. You are my beloved. With you I'm well pleased. That's verse 7 here, spoken aloud over Jesus. And then at the transfiguration, it happens again with Moses and Elijah, and the veil is lifted, and a voice thunders from heaven and says, This is my son, listen to him. So the law and the prophets are bearing witness here that he is the Son of God, he is the Messiah that everything has been pointing to. Everything that Psalm 2 is singing about is about him. And so when Paul, the Apostle Paul, later stands at Poseidon Antioch in Acts chapter 13, announcing the resurrection of Jesus, what does he do? He reaches for Psalm 2. You are my son today, I have begotten you. For Paul, the empty tomb was the moment that the Father's declaration rang out in history with final, irreversible force. The resurrection was the coronation of this true King, our Messiah, our Savior. And the Father's promise here to the Son is staggering. Look at what he says: every tribe, every tongue, people, and nation are his inheritance. The ends of the earth, his possession. That's why we proclaim the gospel. That's why we speak light into darkness. But listen, this psalm is equally clear about what awaits those who refuse to surrender and submit to this king. Verse 9 promises that the Son will rule with a rod of iron, an iron scepter. Again, in the ancient Near East, a gold scepter symbolized royal favor and grace and welcome. But the iron scepter is altogether different because iron was the medal of war. An iron scepter doesn't extend grace, it exercises and executes judgment. And Revelation 19 brings this image into terrifying fulfillment here as we see a rider coming on a white horse, eyes like flame, robe dipped in blood, sword in mouth. The King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, coming to execute judgment. The same one who knelt down and wept at the tomb of his beloved friend Lazarus is the same one who's coming back to execute judgment. So don't let the tenderness of Jesus make you forget the terror of his coming judgment on the wrath of the wicked. So there's someone you know, someone that you love in your life who doesn't know this king, this sovereign. His inheritance is every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. That means it's your neighbor, it's your classmate, it's your prodigal child, it's your family member that doesn't know Christ. This stake of this psalm is not just personal. Is eternal. So pray for that person. Boldly proclaim the gospel in the life of that person that they might come and repent and surrender their life under the submission of this king. This song presses every single one of us because the reality is, is we have someone who's ruling over us. That someone or something might be comfort, it might be money, it might be power, it might be sex, it might be popularity, or it's the Lord Jesus Christ. The issue's not autonomy versus submission. The issue is what master are you serving this morning? But here's the staggering grace of this psalm. The conquering king here is not hunting down rebels to kill them. He's actively urging them and inviting them to come. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. See, for those of us who have already professed faith in Christ, we have to resist the temptation to think that this psalm is for unbelievers. Submission, just like that of the vassal nation, was not a one-time celebration or ceremony, excuse me. It was a way of life. They surrendered their allegiance, they surrendered their decisions, their economy, everything under this greater king. It was in total. And that's Christian discipleship. This king wants you to surrender your time, your finances, your relationships, your sexuality, your calendar, your tongue, everything under his lordship. And even the question, what do I want? has to be supplanted with a greater question. What does my king require of me? And that question is not oppressive. It's actually true freedom and what it looks like to be fully human the way that God has designed us to be. So is there an area of your life where you've quietly tried to take back control? A habit that you've quietly decided that he doesn't need to have access to. See, many of us, I think, we divide our lives into two categories. We have the spiritual stuff that we give God access to, but then we have the practical stuff that we think we can just manage on our own. And if I need his help, I'll ask him. But the vassal king didn't run his kingdom the way he wanted and just paid tribute on Sunday morning. He surrendered everything. Everything was reordered under the greater king. So what needs to be reordered in your life this morning under the kingship of Christ? Where is your faith settled into a routine? Maybe a routine of a lot of good things, but not a true posture and way of life in submission to Christ. Lastly, and very briefly, verses 10 through 12 close with a warning and an invitation. But the door is still open today. Wisdom is devotion. The wisest thing that you and I can ever do is kiss the Son through faith while he is still extending his mercy. To paraphrase one pastor, he put it this way: He said, The gospel is not offered as surrender to a bully, but as reconciliation with a king who himself came as a servant. And that king came and he said, Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And he says, Take my yoke upon you, not a yoke that is oppressive, that is condemning, but a yoke that is light and a yoke that is easy and that will bring you joy and fulfillment. See, kissing the Son looks like a life that is increasingly ordered around his word, shaped by his priorities. A life offered back to him in obedience, not because you have to do it, but because you know what he's done for you. And you know that it'll give you everything that you've been longing for. See, do you see that this king here possesses all authority and all power to crush and destroy rebels like you and I? But he doesn't. He becomes a shelter for rebels. If you surrender to this king, his authority will become your salvation, your joy. But if you don't, it will become your destruction. Derek Kidner captures, I think, the whole weight of this psalm in one sentence, and you probably say, why didn't you just give us that one sentence? But this is what he says. Jesus, his holding of the iron scepter, reveals that there is no refuge from Jesus, only refuge in Jesus. See, you can't outrun the Iron Scepter. You can't build a comfortable life enough that keeps away his kingship and touch it never touches you. But the good news of the gospel is there's refuge in Christ. If you were a fugitive in the ancient Near East, if you could get to the King's throne and touch the throne, you had the King's protection. The throne was a place of refuge. And that's the image here that the psalmist leaves us with. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. If you're here this morning, you've never surrendered your life unto Christ. Run to this King, surrender to him, and tell him, I trust you in your mercy, Lord, I hide myself in you. Because rebels who surrender to Christ receive a blessing. Brothers and sisters, if your faith is in Christ, know that you come to this table that we're about to partake of, not as a reluctant guest, but as a son or daughter of King Jesus. We don't come because we have surrendered perfectly this past week. We actually come as refugees who've broken our oath of loyalty a thousand times over this week. We've believed the lie again in the garden and tried to go our own way. But yet, as we come to this table, we're received as friends, friends of the King, because Christ took on the Iron Scepter Himself. He bore the weight of God's wrath on the cross so that we could find refuge and be sheltered and not shattered. The bread and the cup are not a reward for our righteousness. They're a place for rebels to come and find refuge and to experience the blessing and the kiss of the Father. So let's prepare to do that now. Let's pray. Father, your word has been read and preached, and it's gone out, and you've promised that it will not return void. So now as we come to the Lord's table, seal what has been preached into our hearts. The reign of your son is not merely a doctrine for us to believe and to affirm, but something to find refuge and take refuge in and run to. Lord, here at this table, we're running to be met by our Savior. And so would you come and shepherd us? Would you feed us? And will we rest in the reality that our sovereign King rules and reigns over all things and is coming again to gather his people to himself forevermore? We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.