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

Sanctuary

06.07.2026

Transcript

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A reading from Psalm 2. Why do the nations rage and the people 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 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. Thanks be to God. Please be seated.

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Well, last summer we began summer in the Psalms, where the Psalter itself begins. We started in Psalm 1 last summer. And this summer we pick it right back up in Psalm 2. And we will return to the Gospel of John this August. But it's fitting because these two Psalms were never meant to be read apart, Psalm 1 and 2. They are the front door to the whole book. It's a two-part introduction to the whole Psalter. Psalm 1, where we sat last summer, set the righteous man rooted like a tree by the water against the wicked. Psalm 2 now sets the raging of the nations against God's king. One psalm calls us to delight in God's word. The other calls us to bow before God as king. You cannot read Psalm 1 rightly without reading Psalm 2 and vice versa. And together they make a single claim that holds the Psalter together. The Lord reigns and the Lord is revealed. And so as we open the Psalms, we open them under his reign, and let's pray for God to send forth his word with power. Father, indeed, we pray that now. That this word that opens the wonderful book of Psalms, your song book, Jesus, that this word would go forth and meet us in our hearts and deliver to us increasing faith and repentance. We pray this in your name. Amen. If you open the news on any given morning, tell me where you see God reigning. Brutal wars grind on across the world, neighborhoods reduced to rubble, children pulled from the wreckage of war. A trafficker moves another busload of humans across a border. The cancer takes the young mother and spares no one's feelings. We confess on Sundays that Christ is King, seated at the right hand of the Father, all authority in heaven on earth belonging to him. And then we step back out onto streets. If we're honest, that don't look ruled by anyone good at all. If we're honest in the face of the world's woes and rebellion, the claim the Lord reigns can sometimes seem laughable. Eugene Peterson admitted as much. He said, I readily admit I don't get it. He said the first Christians had no hard evidence, no proof that their sovereign God was any match for the rulers of Palestine and Greece or Rome. But they kept at it. Why? How? How do we keep at it in a broken world? They kept at it because they heard something the headlines can never drown out. They heard the laughter of a king. Don't you know there's a king in Zion? Psalm 2 was written for people who could not see the rain they were singing about. And it hands them and it hands us two convictions that we should carry into a world that looks unruled. And it is this defiance against the king is futile. Devotion to the king is wise. First, defiance against the king is futile. You heard that in verses one through three. 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. You see, the common conclusion of the rulers of this world is the rejection of the king. Pictured here in verses 1 through 3, the nations, the peoples, the kings, the rulers, what are they doing? They're conspiring, they're plotting, they're taking their stand. And yet the psalmist helps us know that this is a senseless, doomed rebellion. This massive summit convened against God's rule and his ruler. And what does the psalm call it in verse 1? Vain. Empty. Their defiance, yes, may be alarming, but it will come to nothing. Notice the word plot in verse one. Very interestingly, that same word plot is used in Psalm 1 to speak of meditating on the law of the Lord day and night. It's the same word. To plot, to meditate, to stew. And yet here you have the same posture, but you have an opposite object. The meditation in Psalm 1 is on God's word. The meditation in Psalm 2 is against God's reign. The plotting is not in his revelation, but against his reign. And this conspiracy, I want you to know, this conspiracy is not only about presidents and prime ministers and kings and rulers. It involves all of us. God made every human being in his image and gave us what? Dominion. What did he say? Rule the earth. Every image-bearer is a ruler. So this applies to every one of us. And every one of us is born a conspirator. Every one of us is born a rebel, grasping to rule in place of God. All the raging kings on the stage of the world are but a mirror of every rebel heart. The same rebellion, and guess what? The same battle cry. The battle cry you see in verse 3. Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. What is that battle cry of the conspirators and rebels of this world? What is the battle cry? Freedom. Freedom. What do they call God's rule and reign? Bonds, cords. In other words, in our rebellion and in our conspiracy, we consider the rule of God more like chains and shackles. And at the heart of the rebellion is a lie. That God's reign is tyrannical and oppressive. And so the defiance is not only futile, it's also foolish. Because it's rooted on the oldest lie in the world. Do you remember the lie? The lie of the serpent in Eden. That God's commands restrict life rather than protect it and give it. God's rule is always one of freedom and joy and security within his wise bounds. And yet we, like the rulers, like Adam and Eve, are still prone to believe that God's reign is bondage. We try to seize the crown for ourselves, thinking it's freedom. And you know what we end up? Only further enslaved. You see, this is the reality of defiance. So I want to ask you this morning as we're considering this text, where and how are you conspiring against God to build a kingdom of your own? Even more, where in your life have you mistaken God's rule for a cage? And you think, God, I don't want you to rule me here. That feels oppressive. That feels like a chain or a shackle. Or another way to put it positively, and this is a great question to ask yourself do you delight in God telling you what to do? That'll be a sign of whether you're near the reality of defiance. Not only is it real, it's also futile. We saw that with vain, but look at verse 4. He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision, and 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. Laughter from the heavenly throne, not of humor, but of derision, of mockery. Why do they bother in plotting against the Lord? Heaven wants you to hear the laughter of the king against the raging of the world. We may reject his reign, but I can assure you this morning that no one knocks him off the throne. Empires, royal conspiracies, our own rebellion. You know what God says to that? Ha! You cannot subvert me. To reject his reign in verse 5, you see, it will not dethrone him. What will it do if you reject him? It will invoke his what? Wrath and fury. Verse 6 shows the location and the nature of his unshakable rule. I've set my king on Zion, my holy hill. His kingship in heaven is shown to extend to the whole earth, the footstool, and Zion, then, with its temple, the place where you meet God, was also the place of the throne where God reigns to show that our God alone reigns through his son on the throne on the hill. And what Psalm 2 was written for is because when the world intimidates you, read Psalm 2. Think of the people that would have read Psalm 2. Exile, Assyrian exile, Babylonian exile. When the world intimidates you, read Psalm 2 to hear the laughter of the throne room. Why do I tell you that? It's what the early church did. Acts 4. When Peter and John were threatened, and they said, We must obey God rather than men. Do you remember that? They went back and they prayed. What did the early church pray? This song. Acts 4, 23 through 31, hear it. Sovereign Lord, you said through your father, our father David, why did the Gentiles rage and the people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves against the Lord, against his anointed. There they are, gathered in house church, being threatened with their very lives, and when they pray, they pray some too. And they go on to say, For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And when they prayed, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness. Their prayer helped them root themselves in courage that the rebels and the ones who threaten think they are destroying, just like they thought they were destroying Jesus. They thought they were winning. But notice the pivot of their prayer. They did whatever your hand and your plan have predestined to take place. Do you see it? Their conspiracy did not interrupt God's plan, it actually executed it. That is a sovereign reign. The cross is not where the plan failed. The cross is where God laughed. In mocking derision of evil. There is no louder derision in all of history than God's scorn for evil plans, than at that very moment of the cross where evil thought it triumphed, God used the cross as his enthronement. That's an incredible Lord who reigns. This psalm was precious to the early church. Paul preached it in Acts 13. It's the most quoted psalm in the New Testament outside of Psalm 110. Why? Because the church was facing threatening rebellion against God and his people, and so they prayed this psalm until what? They would leave the room with boldness. C.S. Lewis staged this very scene at the stone table. Do you remember the white witch has Aslan bound and muzzled, and before she drives in the knife, she laughs. It's sort of a play on Psalm 2. She gloats over him and says, Fool! Did you think that by all this you would save the human traitor? She's certain, she's certain that she has won. And she kills Aslan. But at dawn the table cracks in two, and Aslan is alive because, as Lewis says, there was a deeper magic from before the dawn of time that the witch never knew. She thought the knife was the end. The stone table, though, was the throne. That's the laughter of verse four. The white witch, every raging king of verse one, every human rebel, every Herod, every Pilate, every government that opposes God, certain they are winning, they will hear the last laugh of the king. He always gets the last laugh. So the question of Psalm 2 is we think about this defiance. Are you intimidated by the world? Which is it for you this morning? What headline? What situation has you most intimidated right now? The thing that feels like it's winning and it makes you scared. You can panic or you can pray. Psalm 2. And arise with boldness that defiance against the king is futile and foolish. But second, devotion to the king is wise. He says in verse 7, 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. The anointed king now speaks of a decree that was spoken over him. A royal decree. Please hear me. That is not a wish. That is a word that makes things so. The Davidic king in the Old Testament, by covenant, was called the Son of God, lowercase S. He was appointed to govern on behalf of the Father. So from 2 Samuel 7 onward, Israel waited for a son, a son of David. They referred to the king as son of God, son of David. David received the promise. His sons kept failing it. The throne was once lost, but the promise was not. Do you know what psalm they sang at the coronation of every king, son of David? Psalm 2. It was the song of coronation. Why? Because the Son of David was the Son of God installed to reign according to him. So listen, now this is where it gets unbelievable. When at Jesus' baptism, what words are on the lips from the voice of heaven? This is my son. Psalm 2. Transfiguration, the glory of Jesus. What words are on the voice of heaven? This is my son. It's the authoritative citation of the coronation psalm over the final son of David. The royal decree of verse 7 is now pronounced on Jesus, Son of David, the Son of God. And the rest of the decree was fulfilled when? At the empty tomb, when Paul says, God raised Jesus from the dead and declared him with power to be the Son of God. Not that he became the Son that resurrection morning, no. He is the Son by nature from all eternity. But on that day he was publicly declared and installed the final Son of David. The decree has been read over Jesus. The coronation of Jesus has happened. And his reach extends to all the earth. Verse 8. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, the ends of the earth your possession. And then verse 9, it's not comfortable. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Wrath for all who oppose him. You see, royal rods had meaning. The golden rod was a sign of Wealth and treasure. But the iron rod was a sign of absolute unyielding authority, judgment. And it was placed in the hand of the king. And with that in mind, I want you to fast forward to the last book of the Bible. In Revelation 19, we meet in 19, the one we were introduced to in Revelation 1, who is clearly Jesus. And now in Revelation 19, John sees Jesus on a white horse, returning in judgment, and what is in his hand? The rod of iron. His name is Jesus. The coronation of Jesus is not pending. The only question is, what will you do with it? And that's where the Psalm turns to an invitation, an exhortation in verses 10 through 12. Now therefore, O kings, be wise, be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the sun, lest he be angry and you perish in the way, for his wrath is kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. This king appears to be a strange enemy of the rival nations because he warns them of his coming. Who does that? And he opens his arms to them in refuge. He summons rebel kings to serve him, to rejoice with trembling. He invites the rebels to kiss the sun. That means to pay homage, to pledge loyalty and allegiance to the king. It wasn't a sign of mere affection. It was taking his side. For his disciples in Acts, it meant giving their lives away. And so what this psalm produces is simply put, kiss the sun or kiss the scepter. The rod of iron. Yes, this psalm only names kiss the sun, but the inference of the rod of judgment is a fury and a wrath. Meet this king right now in glad surrender or come under his scepter later. The first time he came to save his enemies. The second time he will come to defeat them. There is no refuge from this king. There is only refuge in him. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. Thus the invitation. This passage does not close in wrath. It closes in welcome. It closes in wisdom and warning. The nations rage to throw off his rule. And his answer is not, crush the rebels, but it is to open his arms and become their hiding place. The same hand that holds the iron scepter holds out shelter to the very people who raise their fist against him. And interestingly, the same word for the rod of iron can also mean a shepherd's staff. So the image here is for judgment of those who are not with him. But if you belong to him, guess what? The rod of iron is in the hand of the shepherd king and protects you from all of his and our enemies. The king who wields the iron rod is the shepherd who carries the staff. So as we come to the table this morning, I want you to consider this. In order for you to be invited to kiss the son, he had to take the iron rod of judgment that we might be embraced with such royal intimacy. That's the gospel in a single sentence. In order for you to kiss him, he had to take the rod. The judgment that should have fallen on us fell on him. So the only kiss left for us is not against the scepter, but to the Son. That's grace. That's what this table is. The bread broken, the cup poured out. There are signs, they're seals of this very thing. Judgment born in our place and the kiss of the Savior. To come to this table is to kiss the Son. It is to leave the summit of your rebellion and be drawn into the embrace of one who bore the rod our conspiracy deserved and now holds his very self out to you. Don't you know there's a king in Zion? And he's come down from his high and holy throne to usher us to his royal banqueting table. Take refuge and rejoice. Let us pray. And we ask that you would help us rest when the world's woes and noise and the raging of those against you makes us fearful and intimidated. May we hear the laughter of Psalm 2 and know that you reign. Come now and feed us at this royal feast and table. We pray in your name. Amen.