July 23, 2005

Reading through the Bible in one Year: Nehemiah 13:1-Ester 2:7; Acts 15:1-21

Good Afternoon Brothers and Sisters,

Psalm 2 (NASB95)
¹ Why are the nations in an uproar And the peoples devising a vain thing? ² The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, ³ “Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!” ⁴ He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them. ⁵ Then He will speak to them in His anger And terrify them in His fury, saying, ⁶ “But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain.” ⁷ “I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. ⁸ ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession. ⁹ ‘You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.’ ” ¹⁰ Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; Take warning, O judges of the earth. ¹¹ Worship the Lord with reverence And rejoice with trembling. ¹² 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!^[1]

This psalm is rather interesting when you consider the origin of it.  Originally it was considered to be a psalm used for coronation ceremonies where a new king was put on the throne.  The content of the psalm must have confused them in a way when this was done because of the power of the psalm.  Each king considered himself to be the Lord's Anointed, and therefore a son of God.  Each of the Hebrews also adopted this same idea, that they were a nation of God's children.  The rest of the world were second class citizens in their eyes.  Imagine how difficult it must have been for them when the foreign nations defeated them and dragged them off into slavery.  I'll bet that they pointed back to this Psalm and blamed God for not coming through on His promise.

In light of Jesus, this psalm makes perfect sense to us today.  God the Father, Jesus and the Apostles validated that this Psalm was about Him.  The word for "His Anointed" in verse two is the same word that the word "Messiah" comes from.  

Verses 1-3 may be speaking about how that the Hebrews were surrounded by peoples who wished to exterminate them.  They were viewed by the nations in a negative light.  This attitude toward the Jews has carried forth through the centuries and several attempts have been made to bring the Jews into bondage, some have even attempted to exterminate the entire race of people.  Notice something important though, God stands behind the Hebrew people, when people attack them, God takes it personally.

In light of the Hebrew kings this was a tremendous promise because it offered them the assurance that every battle that they entered into was a holy battle against the Lord.  The drawback on this was that if they claimed to be God's anointed, and they went on that assumption, then they must act like they were God's anointed.  In other words, those who went into idolatry knowingly compromised their position with God and entered into the battle by becoming friends of the enemy. 

Imagine if you will, members of a ball team with the desire for their opponents to win.  Imagine the families of the home team moving into the visitors bleachers and cheering for the other team.  Picture in your mind a fellow running the wrong way to make a goal for the other team unintentionally.  Try to picture the caos that would occur in the ranks of the home team as they try to figure out why they can't score.  The picture is ludicrous because no one would want to watch a team totally throw a game.  Yet that is what was happening in Israel many times over the years. 

This is why I say that this psalm must have been confusing for the Hebrews, they joined the ranks of the enemy rather than holding to the holiness of God in their lives.  I have pointed a lot of fingers at the Jews in this discussion; let's turn it around for a moment.  In our Christian homes we have decided that the world is more appealing that having God as ruler over our homes.  In our marriages we have decided that taking on the worlds standards is better than having God's standards in our marriages.  In our churches we have decided that implementing business ideals incorporated from the world is better than leaning on God in faith to build the ministry.  We have started not only rooting for the other team, but we have started throwing the game unaware. 

I may be missing the point on this Psalm, but I don't really see the foreign kings as militarily removing the yoke of Israel from themselves.  Rather through history it is proven that the yoke was removed from the nations by drawing Israel into compromise.  They effectively cast the cords away by weakening the nation of Israel.  The devil has not changed his tactics on this one, if we see a war, we will fight.  If we see a compromise it doesn't seem nearly as bad and we accept the change.

Verses 4-6 throw a different light on this problem.  God is enthroned in heaven laughing at the tactics of men turning from God.  He laughs at the ones who come against His people who follow His name.  Not only does God laugh at their pathetic attempts to destroy His people, God gets very angry over the problem, he becomes furious.  That is the reason that the Father sent Jesus to reclaim His throne on earth.  Jesus paid the penalty for sin and has been installed or consecrated as King of Israel, and of the world.

Verses 7-9 step beyond the Hebrew thinking on God ruling over the Hebrews.  In this passage, it is indicated that God will also rule over the nations.  That means that God will also bring everyone who is not Jewish into His inheritance, and they will belong to Him.  The way that He will do that is by using the very same rod that He used against Israel against them to turn them to Him. 

Verses 9-12 validate that the kings and judges of all the earth should turn to the Lord and make Him their God.  Everyone who takes refuge in God, the God of the Hebrews, will be blessed.  The Messianic side of this verse looks forward to God the Son being the one that everyone will be able to take refuge in. 

I ran through the verses rather quickly to try to get the picture across.  God set a precedent in this Psalm that He is not just interested in the Hebrew people, but rather every single person in the entire earth.  He promised in this Old Testament scripture that He was not on a mission just to get the Jews to follow Him, but that through the Jews He wanted to get the entire world following Him.  Wisdom and discernment teaches us that if we are going to be in a place of joy and victory in our lives, then we must be on the side of the Son. 

In the New Testament we came to understand this passage fully because it was there that God revealed beyond a shadow of a doubt that He was concerned with the salvation of the Gentiles as well as the Jews.  Unfortunately we have not learned our lesson from the early kings, in many cases our teams have decided to sabotage the games by infighting, dissention, and compromise.  We have so many church splits and denominations because we have forgotten who the enemy is and are battling other Christians instead of standing behind the throne of God and fighting for righteousness.  Our marriages are being destroyed because God is not the God of our marriages, resulting in broken homes and devastated children. 

What do we do about it?  Jesus is the Messiah that came to rule over the earth and to set up His throne on Zion.  Let's return to following Him in every area of our lives, make Him king over our churches, marriages, families and our personal lives.  Then we will see victory in a tremendous way.  It is time for us to stop fighting fellow Christians and focus our attack on evil, joining the Lord in the quest for bringing righteousness to the world.  Do we truly take refuge in the Lord?  Or do we take refuge in our good jobs, nice homes, insurance policies, and retirement plans?  We are doers, the question is whether our doing is through our own efforts, or if we are empowered by God in our lives. 

We as Gentile nations are no better than the Jewish nations that God originally set up.  Once His wrath has been kindled, we will see Him bring judgment against our mighty nation.  He will not hesitate to allow our homes to fall into divorce, and our churches to split over and over again.  He will not hesitate to allow the sin to have it's full effect in our lives because He wants us to follow Him willingly, as King over all the earth.  Are we going to be broken like earthenware, shattered by a rod of iron?  Or are we going to return to holiness, return to serve the Lord, worshipping Him in every aspect of our lives? 

This Psalm is one of wrath, where God promises to punish the nations and draw them to Himself.  It is also one of promise because if you look at the opposite side of this Psalm, you will see that if opposite behavior takes place, God will bless you greatly.  If we return to follow the Lord, then when we are attacked by others, God will take it personally, He will intercede for us.

I apologize for the length of today's study; I got carried away with my editorializing.  If you wish to add your comments please feel free to write in. 

Father, this morning I am concerned with holiness and with division in our homes and our marriages.  I ask that You will give each of us the desire to be on the same team to fight together to follow You and to return to worship in our lives.

In Him,

Joe Turner.