I. Introduction
A. There are three basic types of advent sermons:
1. Sermons about the anticipation of the messiah’s coming (mainly from the OT)
2. Sermons about the story of the messiah’s coming (mainly from the gospels, esp. Matthew&Luke)
3. Sermons about the significance of the messiah’s coming (mainly from the NT epistles)
B. In 2019/2020 I preached sermons about the story of the messiah’s coming – from Matthew/Luke.
C. So, this year we’re going to talk about the anticipation of the messiah’s coming – from Psalm 2.
1. Psalm 2 is one of the clearest and most powerful of the messianic psalms.
2. It is also one of the most quoted passages of the OT in the NT, and it is the foundation and starting point of many Biblical themes.
D. Psalm 2 seems to have been written by David.
1. The 150 Psalms are arranged in five books. The first book is Psalms 1 through 41.
2. All but four of the psalms in the first of these five books are attributed to David. And those four are not attributed to anyone. Scholars believe that the Psalms 1 & 2 are also written by David, but are not attributed because they are means to be introductory psalms designed to set the tone for the whole book. Also, Psalm 2 is ascribed to David in Acts 4:25.
E. Also, for us Psalm 2:1-3 is extremely helpful in understanding what is happening in the world, and why the world is the way it is.
1. It’s not enough to be sad about the state of the world. It’s the way it is for a reason, actually for many reasons. And God tells us a lot about those reasons.
2. And how will we know how to adjust, how to act, how to help, if we don’t understand why things are the way they are?
F. Psalm 2:1 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, 3 “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” 4 He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. 5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, 6 “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” 7 I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. 8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. 9 You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” 10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. 11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. 12 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.
G. There are five things in the first three verses which I’d like to point out this morning.
1. The peoples of the earth are enraged at God.
2. The people of the earth perceive God’s authority and law as bondage.
3. The people of the earth work together to plot how to escape from God’s authority and law.
4. This rage of the nations against God includes God’s Messiah.
5. This rage against God and His Messiah is irrational.
II. The peoples of the earth are enraged at God.
A. V.2-3 speak of kings and rulers, but it is clear that this rebelliousness is not confined to the leaders of nations, for it is the nations which rage and the peoples who plot in vain.
B. ‘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 & against his Anointed.’ Everyone plays a part.
C. And the people are not just impatient with God, they’re not just irritated with God. They are against God; they plot against Him; they set themselves against Him.
D. The strange thing about this is that most of these people who rage at God are very religious.
1. Religion can be a great way to avoid Christ!
2. When you worship a god who isn’t the true God, then by doing so you are opposing the true God.
3. When you choose which god to worship based on your preferences, you’re opposing the true God.
4. The passage says that people rage at God, and set themselves against the Lord. It doesn’t say they oppose the concept of god.
5. People don’t hate the concept of god. They just hate Him!
6. They are fully capable of loving a god – if they get to invent him, or at least adjust him according to their preferences.
7. But in that case, we are God’s potter & god has become our clay, instead of the other way around.
E. And another way to oppose God is to avoid sin, to be a good person.
1. If you are a really good person, then you have no need for God. Now, if course, we know that there are no really good people, for we’re all sinners.
2. But there are plenty of people who THINK they’re really good people, aren’t there?
F. Romans 8:7 tells us that “the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.”
III. The people of the earth perceive God’s authority and law as bondage.
A. 1 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, 3 “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”
B. People don’t usually experience their rebellion as rebellion, but as a desire for liberty.
C. They find God constraining. They don’t want Him to forbid things. It makes them feel boxed in.
D. So, people feel tied down and are eager to escape. “I am my own! Get rid of this yoke!”
E. In their minds, they are not doing something evil. They are escaping a tyrant.
F. The God whose yoke is easy is perceived as a tyrant; God’s ‘cords of kindness’ (Hos.11:4) are perceived as cords of bondage; His ‘bands of love’ (Hos.11:4) as the shackles of slavery.
G. It reminds us of Satan in the garden, who convinces Adam and Eve that the One who has generously given them all things to enjoy – except for the fruit of one tree – is actually a cruel tyrant who is depriving them. But Satan is the true tyrant here.
H. Our society – or Satan through our society – would have us believe that true happiness comes from personal freedom. In other words, true happiness is when you do what you want to do, not what someone else wants you to do.
I. We want to make up our own rules. We don’t want to be told who to sleep with. We don’t want to be assigned a gender. We want to decide who we are and why we’re here. We want to decide who to worship – or not to worship are all.
J. It’s like Jeremiah 2:20: “Long ago I broke your yoke and burst your bonds; but you said, ‘I will not serve.’ Yes, on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed down like a whore.”
IV. The people of the earth work together to plot how to escape from God’s authority and law.
A. 1 the peoples plot in vain 2 The rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, 3 “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”
B. This is a team effort, a conspiracy. They are strategizing together, hatching a plan to escape.
C. They’re not content to take a stand against God individually. There is a social side to their rebellion.
D. Romans 1:32 “Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”
E. People who usually can’t get along in ordinary circumstances are united by their rage against God.
1. As Luke 23:12 tells us about the day Jesus was crucified: “Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other.”
F. We see here the human ingenuity, the enormous effort, and the cooperation with others which goes into constructing arguments which justify people’s rejection of God!
1. People devote everything to the cause. Anything to justify their rebellion
G. Science is a wonderful thing – until it gets used to raise arguments against the truth of God.
1. And history is a wonderful thing – until it gets used to undermine the truth of God.
H. You think the theory of evolution was the result of objective scientific exploration? Of course not!
1. The problem is, there isn’t one person on earth who doesn’t have a vested interest when it comes to the subject of God and our relationship with Him.
I. So, when a few historians say, “Jesus Christ probably never existed,” it sounds impressive, but they can’t be trusted because they have a vested interest.
1. And when scholars say, “Paul didn’t write these epistles,” or “These miracles never happened,” you have to take it with a grain of salt.
J. You see, all these things are a part of a giant conspiracy to suppress the knowledge of God and be able to rebel against Him without being plagued by shame and guilt.
V. This rage of the nations against God includes God’s Messiah.
A. Though this psalm talks more about the Messiah than virtually any other psalm, it doesn’t say much about Him in the first three verses. It just mentions Him in v.2.
B. 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, 3 “Let us burst THEIR bonds apart and cast away THEIR cords from us.”
C. The Anointed = Messiah = Christ
1. The Hebrew word which came to be used to refer to the person promised by God who would come as a King, a priest and a prophet.
D. Think for a minute about the progress of OT messianic prophecies.
1. God in the garden: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” – Genesis 3:15
2. “All nations blessed through you” – Gen.22:18
3. The star rising from Jacob – Numbers 24:17 “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel.”
4. The prophet like unto Moses – Deut.18:15-19 “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— ...18 And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak all that I command him. 19 And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.
5. But when David becomes king, there really hasn’t been much prophecy about a coming messiah.
6. But that changes big time when God promises David a very special son.
a. Psalm 2 is a part of the cluster of messianic prophecies given at this time to and through David.
b. Shooting star versus fireworks display
c. In Psalm 2, a thousand years before Christ, 300 years before Isaiah the prophet, David prophecies about the coming Christ.
7. In fact, you could say that it is Psalm 2 which ignites messianic expectation – because Psalm 2 is really what brings together all the expectation of a promised deliverer king under the umbrella of the word ‘Messiah.’
E. But the focus of this verse (v.3) is not on Messiah’s coming but on the opposition He faces.
1. And we see this very clearly in the story of His coming, don’t we?
2. We see it very early in the brutal reaction of King Herod to the news of the messiah’s birth -Mt.2.
a. In this way, Herod was ahead of his time. He was very astute.
3. And then later, in Acts 4:25-28, when Peter & John are explaining the crucifixion of Jesus, lo and behold, they interpret what happened in terms of the first three verses of Psalm 2. Acts 4:24–28 “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, 25 who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “ ‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? 26 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’— 27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.”
F. But why oppose the Anointed One, the very One God sends for healing and for deliverance?
VI. This rage against God and His Messiah is irrational.
A. 1 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, 3 “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”
1. The why here in v.1 is like an umbrella which covers the whole three verses.
a. All three verses are a part of the ‘why’ question.
b. One translator includes a why before each segment: Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 2 Why do the kings of the earth set themselves, and why do the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, 3 “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.
2. So, what’s the significance of the ‘why’?
a. The “why” is the author’s astonishment at the senseless rejection of God’s rule and His Ruler.
b. “Why would they do this? It doesn’t make sense.”
B. The fact is we desperately need a wise, gracious, compassionate, intelligent, powerful king who is impervious to corruption.
1. Great literature often tells of a wise and good king, under whose reign the people prosper.
a. This is very strange in light of the fact that real kings virtually always oppress.
2. But when an actual wise, benevolent, compassionate, intelligent, powerful King who is impervious to corruption shows up, we reject Him. And more than reject Him, we crucify Him!
C. This rebellion is not because of any deficiency in the king. This rebellion is absurd.
1. It’s not a big misunderstanding; it’s not inadequate communication.
2. It’s a problem with us. It’s a problem with our hearts. It’s a problem with how we see things.
3. We have a good King – a perfect King – but we hate this King.
D. What is our beef with God? What bothers us about Him? Why do we hate Him so much?
1. First of all, He insists on being God.
2. He tells us what to do. He forbids us from doing things He knows will harm us.
E. We see this in everyday life. Let me use an illustration I’ve used before.
1. I have a niece named Jenna. She is wonderful, sweet, godly woman. But when she was about 11 months old, she was crawling on the carpet when she discovered a straight pin. But thankfully her parents were watching and they were able to intervene before Jenna was able to put the pin into her mouth. But Jenna was not at all happy about being thwarted. She clung to the pin with all her might & screamed as if she were being murdered. She was so mad that if she had access to a gun, along with the knowledge and strength to fire it, she would have killed her parents right then and there. Were her parents being unreasonable? Were her parents being tyrannical? Were her parents being selfish, wanting this little treasure all for themselves? Of course not! But at that moment Jenna wanted to do what Jenna wanted to do. And Jenna hated them for standing in her way.
2. Usually when there’s a conflict between two parties, they both bear some responsibility. But that’s not the case in the conflict between God and the peoples of the earth. God is perfect. He has done nothing wrong. He has been nothing but good. And yet mankind hates Him.
F. We understand why people would rebel against a tyrant.
1. Even most Christians – who believe in honoring the emperor as the NT commands us – agree that there is a time to revolt against tyrants. Most Christians, for instance, celebrate Dietrich Bonhoeffer for plotting to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
2. (But we have very different feelings toward Absalom, who revolted against his father, King David, even though we understand why he did it.)
G. But this revolt is completely nonsensical. It’s not a revolt against a tyrant. It’s not even against a very imperfect parent. It is a revolt against a generous, wise, good-hearted, benevolent king.
1. He came healing the sick, freeing people from demons, making blind people able to see, lame people able to walk, condemning oppression, even raising dead people back to life. But they still hated Him!
2. Jesus said, “If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’” – John 15:24-25
VII. Application
A. There’s something very wrong with us! There’s something twisted in our hearts.
1. We get it all wrong. This is way beyond lostness. This is way beyond sickness.
2. It is not just doing bad things, it is opposing the Lord and His Messiah.
3. We hate the very Thing we ought to love.
4. We’re offered to drink from the fountain of living waters, but instead we drink from the raw sewage in the ditch – Jeremiah 2:13.
5. “In my heart there is a treason, one that poisons all my love.” - song by Eric Grover
6. We don’t like somebody else telling us what to do. We desire to be our own god.
a. This is what sinfulness is. This is where sinfulness begins.
B. You know what’s AMAZING in light of this? God’s grace us amazing in light of this.
1. John 3:16 “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
2. And Romans 5:10 “While we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.”
3. God loved us when we were defiant rebels. And He sent us His Messiah, to be born as a human baby, to live a perfect life of love, and then to die the death of a criminal – in our place.
4. That’s what rebels deserve, you know. They deserve to be crucified in shame and disgrace.
5. But instead of crucifying us, the Messiah let us crucify Him in our place.
6. He is so good! He is so kind!