Acts 4; Psalm 2
Please turn in your copy of the scriptures to Psalm chapter two, Psalm number two. Last week, we looked at Psalm 1, and I mentioned that the Psalms are arranged in some semblance of order. They’re not just a mishmash of 150 Psalms just thrown together in a book. There’s five books of the Psalms. There’s doxologies at the end of each of the five books. There’s an arrangement of themes and all kinds of things.
But Psalms 1 and 2 are the entry, the gate into life, or covenant with God. And so in Psalm 1, we saw the blessedness of those who keep the law of God and live the law of God and stay away from lawless people. The law abiding believer is blessed while the one who hates God is cursed. They’re like the chaff that are blown away by the wind. So in Psalm 2, we come to a continuation of what does life look like for those who Don’t live righteously. What does life for the wicked look like?
And so the theme of this Psalm is basically this. If you want a good life, well, of course, live Psalm one life, live by the tree of living water. But if you want a good life, kiss the sun, submit to Jesus, look to the Messiah and live for him. Otherwise, he’s gonna come with his big rod of iron and break your teeth. It doesn’t sound very good, does it? So here the word of the living God, this is Psalm chapter two, Psalm two verses one through 12.
Why did the nations rage and the people’s 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. There, or then, he will speak to them in his wrath. He will 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 greatly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him. Let’s go to God on prayer. Our God, we ask that you would open our eyes to behold wonderful things from your glorious scripture. May we read and mark and learn and inwardly digest all that is written for Jesus’ sake, for the health and strength of our spiritual growth and grace, we ask now in Jesus’ name, amen.
So Peter and John went preaching in Jerusalem after the resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus. Remember they were in the temple and a beggar asked them for alms for the poor. And remember the little song we learned in Sunday school, silver and gold have I none, but in the name of Jesus rise up and walk.
And this man, able to walk nearly 40 years old, upset the powers that be in Jerusalem. And so as these men were preaching the sure resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the Sadducees, who themselves did not believe in resurrection, became upset. And so the nations raged, the peoples plotted in vain, and the Enemies of God surrounded Peter and John and the apostles and the disciples, and they arrested them and put them in custody for the night. And on the next day, they put them on trial.
By what name are you preaching and healing? Well, it’s only but the name of Jesus. What can wash away our sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. It’s in the name of the one who can seek and save the lost. And so what is their judgment? Well, this lame man walks. We can’t deny that.
What does tell them to hush up? What does tell them that will break their legs? What does tell them all these threatening things, tell them to go home and keep their mouth shut and do crossword puzzles or something. And so as these threatened apostles went back to their hideout, I guess their meeting place, perhaps it was the upper room.
They went off to pray. And as they were praying, we’re told that the place where they prayed was shaken and that they were enabled by the power of God to continue to speak boldly. Now, sometimes we hear about missionaries. Maybe we read, um, the, the, the persecution reports and we wonder how in the world Do people in foreign places, dangerous places, keep proclaiming God and His salvation through Jesus with boldness? How is it that we can carry on in the Christian life, the Christian ministry? Well, we’re told that great power, great signs and wonders continued with the church and it increased, it grew in numbers as they sought to fulfill the great commission During their prayer meeting, which is biblical to do, they quoted the scriptures. And as we’re reading Acts chapter four, perhaps you noticed that they quoted back to God. They prayed back to God, Psalm two, and they applied Psalm two to their plight, to their situation as persecuted believers.
Their prayer was sovereign Lord who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father, David, your servant said by the Holy Spirit, why did the nations or the Gentiles rage? Why did the people’s plot in vain? Why is it that the kings of the earth set themselves up and the rulers also against gathered together the Lord and his anointed?
They see themselves. And there is a sense where we should see ourselves is carrying on the Lord’s work in the world, and the nations will rage, the peoples will plot in vain, and there will be those who stand against the ministry of the gospel of Jesus.
So what is it we want to remember today? What is it we want to leave from here today, remembering in our minds, knowing in our hearts? We want to remember this, that Jesus is in charge of the world. Jesus, the Messiah, the King of the universe is in charge of this world.
And in order to see that, we’ll look at the rebellious nations. We’ll look at Yahweh’s rule from heaven. We’ll see God’s decree, his ancient decree from of old. And then we’ll look at Messiah’s earthly rule. So we wanna remember today that Jesus is in charge of the world.
My grandmother on my mom’s side had a little saying, people can kill you, but they can’t eat you. Right. And what she meant by that was what Jesus said in his teaching. Don’t be afraid of the one who can kill the body, but be afraid of the one who can cast the soul into outer darkness. So when people are surrounding us and we feel like they’re going to kill us and eat us, we need to remember that Jesus is in charge of the world.
So first, let’s think in verses one to three about the rebellious nations. In verses one through three, we read, why do the nations rage? Why do the people’s 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.
When we think of nations, when we think of countries, when we think of enemies, we think of big nations, big countries. We think of China, we think of Russia, we think of Iran, we think of large populations, large economies, large military abilities. But in this case, we need to think small. Of course, we think small about application of the apostles. They’re thinking that the rulers and authorities of the Jewish people are the problem. They think that the Gentiles like pirate pilot. We think or they think that they are the problem. And so we think small of nations in that way.
But perhaps think about, say, Jericho. Think about Ai, think about the Philistine city states of like Gath and Ashdod. I think they had five little cities along the Mediterranean Sea. But think about small little nation states, little walled cities dotted across Israel. Remember reading the book of Joshua and how they went from little nation state to little nation state, and they would find confederations of nation states that would join together to keep Israel from taking the promised land. We find those little nations, those little city states, those little confederations, saber rattling.
We find them saying to the people of God, you know, maybe calling out to Joshua and his commanders, you can’t beat us. Our city is too thick and our wall is too tall and it is too fortified. But what did Joshua and say Gideon and David and others do? They trusted in the Lord and in the mighty arm and strength of God. But we live today where it’s not just the little nation states, saber rattling against Joshua and Israel and the little band of refugees from Egypt. We find saber rattling all day long, every day on the news. We see ships sailing into position.
We see missile tests, perhaps from North Korea. We see government crackdowns. and despot states where if people begin to uprise, they begin to kill them and to take their lives and to push fear. Saber rattling happens all the time. Our own nation does it. I don’t mean to be political at all today, but we’re watching our nation’s saber rattler. We are, you know, that’s swords rattling, saber rattling. We’ve got ships in the Strait of Hormuz. We’ve got boats and installations all over the world. We’re ready at a moment’s notice to take action on behalf of our nation.
But I also think we ought to consider the nation’s raging, the people’s plotting in vain against believers. In the intellectual world, all day long, every day, night and day on the television, we have pundits saying this or that, trying to persuade people of this viewpoint or that viewpoint. Rarely, if ever, reporting on the news. But there is an intellectual assault on the life and the beliefs of Christians.
It’s incredible today to see the use of language and how words can be used one way and then turn right around in the next sentence and use them with a different definition. We live in a world where there’s all sorts of rebellion against God, against his people, and ultimately against Jesus, the Messiah. Some of you perhaps back at Christmas, or maybe year round, you listen to Handel’s Messiah, and there is a portion, a sung piece of Psalm 2. the deep voice of the male singer. Why do the nations rage? Why do the people’s plot in vain and sit together against the Lord and his anointed? And so as we look at rebellious nations, as we look at any enemy against God and his people, whether in ancient Israel or against his church today, scattered all around the world, we need to remember that key word they plot in vain. Their plotting against God and against his people is a pure vanity. And so we’ve thought for a moment about the rebellious nations of Psalm two.
What about Yahweh’s rule from heaven? We see it in verses four and five in Psalm two, verse four, it says, he who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision. He will speak to them in his wrath and he will terrify them in his fury. What of these rebellious nations? Well, they must know that Yahweh rules from heaven. They have been laughing at Yahweh. What’s Yahweh now doing from his throne of glory in the heavenly places? He’s laughing at them. Now who gets the last laugh?
It’s always God. This is why Martin Luther in the height of the reformation, love Psalm 46. He loved the metrical version of the psalm, but he also penned a hymn we sing from time to time. A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing. And then it goes on to say, though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, we need not fear for God, our strength is near us.
And what is it that will fail Satan? little word. They plot in vain. They gather against Messiah in vain. And so the sovereign one sits on his throne of heaven. He sits as the ruler of the king, as the he is the king of the universe. And he he is the one who gives out scepters of rule. He is the one who gives out seats of authority. But they fail to acknowledge him as God. They fail to give him what is due his great and mighty name. And they not only don’t, they won’t and they never will. but Yahweh will rebuke them.
Yahweh will intervene on behalf of his people. In fact, when we read in the book of Acts in chapter four, what happens when the people are told, you know, no more preaching, no more healing, don’t mention Jesus, don’t do a thing in his name, go home and watch TV. What is it that God does when they pray? Their faith is in him, their hope is in him, their trust is in him, their confidence is in him, and he gives them the power to keep on preaching and to be of great value to the great commission.
And so the rebellious nations plot, but it’s in vain. Why is it in vain? Because Yahweh sits in the heavens on his throne where he rules the universe and he laughs. He laughs at his enemies. But what about now the third thing, God’s decrees? We’ve got rebellious nations plotting. We’ve got Yahweh ruling from his throne, but now we’re reminded of his decree in verses seven through nine. Now this is King David speaking. And he says, I will tell of the decree.
Yahweh said to me, that’s to David, you are my son. And today I have begotten you, ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage. and I will make the ends of the earth your possession. You will break them with a rod of iron. You will dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
David is reminding himself when he’s king over Israel. He’s reminding himself when there’s saber rattling going on in the little nation states. He’s reminding himself of God’s ancient decree. And God’s ancient decree is that he will have a king on his throne. David is really the first of those kings. Saul was not the right man. David, a man after God’s own heart, selected by Samuel, anointed by God. And so David is reminding himself, as there are enemies surrounding him, I am God’s king by everlasting decree. Now, if that doesn’t encourage him and comfort him, Who knows what could? Now, of course, we’re looking now into the distance and seeing David’s greater son, Jesus, who sits on God’s throne forever by right of the resurrection and all the rest. But at least for now, King David sees his hope rooted in God.
The apostles see their hope rooted in God. And we, the Church of Jesus Christ today, perhaps in the midst of persecution at various times and stretches and seasons, we see that our hope is in the decree of God. No human or earthly authority will stand against Christ and his church. Now, what are we to remember about God and his decree?
Well, we’re to remember that he decreed he would have a son, ultimately Jesus, not David, but ultimately Jesus would sit on his throne. And we remember this little phrase when God calls Christ his son, uh, it it’s true for many reasons. Number one, uh, Jesus is the eternally begotten son of God. Second, he is son by promise. He is son by decree. God decreed, you will be my son forever. And so he is. Third, he’s his son by right. Jesus has the privileges of being the son of our God and heavenly father.
Now remember three significant places in the gospel where God the father says to the watching world, this is my son. You’ll remember at his baptism when Jesus was cleansed after identifying with sinful Israel, the Holy Spirit descended like a dove, but the voice from heaven said, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. Same thing on the Mount of Transfiguration where a couple of disciples and then Moses and Elijah were there with Jesus on the mountain. And the voice from heaven again says, this is my son.
And with him, I am well pleased. And then, of course, after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, he was to receive his ascension, a kingdom, a throne, a kingship, a sovereignty. And so Christ, our great savior, but our heavenly fathers. Only begotten son serves at the pleasure of the father. And this is the message that should go out to the world. There is a king in this world and his name is Jesus. There is a king in this world and we ought to submit to him, bow down to him.
I don’t know if y’all saw the little jokes this week, but you know, we had a real king come to our country and there was a picture that went out from the white house of our president and the king of England. And it said two kings, right? You kind of get the joke, the whole political thing. And yes, there are little kings, kings of little nations, medium nations, big nations, but there is only one king of kings and only one Lord of lords.
And so rebellious nations ought to acknowledge that Yahweh rules from heaven and that Jesus rules by decree. Well, what of the Messiah’s earthly rule? What do we think about now as we think about all the tumult of war and saber rattling on this earth and on our seas? Well, verses 10, 11, and 12 help us with perspective. It says, now therefore, O kings, in verse 10, be wise and be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, rejoice with trembling, kiss the Son, that’s Jesus, lest he be angry, lest you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Well, Friday, I think it was, some of you perhaps were listening to the little radio show, The World and Everything in It, On Fridays, they have a syndicated columnist from a lot of the major papers, a man named Cal Thomas, and he was giving his perspective on our war with Iran or our military exercises or whatever they’re called, law enforcement exercises. I forget how they term it these days.
It’s not a war though, right? Well, whatever it is, he was saying America will never win the war against Iran until they realize that it is a clash of worldviews. Now, I am not saying, and I don’t believe he was saying that, you know, America is the new Israel and whatever America does, God is behind us and, you know, happy Israel all over again. He wasn’t saying that.
I don’t believe that either. But at the end of the day, you are dealing with a worldview of freedom and a worldview of bondage. At the end of the day, you are dealing with a Christ-centered worldview to some degree in the United States. Not a new Israel. Don’t hear that. And then you are dealing with a worldview of death and destruction.
And so what Cal Thomas was saying in his essay that he gave by audio on World’s Radio was something like this. Until we figure out that they hate us and want to kill us, you’re never going to win the war. Now, why don’t we want to say people hate and kill us? Because that’s not nice. That’s not politically correct.
But I think we understand as believers, I think we understand as Christians, I think we understand as people who read history and understand our times in some way, shape or form, that nations represent ideologies and those ideologies come from worldviews. And they are either God affirming or God denying worldviews. And they either represent life or they represent death, freedom or bondage. And wars are always extensions of politics. If you can’t win with rhetoric, you win with saber rattling. And if saber rattling doesn’t work, then you launch a missile or you shoot a gun.
And so what is the thing that we ought to remember in this passage? What ought to be said to those who love a culture of death and destruction and war. Well, they better wise up. They better acknowledge the one who sits on the throne of glory in the heavenly places and rules the king as king of the universe.
The story of the Tower of Babel, though, reminds us how we live very often in opposition to God. Remember the nations in the book of Genesis, both from the garden, but also from the ark, were to go out into the world and to be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth so that the glory of God, the knowledge of Yahweh would spread across the entire globe. Well, what happened is the wicked generations after Adam and the wicked generations after Noah, what happened when they scattered? Well, they stopped, they built cities and you come to the Tower of Babel where they decide to build a name for themselves. And isn’t that opposite from what God told Adam and Eve to do and what he told Noah and his boys to do?
He said, go out into the world just like the church and preach the gospel. Let it be known that there is a God and he is to be served. But when you stop and build a name for yourself and you build a tower for yourself and you build a city for yourself, there’s no scattering about and spreading God across the globe.
There’s a gathering in a city and walls where they plot in vain. and where they speak against Yahweh. And remember the little funny words of Genesis when it speaks of Babel, God says into the heavens, in the heavens, he says, let’s go down and look at this little tower they’re building. He sits in the heavens and laughs when the nations plot in vain and when they assemble against him.
And so we ought to wise up. The enemies of God ought to wise up. They don’t, and they probably won’t. And throughout the history of God’s people, we’ve seen Satan. What did he say? If I can’t, I’d rather, I’d rather rule in hell than serve in heaven. And so Satan rebelled against almighty God. We have Cain who kills his brother Abel because God honored Abel’s worship, but for Cain’s worship, he had no regard. And so there was a fratricide.
What about Pharaoh? He wants to oppress God’s people, make them work, make them build his city, serve his ends and God rescues and redeems Israel. How about Goliath? He was an enemy of Israel and everybody in Israel was too chicken to go out and kill him.
But here comes David, the little servant boy who had fought bears in the wilderness to protect his sheep. And what does he do? He, in the name of God, slings a rock and it hits his mark. And so Goliath is dead. Or how about Herod when Jesus is born? The wise men come some two years later. They come to Herod. Where is he born King of the Jews? And Herod and all Jerusalem is upset. But God protects. the little Messiah and sends him off to Egypt until Herod is dead and the enemies are gone. There are constantly people and nations and ideologies who want to stamp out Jesus. They want to crush the gospel and to say to you as believers, you keep quiet. You do not speak in his name.
Now, remember what Jesus said to Pilate. Pilate first says to Jesus, I can crucify you or I can release you. And Jesus’ response is, you would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. What does the book of Acts tell us about the Jewish authorities who convinced Pilate to put Jesus to death? They said it was because of the definite plan and foreknowledge of God that wicked men unrighteously would kill the Savior.
And we think back to the king of the universe ruling in Joseph’s life in Egypt. What does he tell his brothers when they’re afraid of his retribution? What you meant for evil, God has meant for good. And so as we think about rebellious nations or even ideologies, we think of Yahweh’s rule from heaven. We consider God’s decree that he will have a son on the throne forever. That son is Jesus. And we think of Messiah’s earthly rule. We come now to the benediction of this passage, and you find it at the very end of Psalm 2, verse 12. It says, blessed are all who take refuge in him. Blessed are all who take refuge in Messiah.
Our calling is to follow Christ. Our calling is to serve Christ. Our calling is to take a stand, to preach in Jesus name. It’s to do missions and evangelism. It’s to be a martyr or one who is persecuted if necessary. Our job, our task, our calling is to kiss the sun and to take refuge in him.
And we will live around people with hard hearts, people with rebellious spirits. People will say that king, whoever he may be, will not rule over us. They will persist in this and they will perish in this. A lot of people think of Baby Jesus, little Jesus, meek and mild. But what does Psalm 2 tell us? He’s going to come with a rod of iron. He is going to come as a teeth breaker. The scriptures tell us the day of wrath is set and that the efforts of those who plot against Messiah are in vain.
And it may be painful now to live as a witness to Jesus. It may be difficult now to live as a faithful one to God, but there is a promise here, blessed are all who take refuge in him. Let’s go to him now in prayer. Lord, who do we have besides you in heaven or on earth? There is none like you, none who can save, none who can rescue. And so now we put our faith, our hope, and our trust in the only and true Messiah. And it’s in his name we pray now, amen.