"The Righteous Man & The Anointed King" Psalms 1 & 2
- One of our missionaries, Josh Montague, shared an update about his life and ministry and then preached on September 3rd, 2023.
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Audio Transcript
I feel like that statement about loving the Boundary Waters needs to be said with a little bit more enthusiasm to properly reflect how much time I spend there and how much I enjoy it. Like, I really, really love it up there. And I usually spend about a week every summer by myself on a trip, which is kind of freaky to some people, but, like, I can’t even explain how much that like, rejuvenates my soul to have a week in the wilderness. I think it’s biblical too, because there’s a lot of people in the Bible that spent time in the wilderness, usually not for good reasons, but that’s not why I go there. I do enjoy it though, with, with enthusiasm.
So one other thing before I get into this message. I want to just thank you guys as a church for your support. And you guys are a blessing to us. And most of you probably aren’t involved in like, some of the communication necessarily, but I know there’s a missions committee that I get regular notes from of encouragement and that’s just tremendously meaningful and I appreciate that. It’s not just a financial support, although there is that and we appreciate that greatly.
But it’s. I know there’s prayer and I know there’s just words of encouragement as I serve the Lord with training leaders international. And I have the joy of training pastors in many different countries. Primarily for me, I’ve worked with guys from Pakistan and guys in the Philippines. In fact, over the next two, three years, I’ll be going to the Philippines probably five or six times a year for a week long, training in different areas there.
And you can pray for me on that. Very practical way is I don’t like hot weather. I’m not looking forward to walking outside of the church this afternoon. It’s going to be warm out there and I don’t love that. And if you know anything about the Philippines, you know it’s not, it’s not a cold weather climate there.
And so it can be a little bit of a struggle. I love the Filipino people love going there, but it’s hot and man, it’s. It can be a challenge to teach for me sometimes in some of those places. And just the opportunity we have with young Filipino pastors who are trying to learn how to study God’s word, preach it faithfully in their churches, lead with God’s word, just be praying for that would be a tremendous delight. I’ll be there in October and then again in November and then multiple times throughout 2024, and it looks like 2025, so it’s just a blessing to be connected to that work.
You can also pray for my family as I travel there at home. We have one son now. I think the first time I was ever here. I don’t even remember how long now. I mean, I think.
I think we had all four of our kids here. They’re probably junior high at the oldest maybe then. I don’t know. And now our oldest son has graduated college and is working for the U.S. forest Service. He’s a firefighter out in Montana right now.
Our second son is a college student, sophomore, and is living at home, going to school in the Minnesota Minneapolis area. And then our daughters are a freshman and a senior this year. So we are. Some of you have had this experience where the first one graduates, and then they just start going like, boom, boom, boom. And all of a sudden you’re like, wow, the kids are gone.
And we’re like, facing that. It just seems like it goes like that. And it’s a joy to. To see them grow up, to mature, kind of in some ways.
But it’s also a different stage of life that we’re entering into and we’re enjoying it, but also grieving kind of. We miss little kids, you know, that’s kind of fun time. One other thing is just a quick explanation. Every time I come here, I probably have like a different length of beard or my hair is now long right now. And.
And I want to give you just a quick explanation and a defense of that, if I may.
Four years ago, I started a doctoral program through Western Seminary to learn how to explore, how to teach better in some of the contexts that we teach. We teach in a lot of areas where people don’t read well. They’re not illiterate, but they’re less literate. And they don’t learn through reading like we teach in our schools. So the idea of teaching someone to study and read the written word of God is.
There’s some tension and some struggle with that. So I studied a doctoral program, and I wanted to write on how to train less literate people to read and study and preach and communicate God’s word. And at the beginning of this year, I was done with the classes and had started the work on the dissertation, but looked at the calendar and realized that in November I’ve got a finish this thing, or that’s like a hard deadline. And so I started writing pretty intensively through the spring and into the summer. And for some reason, I stopped going to the barber and the things.
It seemed to help. Actually. I don’t I can’t explain it, but just seemed to help. It’s not some weird vow that I took. It just seemed to help.
And so until I finish that dissertation and until you can officially call me Dr. Montague, I’m going to keep growing my hair. And if you don’t like it, then you can help me write my paper or something like that, because I need the help. I need the help. Well, we’re going to be in Psalms 1 and 2 this morning, and we’re going to talk poetry. And some of you are like, oh, no.
Poetry? Really? I taught a little class for some people in our church a few years ago on Hebrew poetry, biblical poetry. And at the beginning of the class, I asked the group that was there, maybe 15, 20 people that were taking this class with me. I said, what comes to your mind when I say the word poetry?
And one brave soul named Chad, who usually doesn’t have a problem speaking his mind, says, you know, to be honest, I just don’t like it. I ask, like, why can’t these guys, these ladies, whoever’s writing the poem, why can’t they just say what they mean? Why do they gotta be all, like, flowery in their language and rhyme and all this kind of stuff? And Chad’s an engineer. He likes a manual that tells him how to do things and steps that are very clear and very direct.
And so he reads poetry like the Psalms and goes, what in the world is going on here? And some of you are like, chad, aren’t you? You’re like, what? Why? There’s these images and, you know, the Hebrew psalmists and Hebrew poets don’t, you know, use rhyme as part of their poetry scheme, but they use other tactics and techniques.
And I won’t go into detail about all of that kind of stuff, but it is different. It’s different to read poetry. And it can be hard for some of us, especially those of us like Chad. It’s a fair question. Why can’t they just say what they mean?
Like, rather than, the Lord is our shield, why don’t you just say the Lord protects us? Like that makes more sense. The shield imagery, like, what does it mean that God is a shield? And I can’t wrap my head around that. So I will say at the end of the class, Chad said, I think I’ve taken a step towards appreciating poetry.
I’m not all in yet. I’ve got a ways to go, but I’ve taken a step. And so my goal here is for you to take a step towards loving and appreciating biblical poetry. Like that found in the Psalms. Poetry plays with language in a way that is meant to affect us differently than a car manual.
It’s meant to be slowly read and meditated on, to be reflected upon, mulled over, memorized even. And if I can say this to be chewed on, that’s what you’re supposed to do with poetry, is chew on it and just get meaning out of it and think about the different flavors that are in those images and that wordplay, all that sort of thing. It’s meant to get into your mind, into your head, and be meditated on. You can read a novel quickly, some of you, Some of you, maybe not. You can watch a TV show in an hour, but you can’t read good poetry quickly.
You don’t just read it and be done with it and good move on. You got to think about it. And that’s what the poets write. That’s the type. That’s the way that the Hebrew and biblical poets write, is for us to enjoy the language and think about the language.
Poetry helps us slow down and ponder and appreciate words and phrases and images. And those poets play with and they use those words and images in ways that are careful, creative, and I think as you learn to meditate on them, they’re delightful. They’re delightful. So before I get to biblical poetry, let me read you a few lines from one of my all time favorite poems by a guy named Lewis Carroll. And he wrote a poem called Jabberwocky.
You guys know this one? Here it is. Just listen to how he plays with words. Okay? Twas brillig and the slithy toves did geyre and gimble in the wabe all mimsy were the boreal groves and the mome raths outgrabe.
Beware the jabberwock, my son. The jaws that bite, the claws that catch. Beware the jubjub bird and shun the frumious bandersnatch. I have no idea what that means. Zero idea.
And part of it is he’s using words that are entirely made up. You won’t find half of those words in the dictionary. But I do appreciate, as I’ve read this multiple times out loud over the years, there’s something about the way that that poem just sounds that’s just delightful, isn’t it? Even though it’s a word of warning about some creature. Bandersnatch thing, I don’t know, Jabberwocky, whatever it is, it’s still just the words and the rhythm of that poem is delightful.
It’s meant to be enjoyed. The slowly poems use language that should stir our emotions. They’re meant to be felt and not just analyzed. They’re meant to be read slowly and savored. So let me give you a few examples here.
Here’s a couple lines from some other poems not from the biblical text yet. We’ll get there, don’t worry. If you’re kind of like what, we’ll get to the Bible, I promise. Here’s one. Just think, how do you feel when you hear these lines of poetry?
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. What does that make you feel? I mean, there’s this, like, warmth to it, this affection, this love that comes from that poem From Shakespeare, Sonnet 18, if you want to read it in full. Here’s a different one, though.
It’s going to be a different emotion. Because I could not stop for death, he kindly stopped for me. Now, you felt differently hearing that poem than you did the first kind of affectionate poem. And that one. Maybe some sadness, some surprise, some fear of death.
Here’s another one. But. O heart, heart, heart. O the bleeding drops of red where on the deck my captain lies fallen, cold and dead. Walt Whitman.
O Captain, O Captain. What’s your emotional reaction to that one? It’s more of a sorrow, a loss, an ache for someone that has died. And Whitman is referring to Abraham Lincoln. There.
Last one, last one from Percy Shelley. My name is Ozymandias, king of kings. Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair. I just gave you four poems, and probably you had four different feelings, emotional reactions to those poems. That last one, maybe fear, awe, even despair.
Kind of tells you what to do with that poem. To despair poems are wonderful. I didn’t always think that, though. Didn’t always think that some of you are still on the fence, or some of you are well on one side of the fence. And you know it’s going to take work for me to get on the fence, let alone into really appreciating these things.
So I’ve got my task ahead of me. But let me tell you this. About a third of the Bibles in front of you is poetry. A full third of your biblical text is poetry. And the fact of the matter is that God speaks in poems to his people.
Not exclusively. He does communicate through other types of literature and other types of writing, but he does communicate often through poetry. Psalms, proverbs, much of the prophetic literature of Isaiah and Jeremiah. Those are all Poetry. But poems can also be found embedded in Old Testament stories, and they’re found even within the New Testament Gospels.
Jesus taught poetically often. Remember the Beatitudes. Blessed are the blessed are the blessed are the blessed. That’s poetry and that’s Hebrew poetry. That repetition that Jesus is using to teach the people in his day.
And even Paul, even Paul in his letters to the churches, will at times wax poetic. Here’s Romans 11. And there’s a poetic touch to this little paragraph here. Paul writes and says, oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways.
There’s a poetic meter in there. I’m not an expert on that kind of thing, but you can feel the poetry. Paul is calling and using poetry to cause people to worship and exalt, exalt in the wisdom and knowledge of God. And so, as we approach the first two psalms, let me just say a couple things about psalms in particular, but also poetry that is important. First of all, just a couple things.
First of all, psalms were meant to be read aloud in the context of corporate worship. David, Asaph, others who wrote the Psalms, the 150 Psalms that you have in your Bible, wrote them so that as God’s people gathered in worship, they would sing these psalms. They are meant to be read out loud, not just quietly, you know, not just quietly by yourself near a roaring fire, with a warm cup of cocoa during a snowstorm, with Beethoven playing in the background and a pair of warm fuzzy slippers on your feet. That’s kind of how I envision most people reading poetry. That’s not how I read poetry, but that’s kind of the standard image I have in my head of how someone would read a book of poetry.
That’s not how psalm. I mean, you can go ahead and read psalms that way. It might be good for you, but that’s not how psalms were intended to be read by God’s people. They were intended to be read aloud and even sung together as God’s people gathered for worship. And secondly, the psalms were meant to be savored and felt and understood.
The poems play with and exploit the intricacies of words and language and sounds and images in a way that is meant to make you think and appreciate and reflect on them.
So there are 150 Psalms, and they’re delightful. I didn’t always think that. I often thought they were a little repetitive, to be honest. When I was younger, most 1st century Jewish people, including Paul and the disciples And Jesus would have had many, if not all, of the psalms memorized, and they would have sung them as they walked the roads around Israel and around what is now Greece and Turkey. In those areas, as Paul and the disciples and Jesus walked, they would have sung the Psalms on their travels.
Paul even told the church, be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord in your heart. You are supposed to use the psalms to speak to each other, to speak truth about God and speak beauty about God. So let me try that with Psalms 1 and 2. And here is where we finally get into the text for this morning. I’m going to read Psalms 1 and 2, and you’re going to notice that there is a distinction, distinct difference between these psalms, between the first one and the second one.
But they are meant to go together. They are, as many scholars say, the doorways into the entire book of Psalms. And there’s a link that I’m going to explore later that you might not see upon an initial reading of these Psalms. But I think you’ll see later I’m going to read them both together. I’m not going to stop in between them.
And then you’ll we’re just going to examine these two Psalms for a bit this morning. Psalm 1 and Psalm 2. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He’s like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. 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.
So you heard that. And you may say, well, there’s some differences there, definitely. Bible scholars do like to describe these two psalms as the doorways into the entire Psalter through the entire 150 Psalms. In fact, the themes that are introduced in these two Psalms will set the stage for the other 148 Psalms in your Bibles. Themes of the anointed king, themes of blessedness, themes of righteousness, the righteous one and the wicked one.
Those will fill up the pages of your psalm of the Book of Psalms, and you’ll see those themes coming back over and over again. You may have noticed that these psalms don’t explicitly say that they’re psalms of David. There’s no author given at the beginning of either of these two Psalms like there is in Psalm 3 and 4 and many of the other early psalms. And so while these don’t explicitly say that they are written by David, the Apostle Paul in Acts, chapter 13 attributes them to David. So most Bible scholars like to say these are psalms of David.
They fit with how David writes. And since the rest of the early psalms are all psalms of David, these are likely psalms of David as well. So I’ll refer to them as Psalms of David. And I wanted to give you a little justification for why I do that. But here’s the gist of the first psalm.
Let me just stick with the first psalm, Psalm number one. Here’s the essence of that psalm, the summary of that psalm. The righteous are blessed while the wicked are doomed. Okay, you probably heard that throughout the psalm, it kind of culminates in the last few verses. The Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
So essentially what the psalm is saying is that it is good and joyful and free, fruitful to walk according to God’s way and to love his word or his law. And in order to describe that, the psalmist uses this word, blessed, blessed, which we Christians love to use for all kinds of things. Right. What a blessing. You know, I’m a blessed person.
We use that to just Describe anything good that happens to us. It’s a blessing. And there’s something like that. Maybe even some of your Bibles translate the word here different than. Than blessed.
You might have a version that says happy. And there’s some truth to that. There is happiness in that word Barack, which is the Hebrew word. But it’s more than just happiness. It’s more than just put on a.
You have a smile on your face because of what God has done. The word blessed here means a whole life that is flourishing is a. There’s a. There’s happiness, yes, but there’s also, as you see in the illustration in verses three and four, there’s a fruitfulness and a stability as well.
Blessed is the man who walks not in certain ways, but takes delight in the law of the Lord. Fruitful, stable, flourishing is that person. And so in order to make this point, the psalmist uses a few images. And you see, the image of the tree is predominant in this psalm.
The Hebrew poets love to take an image and play with it, to put it in front of you as you read and let you chew on that, what that image means. And in Psalm 1, the main image is the image of a tree. The blessed man, the righteous man is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in season. And its leaf does not wither in all that he does, he prospers. The righteous are like a strong, healthy tree.
A few months ago I was in the country of Jordan doing some training. And we had the opportunity. After, I think it was my sixth trip to Jordan, I finally got to go to Petra, which is like the coolest place in the world. I think it’s just amazing. It’s got all these like temples and caves and it’s just awesome.
And as we’re walking through some of the ruins around Petra, we were walking kind of the old Roman city and desert like atmosphere. And there’s this tree that is kind of by itself by an old wall. And it’s this tree that you can kind of see up here. And it’s, it’s a big tree. It’s not very tall like our trees are here in the upper Midwest.
But it’s, it’s thick probably at its base. It’s a good four feet thick and it’s flourishing, it’s got flowering and I, you know, our guide is kind of telling us about this tree. It’s kind of a famous tree and it’s a pistachio tree and it’s 450 years old or so, and it’s just this massively strong tree that is by itself that is stable despite everything else being ruins around it. This tree is still standing, stable and fruitful and well nourished. You’re in this hot desert climate.
You can go underneath that tree, find some shade it provides for you. It’s beautiful. It’s beautiful. It’s exactly what Psalm 13 is talking about. The one who is in the Lord, who is following the Lord, the way of the righteous is blessed.
And it’s like being that strong, stable, healthy, fruitful tree.
As opposed to verse four, where the wicked are not so, but they are like chaff that the wind drives away. Chaff is that you throw the grain in the air and it blows the husks away and gives you the what’s left to make into flower or whatever you want to do with. Unlike that healthy tree, the wicked are like a dead, fleeting, doomed tree. And so I have one of these trees in my backyard. I have this willow tree that I absolutely hate.
I think it is actually dying. There seems to be more and more branches that do not produce leaves every spring. And I have to cut down or hope for fall down or something. But every time there’s any breeze in our area, this. I don’t understand how it still has branches on this tree.
But anytime there’s any breeze, our lawn is just littered with these willow branches. And then as we hit fall, you know the willow leaves. Willow leaves are just the worst to rake, aren’t they? Anybody have a willow tree and you just. You try to rake it and you rake and it’s like, I don’t think I did anything there.
And I’m pretty sure that rake scraped the ground. But these little dinky skin, any. I just. I hate this tree. My wife, of course, loves this tree.
And so I can’t do anything to it. Except when a wind comes through and there’s branches all over our yard like this, I just sit on my deck and scowl and say, what a waste of a tree right there. We need firewood. It’s fall. We want to have bonfires.
That seems like a good option. I don’t think willow is actually a good burning tree, but it seems like it would do better than what it’s doing right now. I just. That’s what it’s. It’s a worthless tree.
In my mind. My wife would say different, as I said, but the wicked are like chaff. Those leaves and branches are just dead, fleeting, doomed. They’re worthless. But the righteous provide something.
It provides something beautiful and shade and Food. And not a lot of us are ancient Hebrews, I know. But if you were, when you heard about this tree, you’d think of a host of connections throughout your Scriptures. You think of Genesis 2, where a tree of life was planted in the Garden of Eden to provide for God’s people. Trees provide for God’s people.
At the end of the Book of Revelation in the New Jerusalem, there’s also a tree of life that provides for the nations. Trees provide when they’re healthy. As Christians, we should maybe even be thinking of another tree that stood at Calvary. And as Jesus died on that tree, he provided for his people. And so this image of a tree should trigger all these connections.
We could spend a lot of time on that. But those who righteously align with God and his ways, rather than the rebellious way of sinners, like the first verse, those who follow God, who are in God, his people, are like trees that provide. God wants to bless his people and use them to. To be a blessing. That’s the essence of Psalm 1.
Now, if you grew up in Sunday school, like I did in central Michigan at my little church, you heard this psalm taught often in Sunday school or youth group. And usually it was taught in something in a way somewhat like this. This is probably a little unfair to my beloved teachers in third grade, but it was. This is what I got out of it often is, here’s how to earn your righteousness. Here’s how to be a righteous person.
You want to be a righteous person? Here’s how to do it from Psalm 1. Number one, don’t walk with the wicked people. Okay, that’s verse one. The second line There walks not in the counsel of the wicked.
Number two, don’t stand with sinners. So don’t stop. Certainly if you walk by them, don’t stop. Don’t stand in the way of sinners. Still in verse one, Number three, don’t see.
Don’t. Don’t seat yourself with the scoffers. So now you’ve stopped. Now you’re sitting down, you’re, like hanging out with them. And it’s just gone from bad to worse.
So stay away from all the rebellious, sinful people. That’s kind of the summary of the first three ways to earn your righteousness, as I heard them in third, fourth grade. But then on the positive side, read your Bible. Read your Bible a lot. His delight is in the law of the Lord and meditate on your Bible all the time.
On his law, he meditates day and night. So just meditate on your Bible. All the time. And when you do that, then you will be like this righteous person and blessed some of you. That sounds like a familiar lesson you’ve heard in your lifetime, perhaps.
And there’s. It’s not all wrong. Okay, don’t get me wrong on this. Clearly the righteous one, and we want to pursue righteousness, but clearly the righteous one does not participate in sinful activities, verse 1. And the righteous one does know and treasure the law of the Lord, verse 2.
But I think there’s something that’s missed when this psalm is taught in that way, and it maybe even could be captured with a little word that is in verse two. And that word is delightful delight. When my Sunday school teachers, in all their good intentions taught that lesson, I never caught, and this might have been on me, I’ll own that I never caught the feeling of delight like that is really, really good to do that. I want to pursue that with all my heart and find joy in that. There’s not a lot of delight in the moralism of a how to earn your righteousness approach.
But the feel of the psalms should stir us to long for this righteous way to say, that’s good. And I desperately want that. Delightful. Even life with God is good is what the psalmist is saying, and it leads to deep and lasting joy. Other psalms capture this sentiment.
Asaph, in his Psalm 73, one of my favorites, which is very similar, similar thematically to Psalm 1, concludes by saying, but for me it is good to be near God.
So this psalm could be taken as kind of a here’s how to earn your righteousness. But it never really captures that delight. And there’s kind of a couple other problems with that approach to this psalm. Here’s the first problem is that we will never attain this kind of righteousness by trying hard to obey those lists. In fact, just a few psalms later, David in Psalm 14 will say, There is none who does good.
They have all turned aside together they have become corrupt. There is none who does good. Not even one.
So that’s a problem, right? So David’s saying, everybody’s corrupt. And then if you look at the end of verse sorry, the end of chapter one here, the way of the wicked will perish. Everyone is wicked. David says, the wicked will perish.
That’s unsettling, right? When you look at someone, you know that you. That does not describe you perfectly. Maybe there are times where you have delighted in the law of the Lord, but day and night, meditating with delight on the law of the Lord.
Uh oh, Christopher, asch in his commentary says only one man has ever spoken Psalm 1, fully believed it to be true and lived it out.
And here’s the concerning thing is that person is not any of us in this room. Only one man has ever spoken Psalm 1, fully believed it to be true and lived it out. So you get the seriousness of this problem, don’t you? The way of the wicked will perish. And we’re all pretty wicked.
We’re all rebels.
So here’s where we’re at. It’s good, peaceful, fruitful, joyous to delight in the Lord, enjoy His word, follow him, rather than the way of sin and rebellion. But no one truly does that. And so therefore all stand guilty of judgment. And so we should be asking, is there anyone who can be that delightfully righteous like Psalm 1 describes, and powerful, and lovingly obey God’s law at that level?
Can anyone do this? And Asch points out in his commentary, only one man can and has done that. And you know who that is, don’t you? Jesus Christ. But still, just keep thinking about this.
We’ll get more to Jesus in just a second here. If it’s so good to delight in and follow God, as the Psalms throughout the Psalms say, if it’s so good, then why do we? Why don’t we? Why don’t. Why doesn’t Psalm 1 describe us more?
Why don’t we follow that if it’s so good, Blessed. If it’s such a blessing, maybe we could ask, why do so many people rebel at this delightful way of God? And that’s essentially this question that comes out in Psalm 2. Why do the nations rage? It’s asking a similar question that we’re led to with Psalm 1.
Why are people rebelling against this good thing in Psalm 1? Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? If it’s so good to be with God, why doesn’t everybody do it?
Rebellion in Psalm 1 was described in the first verse as people sitting together and scoffing at God’s ways. And rebellion in Psalm 2 is described in verse 2 as powerful kings and rulers, conspiracy, conspiring against God and against his anointed king. And once again, maybe the act of rebellion should be familiar to us. If we know our Bibles and meditated on them day and night, we think through rebellion. We remember Genesis 3, when a serpent said to a man and a woman, when you eat of it, you will be like God.
And Adam and Eve ate of it and rebelled against God. And then in Genesis 6:6, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually as the depths of rebellion in Genesis 6. And so God floods the earth and judges humanity. Genesis 11. At a place called Babel, people come together and say, let us make a name for ourselves.
Very similar to what verse 2 of chapter 2. Let the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together.
Psalm 14. Then, as we read earlier, there is none who does good. They have all turned aside together they have become corrupt. There is none who does good, not even one. So why don’t we all just follow God fully and delightfully and be blessed?
But the rulers of this world and and every human ever says, according to verse three, God constrains us, he doesn’t prosper us, he doesn’t bless us. Following God is a constraint, it’s bondage. His ways are not good and delightful. So let’s get rid of them. Let’s throw aside these bonds and make a name for ourselves.
And like sheep, we wander from the good shepherd. There’s multiple examples of this throughout Scripture, and two particular stories in Scripture that I absolutely love fit well with this psalm. Nebuchadnezzar, in Daniel’s day, after this psalm had been written, is standing on the roof of his palace, surveying his great land. And Nebuchadnezzar says, is not this great Babylon which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty? Ha ha ha ha ha.
And then, just a few verses later, Nebuchadnezzar was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hair grew as long as eagle’s feathers, and his nails were like bird claws. It’s not the only time in Scripture that something like this happens. Acts chapter 12. Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration. And the people were shouting the voice of a God and not of a man.
Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down because he did not give God the glory. And he was eaten by worms and breathed his last lovely phrase there, isn’t it? But the word of God increased and multiplied the kings of the earth in Psalm 2. And in those two stories make their plans. What does God do?
What does the Lord do in response? Verse 4. He laughs. Isn’t that great? The kings of the earth make their plans, but the Lord laughs.
Whenever you see people plotting against God’s people, God is laughing at their Intentions. I have some dear friends in Pakistan who I’ve been able to train over the years. And if you’ve watched the news over the last few weeks, you may have noticed a smaller story about some persecution in Pakistan and in the city that they actually live. There were a number of churches that were burned. A lot of Christians were turned out of their house and their houses burned, their possessions all burned.
Thankfully, no one was killed this time, although it has happened before. But I was receiving texts from my friends and just asking for prayer as these enemies of God were persecuting God’s people. And I thought about this verse. The kings are making their plans against the Lord and against his people. And God is laughing because he knows that they will come to an end.
I don’t know if you’ve ever been so mismatched in a game that it’s almost comical to try to compete. As I mentioned earlier, I also have the opportunity to travel to the Philippines a lot. And Filipinos love to play basketball. It’s what they play in the Philippines. Kind of interesting.
So everywhere you go in the Philippines, there’s basketball courts and basketball hoops on houses, and every Filipino kid wants to be LeBron James or whoever. And they love basketball. And so after a long day of teaching, of course they know that the Americans are here. And so the Americans, they’ve got to be good basketball players, and so they want to play basketball. And I used to be 6 5.
I’m closer to 64 than I am 65 now, but I’m fairly tall. And for me to, like, play the paint against a Filipino, it’s a little comical. Like, I don’t know why they try to get a rebound, because I am going to get that rebound because I’ve got a good two feet on every one of them. It’s almost comical to even try. I love the Filipino people, but it’s just like, for me to post up against the tallest guy on the other team is just like.
It’s almost awkward. It’s absurd. And of course, when they want to play full court and run all the way down and back, and I’m trying to lumber past around them, and that’s absurd in a different way, too. So they get the revenge, believe me. And it ends up being a close game because we each have our strengths that are in very different areas, but that kind of, like, absurdity.
That’s what’s happening here. The kings of the earth set themselves against God, and he’s laughing. They’re gonna. What do they think they’re going to do. God has a better plan.
Here’s what Dale Relph Davis says in his commentary. This is fantastic. When he analyzes and summarizes this passage here, he says, what suicidal nincompoops to be possessed of such a livid rage toward the God who rules. Suicidal nincompoops. Thought about using that as a title for this sermon, but I was afraid to get it in your bulletin.
Wasn’t sure what would happen there. In retrospect, maybe I wish I would have done that. But it’s good. And that’s what God does. Who do you think you are?
I’m the Creator, the Sustainer of the universe. You’re plotting against me. You want my glory. That’s not going to happen. Even when things look bad for us, God still still reigns and sits on his throne and laughs at our intentions to steal his glory.
So here’s the cold hard facts of Psalm 2. Let me just summarize Psalm 2 a little bit. That the Lord reigns and he has established his king. You see that throughout here he establishes his king. Interestingly, the Lord’s King is His Son.
That refers to David at first. But as we continue our trek through the Bible, we know that that refers to someone other than David. It refers to a greater David, a descendant of David who is much more righteous than David, a coming Son who will also be a king. In verses 8 and 9, we realize that the Son, this king, rules over all other kings and kingdoms. He is the King of kings.
And then, as David brings his Psalm to a close in verse 10, those who kiss the Son, or pay homage, or show their allegiance, or put their faith in the Son, escape God’s wrath towards his enemies. But even more than escaping wrath, the last line of the psalm, even more than escaping wrath, those who kiss the Son, those who bend the knee to the Son, Son, are truly what? Blessed. Those who take refuge in the Son are blessed. And if you remember all the way back to Psalm 1:1, Blessed is the man.
Psalm 2:12 final line Blessed are all who take refuge in Him. You want to be truly blessed. It’s not just obeying, although we certainly strive for that. But there is one who fully obeyed that in our place, so that we could take refuge in him and therefore be blessed. It’s Jesus, the Blessed One.
Blessed people take refuge in the Lord’s Son. We might say, along with the poet Asaph, it is good to be near God. Here’s the problem. As I mentioned earlier, we fall so short of of the beautiful, prosperous way of Psalm 1. But we have a king who rules overall, who delighted and fully obeyed his Father and his Father’s Word, who followed Psalm 1 perfectly.
James Hamilton in his commentary says, the true blessed man who meditates day and night on the law will be the King the Lord has in store on Zion his holy hill. The blessed man in Psalm 1 is the king of Psalm 2. And if you haven’t figured it out, if you need it spelled out in detail, it’s Jesus. God became a man, sent his Son into this world to delight in fully obeying the law, like Psalm 1, living without sin or rebellion, dying on a tree so that there could be life provided for his people, and being raised up to rule, so that all who bend the knee and kiss the Son will rule with him and never perish. So the psalm concludes, 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. You want to be righteous. You want to find blessing in God?
One thing. Take refuge in the sun. Take refuge in the sun. Let me do one thing, because psalms are meant to be read aloud. As I conclude this, and I think we’ve got enough time to do this.
It’s the second service, so I was told you can go as long as you want. That’s good, right?
So that’s part one of the message. Part two. Now, as we get to know. Just kidding. Just kidding.
What I want to do is just read these two Psalms one more time. Because we read them at the front end, then we kind of explored them, and now I want you to. Just to listen. Yeah, Maybe they’ll be up on the screen. You don’t have to look at that.
You might just want to close your eyes and listen. Even as I read these two Psalms of David. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of offers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. So 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. But blessed are all who take refuge in him. Let’s pray.
Father, we thank you that where we cannot obey fully, and have not obeyed fully fully and wandered astray, you, Jesus, obeyed fully, delighted in the law of the Lord, perfectly obeyed God the Father, and became and are righteous. Lord, you alone are righteous. And by your obedience to the law you can now gift us that righteousness. Take the penalty for our wickedness and sin. And you did that on the cross.
As we take refuge in you, we are made righteous and blessed.
Father, thank you for sending your son. Jesus. Thank you for your righteousness that was gifted to us through your death on the cross. And Spirit, we ask that you would draw our minds to psalms like Psalm 1 and 2 to remember how good it is to be near God. Blessed are those who take refuge in Jesus.
Amen.