The Real Psalm 2 Article

There was a mixup and I only received a small portion of Pastor Timm's article on Psalm 2. My apologies to Pastor Timm, and you should all email him at pastortimm@redeemerstcloud.org and tell him this article is great and his time was well-spent on writing it. - Reber

Here's the article in full:

The Psalms are classified as the wisdom literature of the Bible. If you want to be wise read the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. These books will tell you all about life and how your life is blessed by God.

Psalm 1 begins with the greatest wisdom, “Blessed is the man (whose) delight is in the law of the Lord.” Believe what God says and do what He commands and you are going to be blessed. You are going to endure the destruction of this fallen and corrupted world. You will stand in the judgment day. Your way will not perish.

Psalm 2 could be summarized “Blessed are those who take refuge in that man (or the kind of man) talked about in Psalm 1.”

The Psalm begins with a rhetorical question. I’ve heard through the circuit grapevine that Pastor Gimble (from Kimball) doesn’t like rhetorical questions in sermons. Why not? But I digress.

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? Good question. The short answer is sin, but the Psalmist gives us a longer answer.

The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed.  If you’re wondering why the nation is divided, why there is rage and anger over politics and opinions, David the Psalmist, gives you the answer and wisdom.

They -- the rulers, the kings of the earth – indeed all mankind has cast off the Lord. Adam and Eve didn’t want to be constrained to the garden and the Lordship of the Lord, so they rebelled, took control, and seized power, and now we are raging and plotting against each other. We’ve lost the only good ruler there is – the Lord, and we are each running our own little self-serving kingdom.

There are two pearls of wisdom in verses 2 and 3. First pearl – all rebellion, all sin is against God’s Anointed, the Christ. The Son of God is the Word of God and the Will of God. If you want to know what God wants look to His Son who perfectly obeyed His Father’s will and desires only what His Father desires. When the world rages against life (abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality) they are rebelling against the Lord and His anointed. That’s why they hate Christians who believe in Jesus and hold to God’s Word.

Second pearl – God will not force you to follow Him, believe in His anointed, or be saved. You, like Adam and Eve, are free to choose against God. You can burst His bonds and cast away His cords. God is love and He won’t force or coerce you to do anything.

He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord holds them in derision. Here we have one of the common literary devices of the Psalms – a progression. In Psalm 1:1 the blessed man does not walk, or stand, or sit among sinners. There is a progression from walking (just passing by) to standing to sitting (joining the company of sinners).  The progression in Psalm 2 is the Lord sits, the Lord laughs, the Lord holds them in derision. While the Kings are working with all their might to succeed, the Lord sits, then He laughs, then He mocks, for they will accomplish nothing without Him and His anointed.

Then the Psalmist tells us what the Lord is doing. He has set His King on Zion – that’s King David, but it is also the Son of David, Jesus of Nazareth. There were many mighty empires in Old Testament times – the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Medes, the Greeks, and then the Romans. They all came and went, but little Israel, under God’s mighty hand, was kept as a remnant until the Son of David was born of Mary, in David’s town, and eventually enthroned on the cross outside Jerusalem where He was crowned with thorns.  That’s why we should laugh at earthly rulers trying to preserve their empires. God has established the only Kingdom that will never fall – Christendom – the Kingdom of all who believe in Christ as Lord. This is what the Psalmist tells us in verses 7-9.

Finally, Psalm 2 ends with a wise warning for the rulers of the world. It is a warning that flows from love. The Lord wants these rebellious Kings to repent, to serve the Lord with fear and to rejoice with trembling. He invites them to Kiss the Son. What is kissing the son other than faith? To let Christ have your sins and rule over you with forgiveness, life, and salvation?

The warning concludes with another progression Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. If you don’t “Kiss the Son” the Son will be angry, you will perish, and His wrath against you will be kindled. But the Psalm does not end with that warning and threat. It ends with the wisdom of the Gospel.  Blessed are all who take refuge in him.  

Pastor Bruce Timm

Redeemer, St. Cloud