Ps 2 Many Voices, Only One King

And it leads to despair and anguish. God's authority threatens their rule and their freedom. So is the cry of the unregenerate heart to say, I want to rule over myself. My body, my choice. No one tells me what to do.

I'm the boss of me. It's no surprise that the one and only commandment of the satanic Bible is this.

Do what thou will, it shall be the whole of the law.

In other words, do what you want. Self-rule, autonomy, have at it, enjoy. While the Apostle Paul tells us that I am not my own.

I've been bought with a price.

George MacDonald says it like this. The only one principle of hell is I am my own.

But real freedom, true freedom,.

Comes from obeying God's law and not casting it away. You and I were created in the image of God and cannot escape that no matter how much we try. Think of the people who are railing against this, desperately trying to redefine reality.

It's not a baby, it's a clump of cells. It's not a mom, it's a birthing person. What is a woman? What am I, a biologist? The things that are so easily identifiable to us are being dismantled, attacked.

Listen, you need to go to an Ivy League school to learn how to be that stupid. There are men trying to redefine themselves as women and vice versa, but that will never work because God has already defined his creation.

He has defined reality. We don't get to do that. Railing against God's reality causes anguish, torment, and grief. As an image-bearer of God, you will never experience true liberty and peace if you continually rebel against what you were created to be.

Paul Tripp says it like this. Everything that God made is designed to confront us with God's existence and nature, and in doing so, confront our delusions of autonomy and self-sufficiency. Every morning when we get up, we bump into God and come face-to-face with his existence.

Listen, if you pull up to a house and the key in your hand doesn't fit the lock of the house you're in, you're at, you're at the wrong house. You won't get in because the key doesn't fit. Trying to get into a house you don't own with the wrong key is called breaking and entering.

It's illegal and you'll get arrested. Now listen, you don't need a new key. You need to back up out of the driveway and pull into the driveway of your own house.

And use the key that comes with it.

You don't change the key to match the house you want. You use the key you have to open the door.

Of the house you own.

Rather than cutting off body parts and changing all things physically, how about we try to get the internal.

To match the external?

Isn't that what an adult would tell a child to do? The image of God will continually confront the nation, staring them in the face while they rage on trying to escape from it. Sinful humanity rages against the throne of God, defining and ruling over us because they want to define themselves, which just leads to more frustration.

This is why so many people in the trans community.

Commit suicide.

They're trying to erase God's image of them in their hearts and adults are helping them do it. God forbid, tragically, the nations rage and are unified against the only thing, the only one that can bring them true freedom, Jesus.

Competing kings, adversaries, and enemies would rather cooperate with each other to overthrow God and embrace chaos than submit themselves to his kingship and acknowledge his authority over them. And the irony will further swell because as the world seeks autonomy, the world doesn't have just one king.

It has many kings. And all these kings are competing against each other for power and control. So chaos ensues. So it's either Christ, one king, or many kings fighting against each other in chaos. Remember in the 1980s, Tears for Fears?

They wrote that song, Everybody Wants to Rule the World? It's biblical.

They sang a biblical song, they didn't even know it.

Everybody wants to rule the world, right?

But the world will never have true liberation because having many individual worldly kings leads to having many individual worldly kingdoms. That's the necessary consequence of autonomy. It's self-defeating.

It erodes itself from the bottom. And it will always be that way until the entire world submits itself to the one true king, the only true king who can bring everlasting peace. Did you ever wonder why the United States has a democracy?

It's because we don't trust just one person to lead us properly. We saw that in this election.

No matter what side you're on.

Yet instinctively, we really do want someone to lead us, to rule over us properly and righteously. We do long for a king.

It's ingrained in us.

We desire a perfect king, a just and wise king,.

A true king.

It's hardwired into us to want a king. But here's the problem of the human heart. We think we're the king. So looking for stability by hoping in humanity is an effort in futility. Listen, I'm happy the election went the way it did, but our hope is not in the office of president.

You will never have to bow the knee to the president and give an account of your life. You will, however, and all the presidents will, however,.

Have to bow the knee to King Jesus.

Amen.

And give an account of their lives to him.

Amen.

Remember who you serve. Remember what kingdom you are a citizen of. So in verses one through three, we hear the collective voice of humanity. God, we don't want your law. They rage against an invader.

And so what's God's response to all this? Let's look at his reply in verses four through six. First, we need to recognize that the scene shifts from earth to heaven. We're now going to heaven. As we read, he who sits in the heavens laughs.

God is seated on his throne. So this is the scene in heaven here. And it's here in the heavenlies that we read of God's response. Okay, guys, I've heard what you have to say. Here's my reply.

Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha.

Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha.

Ha ha ha. He laughs.

Man's rage against God is laughable to him. And if you look at verse four, he doesn't even get up. He sits in the heavens and laughs. It's not like he even gets up, like he's concerned. He stays seated, which means he's enthroned.

He's not leaving the throne.

He's not worried.

He's not anxious.

He's comfortable on the throne. His power is not affected or diminished one iota by these people and what they're raging against. And listen, God laughing at the wicked is nothing new. Psalm 37, 13 reads, the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees their day coming.

It's not like God is worried that a rebellion has occurred that might knock him off the throne or overthrow his kingdom.

He's not biting his nails.

This is the sovereign God who says, I am God, there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose.

You see, the one true God is immovable and immutable.

He's not going anywhere.

And that's what ticks the nations off. I like the way the commentator Roger Ellsworth says it. He says, hate all they want, plan all they like, fret and fuss all they wish, men can never rid themselves of God.

He goes on, how does this scene of raging, of hostility strike God? Is he stricken with terror? Does he fly off into a panic? Does he call an emergency session of the heavenly cabinet? No, he just laughs.

He scoffs at puny men as they parade briefly across the stage of history, as they fume and fuss against him. Friends, if you're a Christian, Jesus is on the throne.

Fear not, little flock, it is your father's good pleasure.

To give you the kingdom.

Amen.

God exists over and above us and he always will, regardless of what mankind plots or how much it rages. No matter what party gets into office, Jesus is still king and he is still Lord.

He laughs at anyone who thinks differently.

And then holds them in derision. Derision means openly ridicules them to their faces.

Our God is sovereign.

It's God who sets up kings and governments, as per Romans 13. Any authority or power that the nations have is from him and God can use it as a means to discipline us, as a means of judgment, or he can use it as a means of grace for us.

Friends, right now we have grace, right?

You have four years. God's given you four talents.

At the end of those four years,.

What are you gonna give back to him? More political rhetoric? Or are you gonna talk about Jesus and the kingdom and advancing the kingdom here on earth?

Amen.

Do you recall that before Jesus was crucified, when he spoke to Pilate, he said,.

You would have no authority over me.

Were it not given to you by my father.

That's right.

True power resides with God, not man. Rebellion against his rule is laughable, and worse, it warms God's wrath and fury. So while the nations gather for war, God merely opens his mouth. And since the nations are staging a rebellion, God's voice becomes one of wrath and justice.

He will not endure such an insurgency from sinful creatures like this. The voice of the Lord is majestic. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. In verse six, God tells him what his plan is.

Okay, nations, I've heard your plan. As for me, I have set my king on my holy hill.

Amen.

That's it.

I have set my king on my holy hill. That's all, nothing else necessary. The nations set themselves against God,.

And God sets his son on the throne.

And notice the possessive pronouns he uses. Oh, you didn't think pronouns were important.

Right, right.

Notice the possessive pronouns he uses. As for me, I set my kingdom on my holy hill. God's solution is God-centered. It doesn't, it's not centered on mankind. God's solution is God-centered. It is his plan, his will, and his decision.

That's the focus. That becomes our focus. Mankind doesn't get to pick this king. There was no vote. There was no election. There was no consensus. There was no electoral college. There was no popular vote.

God is carrying out his plan, doing what he wants in accordance with his nature, over and against the will of the people. 2 Corinthians 16 says about this particular message, the message of the gospel, that Jesus is seated on the throne.

This message will be to one, a fragrance from death to death, to the unbeliever, and to the other, the believer, a fragrance of life to life. It will be the sound of wrath and fury for his enemies, but to his people, it will be the blessed sound of salvation, of peace, of hope.

We live in a day and age that hosts the People's Choice Awards. Newsflash, Jesus didn't win.

No, they didn't pick him. But that doesn't matter,.

Because the voice of God trumps the choice of the people, and no pun intended in that.

I didn't put that, like,.

The voice of God trumps the choice of the people. I didn't, that was not my intention.

But it does.

One voice from God thwarts all the voices of mankind, no matter how much they vote against God. What their nations are raging against has already been set in stone. God is enthroned on the throne. As for now, this serves as the first.

Of three responses from God.

The first being from God the Father. So that was his response. Remember, we believe in a triune God, and God's response here will be triune also. That's very, very important. And I wanna just take a moment, a little excursus, as it's called, to pause and address the uniqueness and the necessity of a triune God, as opposed to a unitarian God.

In other words, a unipersonal God.

A God that is not Father, Son, or Spirit,.

Just one person. Because this issue sets Christianity apart from every other world religion. It's something I actually learned from Tim Keller. So it's important because God is a unity in community.

The Bible says God is love. Our God is love.

Many people have difficulty with the Trinity.

The God of Judaism?

Okay.

The God of Islam?

Okay.

But Trinity?

Triunity?

What is that?

But if you think about it, you can never really say God is love except of a triune God. If you have an impersonal God,.

Like a force,.

Be love or show love.

Why?

It's impersonal. Wouldn't be loving either until it created some other being to love. Love requires two parties or two persons. Which would mean for a unipersonal God, power comes before love. A unipersonal God would have to exercise power to create a race of people in order to experience love.

So love would follow power.

Power on that worldview would precede love. That view coincides with paganism. What life is really about, what life is really about is power on that view. So if you have a unipersonal God, he has to create people in order to become loving.

You can't say he is love. But not with the God of Scripture. If God is triune, and he is, he is love and community from all eternity. He is love by nature, not by exercising power. And it was out of that love that he decided to create other beings, to share love with them.

And bring himself glory.

So with the God of Scripture,.

Love comes first and forms the basis for power, which has enormous implications for what's actually important in human life. If you really think that love is meaningful and central to God's nature, you have to believe in a triune God.

If not, you would have had to believe.

That love is peripheral,.

Tangential, fringe. It came later, after power. That's a pagan notion.

And this sets our God apart.

From all others. Our God is based in love.

The things he does.

Comes out of a loving heart. And here's, I use pithy statements, I need to condense these things so that I can remember them. Here's how I would explain it. Comparing our God versus the gods of the other nations.

There's a big difference between the power of love and the love of power. Our God exists and uses the power of love. The nations who are raging are looking for the love of power. They wanna get power first.

And exercise it over people.

God is love first and then exercises the power to draw people to him. See the difference?

Big.

So since God is triune, the power he exercises in setting up his son as king upon the throne is rooted in the power of love. Everything our God does is rooted in love first, power second. Whereas the nations are motivated by the love of power first.

So the first voice of the triune God replies to man's rage with a king. His king, his decision, his will. After having a good laugh while seated on the throne. Let's move on and look at verses seven through nine.

This becomes the son's request. Verse seven begins. I will tell of the decree the Lord said to me. So now you see there's a difference in persons. This is Jesus speaking. I will tell of the decree the Lord said to me,.

You are my son,.

Today I have begotten you. And it's here we can glean from several New Testament writers who do allude to this song where God specifically refers to Jesus.

As his son.

Over 14 times in the New Testament God refers to Jesus as his son. His only begotten. The unique one of a kind son.

Whom he loves.

Jesus is God's son.

Over and over and over.

So Jesus is not just God's king,.

He's also God's son.

He is one with the Father. In other words they're of the same nature. This is triunity. So not only does Jesus become man, he's also God. But Jesus is not like the creaturely kings of the earth vying for power and raging against God.

This king, Jesus, is united with God. He possesses divine power.

Rooted in divine love.

He is God. We also see Luke pointing it in verse seven in Acts 13.

Where he says,.

But God raised them up from the dead and what God promised to the fathers.

This he has fulfilled to us.

And their children by raising Jesus as also it is written in the second psalm, you are my son, today I have begotten you. So Luke is quoting Psalm two. Luke sees Jesus' resurrection as again part of the fulfillment of this verse.

And remember as I said earlier, this psalm is a royal coronation of a king who pledged himself to God's law. Jesus was enthroned as king. There was a coronation ceremony and guess what?

We are all beneficiaries of it.

This is the coronation of King Jesus. And so in reading verse seven, we can see that this is the voice.

Of the son of God,.

None other than Jesus himself, telling us of God's father, his father's decree to make him king. This decree is a divinely prescribed mandate that Jesus would be the king, the anointed, the Messiah. God gives us a king, but not just any ordinary king.

He gives us his son.

He gives us a holy king who in an act of love.

Would leave heaven,.

Condescend to become a man wrapped in flesh and die in your place. Listen, out of all the gods.

You've ever heard about,.

Jesus is the only one willing to love you to death. The only one, literally. He would come to do his father's will and to bring his father glory. He would come to die in the place of his bride and rise again to lead them to victory as their king.

The writer of Hebrews would also quote this song. And I want to read the whole thing. So I'm going to go to Hebrews chapter one. I'm going to read verses one through five.

If you want to follow along.

The writer of Hebrews says this. Long ago and at many times and in many ways, God spoke to his fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom he also created the world.

He's the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. And he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down where? At the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

For to which of the angels did God ever say,.

Here it is, you are my son, today I have begotten you.

Right, again, quoting Psalm two.

Psalm two and Psalm 110 are very vital to understanding the kingdom of God. Where God previously spoke to us through the prophets, he now speaks to us through his final prophet and the rightful heir to the throne, his son, Jesus.

The same writer would also speak of the priesthood of Jesus in Hebrews 5 .5. So also Christ did not exalt himself.

To be made a high priest,.

But was appointed by him who said,.

You are my son, today I have begotten you.

So Jesus is not just crowned as our king and our prophet, he is also installed as our priest. Jesus is God's prophet, Jesus is God's priest, Jesus is God's king. That's what's contained in this decree.

Jesus is telling us that in Psalm two, but there's also a second part.

Look at verse eight.

Verse eight, Jesus recounts for us.

The question God asked him.

Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. In other words, the nations and the earth are his for the asking, right?

Ask me and I'll give it to you.

So obviously God wouldn't tell him, give him that offer if it wasn't a real offer. Now, every time Greg Bonson,.

You guys heard of Greg Bonson?

He's a presuppositional apologist. Every time Greg Bonson taught on this verse, he asked the listeners, so did Jesus ask God for the nations? Did he ask God to make the earth his possession? So I ask you, did Jesus ask God for the nations?

Yes, no, go ahead. He would make them God's and father's heritage. Amen, Jesus certainly did ask God. How do we know? We know this because of Matthew 28, 18. After Jesus has been raised from the dead,.

He says what?

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

He asked for it. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.

Why?

They're mine, I bought them. I asked God for the nations. They belong to me now. Go into them, baptizing them in the name of the Father,.

Son, and the Holy Spirit,.

Teaching them to observe all of I commanded, all I've commanded you. And behold, I'm with you even to the end of the age.

You have trouble going out and evangelizing?

You're a little timid? He goes with you, he's with you. Listen, if Jesus walked through the back doors of this church, first of all, I'd fall on the floor, but if he was to walk through those doors and say, if he was to walk through those doors and say, hey, listen, we're gonna walk around the neighborhood.

Come with me, we're gonna evangelize.

Would there be anybody in here who doesn't go?

Go.

What was some of his last words to us? Go, I will be with you.

And that's a beautiful thing because we can all go in different places.

And he'll be with all of us.

That's why he's divine, right?

Jesus has all God's authority now and commands his followers to make disciples. Of who?

All the nations, because they're his.

They belong to him.

They've been bought with a price. Jesus has been appointed the heir of all things. And although Jesus is a king, he is far different than the kings of the earth. Remember when it was Herod's birthday and Herodias' daughter came in and danced for him?

He was so pleased with her, he said, ask of me anything of you wish and I will give it to you, up to half of my kingdom.

Cheapskate. Half.

Why only half? Because he had to retain a ruling interest in the kingdom. He needed control. He needed power. Not so with the triune God.

God is one.

God the Father gave the whole kingdom to Jesus because he and the Father echo a united voice.

They are one.

This highlights the difference between God and man and love preceding power. That's why our worldview, love comes first, power second. In secular worldviews and pagan worldviews, power comes first. And then they call it love, but it's not.

The authority of both heaven and earth belongs to Jesus. The dominion over all the nations and the earth are his. They are his inheritance. He is the rightful heir because Jesus has asked. Jesus was appointed to reign and he will not fail.

Just to let you know, I looked up the word God and tribe.

In the same sentence in my Bible software.

Never does the word God and tribe appear together. God never tries anything. He just does it, right? He's not, oh, let me see if I can do this. No, he does it.

Right?

He will not fail. He's ruling and reigning right now. Whether you like it or not, Jesus is Lord.

Amen.

We are all under his authority, whether you are raging against him or whether you're submitted to him.

He owns you.

And here Spurgeon has a gem of a quote.

I love Spurgeon.

God's anointed is appointed and will not be disappointed. His anointed is appointed and will not be disappointed.

Why?

He's going to succeed.

Friends, autonomy, self-rule, self-law is a delusion. Let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ. So the first voice of the triune God, the Father says, I have a king.

The second voice of the triune God, the Son says, I am that king.

That's right.

In the next verse, verse nine, the setting reverts back from heaven to earth where God's king will deal with the raging nations. So we started off on earth. We went to heaven to see the throne. Now we're back on earth.

And again, while a sweet sound for some, this is gonna be nails on a chalkboard for others, for unbelievers, because Jesus concludes with his Father's orders.

You shall break them with a rod of iron.

And dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Jesus echoes Psalm 110, verse two. The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter ruled in the midst of your enemies. This scepter refers to the messianic power and authority that Jesus would have as the divine Son of God.

He is the God-man with authority over both realms. He is the divinely decreed prophet, priest,.

And king of heaven and earth.

He rules over both. You've heard that, you've heard somebody say, oh, don't ever talk about religion and politics.

Name. Jesus, you gotta vote.

Religion and politics, he's king over this earth. That's politics. He's king, that's kingdom, that's religion. He's priest, he's king of heaven and earth. And since his scepter is made of iron, it will not bend, it will not bow, it will not break.

His justice will be inflexible, uncompromising, and severe. We often hear, I receive Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior, and the sinful tendency of the human heart thinks, he has personal laws just for me.

You know, he knows what my weaknesses are. He's not worried about that. That law doesn't apply to me. God knows my heart. That should terrify everyone, that God knows your heart. If you look into your own heart, if you look into your own heart and see what actually is going on, you'd recognize it looks more like a cesspool.

Than it does. Amen, amen.

All hearts can become callous and hard-hearted.

To God's law.

God has one set of laws and they're not bendable. So finally we get to the Spirit's response, his rebuke in verse 10. I say this is the voice of the Holy Spirit for a couple of reasons. First, because it's the role of the Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, which we're gonna clearly hear in these verses.

And second, because it's the Spirit's job to testify of Jesus, as per John 15. Jesus says of the Holy Spirit, he will testify about me. Anytime you're worshiping in the Spirit, your attention and your focus should not be on the Spirit because the Spirit is directing you to Jesus.

Amen.

Right?

So if you're worshiping in Spirit and in truth, you're being rerouted to Jesus. He's the conduit between us and Jesus.

Right?

So he leads us to Christ.

Amen.

So look now, the Holy Spirit teaches us and points us to Jesus. This is what we see happening in verses 10 through 12. Verse 10. Now there, O kings, be wise, be warned, O rulers. First, there's a warning, a call to the earthly kings to be wise.

And the word wise here means to ponder, to understand, to act prudently, to act with devotion. It's a synonym with the word meditating that the man does in Psalm 1.

Right?

Who delights in the law of God and meditates on it.

Right?

So it's to act prudently, devotionally. We also know that Proverbs tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So in order to be wise, the kings must fear God first. That comes first.

This is what the Spirit leads them to do in verse 10 when he says, be wise. Then in verse 11, they are told to serve the Lord with fear and trembling. The earthly king's fear of being ruled by God must succumb to a reverent fear of the Lord and his judgment against them.

They are being summoned to surrender, to relinquish their plot against the Lord and his Messiah and lay down their vain idea of autonomy.

Why?

Because Jesus is Lord.

He's enthroned in heaven over both heaven and earth. When the earthly rulers rule horizontally, creaturely, Jesus, Lord of heaven and earth, rules horizontally and vertically. Again, I love the way Scourge describes Jesus' authority.

Here on earth.

Christ is not only the king of the nations, but king of the saints. One he rules over, the other one he rules in. God rules in his people and over his unbelievers. In verse 11, we hear, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.

This is the exact opposite of what they want to do. Like Dr. James White says, the world is perfectly fine with Jesus in the manger, just as long as he's not Jesus on the throne. Oh, I like him as a baby.

I can tell him what to do.

It's old him.

On the throne, it's the other way around.