Wednesday, July 5, 2023 PM

All right, we'll go ahead and get started. I hope and pray that everybody enjoyed their Independence Day yesterday. I know we did with our family and freedom. Yes, and we can only be free in Jesus, right, in our King.

The Genre and Structure of Psalm 2

And that's what we're going to be talking about tonight again because we're going back to Psalm 2. Previously, we have considered the genre and the story that's being told in Psalm 2, that it is a psalm, it is a song of David, and it is comedic in nature.

And as well, we considered the structure that we can find within the psalm, having its central focus and point being on the Father's King and where He has placed Him, and the Son's response to that as well.

But today we're going to be looking at what I would consider the first act of this comedic story in verses 1 through 3 of Psalm 2, but first I'm going to open us up with prayer. Father, we praise You that You have set Your King on the holy hill of Zion.

We praise You, Lord, that from Him we understand all things. It is through Him that we have new eyes to see, that He gives light and wisdom and knowledge to us, and by Your Spirit, Lord, allow us to mind the depths of Your Word each day.

And from this text tonight, Lord, we ask Your hand upon us, that we are edified by it, that we understand it in more depth, or that we are continually edified by it just in its simple reading. We thank You, Lord, that You've given us time to eat in fellowship with one another.

We pray this time be fruitful. In Your Son's name, amen. So if you would turn with me again to Psalm 2, I'll be reading the first three verses of the chapter to begin tonight. Why do the nations enrage and the people plot a vain thing?

The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us. So we open up with verse 1, and it asks an important question about vain and foolish plots, specifically the vain and foolish plot against the Lord and His anointed.

Verse 2 introduces the main character and His enemies, and verse 3 gives us a quote from those kings and rulers of the earth who have declared themselves enemies and who take counsel together against the Lord.

Now, when we look at verse 1, as readers of the Word, what book of the Bible do our minds immediately recall when we hear the word vain? Yeah, that's right, right? Vanity of vanities, says the preacher.

Vanity of vanities. All is vanity. What an opening to a book, right? It's why we remember it so well. Its masterful opening and other masterful opening lines or paragraphs stick with us because of their usefulness, their richness, and simplicity.

And the Bible is filled with opening lines like the one we have in Ecclesiastes and in Psalm 2. But the word vain in either passage is actually two different Hebrew words that have different primary meanings and may cause us to look at one or both openings differently in the future.

Psalm 2 uses the Hebrew word reik in the English, meaning emptiness, vanity, idle, or vain. And Ecclesiastes uses the word habel, most often referring to vapor or breath. And when we think of this meaning, we're given a picture that reminds us of the shortness.

Of life.

For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away, James 4, 14. But the Septuagint translates the word as folly in Ecclesiastes. All of these definitions, they fit well into Ecclesiastes given the context.

But Psalm 2, given the context and the breadth of time covered, the scope of application are different than what we see in Ecclesiastes. These vain things planned by nations, peoples, kings, and rulers.

There's an international scope to them. And they're planned in advance, carried out in an intergenerational way. And that's your breadth of time. The word reik in verse 1 is broad enough. It's a broad enough term to cover both the breadth of time and the scope of application.

But it also, I think it better describes the action that the nations take against Christ. And if you would turn with me to consider this action to Acts 4. We'll be starting in verses 23 and going through verse 30.

Before this passage, Peter and John, they've just been arrested, questioned, and ordered to quit preaching in the name of Jesus as they were brought before the Sanhedrin. But they refused, and this is the response of their brothers and sisters who hear this news directly from their mouths.

Acts 4, verses 23 to 30. And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all the chief priests and elders had said to them. So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord, you are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them, who by the mouth of your servant David have said, why do the nations rage and the people plot vain things?

The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. For truly against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before to be done.

Now, Lord, look on their threats and grant to your servants that with all boldness they may speak your word by stretching out your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.

So in this passage of Acts, we see that these nations, these leaders, these rulers played right into the Lord's hands. With his sovereign will and his providence, he brought about exactly what he wanted.

And this text reaffirms the international scale of the plot by applying it to Herod, Pilate, the Gentiles, and Israel. But this is also on the backside of the resurrection and the ascension of the anointed, of the Christ.

This plot they insist on continuing against Christ's church is as empty as the tomb that he had been laid in. It was always an empty plot, but Christ's work proves it so. This plot is truly empty in vain and indeed comical.

From this point in the text of Scripture in Acts 4, looking back at Psalm 2, the opening question of the psalm, why do the nations rage, has been answered by Jesus' parable of the wicked tenants in Matthew 21, verses 33 through 39.

So if you don't mind turning to Matthew 21 with me, and we'll read from there. So Jesus says in Matthew 21, verses 33 and following, Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard.

He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey. When the harvest time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect a share of the fruit, but the tenants seized his servants.

They beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Again he sent over other servants, more than the first group, but the tenants did the same to them. Finally, he sent his son to them. They will respect my son, he said, but when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, This is the heir.

Come, let us kill him and take his inheritance. So they seized him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. So why do the nations rage? In this parable we find loads of envy built up in the hearts of those who have been charged with the tenancy of the vineyard.

They want the inheritance. They want the vineyard. They want to be king on the mountain, even if they have to construct a false mountain at Babel. They don't want bonds and they don't want cords. We see this in the way that they set themselves or they stand against the Lord's anointed in verse 2.

They know who should be the highest of kings. They know who will be king, and yet they still posture themselves against the Lord. They make strange bedfellows and counsel together against the Lord. Herod and Pilate, Gentiles and Israel.

This little cabal of theirs, once they've spilled the blood they all lusted after, falls into shambles and they turn inwardly on one another, not unlike many of our modern-day alliances. The prophecy in Psalm 2, that the son will triumph and come into his inheritance, as king enrages those who consider the succession to the title of king of kings to be an open question.

And isn't it strange to see the kings of the earth self-described as bound or tied up with cords? If you're a king, you're not really depicted as that, are you? But today we observe our rulers and kings, and one of the best words used to describe them would be unbound.

But they're really just kicking and screaming against the reality of their place in the world. They want what Jesus has, and not where He has placed them. They want the preeminence that comes with being the one who is to inherit all the nations that the Father has to give.

The plotsmen, their vain plans, are described further by other Psalms. And you don't have to worry about turning to them. I'll go ahead and read them off. But in Psalm 21, verses 11 through 12, it says,.

Though they intend you harm, the schemes they devise will not prevail, for you will put them to flight when your bow is trained upon them. So here we have, yet again, schemers, plotsmen, and all of their plans are doomed to fail from the beginning, from the outset.

Psalm 46 .6 says,. The nations rage, the kingdoms were moved. He uttered His voice, the earth melted. So even more drastic terms. And the entirety of Psalm 83 has similar things to say about those nations and peoples that plot against the Lord, that scheme against the Lord.

And I went through the Bible looking up, is there any positive descriptions of somebody plotting? Because, you know, as a fiction writer, I'm like, you know, that's kind of what I do every day. I like to plot things out.

And there's not, I couldn't find one. So if you're plotting in the Bible, it's a problem. But in the entirety of Psalm 83, it has similar things to say of these nations and these peoples who plot against the Lord.

But we're not going to read it today. But when nations, kings, and peoples rage against the Lord, they are revealing their envious hearts. And like the workers in the vineyard, they readily steal, kill, and destroy.

Or in the case of many today, will readily send others in their stead to do it for them. Can anyone remember the last time a leader, a ruler, a president, a king, truly served in a military campaign against a hostile threat rather than giving platitudinous speeches from palaces?

When's the last time we saw kings and rulers have skin in the game, as the saying goes, and lead from the front in battle? But our Lord, our King, He leads from the very front. In Revelation 19, if you'd turn there with me right now, we're going to go and read verses 11 through 16.

Revelation 19, starting in verse 11. Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And he who sat on him was called Faithful and True. And in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns.

He had a name written that no one knew except himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed him on white horses.

Now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it he should strike the nations, and he himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He himself treads the winepress and the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

And he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And this passage has loads more significance to the rest of Psalm 2, as you can tell. The way that this king rules, the way that he goes out and strikes the nations with the sword coming from his mouth, the Word of God, it's going to come more into play in verses 4 through 12.

But here we do see our king leading from the front. We do see him leading righteously against his enemies. And if your cause is righteous, you will not fear the front. You will not have need for miserable company in your cause.

You will not plead your cause to wicked kings for a scoop from their coffers either. No, our king's plan and his cause is not vain, but every plot against him is, and his is coming to pass. Now there's much more to be said and studied about this first act of the Psalm, and obviously as a poem, as a song, that is supposed to stretch across the breadth of history, we can make many, many more applications than just the couple that I've connected together here tonight.

But since we do have a short time period, and I'm always shorter than that short time period, we'll wrap it up there. But before we do, are there any questions, comments, or thoughts that may have been provoked before we get somebody up here to take prayer requests?

Brian, I always call on you. You're my man.