The Refuge of the Blessed (Psalm 2:10-12)

Now please turn to the book of Psalms, to Psalm 2. I'm going to read through the Psalm here in a moment, but before we do, we'll begin with a word of prayer.

Our gracious God, our sovereign king, our father, our creator, sustainer, redeemer, and friend, we pray that you, by your grace, would visit us today through your word, teach us by your spirit, help us to think rightly concerning you, concerning the things that are to come, and your purposes in this creation.

May you be honored and glorified through and in the meditation of our hearts, and through the words of my mouth and our time here together, we pray in Christ's name, amen.

Well, this week, there is an election. I don't know if you've heard, might've heard something about it. If you've watched the news a little bit, they've mentioned it a couple of times.

By now, actually, you may be tired of hearing about the election this week. This is the time now when they make, the candidates make their final pitch to us, giving us their final message to the

American people when everybody is supposed to be paying attention. I guess this last couple of weeks is when we all finally make our decisions.

At least that's what I'm told, reliably informed that that's the case. I made my decision 20 years ago when

I formed my opinion about things going on in the world. Every third commercial now is a political commercial for either a candidate or for a proposition in one state or another.

This is now the final push for all of the rulers of the world, and we're rulers of our nation, and the wannabe rulers of our nation to be campaigning in battleground states.

And so they're making their final pitch as candidates to us, the American people. And that's interesting because in the last seven days, the people on my side of the political aisle have been called

Nazis and garbage. That's interesting messaging, I think, in the final days. I don't know how well that is going to do towards swinging the mushy middle and securing the votes of any undecided people in the country, but we're going to see here in the next couple of days or a couple of weeks or a couple of months, however long this season is going to take.

So much energy and effort and sweat is put into analyzing the messages of the candidates and what they have to say to the

American people. What is their message? What do they want us to know about them? What do they want us to hear?

What do they have to say to us? What are they going to do? And as much as everyone might be focused on what the rulers and the wannabe rulers have to say to the

American people, I thought it would be good for us to focus on what the rulers and the wannabe rulers need to hear from God.

And so it is by God's good providence, as we would have it, that we are in a very appropriate place in scripture to be considering that very thing as we finish up Psalm 2.

And it is the rulers and the judges of the earth, the kings of the earth that are addressed by God in the closing verses of Psalm 2.

And I say by providence, because I didn't plan this. If you think that I ended the book of Hebrews on a certain day so that I could fill in the summer months with a hodgepodge potpourri of messages, traveling assignments and speaking engagements and guest speakers to start the book of Psalms and then go through Psalm 1 and Psalm 2 on an outline that themselves are sort of given to us in the

Psalms, just so we could end up here today on the day before election day, this coming

Tuesday, at the end of Psalm 2, if you think that that's what I plan, you don't know me at all. Sometimes I intentionally don't plan things just so that I can be as surprised by God's good providence as everyone else is.

And that is certainly the case with this as we finish up Psalm 2 verses 10 to 12. Now, Psalm 2, and here's where I give you a little bit of review in case you haven't been here for the last few weeks to catch you up on what the

Psalm is. Psalm 2 is God's promise to establish his king and his kingdom in spite of the vain opposition of earthly powers.

And we have noticed that the Psalm has a very convenient outline and we've been following it for the last three weeks and we're finishing it up today.

Three or sorry, I should say four sections of the Psalms, three verses each and we've worked our way through the

Psalm in keeping with that outline. We saw in verses one through three that the rebellion of the wicked is vain folly.

Let's read them together. Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing?

The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying, let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us.

In verses four to six, we have the response of Yahweh and it is mocking fury. Verse four, he who sits in the heavens laughs, the

Lord scoffs at them. Then he will speak to them in his anger and terrify them in his fury saying, but as for me,

I have installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain. Then in verses seven to nine, we see that the reign of this king is with sovereign force.

I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord. He said to me, you are my son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will surely give the nations as your inheritance and the very ends of the earth as your possession.

You shall break them with a rod of iron and you shall shatter them like earthenware. Now this is our passage for today.

Verses 10 through 12, the refuge of the wise is his blessed favor. Verse 10, now therefore,

O kings, this is addressed to the kings, show discernment, take warning, O judges of the earth.

Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the son that he not become angry and you perish in the way for his wrath may soon be kindled.

How blessed are all who take refuge in him. So here we have the conclusion of the Psalm, this command to kings and rulers, a number of commands actually, and it takes the form of a warning and also a gracious, loving, kind, benevolent invitation to the kings of the earth to find their refuge in this king whom

God has installed upon Zion. He invites them to place their faith in this king to do homage to him, to kiss him and thus find refuge in him from the wrath that is to come.

The wrath that is described in verses four through verse nine. That wrath, that fury that will terrify them.

God is now graciously appealing to the kings to come to this king to lay down their arms and in repentance and in worship, find refuge for themselves.

In light of this soon and coming judgment we looked at last week, in light of God's promise to establish his king and his kingdom, we saw that in the week prior, they are now invited, commanded as it were, to come to this king and find refuge or suffer the consequences.

Now there are a number of commands in this passage in verses 10 through 12. A number of commands that we can kind of outline our time here this morning around.

In verse 10, notice two commands there, show discernment and take warning. And we see in verse 10, the rebels must give attention to his warning, must give attention to his warning.

Then in verse 11, the command to worship with reverence and the command to rejoice with trembling. The rebels must give adoration in his worship and then in verse 12, the command to do homage or kiss the sun, depending on your translation.

We'll get to that here in just a moment. And the command, though it's not a command, but to take refuge, it is sort of an implied action point or a command to take refuge in that sun.

And so rebels must give allegiance to his son. Rebels, these rebels addressed or described in verses one through three must give attention to the warning.

Verse 10, give adoration in his worship. Verse 11, and give allegiance to the sun. In verse 12, this is what

God commands the rulers of the world. So let's look at verses 10 to 12. Now the refuge of the wise is his blessed favor.

The rulers have been warned. They have been told what the outcome of their rebellion is. It's vain folly. And every ruler on the planet has then been warned and their conscience testifies to their guilt.

The word of God warns them. And if they ignore it and dismiss it and rebel against it, then ultimately the kings of the earth have only themselves to blame for the destruction that they face.

And so God commands them then, first of all, to give attention to his warnings. In verse 10, let's read it together again.

Now, therefore, O kings, show discernment, take warning, O judges of the earth. The word for kings there is the same word used up in verse two, the kings of the earth take their stand.

So he is now at the end of the Psalm addressing those whose rebellion he has described and confronted up in the first three verses.

The word judges is not a word that is used in this Psalm. You'll notice in verse two, he speaks of the kings of the earth and the rulers who take counsel together.

But down in verse 12, he addresses something, sorry, verse 10, he addresses the kings and the judges.

And the word kings is the same word used in verse two, but judges is a different word. And don't think of judges in terms that you and I would think of judges, people in black coats who really have no executive or legislative power, but who sit on a bench and rewrite the constitution every time they make a decision.

Not that kind of a judge, but instead, these are the judges who are given the responsibility to administer justice through how they administer the government.

The idea is the justice that a world ruler or a king would give. So we would call them judges.

And in some ways, it's kind of synonymous with kings and rulers in that they process the government rules and regulations and are appointed by God to administer justice for the people.

So verse 10 is addressed to the very ones whose rebellion is described in verses one through three.

Those who are conspiring to overthrow God's rule, those who take their stand against the Lord and against his anointed who say, we want to cast off their fetters.

We want to be rid of their restraints. Those are the ones who are now addressed in verse 10. Now they've been addressed really implicitly all the way through the psalms since in verses four through six, he describes

God's anger and his fury against these wicked rulers. In verses seven to nine, the son himself describes the destruction and the shattering, the cataclysmic judgment that he will execute upon the rulers of the earth who do not repent.

But now the psalmist is bringing really in the manner of great, the graciousness of the

Holy Spirit. He is bringing application directly to those kings and appealing with them to take action based upon what they have heard earlier in the psalm.

God is gracious and he is merciful to warn them of the destruction that is to come. And he is inviting them now to be blessed by him.

They are commanded first to show discernment, to show discernment. Verse 10, now therefore O kings, show discernment.

That word that is translated there, show discernment really is a word that is elsewhere translated as be wise or receive wisdom.

And that is the idea here to comprehend, to understand, to be circumspect and prudent.

It is a command here in verse 10 to learn wisdom. He is saying to the kings of the earth, learn wisdom, receive wisdom.

And the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God. This is the same kind of command that we read in Proverbs chapter 2, verses 2 through 5, written by the hand of a king, by the way, to his sons and his son who would eventually take over the throne.

Proverbs 2, make your ear attentive to wisdom and incline your heart to understanding. If you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding.

If you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures, then you will discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God.

The implication is that to proceed in unbelief is folly, to continue in rebellion is foolishness and moral wickedness.

For the outcome of that rebellion is absolutely certain and only a fool, having been warned, would ignore the warning and proceed undeterred right into their sin.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and fools despise wisdom and instruction.

That's Proverbs 1, 7. And the kings of the earth who do not fear God, they are fools because they despise wisdom and instruction.

That is the epitome and the height of folly. And so the first command is for them to be wise, to receive wisdom, to take in wisdom so that they could be wise.

And that wisdom would lead them to the worship that is described in verse 11. But notice the second command in verse 10, to take warning,

O judges of the earth. That word take warning there means it describes an admonishment or an instruction that is akin to chastening or discipline.

It's the kind of instruction or training that you would give to a small child. It's what you speak to a small child in training them and in discipling them and bringing them up to give them that type of instruction and wisdom.

It's the basic kind of warning and admonition that you give to small children. That's the word that is used there.

What kind of instruction or reproof does the author have in mind? It is the instruction or reproof that says your rebellion is foolishness.

God will install his king upon Zion. He is angry. He is furious. And his Christ will possess the nations and rule the ends of the earth from the sea to the sea to the very corners of creation.

He will rule and he will break the nations with a rod of iron and shatter them in their rebellion. That's the reproof. That's the correction.

That's the instruction that they ought to receive. And they should hear it. And they should hear it clearly that their judgment will be final.

It will be full. And it will be cataclysmic. And God's reproof is I have installed my king upon Zion and he will rule to the ends of the earth and he will shatter the kings in their rebellion.

And that's the instruction that they should receive. They should hear that and they should heed that and they should receive that warning and that instruction.

Don't miss the irony here, by the way. It is somewhat ironic, I think, and intentionally so that the kings of the earth would be told to receive wisdom and to receive instruction because we typically almost implicitly assume that the people who rule us are the smartest and the wisest among us.

That's almost the way we approach elections. They must be the smartest. They must be the wisest.

I mean, they're in charge of the economy and the military and the money supply and the laws and the regulations.

And they tell us the best way to behave and the best things to do. And they give us all the stuff that we're supposed to conform our lives to.

Truly, these people must be the brights. They must be the intellectuals. They must be the most highly trained, highly educated, intellectual and wisest people to ever tread the planet.

I don't want to ruin your day, but that is not the case. Now, while it is true that occasionally a wise, noble, virtuous, honest, good man or woman makes it into positions of authority in the civil realm, like Joseph, Daniel, David, that happens.

And we're hoping even to have one of our own join the ranks of the Idaho legislature to do that very thing.

While it is true that those type of people do get into civil realm and authority, it is also true that by and large, generally speaking, we are ruled by the dumbest, most incompetent, feckless, cowardly, craven, ridiculous, senseless, mendacious dullards to ever walk on dirt.

Now, I don't say that with any animosity or hatred in my heart whatsoever. If you doubt that that is true, just listen to them.

That is true. It is wrong for us to assume that just because we submit to authority and that we should honor them, that we do so because they are the brightest, because they are the wisest.

No, God's commandment to the kings of the earth, receive wisdom and receive instruction.

Because by and large, they are the most benighted and the most foolish people that have ever walked the planet.

We can say that because they are mere men and women. They're not angels who walk among us.

They're not gods who walk among us. And we don't have to think that they are in order to honor them or submit to their authority.

We have to have a right and prudent and wise estimation of who those people are, even in our submission to that authority.

But it is ironic that God would address them in this way, given that the assumption is always that these are the best people that we have to put up an offer.

And it's simply not the case. Wisdom is not a mental skill. Wisdom is a moral skill.

We saw that in Psalm 1. And the one who proceeds in evil and in rebellion against the king of kings is the greatest fool that could ever walk the planet.

And so anybody, no matter President Harris, President Trump, to continue in rebellion against that king and to not yield and do homage to that king is the height of folly.

Anyone who promotes evil is a fool because anybody who throws off or seeks to throw off God's shackles and continues at war against him is like somebody at war against gravity who demonstrates that they're going to conquer gravity by throwing themselves off a building.

That is not going to go well for you in the end. Fighting against God and his anointed is certainly going to result and end in judgment, cataclysmic judgment.

And this, by the way, is the message that the church has to give to the rulers of this earth. You need to repent.

You're ruling in wickedness. As long as I have been alive, I have seen the moral majority and the religious right and big evangelicalism and all of the religious leaders of our age who have the big megachurches and the big platforms are involved in the political realm.

They have courted those in the political establishment on the left and on the right. Always, it seems, in an attempt to get a seat at the table of power or a place at the government trough, however you want to describe it.

And it seems that without exception, we never hear of these men calling out the wickedness and sin of those people that they managed to gain an audience with.

And if you want to see how this is done, remember during the COVID nonsense, you remember the open letter that John MacArthur sent to Gavin Newsom during that, when

Gavin Newsom left strip joints and marijuana dispensaries and gambling places open in the state of California, but he closed down churches.

And John MacArthur sent an open letter to Gavin Newsom. And if you want to see how that kind of confrontation of a civil ruler is done in love and in grace, go

Google that letter. It's got to be out there somewhere. It was perfectly done. John MacArthur captured it perfectly.

You are promoting wickedness and ruling in wickedness.

And God is going to judge you and it's going to be severe. And he calls upon you this day to repent.

Rebels must give attention to this warning. Second, rebels must give adoration in his worship. Verse 11, worship the

Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Here's the command to worship. This is the way of wisdom.

This is the fear of the Lord to bow in homage and wisdom to God. And notice the command is not simply to stop your raging.

It is to worship Yahweh. To bow down in fear and in reverence. It's not just stop your raging, stop your fomenting, stop your rebellion, but is instead to turn and to give themselves in worship.

It would be one thing for him to say, stop your raging, you fool. But it is another to say, not just stop your raging, but turn and worship.

And that's the command. It's a command to give up their own idols and to bow the knee before Yahweh.

The word worship here is translated serve in the ESV, NIV, King James Version, the

Legacy Standard Bible. It is in the NASB that it is translated as worship. And that word serve does have to do with and can be used in the context of religious worship or religious service.

It has the idea of serving the Lord in the sense of offering worship as an act of service to him, which is why the

NASB translates it at worship. The other major English translations all translate it as serve because the word's primary meaning describes one who is in bondage or who is a slave or who serves or labors, works and toils.

And so here it is translated as serve in the major translations because it has the idea of bowing down and worshiping and offering labor, service, toil and bondage of ourselves to this one who is the king.

So you'll notice that this is almost in contradistinction to what we see in verse three where they are saying we are going to break his chains and cast away his fetters and get his chains off of us.

They want to be free. That's verse two and verse three. And here at the end of the psalm, we come full circle and the psalmist says, no, you're not.

You don't find joy. You don't find refuge by being free and casting off the shackles. Instead, you find that refuge and that joy by gladly taking the shackles of your service to Yahweh as king.

That is what service is, not casting off our shackles, not casting off our fetters, but gladly fettering yourself to this king of kings.

Spurgeon said to a graceless neck, the yoke of Christ is intolerable, but to the saved sinner, it is easy and light and we may judge ourselves by this.

Do we love that yoke or do we wish to cast it off from us? And the kings of the earth want to cast off that yoke and God's call to them in verse 11 is to gladly take that yoke.

He's addressing this to pagan kings, idol worshipers, and so his demand is complete change of worship allegiances.

He is not asking the pagan kings who are idol worshipers to simply add Yahweh to their pantheon of gods.

He is commanding them to give homage and obedience and love, fealty, and worship to the one true

God, which meant that they would have to abandon their false religions. Second, they're commanded here in verse 11 to rejoice with trembling.

The word rejoice is a word that described a shout of exaltation. It was the raising of the voice, a vigorous, enthusiastic expression of joy.

You would even call it an emotional outburst of joy and rejoicing. This is the use of their lips and this is in contradistinction again to the description in verses one through three.

In verse one, why are the nations in an uproar, an outburst, right? The frothing, the whipping up of confusion and rage and anger.

Why are they raging together against God and his anointed? And here at the end of the psalm, the author is saying, you need to that same emotional outburst of rage needs to be turned to an emotional outburst of joy.

There should be this rejoicing, this shout of exaltation and exaltation in who

God is. Though they were devising and meditating and murmuring vain things inside of their own minds, now they are commanded to use those same lips, not to meditate upon wickedness and rebellion, but instead to meditate upon God and his goodness.

In chapter two, psalm two, verse three, let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us.

There they're speaking that which is evil and sinful and rebellious and here they are commanded to use their lips to give rejoicing to God as king.

So the lips and the life then of these kings is to be turned to service and worship. There are two important qualifiers.

I want you to notice them in verse 11. They're to do this with fear and to do it with trembling. The words are somewhat synonymous in that they both are describing the same reverent attitude of heart.

He's not talking about a terror here to do this in terror. He talks about terrifying them with his wrath earlier in the psalm, but this is not that kind of fear.

This is the kind of fear that is respect or esteem or to think highly of somebody to sort of esteem them well.

It is a healthy fear and respect. The trembling there describes quaking. Both of these describe the appropriate fear that is demanded for these kings to find refuge in the sun.

And fear and joy go together, by the way. It may seem as if they don't, but fear and joy should and do go together.

Joy without fear can be flippant and empty. It's just the type of speaking nonsense with your mouth or thinking joyous things in your heart and in your mind.

It's laughter, shouting, verbal outbursts without any purpose or content or substance. And that can be blasphemous and irreligious and even profane.

And so that type of joy must be tempered with the kind of fear that is described in the passage, the sort of reverential trembling before God.

So joy without fear is flippant and can be blasphemous. Fear without joy is just servile, bitter servitude.

It's just the type of going through the motions, the mere formalism of worship, the more formal, mere formalism of service without any kind of heartfelt rejoicing.

And so fear and joy must go together because fear tempers joy and joy gives meaning to that fear and the fear and the joy themselves, both color our worship and our service.

So that the service that we give to the Lord should be characterized by both a reverent, high respect for him, as well as the type of joy that exalts in who he is.

And when the joy is gone, then the service becomes bitter and rote. And when the fear is gone, then the joy just becomes flippant and blasphemous.

So we need both. Now, ironically, the wicked believe that joy and rejoicing is found in casting off his fetters.

But notice what the psalmist is saying. He is saying that true joy and freedom is found in embracing those, taking that fetters, being chained to Yahweh, keeping his word, obeying his law, walking in obedience to him.

That is the source of true joy. So rebels must give attention to his warning, verse 10.

They must give adoration in his worship in verse 11. And then third, they must give allegiance to his son in verse 12.

Do homage to the son that he not become angry and you perish in the way. For his wrath may soon be kindled.

How blessed are all who take refuge in him. To worship Yahweh, in this context, in every context, is to embrace the son and to worship the son as well.

Jesus said in John chapter five, verse 23, that all will honor the son even as they honor the father. And he who does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him.

You cannot honor the one true God if you will not honor, worship and love his son, the

Lord Jesus Christ. The word do homage there is a word that is translated in every other major translation as kiss.

Every other major translation except the NASB. And you will hear me say something here that you won't hear me say often.

I think the NASB got it wrong in translating it do homage. Because the imagery here of kissing the son is not romantic or sexual in any kind of way whatsoever.

That's not what the word means. It is a word that describes in a very powerful and profound way the kind of submission and love that is required of those who will gladly take the yoke of this king.

I was kind of shocked that I'd forgotten that this word in every other translation is translated as kiss until this week, middle of the week,

I all looked up this verse and other translations and I did. So I'll kiss the son, kiss the son. And I remembered back when

I used to read the New King James and the King James that I had memorized it that way, but I've been in the

NASB for so long that I'd forgotten that that's how it's translated elsewhere as kiss the son. In the ancient world, the imagery of kissing was a powerful and profound imagery.

And I'll give you three ways in which this sort of communicates or three things that this communicates about how we are to approach this son in verse 12.

First, conquered kings in the ancient world would show their submission and their yielding by kissing the king who had conquered them.

In other words, when one king would come in and take over the army and the territory and the kingdom of another king, the way that the conquered king would demonstrate his yieldingness and his submission was to kiss the reign, kiss the scepter, kiss the feet of the king who had conquered them.

So it was a way of demonstrating their submission and their allegiance to this new king. And so here this is addressed to kings who would understand exactly what this means.

As for me, I have installed my king upon Zion and then the command in verse 10, kiss the son.

He's the king. So kiss him, that is kings of the earth, bow your knee, bow your head and give homage and kiss this one who is the conquering king.

Now, of course, if the kings of the earth wait until this king of kings has already conquered them and shattered the nations with a rod of iron, that submission will be too late.

The time to yield is before he returns and destroys the nations. If they wait until then, it's too late, they will perish in the way.

So instead, they are commanded today while there is the day of grace before his anger is kindled to kiss the son, kiss the king.

Second, a kiss was used to indicate a reconciliation or a cessation of hostilities like Joseph and his brothers.

Joseph's brother sold him into slavery, left him for dead and then Joseph became king of Egypt and you know the story, the famine let

Joseph's brothers down there to get wheat and when Joseph saw them, he was a bit taken aback and when they finally came and they realized who

Joseph was, Genesis 45, 15 says, he kissed all his brothers and wept on them and afterwards, his brothers talked with him.

There was forgiveness, there was reconciliation, there was the cessation of hostility, the dissolution of enmity.

Once estranged, they were now reconciled and that's what a kiss communicated. Remember Jacob and Esau? Jacob stole the birthright and then he ran away from Esau, 14 years or more apart from Esau and finally when he was coming back to meet

Esau, it says that Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him and they wept. That kissing was an evidence, a symbol, a sign of reconciliation, the cessation of hostilities and so the psalmist is saying to the kings of the earth, bow down, cease your hostility and your raging against the king of kings, kiss him and be reconciled to him so that there is no longer any hostility between you and third, kissing showed affection, fealty and allegiance.

In ancient times and it's still the case today among cultures that worship idols, in ancient times, they would kiss the idols to show their fealty and love and obedience to the idol.

First Kings 19, 18, remember God said to Elijah, yet I will leave 7 ,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.

The kissing of the idol was a demonstration of their fealty and allegiance to the idol. Hosea 13, 2, and now they sin more and more and make for themselves molten images, idols skillfully made from their silver, all of them the work of craftsmen.

They say to them, let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves. It was what they said of their idols, but the men who bring their sacrifices to these calves, these metal calves and wooden calves, let them kiss the calves as part of offering the sacrifice.

It was an expression of fealty and allegiance. So he is commanding them to swear their allegiance, to cease with their hostilities, to be reconciled, and then to show their fealty and affection to this king, lest they perish.

Verse 12 says that he not become angry. That is that Yahweh and his son, the king not become angry.

And to suggest here that it is, is Yahweh or God, the father does not mean that the son is not angry. He is because the son is the instrument of God's judgment upon a wicked world.

It is the son through whom the father is going to judge all men. He's the agent of judgment, the one who executes

God's wrath. And so the warning for the wrath to avoid the wrath that is to be kindled is a plea to them to avoid perishing in their way.

That he, that is the son or Yahweh who has installed the son, that he not become angry and therefore you perish in the way.

The word, the idea behind the word kindled there is, it is sparked or it has lit a flame. And it doesn't mean that that wrath is not burning because it is even now.

Scripture says, God has burning indignation toward the wicked every day. He is filled with indignation towards the sin of people.

It doesn't mean that God is not angry now, but he will be in the future. It means that God is angry now, but there is going to come a time when that anguish is lit on fire, as it were, and then it will be poured out upon the impenitent and the wicked.

So do homage to the son, kiss him before his wrath is kindled, before it is ignited and it begins to burn against you.

Since we're now at the end of Psalm 2, I want to remind you of a couple of connections with Psalm 1. It's been a few weeks since we're in Psalm 1.

We took three weeks to work our way through that. The first, notice in verse 12 that there is a mention to, there is mention of perishing in the way, that first phrase of verse 12.

And remember, there is a reference to the way of the wicked in Psalm 1, verse 6. The Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

And there in Psalm 1, verse 6, it just describes the way of the wicked one who perishes in his way. He is in the path of sin.

He is walking in that way, united with unbelievers, and that way ends up perishing. And now here in Psalm 2, we have a reference and a description and illustration of the people who walk in that way and stand in that way, who when that way is judged and they are judged, the way perishes and those who stand in that way also perish.

So both Psalms, remember at the beginning, I told you this was the gateway to the Psalter. These two Psalms are the entryway to the rest of this book.

And here in these two Psalms, you have referenced now twice, once in 1, verse 6, and now in Psalm 2, verse 12, a reference to this way that God judges.

There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. And God pours out his judgment upon the wicked who stand in the path of sinners.

Isaiah 60, verse 12 says, the nation and the kingdom which will not serve you will perish, and the nations will be utterly destroyed.

So perishing here is utter destruction. It is ruination. Wrath is poured out as God's righteous and eternal and just condemnation and indignation upon the wicked is set aflame and is kindled, and it begins to burn against them.

And then there is the command to be among those who are blessed, to seek refuge in him, the very end of verse 12, how blessed are all who take refuge in him that is in the son and this king.

He is the one in whom we are commanded to take refuge. And notice the reference to blessedness there at the end of Psalm 2.

There is the reference to blessedness at the beginning of Psalm 1. Do you remember that? These are kind of like parentheses around these two

Psalms. How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the path of sinners or sit in the seat of scoffers.

That's the beginning of the Psalms. How blessed is that man? His delight is in the law of the

Lord and his law he meditates day and night. And we read that and we say, and I haven't done that.

I haven't, I have stood in the path of sinners. I have walked in the counsel of the ungodly. I have sat in the seat of the scoffer.

I have not meditated upon the law of the Lord day and night. And therefore, how can I, one who is a sinner, is a scoffer, is wicked, has taken that counsel and has violated

God's law and not meditated upon it day and night. How can I be blessed? If that's the standard of blessing, then

I fall short of that. Well, there's good news. There is one who has never stood in the path of sinners, never walked in the counsel of the ungodly and never sat in the seat of the scoffers.

There is one whose meditation has been upon the law of the Lord day and night. There is one who has lived according to that law and has never violated it ever.

And he is the one who is being installed upon Zion, who will rule the nations with a rod of iron, whose return is going to mean the judgment upon the impenitent wicked.

If we find our refuge in him, then we can be that blessed man. So these two Psalms go together.

Blessed is that one who has done that. I haven't done it. Well, good news. Blessed is the one who finds their refuge in the man who has done that and has done it perfectly, who offers you his righteousness and offers you forgiveness of sins, not because you have kept the law of the

Lord or meditated upon it day and night, and not because you have never walked in the counsel of the wicked, but because you have heeded the warning and sworn your allegiance and given your adoration to this one who has done those things on behalf of his people.

This Psalm, Psalm 12 moves from raging and rebellion in verses one to three to repentance and reconciliation in verses 10 to 12.

From raging rebellion to repentance and reconciliation, those who are raging and rebelling against God, violating his law, lashing out against God and his

Christ will perish if they do not find refuge in the king, the son, and are blessed by him.

And only the son, only this king has done what is necessary to redeem sinners and to satisfy the wrath of God against his people.

Only this king died on a cross and rose again from the dead to bear the penalty for guilty sinners.

And because this king has done this, he died in the place of sinners. He offers us forgiveness of sins in his own righteousness to any and all who will come to him on his terms, which is repentance and faith.

The turning from our sin and our idols to serve, worship, love, adore, and give our allegiance to the one who is the son, the king who sits on Zion's throne.

His death on the cross has satisfied the wrath and the fury of a righteous God who is justly indignant against sinners for their rebellion and their insubordination.

And God the father has poured out on the head of his son all of our guilt, all of our shame, all of the wrath that is due to us.

And he has drunk from the cup of God's fury and wrath on our behalf.

So that now, according to Romans 8, there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. To the one who has given their adoration and their allegiance to this son who has bowed in worship and recognize their sin and come to this one for refuge, there is no condemnation.

Romans 8, sorry, Romans 5 verse 10 says, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son.

How much more than having been reconciled will we be saved by his life? Therefore, Paul is able to say we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us.

Be reconciled to God on behalf of Christ. Be reconciled because God made him who knew no sin to be sin and to be treated as sin on our behalf so that we might become to be treated as the righteousness of God in him.

So the good news of the gospel is that we have offended this God, this merciful king, this one who is the son.

We have offended him by our sin, but we can have reconciliation and righteousness when we turn from that sin and believe and trust in the salvation that God offers us in his son, the

Lord Jesus Christ. And our response is repentance and faith. We come and we gladly give homage and kiss the son.

We gladly do that because we have been reconciled and he has our affection because he died in our place.

And so now having been forgiven and having been given righteousness and having been reconciled by faith, we come to remember his death for us and his resurrection from the dead.

This king gave his body to be broken in our place and he shed his blood to pay the wrath, the just penalty of God that we deserved.

His body and his blood poured out for us. And so now we come to the Lord's table as believers in our savior, confessing our sin, rejoicing in our salvation, exulting in his goodness and expecting his soon and coming kingdom.

Before we observe the Lord's table by taking these elements, I would just remind you that if you're not a believer and you have never trusted

Christ for salvation, this is not for you. This is to eat and to drink. This is to eat and drink judgment to yourself.

Just let the cup and the bread pass. For believers, if you are harboring sin in your heart that you are not confessing, then

I must warn you as well. You eat and drink of the Lord's cup in an unworthy manner and scripture warns you against that.

There is a chastening that happens when we come to the Lord's table and we partake of the elements, but we are not walking in confession and repentance for our sin.

So we're gonna take a couple of moments and bow our heads. I'm gonna ask the ushers to come forward and then I'll pray here in a couple of moments after a time of silent prayer.

Our gracious God, we humbly acknowledge before you our own sin and iniquity that we certainly were among those who walked in the counsel of the wicked, stood in the way of sinners, identified with them and sat in the seat of scoffers we mocked your grace and your goodness.

We confess that our own sin and iniquity has warranted the wrath of the son against us and yet by your love and your grace, by your good mercy, you have not counted our transgressions against us, but instead you have counted us righteous in your son, the

Lord Jesus Christ. So we thank you for that merciful forgiveness. Thank you for his righteousness.

Thank you for not just overlooking our sin for that would have been unjust, but thank you for sending your son to pay the price for our sin so that we can have eternal life.

We thank you for that broken body that shed blood. We thank you for his resurrection from the dead, which is

God's testimony to us that that sacrifice was sufficient to pay the price that we owed for our sin and iniquity.

So we confess that to you and thank you and rejoice in that salvation. Also acknowledging that we need to be cleansed and forgiven day by day, week by week, hour by hour for the ways that we fail you and sin against you.

We sit in ways that we do not even remember and recognize. We have failed to love the

Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Every day we have failed that standard.

And so we thank you again that we can walk confessing our sin and our iniquity before you, trusting and believing in your promise that when we confess our sins, you are faithful and you are just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And so now we ask your blessing upon the meditation of our hearts, our thoughts, and our souls as we think upon Christ and what he has done and partake of these elements.