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Bro. Dave Huber II
Good morning, good to have you there here this morning.
We'll be in Psalm chapter two,
brother Bill, we will miss him.
I was really looking forward to his Psalms study because especially with
the first two, three, four chapters, those have been some Psalms that I have
given a lot of thought to.
And so I was excited to hear what he was gonna share on it.
It's interesting that it's falling to me to do Psalm chapter two because of the
Psalms that I've been studying, that's the one I've contemplated the most.
I don't know if that's gonna be a good thing or not, we'll see, but
really appreciate you guys being here.
We're gonna open with a word of prayer and then we'll do a real quick recap.
And I don't know how much time this will take, it may end up being a one and done, it may be a two
part series, maybe a three part series, but I'm gonna encourage you guys to respond.
I think we have it mic'd up a little bit where maybe those who are online can hear you.
So careful what you say.
All right, let's pray.
Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you so much for your word.
We thank you for brother Bill, who we got to learn from for so many years.
Father, we just ask that you bring your word to us today, help it to be
encouraging to us and instructive.
It's in your precious son's name we ask these things, amen.
Okay, Psalm chapter two.
Now we've finished Psalm chapter one with brother Bill.
He went through Psalm chapter one as his last Sunday school lesson that
he ever taught.
And in that, he contrasted the righteous and the ungodly.
And it showed the differences between what they think
on and the outcome of their thoughts, the results.
And we saw that the righteous were well
-kept and that they were planted by a river of water, the river being the word of God.
And that ultimately they would flourish.
And that this was not the case with the ungodly.
I had one thought I wanted to share because it kind of connects us to Psalm chapter two.
But one thought about Psalm chapter one is that it seems to be a
conditional promise.
If you're in the word and you are planted in it, then things will go
well, but that's not how it's written.
It's not written as if it's a promise.
It's written as if it's just a fact of being, which is stronger than a promise.
We can take it as a promise.
We can read it and say, if I get in the word and I will meditate on the
word daily, like that Psalm chapter one person does, then
it stands to reason that logically I'll have all these great outcomes.
So we can take it that way, but I find it interesting that it's written as though it's just a fact.
Blessed is the man who walk, if not, in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of
the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his laws does he meditate day and
night.
So he's blessed, and the fact is he's blessed and in the word.
They're just two coexisting facts.
I think the reason why that's so important is that we're gonna see
how important it is that facts matter in this next chapter.
We're gonna see that being is a big part
of our existence, a big part of God's existence.
It's even a big part of the existence of those who will never believe in God.
That's why we're called human beings, right?
So the division of chapter two, it's broken up into
four parts, and we're gonna try to get through all those four parts.
I don't know that we'll get through them all today, but let's go ahead and read Acts chapter
two.
So if you would turn there with me.
I'm sorry, did I say Acts?
I meant Psalms.
We will be in Acts as well.
We go to Psalm chapter two, and then we'll actually be in
Acts chapter four a little bit later.
It starts off, why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?
Kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed,
saying, let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us.
He that sitteth in the heaven shall laugh.
The Lord shall have them in derision.
Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure.
Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
I will declare the decree the Lord has set unto me.
Thou art my son this day have I begotten thee.
Ask of me and I will give unto thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron.
Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
Be wise now therefore, O ye kings.
Be instructed, ye judges of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the son lest he be angry and you perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.
So there's the whole chapter.
And it starts off with a question.
All right, so the question is why do the heathen rage and the people
imagine a vain thing?
I have a question for you guys.
Who's asking the question?
Okay, so Mr. Karpiak says David.
Okay, any other thoughts?
How about we'll first consider the penman of the psalm, then we'll
consider the author.
And then we may even, if we have time, consider the readers, all right?
So let's look at the penman.
Who wrote the psalm?
We're assuming David, right?
But do we have proof of that?
In this chapter, it does not show that it is David who wrote the psalm.
However, in Acts chapter four, we actually get the proof we need.
So if you'll turn there real quick,
it will be in,
I think it's verse 24.
Okay, so let me give you a little context for Acts here.
Peter and John went to pray.
They passed a lame man on the way.
He stuck out his palm and asked for an alm.
And this is what Peter did say.
Remember this?
Peter tells him, have no silver, have no gold, but I've got something better than that.
And he lifts the man up by his right arm and tells him to walk
and performs a miracle right there.
Lots of people see it.
And lots of people begin to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Peter preaches to him.
The religious leaders get mad.
They bring Peter and John in and they say, don't do this.
And they threaten them, but they have nothing against them because they
can't deny the proof of this man's healing.
So they decide the only thing they can do is threaten them.
So they threaten them.
Peter and John say, I'm not gonna listen, essentially.
And they tell them, we're gonna answer to God, not you.
And they are released with some additional threats.
So now here in chapter four, they have come back to the disciples
and they are giving testimony of what has happened.
They tell them everything.
And so beginning in verse 24, we hear their response.
And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord, thou art
God, which has made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them, or all
that in them is.
I like how it's written.
Who by the mouth of thy servant David, there it is, has said, why did the heathen rage
and the people imagine vain things?
The kings of the earth stood up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ.
Okay, so that right there shows us, because they're quoting Psalm chapter two, it shows us
who wrote Psalm chapter two.
They're telling us that it was David.
By the mouth of thy servant David, you said these things.
Any questions so far?
That's Acts chapter four.
Yeah.
So, who's asking the question?
Sounds like it's David, right?
Okay,
now here's the question.
Is it really David?
Let's continue reading in Acts chapter four.
Okay.
Okay, so now we're getting somewhere.
So if we read it carefully, it says,
I lost it.
Where was it?
Who by the mouth of thy servant David has said, why did the heathen rage
So who's really asking the question?
He used David's mouth, but God's asking the question,
right?
There's the difference between the penman and the author.
Obviously, the entire Bible is written by God.
And so I think it's important when we look at this Psalm in particular, we ask ourselves, who's really
asking the question?
Well, David is asking the question.
It's coming out of his mouth.
It's being asked in David's point of view.
And it's being asked in David's point of view, that's right.
But the words are being given to him by the Holy Spirit, the
inspiration of God.
Remember, Brother Bill quoted, to start this whole study off, he quoted
2 Timothy 3 .16, all scripture is given by inspiration of God,
Yes, David,
Acts 1 .16.
Men and brethren, the scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost, by the mouth of David
spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus.
Again, we have another example of the Holy Ghost speaking by the mouth of David.
That's pretty cool.
Two examples in the same book.
And later on down in Acts 1 .20, they quote the book of Psalms again.
So they're quoting scripture quite a bit in Acts.
Did you wanna add anything else to that before we move on?
Good, fine.
Okay, so we've established it is the Holy Spirit
asking the question, but it is being asked through David's mouth.
Okay, so God is asking a question.
Now, when God asks a question, it's not because he doesn't know the answer.
And he knows the answer.
Actually, all questions have two purposes.
Anybody know what they are?
To provoke thought, yep.
That's one of the purposes.
Provide conclusion, right?
So that would be, yeah, that would be maybe
the response you get as a result of the question, right?
So that would be the other side of it, to elicit an answer, right?
So those are the two reasons why a question is asked, to provoke thought and to
elicit an answer.
And sometimes questions are for both reasons, to provoke thought and to elicit an
answer.
But sometimes we aren't really looking for an answer.
Sometimes all we're doing is looking to provoke thought.
We call these rhetorical questions, don't we?
Okay, so.
Pop's like, I'm not falling for that.
That's right, if you answer it.
So I believe that this question, why did the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing, I believe it's an
example of God asking a rhetorical question.
He doesn't really need the answer.
And he's not even really looking for us to give the answer, but he is looking to provoke thought,
which means he wants us to think about that.
Why do the heathen rage?
Why do the people imagine a vain thing?
Now we have some examples of God asking non -rhetorical questions.
First that comes to mind is, Adam, where art thou?
He was looking for an answer there.
Who told you that thou was naked?
Another example.
So those are non -rhetorical questions that God asks.
This is one where he's really just kind of provoking thought because he goes right into
additional thoughts afterwards.
But if God wants us to think about it, I think we should.
So why do the heathen rage?
Anybody have an idea?
Why don't we look at what the word rage means?
But before we do that, let's look at who the heathen are.
I was gonna start this whole study off reading this and say, why do the heathen rage?
But he totally stole my thunder when he was talking about Brother Bill at the memorial service.
But the word heathen here means nation, people.
The word is pronounced go -say, go -ay.
I think I pronounced it right.
I listened to a bunch of these words.
I wrote down the entire verse and listened to them on Blue Letter Bible and I probably won't remember
them all.
But nation, people, usually of non -Hebrew people, of descendants of Abraham, of
Israel.
And here's the next one that seems interesting to me, of swarm of locusts or other animals.
So it has this connotation of being a lot.
It's not just a nation.
Notice that it means nations.
It can mean nation, but we're gonna be talking about more than one
person.
We're gonna be talking about a lot of people.
And so it has this feeling of more than just a single nation raging.
One way we could read this is why do the nations rage?
The word rage is ragosh, to be in a tumult or commotion, to
conspire or plot.
So we could read this as why are all the nations plotting?
There's their question.
Why are they plotting?
Why are there a lot of nations plotting?
So if you read Spurgeon's commentary on this chapter,
he says that they are deliberately and craftily going about their warfare, not with foolish
haste.
So this is a meditation.
This is a plan.
This is not impulsive.
When we hear the word rage, we tend to think impulse.
We tend to think that it's just spur of the moment, like lost
control.
That's not the case here.
The nations are in control of themselves, raging,
plotting.
So this is what they're doing.
The next part of that says in the people, imagine a vain thing.
Who are the people?
And why is that different from nations?
Any ideas?
So in other words, we're kind of looking at the micro and the macro.
We're looking at the people and the
organizations of those people, right?
So we're looking at them individually and as a whole.
So a way to read this is that nations are craftily plotting,
and the people of those nations are imagining vain things.
Good commentary.
Thank you, Caleb.
Imagine.
The word imagine is haggoth.
And here's what it means.
To moan, growl, utter, muse, mutter, meditate, devise, plot,
speak, to roar, growl, groan, to utter, to
speak, to meditate, devise, muse, imagine, utter,
to mutter.
So while the nations as a whole are craftily plotting, the people of those
nations are muttering, they're growling or groaning a vain thing.
The word vain is reek.
That was an easy one to say, reek.
It means emptiness, vanity.
Or empty.
So people are muttering things that will produce no meaningful
outcome.
So while the nations are craftily plotting, the people of those nations are
muttering nonsense.
Sound familiar?
So now we have a lot of nations plotting and a lot of people devising emptiness.
In other words, whatever it is that they are plotting, and whatever it is they devise to do, the plans they
mutter under their breaths, the thoughts that they are thinking are all futile.
They are empty and therefore are unable to produce any meaningful result.
In other words, this is written in a way that is, this is just a fact.
This isn't conditional.
This is just God telling us that what's happening is factually meaningless.
I think that's important.
He wants us to think about it.
He wants us to muse on this for a little bit, that there is a reason why
the nations are plotting.
There's a reason why people are imagining vain things.
So that's the foundation of this chapter.
That's the start, right?
God has set the scene for us.
He said, here's what's happening.
And he wants us to think about it.
He wants us to contemplate it.
So question, why does man plot against his creator?
Okay, so Ben brings up a good point.
So Ben brings up, we wrestle not with flesh and blood, right, but with principalities and powers and
rulers of this dark world and spiritual wickedness in high places, right?
So essentially his thought is that maybe it's not necessarily that the people
even know that they are plotting against whoever they're plotting against.
We haven't gotten to that part yet, but they are plotting something.
And really it's just spiritual warfare and the devil using them
to make this happen.
It's a good thought.
Certainly true.
But I also do believe that there are some who specifically understand what they're doing.
Well, yes, certainly people are plotting against.
I want us also to understand that this is quite a digression.
Think of man's first sin.
It was in a sense, very impulsive.
It started out as being deceived and then impulsively, almost instinctively,
though it may be wrong to say it that way, at that point in history,
they decided to sin against God.
They ate of the fruit.
I always get this tongue tie, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
That is not the feeling of this plotting, right?
This isn't impulsive.
We've digressed to the point of we're planning out to be against.
Later we see the Lord and his anointed, right?
So we're being very purposeful.
The nations, I say we, I don't really wanna include Christians when I say that, but I want to include
people as a whole, nations and the people.
Yes, sir.
Or.
Yes.
They know, they don't necessarily know God, but
they know that they hate everything he says.
I think you and Ben are both right about that.
It's basically, it's that, that they may not even understand fully that it
is God, but they really don't like what it results in.
Yeah, they think they know better.
They do, they think they know better.
They think they have a better plan.
Otherwise they wouldn't devise against it.
Right?
Right, yeah, it's my choice.
Yes, and it should be my choice.
So we've digressed into a wishful and willful rebellion, a complete rejection of
what Spurgeon called the earth's rightful monarch.
Man instead cleaves to its usurper for ruling.
God also makes it a point to direct our thoughts to the futility of these
efforts, not just why are they doing it, but he wants us to think of just how futile these efforts are.
That's why he brings our attention to the vanity of their imaginations.
So why would he want us to think.
Of the futility of these efforts?
To give us hope, to give us the realization that he knows what
he's doing and they just,.
Certainly if we don't like the idea of the heathen raging and the people imagining vain things, we do
like the idea that it's gonna be futile for them to do so, right?
Exactly, right?
That God is in control, they kind of go hand in hand.
Thinking that the heathens efforts are futile, give us hope and we know
that that hope is sure because God is in control.
So we know that God is ultimately in charge of it and that's
not just to say that it will work out, it's not just to say that
he is winning because he has won.
Exactly.
When you're a Christian, you understand and believe that, it's not that we're gonna see it in every little thing,
but in the big picture.
We do know that everything works together for the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose.
So from our perspective, he is winning,
But from the author's perspective, he has won, it's done.
Again, it's just a statement of fact, right?
Like he set up in Psalm chapter one, this is just how things are.
It's not unlike him to remind us that he's in control.
He tells us in John 15 five, apart from me, you can do nothing.
If John 15 five is true, then certainly being against the Lord can result in even less than
nothing, right?
So apparently it is important at this juncture for the Lord to remind us that he is absolutely 100
in control.
It's like trying to win a game when the buzzer's already sound.
It's like trying to rewrite history, it's already done.
You can't change it.
And that's what we are to think of when we see that they are imagining vain things.
It's over, it's empty.
So let's keep going.
We've got a little bit of time left.
What time do I need to quit?
Five till, okay, so we got about 10 minutes.
Probably won't get through it all, that's okay.
Kings of the earth set themselves.
Question, who are the kings?
Yeah, and the next part says, and rulers take counsel together.
So what's the difference between the king and the ruler?
Okay, Pop says, the king would be someone who's ruler over a nation, while the
rulers may be over provinces or states.
That's one thought.
Any other thoughts about who the king is?
Who the kings are, I should say, in this scenario, and who the rulers are?
Correct, okay.
So this part of the chapter is showing us that
it's not just a single nation.
We're seeing kings, so it's gonna be multiple nations who are raging.
Right.
If you read some other translations of this, you'll see why do the
nations rage as opposed to why do the heathen rage?
But here we see kings.
And if you look up the word for kings, it means king.
It gets about as clear as it can be, right?
It's top dog of these nations.
Heathens is a better translation.
Always a case of clear parts.
I like that.
So David pointed out that -.
The best translation is the Gentiles.
Mm -hmm.
But David points out the importance of knowing that this is a better translation to say,
why did the heathen rage as opposed to why do the nations rage?
Because when you say heathen, you're a little more specific.
It's a little more accurate.
It's talking about non -Hebrew nations, the Gentiles,
those who are not God's people.
It's a little more specific.
So it says, the kings of the earth set themselves.
So these are the rulers of those nations, but they are setting themselves.
The word for set themselves is yasab.
It means to place, to set, to stand, set or station oneself,
present oneself, to take one's stand.
In other words, it's to stand ground.
You see this when you watch warfare,
when an army stands ground, they are standing ground in order to resist something, usually an
attack.
So these are the kings or the rulers of these nations, top dogs, taking a
stand.
Who are they taking a stand with?
The next part says, the rulers
take counsel together.
Now, the rulers, if you look up what that word means, the word
is razon, people who are weighty, judicious or
commanding.
So these are people of influence.
They don't, huh?
They can be judges, they can be politicians, they can be
celebrities.
They can be leaders.
Anyone who has sway over a large group of
people, anyone with a platform, it can be nowadays social
media influencers.
It can be school administrators, right?
People who have the ability to sway the opinions of other people.
So these are weighty people.
So what we're seeing is that the kings of the nations and all the weighty
people, the people of influence are unionizing.
We know that because of the next part.
It says, they take counsel together.
Those are two different words.
The first word is yasod, that's take counsel.
It means to found, fix, establish, or lay foundation.
To fix or seat themselves close together.
So they're grouping themselves.
To sit in conclave, to be founded.
The word for together is yakod, which means union,
unitedness, together, all together, all together, alike.
So we have the nations raging, the rulers of those nations taking a
stand, the influential people of those nations grouping together
and becoming united in their resistance.
Resistance to what?
But you said the word conclave there.
Ah, okay, yeah.
Because that's what they get together.
They actually call it a conclave.
Interesting, the Catholic church calls it conclave.
That is interesting.
They're the ones that choose the next code.
But I'm not positive on that.
So they've established a united front, and the word against is al,
upon the ground of, according to, on account of, on behalf of, concerning, beside, in addition to,
together with, beyond, above, over by, onto, towards, to, against, and there's
tons more.
If you go through and see where this word al is used throughout scripture, I'll give you
some examples.
In Genesis 1, verse seven, we see it used to describe
the Holy Spirit hovering above the face of the waters or the firmament.
I'm sorry, the waters are above the firmament.
You see it used to describe the Holy Spirit moving over the face of the waters.
You see it used to describe the waters above the firmament.
The word is above there.
The fowl fly above, again, that word al.
They fly above the earth in Genesis 1, 2.
When men began to multiply on the face of the earth, that's the same word.
So what you see is that this word is, it's used to describe position
on, above, over.
Cain used this same word when he was talking about his curse with
the Lord.
He says in Genesis 4, thou hast driven me out this day from, same word,
the face of the earth, and from thy face shall I be hid.
So he's showing a loss of his position.
This is very clearly a word that describes position.
Cain suggests that his position is being changed by God, but here in Psalm 2,
the nations, the kings, and the people of those nations are choosing their
position.
They are making their position known.
Now, choosing may be a bad word for it because apart from him,
we can do nothing.
We don't even have the ability to choose.
So again, it is just a fact.
It's just the way it is.
But in their minds, at least, they have made the choice to stand against,
to resist.
In their minds, it is their doing, and they are taking counsel together.
They are raging together.
They are muttering together.
Who are they muttering against?
The Lord and his anointed.
But for sake of time, because we're almost out, I think we'll save who is the Lord and who
is his anointed for next week.
That's what we'll do.
We'll look at who is the Lord and who is the anointed because we'll have to remember these words were uttered
by David, but they're quoted
in Acts 4 by the disciples when talking about someone other than David.
So it's gonna be cool, I think, to explore who the anointed are.
I wish that I had more time to get to it because it gets pretty encouraging when you look at this from
all the different points of view.
So for sake of time, we'll stop it there.
We now have the scene set.
The nations are raging, which means they're plotting.
The kings of those nations are taking a stand.
The people of those nations are muttering and unionizing,
especially the influential people, and they're doing so against, meaning they are, at least in their
own mind, setting their own position in opposition to the Lord and to his anointed.
So next week, we'll look at who the Lord is, who the anointed are, and
what does that mean?
What does the opposition mean for those anointed?
What does it mean for the people who are standing in opposition?
Anybody else wanna add anything or have any
thoughts?
Posturing, yeah?
We certainly see a lot of posturing, and you'll see a lot more of it come November.
You'll see a whole lot of the unionizing between kings of the earth
and the celebrities and the thought leaders and those who have platforms.
You'll see them unionize more and take that stance and make it more obvious to the world because
when elections are involved, they definitely try to present a very united
front.
A good thing for us to remember when thinking about these things is that it's all empty.
All their efforts are completely in vain, and that will be encouraging to us.
Any other thoughts?
I know, we don't like it.
We don't like all that raging.
Yeah, all right, well, then let's pray.
Heavenly Father, Lord, we just thank you for your word.
We thank you that we can really spend some time on even just a few words in it and
get a lot out of it, or we just ask that you help us to think about why the heathen are raging.
Help us to think about why they're imagining vain things and what our role
in this world in relation to that should be.
Help us to remember that no matter what they plot or devise, it's
completely in vain, and that you are 100 in control.
It's all been done.
It's finished.
We thank you, Father, that that is the case.
That's the fact.
And Lord, we just ask that as we continue to learn today and throughout the week that you keep our minds and
hearts towards you.
We love you.
It's in Jesus' name we ask these things.
Amen.