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Psalm 2 the Lord's Reign Ruins the Rebellious and Rescues the Faithful

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Psalm 2 the Lord's Reign Ruins the Rebellious and Rescues the Faithful Psalm 2 The Lord’s Reign ruins the rebellious and rescues the faithful Nov. 15, 2015 I like sitting in my front yard or resting on my front porch when I have a porch of any size. When I don’t, the yard does just fine. Right before we moved to Bloomfield a few weeks ago, in the fading sunlight of a fall afternoon, the rumble of a Harley Davidson V-Twin eased to a stop right in front of me. So here I am, enjoying the last hours of a pleasant afternoon at our Windsor apartment. Next thing I know, the biker asks, above the Harley's rumble, “Is there a liquor store around here?” I point down the street, to the east at a little strip mall. “Yeah, there's one in that strip mall, just past the Italian restaurant.” He said, “I just go past that green awning and it's right there?” “Yeah,” I said. “It's right there.” At that point, I noticed a cross on his bandanna. The bandanna was folded just so, and positioned on the man's head just right. The cross was clearly seen, burnt orange on a black background. So I asked him, “Are you a Christian?” “No,” he said. “Oh, OK, I saw the cross on your bandanna but, no offense, I didn't think you were.” To which he said, “Well, I'm a Christian, I'm just not practicing.” stand up When Andre started this sermon series in September, he made this statement early in his first sermon: “The question is not, ‘Are you pursuing a kingdom? But whose kingdom are you pursuing?’” I think the stranger looking for a liquor store thought he could pay lip service to one thing and practice another. Separating identity from actions, belief from behavior, won’t get you far. As some of us Southerners say, “That dog won’t hunt.” Psalm 2 and other Scriptures make clear: The Lord reigns; we respond with either reverent submission or rebellious futility. As we continue looking at what the kingdom of heaven is like, we’re leaving the book of Matthew this week. We’re considering a word from the Psalms. We’re looking at Psalm 2. So pull up Psalm 2 on your phone or if you’re using a Bible beside your chair, turn to page 374. Let’s clear out some cobwebs: Psalm 2 is not to be understood woodenly as a theological treatise, a systematic theology of simple principles we can neatly work through, wrap up and go home. This sermon is not: “Point no. 1 pause: God has enemies. Point no. 2 read a little faster: God laughs in their faces. Point no. 3 read a little faster: God reigns with everlasting, global authority. Which leads me to point no. 4: Duh? Get on God’s good side.” gesture and smile mockingly I want to clear out another cobweb: How do you perceive the question of verse one? Read it with me: “Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing?” What is the tone of this verse? Is God mocking people? Or is He mourning them? That’s a key question you need to answer right now because it’s the first verse. If you think God is mocking them, sneering at people in their futile resistance, that colors everything He’s about to say to you this morning. Likewise, if you think God is mourning their decision, grieved by their rejection of His loving power, you’ll see everything I’m about to say differently. I’ll come back to this but think on that. What are the Psalms anyway? Are they ancient worship songs or some sort of teaching since we don’t have the music. The answer comes from Psalm 1 and Psalm 2: Each was used theologically and thematically to set the tone for the rest of the Psalter: The purpose of the book of Psalms, according to 1:1, is in a word, instruction; it’s teaching you how to walk into God’s blessing on your life. Psalm 1 says those who listen to God’s teaching are blessed. Mark Futato 60, 62 For the sake of understanding Psalm 2, note Psalm 1 begins with a blessing for obedient living and ends with a curse. But Psalm 2 begins with a curse for rebellious people and ends with a blessing for those who take refuge in the Lord. The word ‘Blessed’ in chapter one, verse 1 and chapter 2 verse 12 form an inclusion; they bookend the whole message of Psalm 1 and Psalm 2. If the Psalms’ purpose, revealed in Psalm 1, is instruction for blessed living, the Psalms’ promise, revealed in Psalm 2, is that “The Lord Reigns.” So, fine, the purpose of the psalms is to instruct all people in how to live a blessed life of holiness and happiness. But, you say, life’s not exactly that great. After all, Jesus’ sermon, which Andre has been preaching to us for the last several weeks, is full of divorce, murder, anger, lust and adultery. If you read the whole Psalter, you’ll see an unsettling trend: Psalm 3 starts out with bad news. Psalm 4? More bad news. Psalm 5? Bad news. Psalm 6? Anguish of the soul. Psalm 7? No one to rescue me. Psalm 10? Times of trouble. Psalm 11? Foundations are being destroyed. Psalm 12? The godly are no more. Psalm 13? How long will my enemy triumph over me? I think you see the point. What happened to “How blessed is the man who does not walk” in Psalm 1? Or “How blessed is the one who takes refuge in God” from Psalm 2? A great number of people on the earth, then and now, like God until He asserts His authority. Look at verses 1-3. When His influence affects someone’s autonomy, Psalm 2 is saying there are many people who begin to resist Him at that point. I think, although I’m not sure, there was some of that resistance in the conversation I had in my front yard. Whatever the case with that particular man, the pain and groaning so often expressed in the Psalms, all that grief I referred to before in Psalm 3 and 4 and 5 and so on comes from this rebellion. People don’t want God’s authority so they assert their autonomy. No one can separate themselves from God’s influence and direction without living a life that wounds them and other people. It happened with Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, David and Bathsheba and both their families and on and on. People want to rule themselves; the first sin of Adam and Eve has calcified into an irresistible distortion, a belligerent core of their identity. That’s why Christ answered the way he did in Matthew 22 as to what the greatest commandment is. Loving God supremely and loving everyone like we love ourselves crucifies this self-centered autonomy. After the rebellious autonomy of God’s enemies, what does Psalm 2 speak to us? Simply put, the anger of God. Now that’s awkward. Some of you came here wanting to know what the kingdom of heaven is like. Rebellious, selfish people you’re probably not surprised to discover, even when it’s you. But an angry God who laughs in their faces, who scoffs at these people, who terrifies them in His fury? What do you with this? This is no Jesus meek and mild. My high school church where I learned to follow Christ sometimes sang the hymn ‘In the Garden.’ “And he walks with me, and he talks with me, and he tells me I’m his own. And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.” I don’t doubt the message of that hymn. Christ is a friend to sinners who blesses his intimate companions with rich knowledge of Himself. But this God who rages and terrifies his unruly, disrespectful people? That’s like the Ballad of the Goodly Fere by Ezra Pound. Fere is an English word 10 centuries old. It means strong friend or mate as Australians say it. So don’t think fear, think friend) Written of Christ, Pound envisions Christ this way: (this is a selection of verses, not the whole poem) Aye lover he was of brawny men, O’ ships and the open sea. When they came with a host to take Our Man His smile was good to see, I ha’ seen him drive a hundred men Wi’ a bundle o’ cords swung free, A son of God was the Goodly Fere That bade us his brothers be. I have seen him cow a thousand men. I have seen him upon the tree. A master of men was the Goodly Fere, A mate of the wind and sea, If they think they ha’ slain our Goodly Fere They are fools eternally. What do I do with the anger of God? Is He mocking the rebellious? Or is He mourning their response to His authority? I think it’s the latter. Despite the clear power of Christ, I think God’s anger comes from pain at people’s rejection of Him. Gary and Carrie Oliver, both Christian counselors, teach that “Anger is a secondary emotion … usually experienced in response to a primary emotion such as hurt, frustration, and fear. Anger can be an almost automatic response to any kind of pain … Anger is usually the first emotion we see … it is rarely the only one we have experienced.
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