here is the audio of this sermon from Hope Central September 21st part 1 and part 2
I’ve never
experienced a coronation. Queen Elizabeth 2 came to the throne in 1953. I know
some of you here will remember it, you may have seen it on the news reel or listened
on the radio. But it was the year my parent’s got married and I wasn’t born
till a decade later. 
I do have
this vivid almost surreal recollection of seeing the investiture of Charles as
the Prince of Wales in 1969. It would have been the first thing I would ever
have seen on TV. I was five and we must have gone to some ones place to watch, because
we didn’t get TV till 1972, for the Munich Olympics.
I think my
children will see at least two coronations in their lives, and I think that
they just maybe times for the nations in the commonwealth and for our own
nation of some upheaval, and change. It will seem the natural time to have the
debate over whether to sever the ties with the monarch and become a republic or
stay in the commonwealth. I fear it could be our messy Brexit like moment.
That gives
us a glimpse into the background to Psalm 2, a royal Psalm which scholars see
as being part of, or at least drawing some of its words and images from the coronation of a Davidic king, among the
nations that may have been subject to Israel thinking this was their time to
break free and be independent. It speaks
of the true king in heaven, the LORD, appointing his chosen king, as his son,
on the throne. It contains the words of that king acknowledging God’s true
sovereignty. It finishes with a warning to the nations to accept God’s chosen
king and a beatitude: a declaration of blessing for those who find their refuge
in him’.
By the time the psalms were compiled, it would
have taken on a very different meaning. With the destruction of Jerusalem and
the exile into Babylon in 532 BC, the affirmation that the LORD was king would
have spoken to the nations who thought they themselves had ultimate power, and
it encapsulates the hope that Israel had of God’s sovereignty and God’s
messiah, a king like David coming to set things right again… to rule over the
nations of the world. A hope and a promise that
Christians from an early time, by the fact it is quoted in a prayer in Acts
4 and the reading from Acts 13 we had today, saw fufilled in the person of
Jesus Christ. A hope that we too have amidst the seemingly chaotic churn and
blur of history, a hope that looks forward to a future fulfillment…as it says in
Revelation 11:15.A time when ”The kingdoms of this world have become the
kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah and he shall reign for ever and ever”. A
hope that we can find refuge in until that consummation.
We are
working our way through a series called “psalms in the key of life: Songs of
hope amidst real life”, looking at selected psalms. Psalms that speak of trust in,
and reliance on God amidst the ups and downs, the joys and sorrows, deep dark valleys
and high mountain tops of life. That lead us in giving thanks to God for his constant love and
faithfulness. That proclaim our hope is in him. Last week we looked at Psalm 1,
which speaks of how an individual can be blessed by mediating on the psalms, on
all of God’s word. A Psalm that is seen along with Psalm 2 as the introduction to
the whole collection. Today we are looking at the second part of that
introduction that takes that individual blessing and looks at it on the larger
scale of what happens nationally and internationally. The two are held together
by starting and finishing with a beatitude of how one can find blessing, as an
individual by hearing and putting into practice the word of God and in the
midst of what happens around us by putting our trust in the sovereign God and
his Chosen king and son. So the psalms speak to us individually and corporately
as God’s people, to find our blessing and hope in the LORD.
Verse 1-3
speak of the nation’s conspiring together to throw off the rule and reign of
God. We are used to seeing international summit’s where national leaders gather
together to deal with this issue or that crisis, and that is what is envisaged
here. The nations are plotting and planning to walk away from God. It’s a
parallel on an international level of the wicked and sinners and mockers in
Psalm 1 who chose to walk away from God and his word as the wisdom they need to
sustain them for life. Commenting on this Psalm, Gerald Wilson says ‘In an age
that glorifies independence and freedom we often find ourselves on the side of
the nations…Our society would have us believe that true happiness comes through
personal freedom” we think of God’s rule as heavy shackles and fetters that
stop us from becoming what we want to be… However when we come to realize as it says in Romans
8:15 that it is not slavery but adoption as God’s children, it is loving family
ties not imposed oppression then we find real freedom in Christ. Gerald uses
the illustration of marriage, which some call ‘the ball and chain’ and others
realize is the liberation of a faithful loving relationship.
In verse
4-6, God responds to the nations rage. It is a declaration of God’s
sovereignty. We see God laughing, the combined power of the nations is comic
and laughable compared to the true power of God, who created the whole universe.
At the time of King Solomon, when Israel was at the height of its powers, this
may have been backed up with military prowess, but it still rings true even
when Israel found itself subjugated to the empires that rose and fell
throughout history. AS it is still today God is the one who rules and reigns in
history and nations and empires rise and fall at his command and rebuke. Kings
and leaders, law makers and governments need to remember they will be called to
account by a higher authority.
But that
sovereignty is also seen in God’s moving in history. His rule and reign was to
be reflected in the king of Israel, the Davidic kings, and Israel’s mission was
to show the justice and goodness of God to the nations. It was God’s purpose in
sending Jesus Christ, to see his kingdom established on earth, it is what God
is doing through his people, the church, now as we pray ‘thy kingdom come’ and
as we meditate on God’s word, live it out and see it impact and transform the
world around us. It is God’s sovereign purpose that people will know the
justice and peace of God in this world.
Amidst the swirl and seeming chaos of history we know that God is
working out his purposes and plans.
Then in
verses 6-9, God’s chosen king, the anointed one steps into the scene. The
Davidic king or the messianic figure declares, not their own right to rule, but
because of their relationship with God, that they will rule.
It’s quite
a significant passage because for the only time in the psalms do we get the
idea of the anointed one, God’s chosen King being associated with
son-ship. In ancient times Sonship meant
not only being adopted by a father into a family, but also the responsibility
to reflect the values and traits of the one who adopts them. The Davidic kings
were to rule in a way that reflected God’s justice and mercy, as a way of
showing the world and calling the nations to come and worship the LORD. But
they are words that point us to Jesus Christ as God’s only begotten son, the
one in whom John’s gospel tells us ‘ no one has seen God, but the one and only
son, who is himself God and is in close relationship with God has made him
known”. God’s kingdom has been
inaugurated, or begun, by the coming of Jesus Christ, and we are to be
ambassadors of that rule in how we live and as a church so that people will see
the goodness of God and come to worship and serve him, your will be done on
earth as it is in heaven…
v10-12
serve as a warning and a call to the nations to serve the Lord. To be wise and
see the rule and reign of God and his messiah as a positive, the same way as
the Individual in psalm 1 sees the word of God as a reliable life giving water
source. The same warning and blessing is in this psalm as in psalm 1 that the
way leading away from God leads to disaster and destruction, but leaning into
kiss the king and finding our refuge or putting our trust in God is the way to
know blessings.
The picture
of kissing the son, is like nobles and kings coming to acknowledge a new king. To
kiss his feet was a way to acknowledge his power over them. To lean forward and
kiss is also the root of the word in psalms we have for worship. In Matthew’s
narrative of Jesus birth we see the wise men from the east doing just this, it
is a foreshadow of the gentile nations coming to a saving knowledge of and
worshiping Jesus Christ as Lord and king.
How does
this psalm then speak to us, as God’s people today.
Psalm 2
serves as an introduction to the Psalms, the two Psalms together remind of that
God speaks and acts and blesses both the individual and us corporately as God’s
people. It speaks to us as Christians from beyond the cross and resurrection of
Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of God’s word and the focal point of God’s
moving and acting in human history. The psalms are like those road signs on the
way north counting down the km till you get to Whangarei, as we read and
meditate on the psalms they are a sign post that point us to Jesus Christ… That
source of living water, God’s chosen King (messiah) and son.
The Psalm
also reminds us of the sovereignty of God. It is easy to get concerned and
confused and worried by all we see around us, nations heading in different
directions, the movement of our western society away from its biblical basis,
its Judeo-Christian foundations, and feel a growing anti-Christian
sentiment, but the reality from Psalm 2
is that God is in control, and sovereign. In Acts 4 the disciples face
persecution and opposition for the first time from the religious authorities in
Jerusalem and they respond in prayer, quoting Psalm 2 acknowledging the nations
will rage and revolt against God’s rule, but also acknowledging that they serve
God’s messiah Jesus Christ, and it tells us the place where they met shock and they
were filled afresh by God’s Holy Spirit, his assuring presence and power. The
same presence and power we know in our lives as well.
The psalm
speaks to us of God’s missional nature. God’s desire to see all nations come
and know his merciful rule and reign, to acknowledge his Son Jesus Christ as
LORD. We saw that in our reading from Acts 13 where Paul quotes this psalm to
call people to faith in Jesus Christ. It under girds for us Jesus call and
commission on the church… All authority in heaven and earth is given to me,
therefore go and make disciples in every nation, baptizing them and teaching
them to obey all I have commanded you…
It also
calls us to live with a different loyalty and priority because of God’s
sovereignty. For the early Christians to affirm that Jesus was Lord and to
declare his good news was a very political statement, it said that things
should be Done Jesus way, god’s way, in the face of a society that was
declaring ‘Caesar is Lord, and proclaiming the benefits of the good news of
that, in roman law and culture. It is still a very political statement for us
today… Shane Clairborne, who started the community ‘the simple way’ in
Philadelphia's poorest neighborhood, has
written a book called “Jesus for President”. It is Claiborne declaring like Psalm 2 does that the kingdom
of God is not to be confused with the western dream and consumer society, but
is a call to live a radically different life. One which has lead him to be
imprisoned for feeding homeless, standing on the stairs of the supreme court to
oppose the death penalty and more recently a tour of the country with an anvil,
beating hand guns and other weapons into garden implements. Living counter
culturally, living with Jesus setting the agenda.
Finally,
like the nations and kings we too are to find our refuge and shelter in serving
and worshiping God’s chosen king, Jesus Christ. That refuge is not an escape
from the world, but rather a call to radical involvement trusting that God has
us and is with us in all of life’s circumstances, as we will see as we look
through the psalms. It is a call in the words of Jesus to put first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness, to kiss the son… Jesus who has been coronation
was the cross, whose kingdom has broken into the realms of humanity with his
resurrection, and who will come again to set all things right.
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