To Sermon Central Researchers: I have published a series of 15 sermons on the Psalms. In recent personal study, I have found the psalms to be richer and more inspiring than I had fully appreciated. Too often I had skimmed through the psalms without pausing to delve as deeply as I could into the depths of meaning and sentiment expressed by the psalmists. Upon further examination and reflection, I find the psalms to be highly relevant to Christians of all ages. My most recent foray into the psalms led me to present a series of selected psalm studies in a classroom setting.
In my classes I did not examine every psalm, or every verse that I did. Rather, I have presented selected psalms that I believe are representative of the collection in the book of Psalms. The studies were conducted in a classroom environment suitable for breaks for questions and discussion, and for posing “thinking questions” where meanings are not obvious, as is often the case in poetry. My notes include suggested points for such breaks, and I have not removed them from Sermon Central postings.
I developed the material with the idea that the series could be used well as sermons. There is an introductory sermon that describes what the psalms are (whether they are in the 150-chapter book or elsewhere) and explains my approach to the series. The psalms I selected were presented in no particular order in the classes; however, I suggest that anyone using this material as a series begin with the introductory sermon and follow it with Psalms 1 and 2 in that order, since the first two psalms function as a pair. Beyond that, the selected psalms can be presented in any order.
In order to enjoy our study as much as we could, I did part of the KJV reading, which I think is the most beautiful of all. translations of the bible in english. For clarity, we also use other versions, mainly ESV, which I have used for several years and have come to prefer.
psalm 2
Summary of Psalm 2
Me. Historically, civil governments are often more hostile than friendly to Christianity
II. Christ’s kingdom will prevail anyway (vs4-9)
III. Rulers of the earth, be warned
IV. Blessing for those who take refuge in the Son.
Read Psalm 2
This is the first of the messianic psalms.
As I said a couple of weeks ago, Psalm 2 is about the universal sovereignty of the Messiah, against which nothing can prevail.
Unlike Psalm 1, this psalm is not anonymous.
Although the author is not given in a title, it is cited in Acts 4:25-26 as coming from the “mouth of our father David…by the Holy Spirit.” More on that quote later…
The psalm is divided into four stanzas of three lines each:
In the first three, we are spectators of vividly painted scenes.
In the latter, the psalmist exhorts the rebels to be loyal.
This is a Psalm of the Messiah Prince or King.
It presents the opposition of the people against the Lord’s anointed, God’s purpose to exalt his own Son, and the final reign of that Son over all enemies.
Vs1-3 describes nations that are angry and hostile to God.
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Is what is described in this psalm a universal rule that applies to all nations?
No. I think this refers to nations openly against God, trying to destroy the kingdom of Christ.
Is it about the United States?
Potentially, but as things currently stand, I think not.
Despite some alarming trends, in my opinion, the US is a wonderful country: an exception to the norm.
Although we increasingly experience the erosion of the blessings we are accustomed to, those freedoms we are losing are outside historical norms.
But Christians should not be guided by the legality or criminality of a sinful act.
It has always been legal to sin in many ways, but for the Christian, legality is not a license. Christians are guided by a higher calling to do all that the law of man allows.
I believe this psalm is about those governments that intentionally and openly oppose the belief and practice of faith in God. of heaven and earth.
That’s my opinion.
According to figures published by Open Doors, the persecution of Christians took a massive leap last year, stating that 30 million people were added, bringing the number of Christians vulnerable to persecution to 248 million, an increase of 13.9% compared to to 2017.
It is part of the growing trend of Christian persecution seen around the world in recent years. Five years ago, Open Door only had one country on its severe persecution list and in 2018 there are 11.
According to OpenDoor:
In North Korea it is an act of treason to convert to Christianity.
Afghanistan is governed by Islamic law. It is against the law for any person to be non-Muslim.
Somalia is 99% Muslim, ruled by Islamic warlords who carry out brutal reprisals against Christians.
Libya, similar to Somalia, has descended into lawlessness with Islamic militia groups persecuting Christians at will.
Pakistan is governed by Sharia law. Christians and other non-Muslims are on death row, facing blasphemy charges.
Sudan is an Islamic state where Christians have been arrested and many churches have been destroyed.
Yemen has been in a civil war for several years and radical Islamic groups may take advantage of the situation and attack Christians. These radical groups control the humanitarian aid that reaches Yemen and often refuse to deliver it to the Christians.
Iran’s Islamic government sees Christianity as an attempt by the West to undermine its authority. Christian leaders are often sentenced to long prison terms after being charged with “crimes against national security.” It is illegal for any Muslim in the country to convert to Christianity.
In 2018, India joined the list of the top ten most dangerous countries for Christians for the first time.
China jumped from 43rd in 2017 to 27th in 2018 as the Chinese government led by Xi Jingping reverted to godless communism, and the Chinese government closed several large churches. Christians in China say this is the worst persecution they have experienced since 1976, when Mao’s cultural revolution resulted in the deaths of nearly 70 million people.
When the psalms were written, and for many years afterward, it was other nations that raged against the Lord’s anointed over the earthly kingdom of Israel – Philistia, Amalek… look at the oracles against these nations and cities beginning in Isaiah 13, going through many chapters …Babylon, Moab, Damascus, Cush, Egypt, Assyria, Tyre, Sidon…
…and Jerusalem (we see how that oracle was fulfilled).
Notice the New Testament application of this psalm. Lucas wrote:
Acts 4:27-28 For truly in this city Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. , to do everything that your hand and your plan had predestined to happen.
Herod and Pilate were not Jews, although Herod claimed to be of the Hebrew faith.
The Jewish rulers had become as if from the same bolt of cloth as the pagans by opposing the true Messiah.
Christians here and everywhere are right to oppose any government that restricts the right to obey God’s commandments.
Until now, we in the United States live in the nation that is as harmonious with the practice of our faith as any on earth or that ever was.
We live in a more protected condition than the saints who today suffer greatly for their faith.
But their condition is the norm, not ours.
Someone may say: “What about abortion? Drug legalization? Decriminalization of theft up to a certain threshold in dollars? All misdirected to my way of thinking.
Let there be no mistake. I am fiercely and irreversibly against abortion.
I wish it wasn’t legal.
But in all nations, Christians are free to sin.
We cannot depend on the governments of the world, including the US, to keep us from sinning by turning sins into crimes.
Christianity was born in a world where abortion was legal and widely practiced, probably at least as much as it is. in the United States today.
In that world, Christianity grew and flourished.
The choice to avoid sin must be made in the presence of the freedom and capacity to sin; otherwise, the only choice a Christian would have to make would be to live within the limits of man’s law.
Unlike people who live in the nations described in Psalm 2, we in the US have the blessed privilege of affecting what our government does.
I see some encouraging signs.
But even as I say that, I hasten to say that v3 shows that getting rid of restraints, bonds, chains of God’s laws is the fundamental answer to the psalmist’s question in v1.
Why did they unite against the Lord’s Anointed?
What was your objection to him?
v3 shows the real reason for sinners’ opposition to the truth of Christ, namely, their hatred of bondage (ties or cords of godliness).
Ps 2:3 “Let us break their bands and cast their ropes from us.”
The worldlings who rule want to rule absolutely. They don’t want limits on what they can do.
They love to abide by no law but their own.
They slander the laws of the kingdom of Christ as bonds and ropes or thick ropes, which they perceive as signs of slavery.
But what does a true understanding of the kingdom reveal?
My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
For a regenerate person, the law of liberty is not a burden but the lifting of burdens!
The law of Christ is to a Christian as wings are to a bird.
Compare the aversion of these nations to what they think are bonds and ropes with the blessed man of Psalm 1:
…his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
(Remember that in the Jewish language “law” was several things, perhaps most notably the Torah, which is the first 5 books in our bibles… that is, most of what then existed of writing.)
…and compare this (Psalm 2) with the effect of the blessed man’s perspective on the law in Psalm 1:
He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which bears its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not fall. In everything he does, he prospers.
In Psalm 2 the psalmist says -and history proves it- that “the people plot in vain”.
A medal was struck by Diocletian, one of the emperors of Rome, bearing the inscription,
The name of the Christians is extinguished.
In Spain two pillars were erected, on which was written:
“Diocletian Jovian Maximian Hercules Caesar Augustus, for having…