A SIGNIFICANT PSALM
Poul Madsen
PSALM TWO is much quoted in the New Testament, which is reason enough for us to examine it carefully. We shall find that it is extremely relevant for our own days. It consists of four stanzas, each of three verses, as follows:
Stanza 1
"Why do the nations rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The 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." Psalm 2:1-3.
In this way the psalmist describes the basic attitude of the earth's rulers. They regard God's law as an insufferable yoke; His will as constricting bonds. So it has been ever since the fall of man. This is the spirit of Babel. Since the fall, man has wanted to be 'free' in his own, that is to say, rebellious way. What mankind really wants is to be free from God. He finds the will of God obnoxious, since he regards it as a limitation of his own capacity for development. So the highest good (the good, acceptable and perfect will of God) is made an object of scorn and hatred.
This will culminate in the end-time, which is presumably our time. Under the leadership of [64/65] Antichrist and governed by an antichristian spirit, the world's leaders will decide to dethrone God. This is already clearly to be seen. The spirit of antichrist permeates society. The generation which has grown up since the war is more antichristian in spirit than probably any previous generation in human history. Such an atmosphere will inevitably produce the personal Antichrist, and will hail him as its saviour. The characteristic of our day is opposition to authority. People will not be submissive to anyone or anything, but always demand to be 'free'. They do not understand that this freedom amounts to nothing less than slavery to Satan, for man is only free when he accepts God as his Lord and subjects himself to God's order and the authorities which are a part of His order. That is why God's Word says: "Fear the Lord and the king, my son; join not with people who are rebellious" (Proverbs 24:21).
When the rulers and kings of the earth join together in plans to do away with God it can look very threatening, but we shall see in the next verses that God is far from being disturbed about it all.
Stanza 2
"He that sitteth in the heavens 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 I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. " Psalm 2:4-6.
When the mighty ones of the earth gather together in rebellion against God, they do not embarrass Him in the least. He is not disturbed, let alone anxious. Their actions do not force Him to any kind of action, which is proof that He does not feel Himself to be in a threatening situation. For Him the great ones of the earth are like a drop in a bucket or a speck on the scales, they are so tiny. One might truly say that the mighty ones of the earth are really without might. They do not know this themselves and it does not always look like it to others here on earth, but this is the divine fact. Before God they are nothing, and so they can never put God into a quandary or force Him to take emergency action. He knows their thoughts afar off. Before words come to their lips He knows what they are going to say; He besets them before and behind; they are dependent upon Him for every moment they breathe and every step they take, even though they do not know or recognise this fact.
That is why God laughs at them. This laughter does not involve anything unholy, for God is not malicious or spiteful. No, He laughs with a holy laughter. The meaning of this is revealed in Acts 4, where this psalm is quoted as the basis for, and indeed the content of, the prayer which the church prayed with Peter and John after they had been released from prison under threats for the future. After having quoted the psalm in a united appeal to God, they went on to say: "For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done." The italicised words explain God's laughter in its holy humour -- a laughter which the praying church shared with Him. When all the enemies of Jesus joined together to cast off the Lord's yoke and to bring God's Christ to the cross, what did they actually accomplish? Neither more nor less than the purpose already formed by God. Having done their worst they were seen only to have performed the will of God. No wonder God had a good laugh, and no wonder that those early disciples shared His liberating humour.
It looked like a crushing defeat for God's Anointed, yet it became His final triumph. The mighty ones of the earth could do no more: they had to run God's messages for Him when they were doing their utmost to fight against Him. This shows their helplessness, although it does not free them from guilt. Behind them, of course, stood Satan and his army of fallen angels and demons. They also could not withstand the will of God. They neither understood the wisdom of God nor did they realise that their greatest apparent triumph would turn out to be their final and utter defeat. God's laughter and derision spring from the fact that He is sovereign. No one is equal to Him and therefore He has no real opponents. To take up arms against Him is to be doomed to failure from the first. The result of any such fight is certain, so that one cannot really speak of a battle between God and His enemies. For this very reason He often does not intervene and prevent evil. He did not intervene on behalf of His Son. He allowed men to accomplish their evil purpose [65/66] against Christ, but He did so because this was the method which He Himself had planned for the redemption of the world. Because we do not always understand this, we plead for God to intervene. We try to tell Him that He ought to do so, but happily He pays no heed to our advice. Peter was aghast at the idea of Jesus being crucified, for such an idea was contrary to all his ideas about God and the ways of God. How wrong he was! God's laughter is an expression of His undisturbed tranquillity. He never panics, and if we truly believe in Him neither should we panic or give way to anxiety.
God contents Himself with just speaking to His enemies. He knows that a word from Him, spoken in displeasure and wrath, is enough to strike terror to their hearts. They realise that they are not so great as they imagined themselves to be when once He speaks to them in anger . As His laughter and derision are holy, so also are His wrath and displeasure. They are two sides of the same holiness. His laughter and derision show a holy scorn of their presumptuous pride in thinking that they can thwart the purposes of almighty God. This pride is their basic sin, and that is why He is angry with them. He laughs at their folly: He is righteously angry at their pride.
"I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion!" This is all that God says, and all that He needs to say. This fact is their undoing. God has His king. This is the one whom the kings and rulers of this world despise and hate, and for this reason God is angry with them even while He laughs at their puny futility. That the king has been set on God's holy hill of Zion is capable of several interpretations, as is often the case with the Word of God. Historically the statement applies to the future when our Saviour will visibly return and be invested as king over all the earth, but spiritually it has already happened. In His ascension our Lord sat down at the right hand of the Father and was given all power in heaven and on earth. It is to this fact which God refers in His stern condemnation. To ignore this fact is the height of foolish stupidity and sinful pride. All the antichristian clamour will never alter this fact. God has already invested His king: the rebels will one day lie as the footstool of His feet.
Stanza 3
"I will tell of the decree: The Lord said unto me, Thou art my son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations 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." Psalm 2:7-9.
Now God's king speaks for Himself. He is not disturbed or panicky either. He contents Himself with quoting the Father's word to Him. That is quite sufficient. It ought always to be enough for us too. We must place all our confidence in the Father's decree, even when the enemies rage the most. These enemies can no more shake God's promises than they can shake God Himself. They are powerless before God and His Word. This follows that they must be powerless before everyone who believes in God and holds on to His Word. The words which God's king quotes are God's call to Him personally. Through this psalm we are allowed to overhear what God has said to His Son. What a privilege, not only to know God's word to us men but to know His word to His Son. This is beyond our understanding. No wonder that the saints have meditated over these words for they must of necessity be of very great importance. What did God mean when He said: "Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee"? According to Paul the words speak of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead (Acts 13:32-33). The apostle told the men who listened to him in the synagogue at Antioch that by means of Psalm 2, many centuries before it happened, the Lord had said that Jesus would rise from the dead. His resurrection was then a divine decree: it happened according to the Scriptures. This was the tenor of the New Testament creed:
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
He was buried.
He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
(1 Corinthians 15:1-4)
Tremendous emphasis was placed upon the fact that our Saviour's death for our sins and His resurrection were in full accord with the Scriptures, that is, in agreement with God's decree which for us is timeless because it was issued before the foundation of the world. The Son of God meets His enemies with this eternal [66/67] decree, and what can these pygmies do in the face of that? They cannot do other than act within the framework of this decree: it is quite beyond them to break or hinder its fulfilment. In any case, the decree has now been realised, Jesus has risen from the dead. What can Antichrist and all his followers say to that? There is not the slightest possibility that they can ever throw off His lordship.
But in His decree to His Son, God included an exhortation to the Son to ask for lordship over the whole earth: "Ask of me, and I shall give thee ...". The Son now quotes this as an answer to the raging of His enemies, and in doing so makes it plain that He intends to make use of His God-given right to rule with a rod of iron. Nobody can prevent this, least of all those who are part of His creation. The saints have naturally meditated often on this part of God's decree to His Son. The question is, What does God mean by it? Perhaps we can best obtain some light on this by considering Paul's words in the synagogue at Antioch when he states that God had fulfilled His promise given to the fathers by raising Jesus from the dead, according to the second psalm. By the resurrection of Jesus, then, there was a fulfilment both of God's decree to the Son and His promise to the fathers. This promise to the fathers was that a Saviour should arise for them (Acts 13:23).
So God has promised something to the Son and has also promised something to us. Both promises are fulfilled by the resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead. By that resurrection we have been justified. We can stand before God even as the Son stands. We have received all that the Son has won. It follows that when God promised the uttermost parts of the earth to His Son, He also included us in the promise. This great truth dawned on the apostle John who wrote about it in the book of the Revelation. There he speaks of "a man child who is to rule all the nations ..." (Revelation 12:5). We may feel that these words apply to our Lord and Saviour, the Son of God, but it was He who said: "He that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him I will give power over the nations: and he shall rule them ... even as I received of my Father" (Revelation 2:26-28). These words of His were directed to born-again Christians, and they make it clear that to them is offered an honour corresponding to that given to the Son, namely to rule over the nations. All this is contained in Psalm Two. It gives God's decree to the Son. This is also God's decree to us. This decree is highly relevant today, and will remain so even though Satan rages and even when he is allowed to send his Antichrist. With this decree we can conquer everything. We need nothing more. It is more than sufficient. It is God's eternal promise to the Son, and so is made valid for us who belong to the Son. What grace! What an honour!
Stanza 4
"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 ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him." Psalm 2:10-12.
Now the logical conclusion of what has gone before is made quite clear. As it has already been confirmed that no earthly opponent has the shadow of a chance against God, it is manifestly best to refrain from every thought of rebellion. The only logical behaviour of anyone who has rebellious thoughts is rather to tremble before his God and Creator and to cast himself in the dust before Him so as to escape His wrath. This is the advice which the psalmist, David, gives, when he says: 'Be wise; be instructed'. We ought to take great note of this biblical definition of wisdom which suggests that it consists first in being ready to seek and heed instruction as one who has the self-knowledge and humility to admit his lack of wisdom. In short, David advises men to fear God. Lack of the fear of God is the mark of all foolishness, since the fear of the Lord is, so we are told, the beginning of wisdom. It is the lack of a fear of God which characterises our day and therefore the race as a whole is devoid of wisdom. And so it is that foolishness grows and spreads, even gaining an entrance into the churches. The day of reckoning will be dreadful. Soon the Son's anger will express itself and consume the proud. The great Day of the Lord is surely near.
The call comes even to us, who should fear God, serve Him with fear and rejoice before Him with trembling. If we can only get a true conception of the nature and majesty of our holy God we shall cast ourselves down on our faces before Him. If the real seriousness of the issues of our day dawns upon us, we will want to re-examine our life and all our activities in the light of the coming again of Christ. [67/68]
Conclusion
There is nothing in the Scriptures nor in experience to indicate that the world's political leaders will take the proffered advice, but rather an indication that they will continue in stubbornness and rebellion until the culmination of the history of fallen man under Antichrist. The time for the appearance of this ominous figure does not seem likely to be far distant. Shall we then just stand back and leave men to their fate? No, that would be to misunderstand God and His Word. 1 Timothy 2:1-4 continues to apply right up to the end. Christians must never become fatalists, those who stand apart and leave people to their fate. God does not desire the death of any sinner, but only wants men to repent and find salvation in His Son. The power of the Word of God and the effective working of the intercessions of the saints must continue to control the situation. Perhaps there is a Joseph or a Daniel among the kings and judges of the earth. Perhaps there is one who, like the king of Nineveh, will repent even at a late hour and call for a humbling before the terror of a holy God. Perhaps there is a Nicodemus or a Joseph of Arimathea among the great ones of the earth. Abraham held on in prayer for Sodom and Gomorrah. We ought also to hold on in the long suffering and love of the Spirit, not imagining that we ourselves are guiltless. David's advice to the judges and kings of the earth is what we ourselves preach, and therefore what we should practise in every detail. We conclude, therefore, with one last consideration of this advice.
(1) "Be wise ... be instructed" (verse 10). This is said to the kings and judges of the earth, that is to its leaders. Let each one of us who has any position of leadership in the churches take this to heart. Let us be the first to set an example of being willing to listen to advice and instruction, whether it comes direct from God or from other believers. We can so easily grow too sure of ourselves and fall into the folly of no longer being willing to learn.
(2) "Serve the Lord with fear" (verse 11). This does not mean a paralysing fear which expresses and communicates discouragement and unbelief, but a healthy fear of failing God, a fear which causes us to do our utmost, like Paul who explained that it was because he knew the terror of the Lord that he persuaded men.
(3) "Rejoice with trembling" (verse 11). Both by its nature and in its expression, joy in God is different from the joy of the world. It carries a certain stamp of holiness which means that it is not superficial, exaggerated and uncontrolled, but sensitive and humble, so that it is worthy of God.
(4) "Kiss the Son" (verse 12). This translation is doubtful, but if it is right it implies the humbling of oneself in the dust as a conquered enemy might fall down before his victorious master and kiss his feet in slavish subjection. Well, the Lord's true servants often rejoice in being able to call themselves His slaves. Another translation, however, renders it: 'Embrace obedience'. The thought is not really so different from what we have already said. Let the man who has until now been disobedient take hold of obedience and embrace it as his greatest treasure.
In order that these four exhortations may lead to lasting good which is valid in times of trial as well as in daily living, the psalm closes with a beatitude of purely evangelical tone and content: "Blessed are all they that put their trust in him". The thought here implicit is that of seeking cover or shelter with Him, as Ruth did with Boaz (Ruth 2:12). It means that we come to Him in all our helplessness and littleness to hide under His shadow. Then when His wrath arises, we have Him as our shelter and protection. And so we, who are nothing in ourselves but are wholly His, shall appear together with Him and reign with Him in His new kingdom. Then we shall be truly blessed, for we are nothing and He is everything.
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