God Our Rescuer - God Our King Series

Our world today is moving faster and faster away from faith in God. In fact, the very existence of God is regularly called into question. In every part of our culture you are marked as narrow-minded, ignorant, uncool, hateful, bigoted, and foolish for trusting in Jesus Christ as your Savior. It’s nothing new, of course. Ever since the rebellion in the Garden of Eden, mankind has been in rebellion against God and His rule.

Psalm 2 is a royal Psalm that Peter and John ascribe to David (Acts 4:25). It looks forward to a day when God’s rule once again fully and visibly extends to planet Earth with the coronation of Jesus Christ.

It is also a Messianic Psalm as it talks about God’s Anointed One, the Messiah. It also shows us individually the folly of going our own way and realizing that this is the default behavior of the human heart, something we’ve got to fight constantly.

1

The question is rhetorical. In light of God’s sovereignty it is surprising that anyone would rebel against His authority, yet they do—why? Because the spirit of rebellion was planted in the human heart by Lucifer who wanted to be greater than God.

Isaiah 14:12-15 "How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! 13 For you have said in your heart:

'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.' 15 Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit.” NKJV

People plan on how they can do their own thing without God in the picture, but it is in vain because God is in ultimate control and will return to assert that control in a very real way.

2 - 3

Verse 2 is a parallel to verse one but provides a little more detail—the rebellion of verse 1 is “taking their stand.” It’s like that old saying “drawing a line in the sand.” This age, with more and more pride, declares that “we don’t need God.” The “plotting” of verse 1 becomes “conspiring together against the Lord.” As we see this age grow closer to the end times we will see this type of conspiring not only of individuals and individual nations, but of nations collaborating together against God. See Revelation 17, and 11:7-10 (the two witnesses).

But notice that it isn’t now just a rebellion against Yahweh but against “His Anointed One.” This is the Hebrew word mashiyach from which we get the word Messiah. Here, the Messiah is God’s chosen King. In the end, all rebellion against God is going to be rebellion against Jesus Christ (Christ is from the Greek christos which also means “anointed one”).

People who are in rebellion against Jesus see a relationship with Him as restraining and “chains.” The reason is that this rebellion we hold onto makes us think that we are “free” but in reality we simply become slaves to Lucifer.

Romans 6:16-17 Do you not know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey—either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness?

That’s one of the biggest follies of our age, thinking that belonging to God is somehow restraining – what it is really is getting rid of the stuff that is like Satan—who fools us into thinking that acting outside of God’s character is good and that acting like God is bad. He has the wool pulled over our eyes (as a wolf in sheep’s clothing).

4 – 6

Here’s how God reacts to the puny efforts of man—He laughs! It’s a laugh of derision and contempt. That laughter turns to ridicule and finally anger. Why anger? Because mankind has always been in rebellion against God’s rule—from the Garden of Eden to the Tower of Babel and on to today. It’s anger that the rebellion of man leads ultimately to death and destruction. But God has other plans for Planet Earth, and that is for Jesus to rule the universe.

So He says “I have consecrated” or set-aside “My King” which is Jesus. So now the voice shifts to the King Himself.

7 – 9

This is the Father declaring to the Son what He will do. The idea of “today I have become Your Father” points to the incarnation of Jesus as a human and to His resurrection.

Jesus’ rule is far reaching, and His authority unending. When Jesus rules on earth there will be absolutely no question of who is in charge and there will be no way for man to take over again. So in light of this, what should we learn?