Prophecy Series

I want to thank my friend Dan Raymond for help working through this message through Core 52.

INTRODUCTION

- As we enter week ten of Core 52, we are in message two of the Singing the Sacred section of our journey.

- We have songs for all moods and occasions; the Psalms follow the same pattern.

- There were songs to be sung to prepare you for worship.

- There are songs of thanksgiving.

- There are wisdom psalms.

- There are even what are called the Psalms of Lament, which are Israel's version of sad songs; they are what they sang when they felt like singing the blues.

- They had all these different kinds of songs for all these various occasions.

- One of the things I enjoy about the Psalms is the raw emotion displayed by the inspired writers; no emotion is off-limits.

One kind of song in the Psalms might be unfamiliar to us: the royal psalms.

- The royal Psalms are, surprisingly, songs about royalty.

- They are songs about the King.

- There are ten such royal Psalms– Psalm 2, 18, 20, 21, 45, 72, 101, 110, 132, and 144.

- This morning, we want to look at the first of the royal psalms, Psalm 2, and how it fits in with the overarching story the Bible is telling.

- We're tracing this story by connecting the dots of 52 of the most important verses in the Bible.

- A couple of those dots we've connected in just the last few weeks have to do with King David and how not only was he Israel's greatest King, but God used him to point the way to an even greater heavenly king, the King of kings, Jesus.

- What does Psalm 2 have to do with prophecy?

- Psalm 2 is written by David, which is verified in Acts 2:30, where David is called a Prophet.

- Most Bible scholars believe that not only is Psalm 2 a royal Psalm celebrating the King, but specifically, this song was used at the coronation of Solomon, and following Solomon, this song was used whenever a new king was installed on the throne.

- What's significant about this Psalm and our core verse this morning is that it refers back to God's promise to David in 2 Samuel 7 where God promises to be a Father to David's son.

- Now, remember how in Bible prophecy, it can be like a picture where there's something in the foreground and something even greater in the background. In the foreground here is Solomon, but the greater thing in the background is Jesus.

- There are about 1,817 individual prophecies in 8,352 verses., which comprise about 27% of all Scripture!

- There are over 300 Messianic prophecies, 60 of which concern His birth and 26 of which concern His death!

- Jesus fulfills them ALL!

- Peter Stoner, in his book Science Speaks, calculated the probability of seven passages (where He was born, the fact He would have a forerunner, His betrayal, etc.…) being fulfilled by one man to be only 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000—that's one in one hundred quadrillion! 3 Moore, Mark E. Core 52: A Fifteen-Minute Daily Guide to Build Your Bible IQ in a Year (p. 69). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

- One hundred quadrillion is an incomprehensibly large number.

- To put it in perspective, Stoner calculated this number to be equivalent to covering the state of Texas two feet deep in silver dollars.

- If we painted one of those silver dollars red and asked a blindfolded person to wander across the state and randomly select one of the coins, his odds of picking the red one are the same as the odds of Jesus randomly fulfilling just these seven predictions. Moore, Mark E E. Core 52: A Fifteen-Minute Daily Guide to Build Your Bible IQ in a Year (p. 69). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

- In the way one might uncover buried treasure, the prophecies about Jesus reveal a beautiful tapestry woven throughout history, foretelling the arrival of the greatest gift humanity would ever receive.

- The prophecies about Jesus are like riddles that only make sense once the answer is known.

- As we gaze back in awe at their fulfillment, we see the intricate pieces of God's plan coming together perfectly, bringing hope and salvation to the world.

- Let's begin with Psalm 2:1-3.

Psalm 2:1–3 (NET 2nd ed.)

1 Why do the nations rebel? Why are the countries devising plots that will fail?

2 The kings of the earth form a united front; the rulers collaborate against the LORD and his anointed king.

3 They say, “Let’s tear off the shackles they’ve put on us. Let’s free ourselves from their ropes.”