Stop Raging
Psalm 2:1-12
- We’re continuing our study through the book of Psalms.
- This week, we’re going to look at the rage of unbelievers against God.
- I’m reminded of an incident that happened back when I was in Middle School.
- In gym class, we were playing flag football.
- It was supposed to be for fun and everyone was supposed to be included.
- Unfortunately, I wasn’t very good at sports, and the other kids in my class knew this.
- So as everyone is on the field having a fun time, enjoying the game, I’m on the field standing off to the side, trying not to get in the way.
- At one point, I was the only person open, so the Quarterback threw the ball to me.
- I should have caught it because it was a really good throw, but the problem is I didn’t keep my eyes on the ball.
- So, when the ball got to me, I closed my eyes, and I felt the ball bounce off my fingers and fall to the ground.
- I was so embarrassed that I didn’t catch the ball.
- But then, there was a kid on the other team, named Casey.
- Casey had a twin named Connor, and both of them were really good athletes at pretty much everything they played.
- Casey started laughing at me and said he couldn’t believe I’d missed such an easy catch.
- At this point, I got really angry.
- I remember the blood boiling up inside of me, and I decided I was going to make him pay for what he did.
- So, on the next play, when the quarterback hiked the ball, I ran as fast I could and slammed full force into Casey.
- It felt like I’d hit a brick wall.
- When I hit him, it moved him back just a little bit, but not much.
- At this point, he started laughing at me even more and I was more embarrassed than I had been before that.
- I’ll never forget how I felt that day.
- The rage boiled up inside of me and caused me to do something I wouldn’t normally do.
- I was just a scrawny little guy, and Casey was a tall, athletic, strong guy.
- So I learned on that day that rage is never a good thing.
- Let’s look at this Psalm now and see what we can learn about the rage of the ungodly.
I.) Their rage has them deceived- Vs 1-3
- Not too long ago, there was a video online of a UFC fighter who was on a rampage.
- Apparently, the other fighter and his team did something to make this man angry.
- The video shows him chasing these guys to their bus in the parking garage.
- As the bus is trying to drive away, this fighter is yelling, and swearing, and rushing toward the bus, smashing against it, even though it was in motion.
- The guys around him who are part of his team tried to calm him down and hold him back, but he was in such a rage that they couldn’t stop him.
- At one point, he picks up a big guardrail and hurls it at a window of the bus, which smashed the window open.
- When the guardrail goes through the window, it hits one of the passengers in the head, which sent him to the hospital with a huge, bleeding wound.
- Obviously, this was a crazy thing for him to do, and he got arrested for it, possibly even ending his fighting career.
- Of course, at the time of his rage, he wasn’t thinking about the consequences.
- That’s kind of what we find here with the nations of the world.
- David asks, “Why do the nations rage?”
- It’s an honest question he asks, because it’s mind-boggling…
- The fact is that God created those very same people who are raging against Him.
- God provides air for them to breathe…
- He provides water for them to drink…
- He makes food abundantly available for them to eat…
- They benefit from His law of gravity, instead of being hurled out into space.
- They benefit from His hand upon the earth, protecting all of earth’s inhabitants from burning up from the sun or freezing to death.
- The list goes on and on…there is absolutely no reason these people should be raging against their Creator, God Almighty!
- Yet they do, and on top of that, David says they “plot a vain thing.”
- From the start, they’re destined to fail, and yet they still somehow think they can fight against God Almighty.
- So they come together, and they take counsel with one another.
- As if somehow, working together will make a difference.
- I’ve been reading through the book of Joshua, and we see that exact thing happen…
- After Jericho is destroyed, a whole group of the Canaanite kings form an alliance, thinking that they can defeat the Israelites together.
- So their armies come out against Israel, and God gives Israel the victory, through the sword, and by sending down huge hailstones that crushed the fleeing soldiers.
- They never stood a chance because they were fighting against God Almighty.
- Let’s change gears for a moment and talk about who these verses are referring to.
- These verses are referring to three groups…
- First, King David…
- His enemies were always trying to kill him, but God was taking care of him because he was God’s anointed king.
- Saul tried and failed…
- The Philistines tried and failed…
- His own son tried and failed…
- Over and over again, we see David face his enemies, and God takes care of him because he is God’s servant.
- Second, these verses are referring ultimately to the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
- We saw it happen while He was on this earth.
- The Pharisees and Sadducees hated Him, so they resisted and fought against Him for His entire 3-year ministry.
- They kept trying to trap Him and turn people against Him.
- Then, they conspired against Him, and had Him arrested, beaten, and crucified.
- Remember the Sanhedrin, the Jewish High Council, that came together and pronounced Him guilty, even though their trial was conducted illegally.
- Yet all of it was in vain because they were destined to fail.
- Third, these verses might be referring to all believers, because we are anointed with the Holy Spirit, as we’re told in 1 John and 2 Corinthians.
- But even if they’re not meant to refer to believers as well, but only David and the Messiah, we can still gain some valuable insight from them.
- The nations of the world have tried, over and over again to blot out the name of Christ.
- Yet each and every time, they fail.
- Today, that continues as the ungodly use the court systems to try to silence us in America.
- In other parts of the world, they continue to use persecution to try to destroy Christianity, and there have been a lot of martyrs, but the more Christians they kill, the more Christianity spreads and multiplies!
- Their plotting is in vain because they are plotting against their Creator, God Almighty.
- And they honestly believe that they can be successful!
- Think about how foolish it is for a created being to rebel against their Creator.
- They don’t stand a chance!
- One of the examples of this is found in the life of the Roman emperor Diocletian.
- He had a medal created with the inscription, “The name of Christians being extinguished.”
- Then, in Spain, he had 2 monumental pillars raised.
- On the first was written, “Diocletian Jovian Maximian Herculeus Ceasares Augusti, for having extended the Roman empire in the east and the west, and for having extinguished the name of Christians, who brought the Republic to ruin.”
- On the second, it was written, “Diocletian…for having adopted Galerius in the east, for having everywhere abolished the superstition of Christ, for having extended the worship of the gods.”
- Obviously, you and I are here today, so Diocletian was wrong, and he failed.
- That’s because no matter how much the ungodly plot against God Almighty, they will always fail because they are plotting in vain!
II.) Their rage is against God Almighty- Vs 4-9
- When Donald Trump became president, one of the big world problems that received the spotlight was the issue with North Korea and its leader, Kim Jong Un.
- It seems like there’s something about it on the news every day.
- When it first started to gain attention, I remember how angry I’d get every time Kim Jong Un’s face was on the tv.
- He’s a weak man with a small nation, yet he keeps shaking his fist at our country, the United States of America.
- I’d hear about the poor condition his people live in, and the people he’s had murdered over the years, and it just angered me so much.
- Now imagine if I took my rage, and boarded a plane, headed to North Korea.
- My plan is to march straight to Kim Jon Un’s palace, storm his office, and beat him to a bloody pulp.
- Can you imagine how foolish of me that would be?
- I wouldn’t make it anywhere near his palace.
- I might not even make it off the plane.
- Attempting such a foolish mission would either end with me in a North Korean prison cell, being tortured, or I’d be dead.
- Either way, if I attempted such a ridiculous stunt, Kim Jong Un would have nothing to worry about because he is heavily guarded, and I wouldn’t make it anywhere near him.
- Now let’s think about the ungodly world plotting against God Almighty…
- He sits in the heavens and laughs because they don’t stand a chance!
- How can a created being do any harm to his Creator?
- How can a person whose days are numbered by God, attempt to rebel against Him?
- How can a person who breathes his air from God attempt a rebellion, when at any moment, God can cause that person to take their last breath?
- These are a few of the things a person full of rage against God Almighty doesn’t think through.
- After all, you can only tread on thin ice for so long before it cracks and you fall in the water to your death.
- James Boice says, “God does not tremble. He does not hide behind a vast celestial rampart, counting the enemy and calculating whether or not he has sufficient force to counter this new challenge to his kingdom. He does not even rise from where he is sitting. He simply ‘laughs’ at these great imbeciles.”
- Let’s think about this now from the three perspectives we talked about in the first point…
- King David, Jesus the Messiah, and the Christian.
- First, the story of David is full of God’s hand at work, frustrating His enemies left and right.
- When David killed Goliath, God had given him the boldness and the strength to do so.
- King Saul, meanwhile, sat on his throne and even after the victory through David, instead of rejoicing in the victory, he grew jealous…
- His jealousy grew into rage, and time after time after time again, he tried to murder David.
- And time after time after time again, God distressed him in His deep displeasure.
- Each time Saul tried to kill David, he failed, and ended up dying in his rebellion.
- Then God continues by referring to his reign as king.
- God always referred to David as “a man after God’s own heart.”
- It was evident over and over again that David was chosen by God Himself to be the king of Israel.
- His reign was blessed with prosperity and the nation of Israel was expanded, along with the defeat of all his enemies.
- No matter how hard his enemies tried to stop him, God protected and blessed him each step of the way.
- Of course his reign wasn’t perfect, as we know from his sin with Bathsheba, his sin of numbering the people against God’s Commandment, his son rebelling against him…
- Those are just a few of the examples.
- But he was still the king, chosen by God Almighty.
- Now let’s look at these verses as referring to Jesus Christ, the Messiah!
- No matter how hard the Pharisees and Sadducees tried to stop Jesus, they couldn’t.
- When they had him killed, they attempted to keep his body secure in the tomb, but they failed there, as did the Romans.
- After that, they attempted to spread lies and crush the spread of Christianity, but their chief persecutor, Saul of Tarsus, encountered Jesus Himself, and was converted.
- I can picture God Almighty laughing as they failed time after time again.
- Today, the nations continue to rage against Him, but one day, Jesus will set up His earthly Millennial Kingdom, and the whole world will worship Him, whether they want to or not.
- There will be no stopping Him, and then at the end of the Millennial reign, when Satan raises up an army to dethrone Jesus, they will all be consumed and thrown into the lake of fire.
- Any plots formed against God Almighty, and His Anointed, our Lord Jesus Christ, all of those plots and His enemies will be crushed!
- Now let’s look at these verses as referring to us, the Church, anointed with the Holy Spirit.
- The enemy is always fighting against us, trying to tempt us, trying to pull us away from Christ…
- He uses the ungodly to try to influence us in a negative way.
- He uses the ungodly to fight against us and try to silence us.
- Yet God sits in Heaven and laughs because we are His people, He is our God, and He will not leave us or forsake us.
- We turn to Him, our God and King, allowing Him to reign in our hearts, and He never stops walking with us.
III.) Their rage is the wrong response- Vs 10-12
- “A woman was waiting at an airport one night, with several long hours before her flight. She hunted for a book in the airport shops, bought a bag of cookies and found a place to drop.
- She was engrossed in her book but happened to see, that the man sitting beside her, as bold as could be. . .grabbed a cookie or two from the bag in between, which she tried to ignore to avoid a scene.
- So she munched the cookies and watched the clock, as the gutsy cookie thief diminished her stock. She was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by, thinking, “If I wasn’t so nice, I would blacken his eye.”
- With each cookie she took, he took one too, when only one was left, she wondered what he would do. With a smile on his face, and a nervous laugh, he took the last cookie and broke it in half.
- He offered her half, as he ate the other, she snatched it from him and thought… oooh, brother. This guy has some nerve and he’s also rude, why he didn’t even show any gratitude!
- She had never known when she had been so galled and sighed with relief when her flight was called. She gathered her belongings and headed to the gate, refusing to look back at the thieving ingrate.
- She boarded the plane, and sank in her seat, then she sought her book, which was almost complete. As she reached in her baggage, she gasped with surprise, there was her bag of cookies, in front of her eyes.
- If mine are here, she moaned in despair, the others were his, and he tried to share. Too late to apologize, she realized with grief, that she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief.”
- I think we’d all agree that the woman’s angry response in this story was the wrong one.
- It’s kind of like those who rage and plot against God.
- They think they’re justified, they think they have a chance against Him, and they think they’re better off without Him.
- However, they’re dead wrong.
- Here in vs 10-12, we read what the ungodly should be doing instead of raging…
- They should serve the Lord, fear the Lord, rejoice in Him, kiss Him, and put their trust in Him.
- The kiss mentioned is a kiss of submission.
- It’s the same kiss that a dignitary receives from an inferior…it’s a humble kiss.
- But it’s more than that when we think about it with God.
- When you submit to Christ, you’re entering into a relationship; a relationship with God Almighty.
- It’s special, and He wants our affection, and we should rejoice that we have the privilege to serve Him.
- One of the problems with the wicked is that they have a pride problem.
- When it comes to submitting to the rule and authority of Christ, their pride gets in the way, and they refuse to submit to Him.
- Yet that never ends well for them.
- For example, during the 1000 -year Millennial Reign of Christ, the world will be perfect, full of peace, and all people will be under the rule of Jesus.
- However, at the end of the Millennial reign of Christ, Satan will be loosed on the earth, and he will go around, deceiving people, convincing them that with their help, he can overthrow Christ from His throne.
- I used to wonder, “How on earth could Satan deceive so many people, after they lived under Christ’s perfect rule for so long and experienced His blessings?”
- The answer goes back to their pride…they want to do what they want, when they want, how they want, and they don’t want God telling them to do it.
- Even after seeing the Perfect Ruler, Jesus Christ, in all His goodness and love and Perfection, ruling and reigning, they still turn against Him.
- That shows you just how wicked and foolish mankind is outside of Christ.
- Thankfully, those who submit to Christ and worship Him will be blessed.
- David Guzik puts it well…
- “Those who defy God are broken, but those who depend on Him are blessed. The Psalmist leaves the choice with everyone: Broken or Blessed?”
