The Wrong Path Series

Scripture

“Where’s Susan?”

That’s the innocent question Joshua Rogers’s daughter asked as they were reading The Last Battle, the final book in The Chronicles of Narnia, by C. S. Lewis. Susan is the child queen who helped her siblings save Narnia from the White Witch in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. However, she is conspicuously absent from an early scene in The Last Battle that includes every character who traveled to Narnia as a child. Rogers writes:

“Daddy, where is she?” my daughter asked again.

“We’ll see,” I said, with a tinge of sadness.

Although I’ve read The Chronicles of Narnia dozens of times since I was a boy, Susan’s tragic end gets me every time. The book eventually reveals that Susan grows up and outgrows her love for Narnia. We get few details about her until the end of the book, when High King Peter responds to an inquiry into his sister’s whereabouts.

“My sister Susan,” answered Peter shortly and gravely, “is no longer a friend of Narnia.”

“Yes,” said Eustace, “and whenever you’ve tried to get her to come and talk about Narnia or do anything about Narnia, she says, ‘What wonderful memories you have! Fancy your still thinking about all those funny games we used to play when we were children.’ ”

Susan believed that she had outgrown Narnia. She thought that the great lion king Aslan was wonderful for her when she was a child. But now that she had grown up, she left Aslan and Narnia behind. She just did not believe it anymore.

Many learn about the great king Jesus when they are children. But when they grew up, they leave Jesus and the things of God behind.

Worse yet, many who oppose Jesus band together in nations and push back against anything having to do with Jesus or God or Christianity.

This is what Psalm 2 addresses. Psalm 2 shows us the path of rebellion and its consequences.

Please follow along as I read Psalm 2:1-12:

1 Why do the nations rage

and the peoples plot in vain?

2 The kings of the earth set themselves,

and the rulers take counsel together,

against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,

3 “Let us burst their bonds apart

and cast away their cords from us.”

4 He who sits in the heavens laughs;

the Lord holds them in derision.

5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath,

and terrify them in his fury, saying,

6 “As for me, I have set my King

on Zion, my holy hill.”

7 I will tell of the decree:

The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;

today I have begotten you.

8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,

and the ends of the earth your possession.

9 You shall break them with a rod of iron

and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise;

be warned, O rulers of the earth.

11 Serve the Lord with fear,

and rejoice with trembling.

12 Kiss the Son,

lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,

for his wrath is quickly kindled.

Blessed are all who take refuge in him. (Psalm 2:1-12)

Introduction

Last week we looked at Psalm 1. This week we are looking at Psalm 2. There was a time when both psalms were joined together and considered as one psalm. However, at some point in time (I don’t know when), they were separated into the two psalms that we now have in our Bibles.

Commentator Warren Wiersbe observes that “Psalm 1 emphasizes God’s law while Psalm 2 focuses on prophecy. The people in Psalm 1 delight in the law, but the people in Psalm 2 defy the law. Psalm 1 begins with a beatitude and Psalm 2 ends with a beatitude. Psalm 1 is never quoted in the New Testament, while Psalm 2 is quoted or alluded to at least eighteen times, more than any single psalm.”

Last week I said that the blessed man of Psalm 1 is the Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm 2 shows us the worldwide revolt against him. Let us now turn to Psalm 2 to observe this.

Lesson

Psalm 2:1-12 shows us the path of rebellion and its consequences.

Let’s use the following outline:

1. The Nations Revolt (2:1-3)

2. The Father Laughs (2:4-6)

3. The Son Rules (2:7-9)

4. The Nations Commanded (2:10-12)

I. The Nations Revolt (2:1-3)

First, the nations revolt.

David is identified (in Acts 4:25) as the author of Psalm 2. He writes in verses 1-3, “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, ‘Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.’ ”