The Roadmap to Blessing

THE ROADMAP TO BLESSING

An Exposition of Psalms 1-2

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date: March 17, 2024

Series: The Psalms

Note: Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

THE SCRIPTURAL TEXT

Holy Scripture says:

PSALM 1

¹ Blessed is the man
    who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
    nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
² but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
    and on his law he meditates day and night.

³ He is like a tree
    planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
    and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
⁴ The wicked are not so,
    but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
    nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
⁶ for the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
    but the way of the wicked will perish.

PSALM 2

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 1:1-2:12)

GOD’S BIG PICTURE PLAN

Before we get into the details of these two psalms, let me call attention to God’s big picture plan that is revealed here. God’s big picture plan is for His Anointed One – His specially chosen Messiah – to preside as King over a multi-national congregation of righteous people that stretches from Zion to the ends of the earth. The righteous people who congregate the Messiah’s global kingdom are characterized by trust in the Messiah, by eager devotion to God’s Word, and by visible fruitfulness. Those who refuse to submit to the life-giving rule of God’s Messiah and God’s Word will most certainly perish. If you are familiar with the Bible, then you know that this description of God’s big picture plan sounds like the Book of Revelation, and the Book of Ephesians, and the Book of Acts, and the Book of Isaiah, and even the Book of Genesis. Indeed it does! God’s big picture plan has not changed, but has been unfolding ‘according to plan’ since the very beginning. The question is: are you rightly related to God’s plan, or are you on the wrong side of it?

With this big picture plan in view, let’s walk through Psalms 1-2 in six parts.

PART 1: A PORTRAIT OF THE BLESSED MAN (Ps. 1:1-3)

First, we are given a portrait of the blessed man in Psalm 1:1-3. The blessed man doesn’t keep company with the wicked, but instead finds great joy in the law – the Torah, the instruction – of the Lord. Verses 1-2 invite you to think about whose words you are drawn to, whose words you delight in and cherish, whose words you like to keep chewing on. The centrality of words and ideas in a person’s life is inescapable. The wicked offer counsel and advice regarding what you should value and how you should live. Sinners, by their conversation and example, set before you the way that they want you to follow. Scoffers are always running their mouth with loud boasts, with mockery, and with disdain for the things of the Lord. The counsel of the ungodly is broadcast far and wide in this world: it takes little effort to avail yourself of worldly wisdom. The blessed man, however, wants nothing to do with it. The blessed man is driven, not by duty, but by delight: “his delight is in the law of the LORD.” The blessed man is compelled, not by outward pressure, but by inward pleasure. The blessed man loves the words of God: “More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.” (Psalm 19:10)

When you delight in something, you willingly devote yourself to it. The blessed man demonstrates “his delight in the law of the LORD” by meditating on it “day and night”. Tell me what you spend significant time meditating on, thinking about, listening to, watching, reading, and talking about, and I’ll tell you what you delight in. Do you find delight in the Lord’s instruction? Just as those who delight in physical food willingly set it before their mouths all throughout the day, so those who delight in the spiritual food that is the Lord’s Word, set the Lord’s Word before their hearts all throughout the day. Read the Bible. Meditate on the Bible. Study the Bible. Memorize the Bible. Discuss the Bible. Hear faithful preachers proclaim the Bible. Read good books about the Bible. Gather with like-minded people in order to discuss the Bible. Not to put too fine a point on it, but if you typically find these varied ways of pondering biblical truth to be boring, then you are not truly blessed. As Jesus said, “Blessed… are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (Luke 11:28) Those who keep the Word of God at arm’s length are cutting themselves off from true spiritual blessing. You might be fooling around in the wilderness, but you could be enjoying a banquet feast in the presence of the Lord.

At the end of the day, there are only two alternatives: either you will live in the sweet spot of delightful meditation upon God’s Word, or you will live in the danger zone of being captivated by “the counsel of the wicked”. There is no middle ground. If you find God’s Word dull, but TikTok videos put out by scoffers exciting, you have a problem. If you find sound doctrine boring, but the entertainments created by God-denying pagans inspiring, you have a problem. If you find yourself repelled by people who have a heart for God, but you are very comfortable among unrepentant sinners, you have a problem. In fact, you need a new heart! Every man or woman, boy or girl, in this sanctuary who delights in the Lord’s law, does so because the Lord has given him or her a new heart (Ezekiel 36:25-27). When the Lord describes what happens when disobedient people are reconciled to Him in the new covenant, He says: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.” (Jeremiah 31:33) In other words, God will give you a heart that delights in His law. If you are here this morning, and you know that you don’t delight in the Word of God, then I hope that the truth will haunt you: you need a new heart! You don’t need to try harder. You don’t need to fake it. You don’t need an impressive checklist of activities. What you need is to be broken, to be poor in spirit, to be born again.

For the blessed man, the Word of God is like a stream of life-giving water that continually refreshes and nourishes him. For verse 3 goes on to tell us that the blessed man

“is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.” (Psalm 1:3)

For the blessed man, the Bible isn’t on his shelf. The Bible is open, delighting his heart and filling his mind. God’s words aren’t just ideas bouncing around in his head, but actually succeed at anchoring his life, and keeping his entire life vibrant and strong, sturdy and durable, well-resourced and fruitful. He bears fruit, prospers, succeeds, and makes an impact in the place where God places him, in the work that God assigns him. God’s Word so transforms and refreshes the life of the blessed man, that he prospers in every aspect of his life, indeed, “[in] all that he does”.

PART 2: THE CONDITION AND DESTINY OF THE WICKED (Ps. 1:4-6)

Second, we are told about the condition and destiny of the wicked in Psalm 1:4-6. The blessed man and the wicked man are polar opposites. Just as the blessed man “walks not in the counsel of the wicked”, so the wicked do not walk in the counsel of the Lord. The wicked are on their own, banking only on Satan’s lies and their own vain imagination, and completely cut off from “streams of water”. Therefore, after all the deceits and illusions have run their course, and God’s judgment begins to bear down upon them, the facts will be plain for all to see. “The wicked are not so”: the wicked are not planted by streams of water, the wicked do not have divine resources to make them fruitful, the wicked shrivel and wither and fail, indeed they “are like chaff that the wind drives away.” As image-bearers of God, they could have discovered lasting value and worth in fellowship with their Creator. But instead they clung to their idols, and as Psalm 115:4-8 teaches us, those who trust in worthless idols become as worthless as the idols themselves. Every time you learn about a political leader or religious leader or celebrity or ordinary neighbor whose life is self-destructing, you are seeing verse 4 unfold in real time.

Be sure of this: those who drive away the words of God from their heart, will themselves be driven away by the wind of God’s judgment: “Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment”. Psalm 96 tells us that the Lord “comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness” (Psalm 96:13). This is good news for the righteous, but it is bad news for the unrighteous. They will not endure the scrutiny of the Lord, when He calls them to account for all of their words and deeds. They will be condemned at the bar of God’s justice, and they will be excluded from the blessed fellowship of God’s holy people: as verse 5 concludes, “sinners [will not stand] in the congregation of the righteous”.

At the end of the day, there are only two ways. The blessed man doesn’t set down his feet “in the way of sinners”, and sinners don’t set down their feet in the way of the Lord. Of course, the Lord’s way, which is so clearly made known in His Word, which His blessed ones delight in and meditate upon and live by – the Lord’s way becomes the way of His people: “for the LORD knows the way of the righteous” (Psalm 1:6) – the Lord knows, is well acquainted with, delights in, and watches over the way of the righteous, for it is His way, the highway of holiness! Those who are on that way enjoy His approval, protection, and ultimate vindication. But the wicked are not to be found on that safe and satisfying highway, and thus they are exposed to the disapproval, condemnation, and banishment of verse 5. “[For] the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” (Psalm 1:6)

PART 3: THE COUNSEL OF THE WICKED (Ps. 2:1-3)

Third, in Psalm 2:1-3, we learn about the counsel of the wicked. “[The] counsel of the wicked” is precisely what the blessed man avoids. But the wicked man inhabits his own wicked ideas, and Psalm 2:1-3 shows us what is at the heart of wickedness.

Psalm 2 begins,

“Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed” (Psalm 2:1-2).

Notice several details. First, it is worth pointing out that the word translated “plot” in Psalm 2:1 is the same word that is translated as “meditates” in Psalm 1:2. The blessed man’s activity of meditating and the wicked peoples’ activity of plotting are comparable mental activities. The question isn’t whether you will dwell upon something, but which things you will dwell upon and which direction they are taking you. The blessed man’s heart and mind are absorbed in Scriptural ideas. The wicked peoples’ hearts and minds are absorbed in sinister ideas.

Second, the wicked peoples’ plotting and scheming is ultimately “in vain”. “The wicked… are like chaff” (Psalm 1:4), and for all the hype and rage associated with their plots and schemes, all of it comes to nothing in the end. The blessed man who dwells upon God’s Word gets filled with strength, whereas the wicked man who dwells upon ungodly words gets emptied out. The serpent’s lies will always hollow you out.

Third, notice that there is togetherness in wickedness. Multiple people are raging, plotting, and positioning, and then we are specifically told that “the rulers take counsel together”. Psalm 2:1-2 shows us an assembly of the wicked, which stands in contrast to “the congregation of the righteous” (Psalm 1:5). The congregation of the righteous is governed by God’s Word, whereas the assembly of the wicked is governed by rebellion “against the LORD and against his Anointed”.

Fourth, although “the nations” and “the peoples” in general are caught up in wickedness, human leaders are singled out for their treachery: “the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together”. Godly leadership is a rare commodity in this present evil world. Most often, the seat of the powerful is, in fact, “the seat of scoffers”: big power, big pride, and big plans to exalt themselves in opposition to the Lord.

Fifth, “the counsel of the wicked” (Psalm 1:1) is distilled in the rebellious plan articulated by the kings and rulers in Psalm 2:3 – “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” That statement reveals the character of all wicked counsel, which can be summarized as follows: We do not want the Lord and His Anointed to rule over us. Therefore, we will actively seek to sever and dissolve the authority that the Lord and His Anointed have over us.

As a familiar illustration of the general concept, take colonial America’s “Declaration of Independence” in the summer of 1776:

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

“…. when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.” (italics added)

Notice the phrases that echo Psalm 2:3 – “dissolve the political bands” and “throw off such Government” (and the words “separation” and “abolish” also occur early in the Declaration of Independence). And so it is that the American colonists declared their independence from the King of Great Britain.

Of course, declaring your independence from a mere man, such as the King of Great Britain, might be an advisable course of action. But seeking to dissolve, separate from, abolish, and throw off the government of heaven is always a very bad idea. Think about it: the Lord’s gospel is peace, the Lord’s law is love, the Lord’s yoke is easy, and the Lord’s commandments are freedom. And yet, it is the very nature of sin to walk away from the Lord’s goodness and grace: the wicked exchange the words of the Lord for the whispers of the serpent, sinners exchange the glory of God for the shame of idols, scoffers exchange “the truth about God for a lie and [worship and serve] the creature rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25), rebellious kings and rulers exchange the kingdom of heaven (which endures forever) for their puny little earthly kingdoms (which are destined for the ash heap). Sinful human beings, as represented by the kings and rulers of Psalm 2:2-3, shake their fists at heaven and, when the Lord’s Anointed shows up, they kill Him.

Don’t be deceived by the nice-sounding illusions of sin. The serpent dresses sin up in the voice of reasonableness and respectability, but sin’s true nature is always rebellion against the Most High. Sin’s outlook is always: we don’t want the Lord to rule over us; we don’t want Jesus, the Lord’s Anointed (specially chosen King) to rule over us; we don’t want the Lord’s Word to rule over us; we don’t want the Lord’s standards for purity and righteousness to rule over us; we don’t want the Lord’s standards for steadfast love and sacrificial service to rule over us; we don’t want to the Lord’s standards for family life and marriage and sexuality to rule over us; we don’t want the Lord’s standards for money and possessions to rule over us; we don’t want the Lord’s standards for the church’s doctrine and mission to rule over us.

Psalm 2:1-3 foretells the suffering and triumph of Jesus

The rebellion of Psalm 2:1-3 expresses itself over and over again, in every generation, in all kinds of situations, among all the nations on earth. That said, the entirety of Psalm 2 is first and foremost a prophesy concerning the rejection and enthronement of the Lord’s Anointed, all of which came to pass in the suffering and triumph of Jesus the Messiah. When Jesus’ followers faced persecution from the religious authorities, they looked back on the sufferings of Jesus and understood that Jesus’ sufferings fulfilled the words of Psalm 2:

“Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,

“Why did the Gentiles rage,

and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth set themselves,

and the rulers were gathered together,

against the Lord and against his Anointed”–

for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” (Acts 4:24-30)

Do you see? Putting Psalm 1, Psalm 2, and Acts 4 together, we learn that those who do not walk in the counsel of the wicked will quite often suffer at the hands of the wicked. In other words, the wicked often conspire against, threaten, and persecute the righteous. God didn’t immediately wipe out the rebels of Psalm 2:1-3, but predestined that they should carry out their rebellion and actually put Jesus to death on a cross. The ultimate blessed Man, the truly Righteous One, the Anointed King was put to death by wicked men – and, remarkably, their actions didn’t fall outside the scope of heaven’s rule, but unwittingly these wicked men carried out God’s plan that His Anointed King should enter into His Kingship through rejection, suffering, and death.

PART 4: THE LORD’S PLAN STANDS FIRM (Ps. 2:4-6)

As we come to Part 4, in Psalm 2:4-6, we see that the Lord’s plan stands firm, over and against the schemes of the wicked. Psalm 33:10-11 is a great commentary on Psalm 2:4-6 –

“The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.” (Psalm 33:10-11)

The Lord’s reign over the cosmos is never in doubt, even when the pompous men of earth are staging a rebellion against Him. Men shaking their fists at the Almighty is a pathetic sight, and “He who sits in the heavens laughs” (Psalm 2:4). If I set up a chess board to face a formidable opponent, only to have a tiny six-legged ant saunter up to the chess board opposite me, with its antennae making louds boasts predicting my certain defeat, I might sensibly laugh at the creature’s defiance. The truth, however, is that the ant, being a fellow creature, has a greater chance of success against me than do all the kings, rulers, generals, and armies assembled together in armed rebellion against the Creator, who holds their every breath and every heartbeat and every movement in His own sovereign hand. And when He says to any man or group of men something along the lines of ‘Game over’, then their time is up and all that they had and planned to do is struck down, with no court of appeal.

Rebellion against God is the most insane course of action that any creature could pursue. The fact that human beings do pursue this course of action, and pursue it with seriousness and self-congratulation and anticipation of success, only shows the degree to which sinful human beings are deluded – seriously deluded. The Lord doesn’t dignify such rebellion in any way. The Lord isn’t interested in sitting down and having an interfaith dialogue with rebels in order to promote mutual understanding and goodwill. The Lord is in heaven, and He laughs at them. The Lord is in heaven, and He derides them (Psalm 2:4). The Lord is in heaven, and with just and holy anger He proactively speaks to terrify and overwhelm them (Psalm 2:5). The Lord is in heaven, and He wants every rebel – every religious rebel and every secular rebel – He wants every sinner and scoffer to know that His specially chosen King is King. The Lord terrifies His enemies with a proclamation of truth: “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” (Psalm 2:6) They mocked the Lord’s Anointed, but the Lord highly exalted Him. They rejected the Lord’s Anointed, but the Lord raised Him up. They crucified the Lord’s Anointed, but the Lord crowned Him King and Ruler of all. They condemned the Lord’s Anointed, but the Lord reversed their judgment and has made Him their judge.

It is no wonder that the King’s enthronement takes place in Zion, for it is out of God’s covenants with Abraham, Israel, and David, that the Messiah comes forth to sit on David’s throne and rule over Israel and the nations. Theologically, God has made Zion central to His work in the world. The psalmist extols Zion as the city of God:

“Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised in the city of our God! His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King. Within her citadels God has made himself known as a fortress.” (Psalm 48:1-3)

The prophet Isaiah looked forward to the day when all the nations would stream to Zion in order to learn the ways of the Lord, and that from Zion the Lord’s Word would go forth to the peoples (Isaiah 2:2-3). The nations and peoples are evidently in darkness in Psalm 2:1-3, but Isaiah 2:2-3 envisions the light shining upon the nations. This light shining upon the nations most certainly happens through the exaltation of King Jesus in Psalm 2:4-6, for He is the Light of the world and He declared that His gospel should be proclaimed “to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47).

PART 5: THE LORD’S ANOINTED IS HEIR OF THE WHOLE EARTH (Ps. 2:7-9)

Moving now to Part 5, we see in Psalm 2:7-9 that the Lord’s specially chosen King is the heir and judge of the whole earth. As Psalm 2 unfolds, it highlights what certain people say. In verse 3 we hear what the wicked rulers say. In verse 6, we hear what the Lord says to those wicked rulers. Now in verses 7-9, we hear the Lord’s Anointed tell us what the Lord told Him when He was installed as King.

A good question to ask is: When did the Lord install His King on Zion? The enthronement and exaltation of Jesus as King took place in His resurrection from the dead and in His ascension to the Father’s right hand. After His suffering and death, “God… highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow” (Philippians 2:9-10). When the Lord installed His King on Zion, He said to Him, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you” (Psalm 2:7). When Paul preached the gospel in Acts 13, he connected Psalm 2:7 to the event of the resurrection: “And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you.’” (Acts 13:32-33) Although the Son of God possesses the kingly rights of divine authority from everlasting to everlasting, nevertheless when He became man, the God-Man had to enter into kingship through obedience, suffering, and the sacrifice of Himself for the salvation of His people. So, the Father bestowed the kingship upon the God-Man, Jesus Christ, when He “raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority” (Ephesians 1:20-21).

The Lord’s enthronement of Jesus as King is aimed at reclaiming the nations. The coronation of the Son is connected to His crown rights over the entire world. When the Lord set His King on Zion, He said to Him: “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.” (Acts 2:8) As Jesus was in the enthronement process between His resurrection and ascension, He was well aware of the sovereign authority that was being entrusted to Him:

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

The nations raging against the Messiah shall become the nations resting in the Messiah. The peoples plotting in vain shall become the peoples who have become the possession of the Lord’s King. “The kings of the earth” lose their grip on their own little kingdoms, and the ends of the earth get swept up in the kingdom of Christ, who by His blood “ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and… made them a kingdom and priests to our God” (Revelation 5:9-10).

We must see history through the lens of Scripture

We need eyes to see what is really transpiring in the unfolding history of the world. Some of us are tempted to get distracted by so much political or economic drama, thus forgetting the real story. The real story is that true to form – true to the form of the Messiah entering into His glory through suffering – the gospel is advancing in the world through suffering, through persecution, through lowly people who have learned to admire, trust, and love Jesus above all else. The serpent still lies. The world still opposes the truth. Powerful and influential people are still often on the wrong side of the equation. But Jesus is King, and His kingship is made known through the people who proclaim His gospel and who embody His gospel in lives of humble worship and sacrificial love. The Lord hides His kingdom from those who are wise in their own eyes, but to little children He reveals the truth of His sovereign hand over all human history:

“Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying,

“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was,

for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”” (Revelation 11:15-18)

The message of Revelation 11:15-18 is the message of Psalm 2: the Lord reigns, and His Messiah reigns forever and ever; the nations rage, and the Lord responds with wrath and judgment; but those who serve the Lord in holy fear are rewarded. Don’t see the world through the lens of all the bad news and distorted worldviews that are peddled to you through glass, liquid crystal, or plastic screens. In other words, don’t walk in the counsel of the wicked! Don’t countenance their way of seeing the world. The glass is not half-empty, folks. Jesus is King; the gospel is on the move; the church is being built up; and for those who know the Lord and His Anointed, the future is bright and secure.

Of course, those who will not have Jesus as their King, cannot opt out of the fact that Jesus is King, and they will be judged by Him. For the Lord commanded His duly installed King: “You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” (Psalm 2:9) The tables always get turned on the rebellion of scoffers. The scoffers speak against the Lord and against His Anointed, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” But in so doing, the wicked only succeed at bringing ruin upon themselves. In the end, they are the ones who get broken and smashed, who get dashed in pieces, who get driven away.

Remarkably, those who faithfully follow Jesus will actually share in the King’s authority over the nations and will participate in the King’s task of judging the nations. For Jesus promised every faithful disciple: “The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father.” (Revelation 2:26-27)

PART 6: HONOR THE SON (Ps. 2:10-12)

It is not inevitable that any king or ruler, or any human being for that matter, remain on the path of rebellion. This is the beautiful thing about the gospel: the King offers amnesty to every rebel who turns from his wicked ways and entrusts himself to the mercy of the King. And so, in Part 6, an urgent warning and gracious invitation is given to the kings and rulers who previously did not delight in the way of the Lord: “Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth.” (Psalm 2:10) While I would readily apply this warning to all people, as other Scriptures clearly do, nevertheless I don’t want to overlook the significance of the fact that this concluding exhortation is specifically directed to kings and rulers, to political authorities and religious authorities, for they are especially guilty of high treason whenever they use their official authority and special influence to oppose the true King and lead other people toward ruin.

The exhortation to such people, and indeed to all people, is clear.

First: “Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.” (Psalm 2:11) The first rule enjoined upon all human beings, but especially upon those in authority, is that their first order of business isn’t to rule, preside, judge, lead the way, or call the shots. Their first order of business is to serve, revere, stand in awe, be overwhelmed with the majesty of the Creator God, and find their greatest delight in Him. In terms of Psalm 1, their first order of business is to hear the Lord’s Word, and take their directions from Him.

Second: “Kiss the Son”. In other words, honor the Lord’s Anointed, bow down before Him, and pay Him homage. Realize that the stakes are high: the Father has entrusted all judgment to the Son, and the Father’s anger (Psalm 2:5) will be reflected by the Son (Psalm 2:12) if you do not repent. “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.” (Psalm 2:12)

Psalm 2 ends almost in the same place where Psalm 1 ends. Psalm 1 concluded: “but the way of the wicked will perish.” Psalm 2 almost ends with the warning that those who refuse to honor the Son will “perish in the way”.

But Psalm 2 actually ends with a promise of blessing: “Blessed are all who take refuge in him.” And the promise of blessing is where Psalm 1 had begun: “Blessed is the man… [whose] delight is in the law of the LORD”. Psalm 2 ends by impressing upon us: Blessed is the man who takes refuge in the Lord’s Anointed. These are not two alternative routes to blessing. It is one route. For the instruction of the Lord continually directs our attention to the Messiah, and the Messiah continually directs our attention to the practical and moral instruction of God’s law. The Father’s Word to all mankind is: “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” (Mark 9:7) And King Jesus says to all those in His company: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15)

CONCLUDING WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT

It is not for you, O human, to pursue prosperity on your own apart from the Lord. Delight in His Word, and He will prosper you.

It is not for you, O human, to pursue protection and vindication on your own apart from the Lord. Honor His Anointed King, and He will deliver you now and forevermore.