Jesus The Messiah: Do You Love Him or Hate Him?

Bible Book: Psalms 2 : 1-12

Subject: Jesus, Rejection of; Jesus, Love for; Messiah

Series: Psalms - Kirksey

Introduction

Jesus the Messiah: Do you love Him or hate Him? He deserves no less than our full allegiance as the King of kings and Lord of lords. David penned these words according to Acts 4:25. We find this in Dr. Luke’s account of those who were being persecuted for their faith in Jesus as Messiah in Acts 4:23-31, “And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: ‘Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them, who by the mouth of Your servant David have said: ‘Why did the nations rage, / And the people plot vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand, / And the rulers were gathered together / Against the Lord and against His Christ.’ ‘For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done. Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.’ And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.”

Psalm 2 is a Messianic Psalm or a psalm about the Messiah where we read, “Why do the nations rage, / And the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, / And the rulers take counsel together, / Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, / ‘Let us break Their bonds in pieces / And cast away Their cords from us.’ He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; / The Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, / And distress them in His deep displeasure: ‘Yet I have set My King / On My holy hill of Zion.’ ‘I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, / ‘You are My Son, / Today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You / The nations for Your inheritance, / And the ends of the earth for Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; / You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.’ Now therefore, be wise, O kings; / Be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, / And rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, / And you perish in the way, / When His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.”

Allow me to point out three things from our passage.

I. First, we find a pernicious rebellion against the LORD and His Anointed Son.

The term “pernicious” means “malicious and wicked.” We read in Psalm 2:1-3, “Why do the nations rage, / And the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, / And the rulers take counsel together, / Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, / ‘Let us break Their bonds in pieces / And cast away Their cords from us.’

A. The Resentment of kings and rulers

We read of some in Jesus’ parable recorded in Luke 19:14 who said, “We will not have this man to reign over us.” We also find the resistance of the resentful in John 1:10-13 where we read, “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) observes, “It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion. For while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no further; but when it beholdeth the chain of them, confederate and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity.”[1]

Dr. Alan Redpath (1907-1989) shares, “You may know of the existence of an organization called the Four A’s, the American Association for the Advancement of Atheism. This association operates under charter in New York State right now, and you could find its offices in New York. A recent publication of this society states: ‘We undertake to abolish public chaplaincies, to tax church property, to repeal Sunday legislation, to abrogate all laws enforcing Christian morals, to stop bootlegging of religion into schools, to prevent the issuing of religion into schools, to prevent the issuing of religious proclamations by government officials, to erase superstitious inscriptions which deface our coinage, for there is no god, and our supreme effort will be to free mankind from the fear of a nonentity.’ This society operates today under charter.”[2]

B. The Resolution of kings and rulers

“Let us” is the language of resolution. They say, “‘Let us break Their bonds in pieces / And cast away Their cords from us’” (Psalm 2:3). They desire to remove moral restraint. We read in Proverbs 29:18, “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; / But happy is he who keeps the law.”

II. Second, we find a prophetic response from the LORD and His Anointed Son.

Only God can write history and prophecy with equal accuracy. From Psalm 2:4-9 we read, “He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; / The Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, / And distress them in His deep displeasure: ‘Yet I have set My King / On My holy hill of Zion.’ ‘I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, / ‘You are My Son, / Today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You / The nations for Your inheritance, / And the ends of the earth for Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; / You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.’”

A. The Revelation of God’s Thoughts (vv. 4-5)

Do you ever wonder what God thinks? Many people prefer to use their imagination rather than biblical revelation. We read in Isaiah 55:8-9, “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, / Nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, / So are My ways higher than your ways, / And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

David, “a man after [God’s] own heart,” writes in Psalm 139:17-18, “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You.” Please note the contrast in Psalm 2:4-5, “He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, And distress them in His deep displeasure.”

1. Derision

Dr. Alan Redpath explains, “The laughter of God in the Bible is a very solemn subject, for God only laughs in total derision. It is a laugh of omnipotence. It is a laugh of absolute authority. It is the laugh of total confidence in ability to destroy all totalitarian world power.”[3]

From Psalm 37:13 we read, “The Lord laughs at him, / For He sees that his day is coming.” In Psalm 59:8 we read, “But You, O Lord, shall laugh at them; / You shall have all the nations in derision.” We read in Proverbs 1:25-27, “Because you disdained all my counsel, / And would have none of my rebuke, / I also will laugh at your calamity; / I will mock when your terror comes, / When your terror comes like a storm, / And your destruction comes like a whirlwind, / When distress and anguish come upon you.”

2. Declaration

The baptism of Jesus (Matthew 3:13-17; John 1:29-33) and the transfiguration of Jesus (Matthew 17:1-7; Mark 9:1-8; Luke 9:18-36) the Father spoke about “My beloved Son” who is also the “only begotten Son” (John 3:16).

B. The Revolution from God’s Throne (vv. 6-9)

Psalm 2:7 is cited six times (Luke 3:21-22; Matthew 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Acts 13:29-35; Hebrews 1:5 and 5:5).

III. Third, we find a potential relationship with the LORD and His Anointed Son.

Remember there can be an adversarial relationship. You are either an ally or an adversary of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Psalm 2:10-12 we read, “Now therefore, be wise, O kings; / Be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, / And rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, / And you perish in the way, / When His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.”

A. This relationship involves reverence for the King of kings and Lord of lords.

We read in Psalm 2:11, “Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.” Paul the Apostle writes in Philippians 2:12-13, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”

From Psalm 2:12a we are instructed to “Kiss the Son.” Dr. F. B. Meyer (1847-1929) explains, “‘Kiss’ [is] the expression of homage (1 Sam. 10:1).”[4] Dr. J. O. Keen, author of On the King’s Business, further explains, “‘Kiss the Son’ [is] The Eastern mode of showing homage to a king.”[5]

Remember Judas Iscariot’s kiss of betrayal to point Jesus out to those who sought to kill him.

In Psalm 2:12b we read, “. . . lest He be angry, And you perish in the way. When His wrath is kindled a little. . .” John shares the following as he describes the Sixth Seal of the Great Tribulation in Revelation 6:15-17, “And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?’”

B. This relationship involves reliance upon the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Verse 12 concludes with a wonderful beatitude, “Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.”

David exhorts in Psalm 5:11, “But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You; Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them; Let those also who love Your name Be joyful in You.” Later, in Psalm 34:22, David declares, “The Lord redeems the soul of His servants, And none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned.”

Conclusion

In 1 John 1:3; 2:22-23; 4:8-12; and 5:7-8 we read about God the Father and God the Son. From John 14:6 we read, “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’” Jesus also says in John 5:24-30, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.”

Paul the Apostle writes in 1 Timothy 6:11-16, “But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing, which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.”

George Fredric Handel (1685-1759) concludes his “Hallelujah Chorus” with these powerful words about Jesus the Messiah:

And He shall reign forever and ever,

King of kings! and Lord of lords!