2024/01/07 – Messianic Psalm #1

Reading: Psalm 2 – Messianic Psalm #1:

Daily-Devotional:                                                                                        

Psalm 2 is the most Messianically-oriented Psalm of all. All twelve verses  have something about the Messiah. It has four stanzas, each of which deals with the Messiah, from the first with the nations conspiring against the LORD and “His anointed” to the last where the final warning is given to the rulers of the earth.

First stanza, Verses 1-3, the Psalmist is the speaker: “Why do the nations conspire, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the LORD and His anointed, saying, ‘Let us burst their bonds asunder, and cast their cords from us.”’

Why do they plot? They think they are ruling the world, when in fact God is ruler over everything. Just as Herod feared the newborn king and wanted to kill him to stop a rival king, all of the major rulers on earth wanted to keep their power by bursting the bonds of the LORD and His anointed from themselves and casting their cords aside so they could remain in power.

The Jews in control of the Temple in Jesus’s day conspired together to have Him killed – and in the end, Pilate went along with them. They insisted He be crucified, but Pilate asked, “Shall I crucify your King?” They shouted back, “We have no king but Caesar!” They had earlier said Jesus made Himself out to be a king, and if Pilate did not crucify Jesus, he would no longer be a friend to Caesar, an unveiled threat they would expose Pilate to the wrath of the paranoid man at the head of the Roman Empire.

Second Stanza, Verses 4-6, God is the Speaker: “He who sits in the heavens laughs; the LORD has them in derision. Then He will speak to them in His wrath, and terrify them in His fury, saying, ‘I have set My King on Zion, my Holy Hill.”’

God laughs at their folly, but His laughter had a sharp edge to it. He turns to His wrath to terrify them. He says, “I have set My King on Zion!” Zion was the place God had chosen as His footstool in the Holy of Holies of the Temple and the place only the High Priest could enter, and that only on the Day of Atonement.

Third Stanza, verses 7-9, the yet-to-be-Messiah speaks: “I will tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son; today I have begotten You. Ask of me, and I will make the nations Your heritage, and the ends of the earth Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.”’

When Paul and Barnabas preached in Antioch of Pisidia, in the conclusion of his message included this; “We bring you the good news that what God promised to our ancestors, He has fulfilled for us, by raising Jesus; as it is written in the second Psalm, ‘You are My Son; today I have begotten you.’ As to His raising Him from the dead, no more to return to corruption.’ He spoke in this way, ‘I will give you the holy  promise made to David.’ Therefore, He said in another psalm, ‘You will not let your Holy One experience corruption.”’

Paul added that David died and experienced corruption, but the One God raised up had no corruption. Let it be known to you that through this man, Jesus, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.

David wrote, “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD; all the families of the nations shall worship before Him.” (Psalm 22:27). Ethan the Ezrahite wrote in another Messianic Psalm, “I will crush His foes before Him and strike down those who hate Him.”

Stanza Four, Verses 10-12, the Psalmist speaking: “Now, O Kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear; with trembling, kiss His feet, or He will be angry, and you will perish in the way; for His wrath is quickly kindled. Happy are all who take refuge in Him.”

This is a warning to us as well as to all the rulers of the earth. The Hebrew writer wrote, summing up the picture of coming to Zion with innumerable angels in a festive assembly together with all those enrolled in Heaven, to God the judge of all, the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of a better covenant, whose blood speaks better things than Able’s he calls for all to consider how Jesus suffered and charges us not to refuse Him who speaks. In Hebrews 12:28-29 he writes, “Since we are receiving a Kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire.”

Our service to God is that of reverence and awe. If we are indifferent in our worship, we have not truly worshipped. We may have gone through the motions of worship, but if our hearts are not in it, we will be like those Kings and Rulers who took counsel against the LORD and His Anointed One.

Come together to worship with prayer and praise that rings the rafters with song and thanksgiving! Come to the table where we feast on His broken body and drink the cup of His blood. Come to the house of joy because of His gifts and goodness.

Then take that joy and happiness into the darkness of this world. This is what our Savior wants of us.