Psalm 2: Kiss the Son and Take Refuge | Psalm Devotional

Psalm 2 asks a question many of us know by heart: why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? In this episode of Morning Psalms and Prayers, we read the whole psalm and see it as a Messianic song that points past David to Christ, the King God has set on Zion.

But the devotional turns the question toward us. It is easy to shake our heads at the nations, yet every time we sin, we plot and rage against God ourselves. We look at what that says about our own hearts, and why such plotting is worthless.

The psalm does not leave us there. We are told to serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling, a healthy fear that trusts God is in control. And we are invited to kiss the Son, to embrace Jesus, and to take refuge in him.

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Good morning, this is Morning Psalms and Prayers, 4th Thursday, May 28th. We begin again with a prayer from the Book of Common Prayer. Let us pray.

God, the protector of all those who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy. Increase and multiply on us your mercy, that you being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal. Grant this, Heavenly Father, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Alright, we started in Psalm 1 yesterday, and so we will be in Psalm 2 today. It's a little bit longer than Psalm 1 was, but we are still going to be reading the entirety of it. Hear the word of the Lord.

"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.' He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, 'As for me I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. I will tell of the decree. The Lord 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 in pieces, like a potter's vessel.' Now therefore, O kings, be wise, be warned, O rulers 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. For his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him."

Why do the nations rage? This is a very well-known part of the Psalter. I mean, if you ever started reading through the Psalms, I'm pretty sure you got to Psalm 2 and you could say you've at least read it there. And plus, it's very well known, this line, that why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain, is very much so well known. And it's a great question. Why would the nations plot against Almighty God? Why would they go against the one that he has anointed to be his king? Now, we do know that this is a Messianic Psalm. It's talking about not only David in that time, but it's pointing forward to Christ.

But I want us to think about something else. It is really easy for us to look at this and say, why do the nations and the peoples plot in vain, and say, why would they do that? Why would they go against the power of God? But yet at the same time, when I sin, when I rebel against God, this is what I'm doing, right? This is what we do when we sin. We plot against God. We rage against God. And while we look at the nations or we look at other people, very rarely do we look at this and say, wait a second, why would we set ourselves up against God? Why would we not go against his good rule, against his good law? And so we need to ask ourselves, are we doing this in our lives? Is our rebellion against God manifesting itself in this? Are we plotting against God? Are we planning our sin? Are we not even thinking about how we are rebelling against God? Is it just something we do? This is important that we ask ourselves this question, because we would think that the nations were foolish for plotting against God, yet we do it in our hearts whenever we sin.

And as we get down to the bottom here, I want to look at these last two verses of 11 and 12, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. How important is that? That's what we need to do. Instead of plotting against God, this Psalm has been saying, don't do this. Don't go against God's anointed. Why would you do that?

And so instead, what are the directions from the psalmist this morning? Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. We want to not be afraid of God like he's going to squash us, but we want to have a fear that ultimately God is in control. A good fear of God is a very healthy thing. We've seen that in other places in the Psalms. But it's important that we understand this, that we rejoice with trembling. Our fear of God should be a rejoicing that our good God is caring for us. He is showing us how to live. He's showing us where salvation is found. And we find that in verse 12.

Kiss the son, lest you be angry and you perish in the way for his wrath is quickly kindled. Kiss the son. Kiss Jesus. Embrace him. Hold on to him. We don't want to be receiving his judgment. And so let's embrace him. Let's go to him. Let's repent to him. As this last sentence in this Psalm says, blessed are all who take refuge in him. What is this saying? You can either plot against him and his wrath comes, or you can embrace him. You can kiss the son and you can take refuge in him. And that is where you are blessed. We are blessed when we take refuge in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so may he be our refuge today.

Let's not plot against God in vain because all of our sinful plotting is in vain. It's worthless. So let's instead bow before the King. Let us kiss the son and let's take refuge in him today and each and every day. Let us go to prayer.

Father in heaven, we praise you today, O Lord, for you are higher than all things. Nations rage and people plot against you, but it is vain for you are powerful, good, and just. Our plans against you are worthless and so we pray that we would desire to conform our lives to your law and your will. We ask that we would be reminded of your word throughout our day that we might submit to it and conform our lives to your good and holy law.

And today we lift up our covenant children to you. The last several months have been difficult for them in ways that many of us cannot understand. We pray that you would fill them with joy as they go out into your creation this week. We pray that we would be faithful to teach them your truth and disciple them in the faith. Grant us perseverance in keeping our baptismal promises to them and guide the words of our mouths in proclaiming the good news of the gospel to them. Bless us with the continual reminder that our children are a good blessing from you, our benevolent Lord. And now as we begin our day, we ask for the strength to do your will. We take refuge in you today and know that because of this we are blessed beyond measure. We pray all of these things in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Have yourself a very good and blessed Thursday. Take care.

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