Years ago, I helped gather signatures in Arkansas to petition the state to hold a referendum to vote on adding the Unborn Child Amendment to the Arkansas constitution. I remember one man who told me he couldn't sign the petition because he was afraid it might be a conspiracy to mandate socialized medicine. The Unborn Child Amendment stated that the state has a duty to protect the life of every unborn child. Its intention was to state that the state of Arkansas does not believe in anyone's right to kill an unborn child. We wanted that stated in the state constitution in anticipation of the day when the national Supreme Court's ruling on abortion is overturned. That was the intended purpose of the Unborn Child Amendment, but this man interpreted the amendment's wording as a mandate for prenatal socialized medicine. He went on to share with me that he also believed that the fluoridation of our water supply was really a communist conspiracy to poison America. He confided in me that fluoride is really a form of rat poison.
Some people see conspiracies everywhere. It usually doesn't do any good to argue with such people. If you argue with them, they will dismiss you as a fool hopelessly duped by the conspiracy. If you argue too vigorously, they will think you are actually a part of the conspiracy. We shouldn't be obsessed with conspiracies and believe that every event is tied to some group's effort to take over the world. But then again, neither should we be naive and deny that there are some such efforts. I believe we today all know of one conspiracy that is real and not something to laugh at. There is a network called Al Qaeda, an organization run by Osama bin Laden. This is a secretive terrorist network with cells groups believed to be operating in 35 countries, including the United States and Canada. In February 1998, bin Laden made the following proclamation:Now we mustn't assume that every Muslim takes this religious order seriously anymore than we think every American Christian took seriously the rantings and ravings of the terrorist John Brown in the 1850s. We do, however, know that bin Laden is deadly serious, and that some Muslims are following his call to war. We need to take this threat seriously, but we should not lose hope, we should not be paralyzed by fear, we should not become despondent. Our Scripture reading today is the classic Biblical text on evil conspiracies. There we are going to learn God's attitude toward these conspiratorial efforts to overthrow the kingdom of God and to take over the world. I believe this psalm will reassure you and restore your inner peace and confidence after the upsetting events of recent days. This psalm is very structured, more so than most psalms. It has four distinct parts, and each part has a different speaker speaking from a distinct location. The first section is verses 1-3. The location is the counsel chambers of the wicked who are conspiring together, and the subject is their delusions. The second section is verses 4-6. The location is heaven and the throne room of God, and the subject is God's derision. The third section is verses 7-9. The location is the Messiah's throne room, and the subject is the Messianic decree. The fourth section is verses 10-12. The location is the Psalmist's pulpit, and the subject is the Psalmist's directions in the sense of instruction and counsel. Delusions, Derision, Decree, and Directions. These are the four divisions of the psalm, and now I want us to think our way through it. First, Delusions, the delusions of the wicked who are conspiring together. The psalmist says, Yes, there is such a thing as evil conspiracies. There are people and even rulers who plot and take counsel together to overthrow legitimate authority that is set up by God.... we issue the following fatwa to all Muslims:
The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it ...
We -- with God's help -- call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God's order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it. We also call on Muslim ulema, leaders, youths, and soldiers to launch the raid on Satan's U.S. troops and the devil's supporters allying with them, and to displace those who are behind them so that they may learn a lesson.
This psalm had immediate reference to the rule of King David. The psalm itself does not tell us who wrote it, but the New Testament does. We learn in Acts 4:25 that God spoke this psalm by the mouth of His servant David. So the psalm had immediate reference to those Gentiles nations within the boundaries of the land given to Abraham which were at one point in submission to the rule of King David but later rebelled against that rule.
We see from this psalm that King David was no ordinary ruler. He was God's Anointed, the one anointed to rule by God Himself. God had sent His prophet Samuel to pour anointing oil on David's head. To rebel against the righteous rule of King David was to rebel against God Himself.
That is the immediate context of this psalm, but some of the language is too exalted and too universal to be totally fulfilled within this Old Testament context. And when we get to the New Testament, we find that this psalm is repeatedly applied to Jesus as the greater Son of David. This is what we call a typological fulfillment. The psalm had a legitimate reference to an Old Testament situation, but it also has a higher, more exalted fulfillment in the life of Jesus. In New Testament times, God exalted the resurrected Christ and enthroned him in the heavenly Zion, which at the right hand of God. This is the place of all authority over all nations. The resurrected Jesus said that God had given him all authority in heaven and on earth. God has given all the nations of this earth to the resurrected Jesus as His inheritance. In its New Testament application, this psalm has reference to all nations and individuals who rebel against the universal crown rights of King Jesus seated at the right hand of God the Father.
Nations and peoples do conspire against the righteous rule of Jesus. This is a conspiracy rooted in antiquity. This conspiracy goes all the way back to Genesis chapter 3 where Satan conspired with Adam and Eve against God. This is when Satan tempted Adam and Eve to eat that forbidden fruit. God had given all the fruit trees in the garden as food for Adam and Eve with only one exception. They were not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, a tree which stood for God's sovereign right to define what is good and what is evil. Surely you would agree that this was a light restriction that could be easily kept. God's yoke was easy and His burden was light. But Satan convinced Adam and Eve that this was an unfair restriction, a heavy burden difficult to bear. Satan cried out,
Let us break God's bonds in piecesAdam and Eve followed Satan's counsel and fell into sin. And Satan has been calling people to join His conspiracy against God and His authority ever since.
And cast away His cords from us.Satan inspires people to rage against God. They become inwardly like the roaring sea, tossed to and fro with restless waves. They become inwardly like an ocean in the midst of a storm.
We learn from this psalm that these Satan inspired conspirators do not necessarily lash out hastily. They go about their warfare craftily, deliberately. They can be like the Pharaoh, who in Exodus chapter one when he is plotting the enslavement of God's people, said, "Let us deal wisely with them."
We also read in this psalm that these conspirators take counsel together. Satan's kingdom is by its very nature a divided kingdom because it is a kingdom rooted in sin and rebellion. Satan promised Adam and Eve, "You shall be as gods." So everyone in Satan's kingdom views himself as a god and lusts to be in control. And yet before God and God's kingdom, before their common enemy, these people in this divided kingdom can stand together and take counsel together. I am reminded of what Luke 23:12 says about Pilate and Herod as they worked together in the trial which led to the crucifixion of Jesus:
That very day Pilate and Herod became friends with each other, for previously they had been at enmity with each other.In our psalm, we also learn what the conspirators conspire against. They conspire against the rule of God and Jesus. They characterize this rule as restraining bonds and restricting cords as if they were bound and gagged by the law of God.
Jesus said, My yoke is easy and my burden is light. By the grace of God, we have come to recognize that this is true. The limits and restrictions of the law of God and the rule of Christ are the bonds that hold life together. If they restrain anything, it is chaos and disorder.
These rebels are like a kite soaring in the skies that views the kite string as a restriction and a limitation. They fantasize that if only the kite string were cut, they could soar with the freedom of a bird. In reality, that string is the key to the kite's ability to fly. The tension caused by the string is what is keeping the kite in the air. They want to sever the string, but if the string is severed, the kite will plunge to the earth. The kite string is God's law and Christ's rule. The kite that wants the string cut is the self-deceived conspirator against God and His Anointed.
The next section of the psalm has to do with God's derision. First, the conspirators' delusion, and then, God's derision.
These rebels are self-deceived. What they plot is a vain thing, an impossibility. They are lost in a Satanically inspired fantasy as they conspire against the rock of reality. Some carnivals have an attraction called a crazy mirror. It distorts everything. Tall people look short, short people look tall, thin people look big, and big people look thin. It is like these people are looking at life through a crazy mirror. When they look at themselves, they see the lords of the world. When they look upon God, they see only a minor obstacle to their plans. These people are blinded by delusions, but God in heaven sees the reality of the situation.
Here is where we find comfort. When God is confronted with the plots of men to overthrow His kingdom and to take over the world, God does not go into a panic. He does not pace to and fro in despair. On the contrary, God remains calmly seated upon His throne. He doesn't even get up. It is not worth the effort. This calm and serene God in the midst of the plots of the evil is the God who is so great that the nations are before Him as the fine dust on the scales. That is the fine layer of dust on scales that is so insignificant that no one worries about it when they weigh something.
Before God, their conspiracy is a vain thing, a useless thing, a hopeless thing. Their rage may be great, but
Like rising waves, with angry roar,Their plots and plans will bear no lasting fruit.
That dash and die upon the shore.The Bible is full of accounts of people who tried to overthrow the rule of God. God always puts them down, and sometimes with what we call poetic justice. These cases indicate that God has a sense of irony, even a sense of humor.
Pharaoh decreed the drowning of the Hebrew infant boys, but his very own daughter retrieved the infant Moses from the river and became God's agent to prepare him to be His people's deliverer. And Moses would one day lift his staff over the waves of the Red Sea, and the Pharaoh would drown.
Or think about the evil Hamaan who plotted and conspired to kill Mordecai and all Mordecai's people. He constructed near his own house a great gallows and made plans to have Mordecai hung on it. But who was hung upon that gallows? It was Hamaan himself.
You see, God is sovereign. He is in control of history. And He is so great that when people try to overthrow His kingdom, He can afford to remain seated and to laugh in scorn at their puny efforts. God is so sovereign that He laughs at the efforts of the evil ones against His kingdom. Yet we learn elsewhere in the Bible that God is also so compassionate that He weeps with us in our suffering. He laughs at His enemies, but He weeps with His people as we suffer for His kingdom. He joins us in our grief. What a great God we have!
The third point we see in this psalm is the Messianic decree: God had set His Anointed upon His holy hill. This first had reference to God's sending Samuel to anoint David with oil and to God's elevating David over King Saul and putting him on Israel's throne. But it has a more exalted reference to God's anointing Jesus with the Holy Spirit beyond measure, and then raising Jesus from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in authority over all the nations of the earth.
The second Psalm is rooted in the covenant which God made with David in 2 Samuel chapter 7. There God first established David's rule:
The covenant then made provision for David's Son, a provision fulfilled in a limited way by Solomon and his royal descendants but in an exalted way by the resurrected and ascended Jesus:
8 "Now therefore, thus shall you say to My servant David, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: "I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people, over Israel. 9 "And I have been with you wherever you have gone, and have cut off all your enemies from before you, and have made you a great name, like the name of the great men who are on the earth. We see the more exalted fulfillment when the second psalm talks about an eternal throne and a dominion that reaches to the ends of the earth. The northern boundary of the land promised to Abraham was the Euphrates River, but for the Messiah, the land promise is extended from the River to the ends of the earth:
12 "When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 "He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 "I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. ... 16 "And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever."
9 "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; he is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey. 10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem; the battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations; his dominion shall be 'from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.'" Zechariah 9:9-10 The Messiah ruling from the right hand of God is then pictured as a king with a rod of iron, and His enemies are pictured as fragile pottery. He uses the rigid and hard rod of iron with force upon the brittle pottery and dashes it to pieces. That is a poetic way of saying that he shatters His enemies and defeats them decisively.
Of course, we know that when Jesus returns at the end of this age, He will consume His enemies with the breath of His mouth and destroy them with the brightness of His coming. But I believe that Jesus also wields this rod of iron within this age, though not so decisively. Through the ages, there have been many efforts to overthrow the church and to establish a universal evil empire. They have all failed and been consigned to the dustbins of history.
That brings us to the concluding words of this psalm. First we say the people's delusion, then God's derision, and then the Messianic decree. Lastly, we see the psalmist's directions, the instructions the psalmist gives us in light of what has just been said. We find his counsel if verses 10 through 12:
10 Now therefore, be wise, O kings; be instructed, you judges 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, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him. Beloved, there is the compassionate Jesus, but there is also the Jesus of righteous indignation who made a scourge of cords. This severe side of Jesus gives us comfort when we are threatened by His enemies and ours, who conspire to destroy the kingdom of God and to conquer the world for evil. If they kindle His wrath but a little, they will be overcome. Unlike Nebuchadnezzar, our God does not need to heat a furnace seven times over in order to punish. Our God is a consuming fire.
The psalmist's advice to all the nations of the world is that they kiss the Son. This is referring to the kiss of submission as an acknowledgement of His rule. The authority to rule is already His. Now the nations need to acknowledge it and submit to it.
The nations need to serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. In the book of Exodus, God gave instructions for the worship at the tabernacle. There was a special incense with specific ingredients which was to be used exclusively for the worship of God at the tabernacle. What we have here at the end of the second psalm is the recipe for the incense the nations are to use when they serve the Lord. That holy compound is joy with fearful trembling. Serving God in fear without joy is slavery and torment. Serving God in joy without fearful trembling is presumption. We serve God with joy, but not flippantly. We must remember what a great God we serve and what a privilege it is to serve him. We rejoice in the Lord, but not without the trembling of respect before Him. This is the holy compound of new covenant incense which arises as a sweet smelling savor before our God.
This is the psalmist's counsel to all the nations of the earth.
G.K. Chesterton said, "The church is a perpetually defeated thing which always survives its conquerors." That has indeed been the history of the church. The ancient Waldensians pictured the church as an anvil with many wornout hammers lying all around it. The anvil is the church, and the hammers are the enemies of God's people who have tried to beat the church into submission but have themselves been worn out in the process. The church is a perpetually defeated thing - that is the appearance - which always survives its conquerors - that is the reality.
Jesus is at the right hand of God. The gates of hell will not prevail against the kingdom of God. The reign of Jesus in history will not be overthrown. His kingdom is the only eternal kingdom. No conspiracy will overthrow it, and it is the one kingdom that will still be standing at the end of this age.