Psalm 2 – 150 Days of Purposeful Meditation (Day 2) Remix

God is laughing hysterically at the state of our Union.  We celebrate this day as our independence day.  The day that our nation declared independence from the authority that then ruled over it.  Since then, we have been on an increasing decline drifting farther and farther away from all authority…except our own.

The Kings of Psa 2 “take their stand together against the Lord and His anointed…[so that they may] tear [the Lord’s] fetters…and cast away [His] chords from them.”  They want the right to rule and govern themselves apart from God, their creator.  They want to make their own decisions about what is right and what is wrong.  They want to make their own standards of law and morality.  They want to write their own commandments to live by.  They do not want the Lord or His Anointed sticking their noses into their business.

Sound familiar?  Our own nation, as many freedoms as we boast of (even the fact that I am able to write this without threat of open persecution is indicative of the freedoms we enjoy), as much relative good as we pursue; it is all ultimately for the expressed purpose of pursuing our own standard of “happiness” apart from any outside ruling authority.  This agenda is very clear, though its hard to know where to begin the discussion.  Marriage, abortion, homosexual “rights”, even the blurring of gender and gender roles.  These are among the many issues that our government is in the process of redefining and legislating according to its own agenda (admittedly the agenda of the “people”), apart from the expressed agenda of the Lord and His Anointed.  We quibble about gun control, taxes and privacy while as a nation we collectively thumb our noses at our Creator and His chosen King.  We have nationally rejected His law, His way and His chosen One.  The message of this Psalm is for us, today.

How does the Lord respond to the state of our union today?  Is He worried?  Is He afraid of where we may go next?  Is He concerned that we used to follow a morality consistent with Judeo-Christian values and have in recent days made every attempt to distance ourselves from those values?  No.  This Psalm tells us that as He looks down from Heaven upon the United States of America with its “In God we trusts” and “God bless America’s”, He sits back and laughs hysterically.

4 He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them. (Psa 2:4 NAU)

He laughs and He mocks us as we seek to redefine morality in our own image.  Autonomy is the god of our day along with his children, relativism and tolerance.  These have become our championed values, the new morality and anyone who resists this morality is counted as treasonous.  And since the Lord and His Anointed One are decidedly against the gods of our nation; we seek to sever our connection with Him at any costs.  And yet this is the very thing that moves God to hysterical laughter, even mockery.

We love the idea of “free will.”  There is a doctrine in the world of men that speaks of free will as that which is an inalienable right, an innate quality of mankind.  And yet in this we have deceived ourselves.  There is no such thing as absolute freedom among men.  We are created beings and by definition are subject to our creator.  Thus there is no absolute freedom.  And even if there were no creator and we came into being solely on the basis of chance (which the probability of such a theory, though widely held, flings one headlong into insanity); then it would be chance to whom we are subject and not we ourselves.  Thus again, leaving no room for absolute freedom.  Either we are subject to a Creator or we are subject to chance.  Nevertheless, we are created beings and as such are ultimately subject to the divine will.  We may not acknowledge that, but God certainly knows it to be true.  And He no more needs to convince us of that than we need convince an ant that the underside of our boot is able to crush them.  It simply is.  Thus we may mock the futile attempt of an ant to run away in terror as we approach it with the expressed purpose of crushing it knowing that it will never be anything more than a futile attempt.

Clearly that is the nature of the message of this Psalm.  Our attempts to throw away His fetters, to disconnect ourselves from the Sovereign will of God are futile.  We may feel that we do well to run far away from the approach of the iron rod that is coming but it will never be anything more than a futile attempt.  This Psalm is forward looking.  It predicts the time in the future when the Lord’s Anointed will literally reign upon the earth and when the kings of the earth will literally reject and rebel against His authority.  And yet none will escape His Almighty judgments against their rebellion.

 9 ‘You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.'” (Psa 2:9 NAU)

Yet while the prediction of this Psalm will ultimately not be fulfilled until that day, we know that the judgments of the Lord may also be given in the present day.  There is no promise in scripture for the United States of America.  There is no promise for its endurance, for its remaining prominence, for its future.  There is really no mention of the United States in any of the prophetic writings, no matter how some bible teachers stretch and twist the words of scripture to attempt to place her on the map.  Either she will fall prior to that day or she will be so greatly diminished that she is not worth mentioning.  Sometimes silence speaks louder than words.

What does that mean for us?  Even as we celebrate the day that our nation took on its own international identity, we should set realistic expectations about our place in His world.  We can either ignore prophecy and assume that it doesn’t apply to us or acknowledge that His word is true and valuable (Psalm 1) and act accordingly.  If you choose to acknowledge the truthfulness and value of God’s word you would do well to consider the following warning:

10 Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; Take warning, O judges of the earth.
11 Worship the LORD with reverence And rejoice with trembling.
12 Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, For His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him! (Psa 2:10-12 NAU)

The real issue facing our nation today is a matter of worship…and obedience.  Who will we worship and who will we obey?  Do we continue to worship our independence and seek to obey the god of autonomy?  Or do we return and worship the Lord with reverence and seek to obey His Son, the King whom He has chosen?

The cost is real.  “Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled.”  The warning is that this Son, the divinely chosen King, may become angry and cause the rebelling nations to perish.  This is the same perish from Psalm 1, mentioned in an earlier post.  These two Psalms were meant to be taken together as an introduction to the whole book of 150 Psalms.  Thus the identity of the blessed One of Psalm 1 and this One mentioned here as the Son who is installed as King are one and the same.  The reason why He is chosen above all others is clear from Psalm 1, because of His love for and delight in the will of God.  Furthermore this connection to that which will perish is another indication as to His duty as the blessed One, the chosen King.  He is sent forth with a “rod of iron” to “shatter” those who have rebelled against the Lord of Heaven.  His anger is a righteous anger, a holy anger, a God sanctioned divine anger sent down from heaven against ungodly rebellion.  This day is coming.  The King has been chosen.  Indeed scripture testifies elsewhere:

having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent,
31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed (Act 17:30-31 NAU)

“Do homage to the Son…”  “Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling.”

We seek freedom in the arms of the god of autonomy.  We seek to cast away the sovereignty of our Creator but instead cast ourselves headlong into subjugation to our own devices and the consequences that result.  And yet there is the offer of true freedom remaining.

How blessed are all who take refuge in Him! (Psa 2:12 NAU)

the Lord Jesus Christ,
4 who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, (Gal 1:3-4 NAU)

It was for freedom that Christ set us free (Gal 5:1 NAU)

True blessing.  True happiness is found in the One who gave Himself up for us to deliver us from the evil of this age (even the evil that we have conceived as a result of our quest for independence).  True freedom is found in the Lord Jesus Christ, the truly blessed and happy One, the chosen King, the Son to whom homage is due.  True freedom is found in Him and in Him alone.

As you celebrate this Independence Day, rejoice in the One who died for you to deliver you, not from political, social or moral oppression, but from the oppression of your own lawlessness.  If you haven’t trusted in Him yet, this can be your independence day.  This can be a day of reverent worship and rejoicing over the One who is truly worthy if you cease striving and humble yourself before His rule.  If you have trusted in Him already then independence day should have a fuller meaning for you.  For you it must go beyond the stars and stripes.  For you it will be a time to remember the stripes and shed blood that He bore on the cross for you…and the resulting freedom from sin that you now enjoy as one who takes refuge in Him.

Maranatha!

Psalm 1 – 150 Days of Purposeful Meditation (Day 1) Remix

This is a second take at a post that I did back in 2008.

God is for those who love Him.  “The Lord knows the way of the righteous…”  That does not mean that He simply has knowledge of them.  That is evident from the second half of the verse.  The second half of the verse is a contrast intended to provide clarity to the first.  “but the way of the wicked will perish.”  In other words, “knowing the way” is contrasted with “perishing.”  In other words, the Lord will establish the way of the righteous but He will confound and destroy the way of the wicked.  Certainly the rest of the Psalm has eloquently (in the language of Hebrew poetry) born out this truth.

It may be helpful at this point to make clear the difference between the righteous and the wicked.  These two terms may at first seem to convey a sense of inherent morality.  But that is not the point.  The difference between those who are considered righteous and those who are considered wicked, in this Psalm is clearly their response to the law of the Lord.  The godly are those who delight in the law of the Lord and who take their meditation in it day and night (a Hebrew way of saying at all times).  To take delight in God’s word is to take delight in Him in the same way that lovers hang on every word of their beloved.  Those who are wicked, by obvious intended contrast, do not take their delight in the the Lord, nor in His law.  They are described as “wicked”, “sinners”, “scoffers” particularly because they do not walk in His way.

In other words, those who are righteous in the eyes of the Lord are those who take His word seriously.  They are those who take delight in His word as truth, as valuable.  They are those who long for His word and who seek His word often above all other knowledge and philosophy.  God’s word is truth and those whom He considers righteous, acknowledge His word as truth.  By contrast, those are considered wicked who fail to acknowledge the truth, value and rightness of God’s word.  They do not delight in His word.  They ignore and reject His word.  They essentially ignore and reject Him because they reject His word.  They seek to make their own truth.  They may say  “if that is good for you, that’s fine” “this is good for me, I have my own truth.”  And they find it virtuous to encourage relative truth.  Truth, cannot by definition be relative.  Truth is absolute and objective.  The wicked reject God’s truth and they scoff at those who hold to it.

And yet, again, God is for those who are righteous.  While the wicked may scoff at his taking delight in God’s law, God rewards his faithfulness.  Verse 1 speaks of the “blessedness” (or happiness) of the man who is righteous.  And the many blessings are laid out and described in vivid word pictures that follow.  He is pictured as a “tree planted by the streams of waters”.  To be planted by the streams of waters is to be given the best access to the source of life.  It is to be placed in the best possible location for the roots of the tree to find the vital nutrients and refreshment that it needs to live and thrive.  The one who is righteous is given such a connection.  And this connection that he has informs us of why the rest of what is said is true.  Because of this vital connection to the source of life where this tree is planted, he bears fruit, he does not wither and he prospers.  He is a tree that “brings forth fruit in season”.  This doesn’t promise that there will be seasons where fruit is not borne.  But it does promise fruit in its season, at the right time.  When it is time for this tree to produce fruit, He will ensure that it does.  Moreover, “its leaf does not wither”.  That means it will not lose its vitality.  It will not grow weary in producing fruit, nor in waiting until the season to produce fruit comes.  Its leaf will not wither.  The tree may grow old.  It will last as long as it is intended.  But while it lasts, its leaf will not wither.  And “whatever he does he prospers”.  This man (or woman) is made to prosper in whatever he does, not because of his own piety, but because he has held fast to the word of God.  Because He honors God.  Because He takes delight in God through His word, God promises to bless, to fill with happiness by prospering him in whatever he does.  Certainly the “whatever he does” means whatever he does in the context of God’s divine will and purposes for Him.  For God would not bless “whatever he does” if whatever he does is in contradiction to His word (or else he would then fall into the category of the wicked).  These are some of the many blessednesses/happinesses of the one who is righteous, who delights in the word of God.

Does this describe you?  You who consider yourselves righteous.  Are you one who delights in the word and ways of God?  Do you take delight in knowing His mind, in knowing His truth and His way?  Do you take delight in pursuing His way, regardless of what scoffers say?  How does your life measure up to the one described in Psalm 1.  Are you delighting in the Word of God today?  Are you delighting in His way, His wisdom or in the wisdom of the wicked of this world?  One way for you to know is to measure yourself against the blessed one of Psalm 1.  Are you bearing fruit in season?  Are you maintaining a vibrant spiritual life or are you withering?  Are you prospering in your work, whatever the Lord has given you to do?  We all have seasons of life where one or more of these things may not be true for other reasons.  But these things should be generally true of us if we are staying connected to the source of life.  If we have taken hold of and delighted in the Word of God, these things should be true of us.

Perhaps you are on the other side of the coin.  Perhaps you are the wicked.  God does distinguish between those who are righteous and those who are wicked.  And it has nothing to do with our concept of what is right or wicked.  It has everything to do with His absolutely sovereign decision to declare righteous those who take delight in His word, His truth.  Perhaps you are wondering, “who is able to do such a thing?”  Who is able to fully take delight in the word and way of God through His law?  Who has not transgressed His law?  Here is the good news.  The good news is that there is One who has taken full delight in the law of God.  And from that One, the Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed One, the Righteous One, we are invited to share in His blessedness, His happiness by faith.

“BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A CHOICE STONE, A PRECIOUS CORNER stone, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.” (1Pe 2:6 NAU)

“BEHOLD, I HAVE COME TO DO YOUR WILL.” (Heb 10:9 NAU)

Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work. (Joh 4:34 NAU)

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. (Mat 5:6 NAU)

“Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. (Joh 17:17 NAU)

28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (Rom 8:28 NAU)

And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;
2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. (1Jo 2:1-2 NAU)