Psalms 2:1-12

Psalms 1:41

Gordon Churchyard

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God Rules OK!

Psalms 2

Gordon Churchyard

Jesus said, "Do not be afraid. You believe in God. Believe in me also". (John 14:1)

Psalms 2

v1 Why are nations planning together?
Why are people having such stupid ideas?

v2 - v3 Why are their kings saying,
"We will not obey the LORD"?
Why are their leaders saying,
"We will not do what his Messiah says"?

v4 He that is sitting above the skies will laugh.
The Lord will say that they are stupid.

v5 Then he will say angry words to them.
He will make them very frightened because he is so angry.

v6 He will say, "I myself put my king in Zion.
I put him on my holy mountain".

v7 I will tell you what God has decided to do.
The LORD said to me, "You are my son.
Today I have given you the *honour that goes with that name.

v8 Ask me for anything! I will give you nations.
The whole world can be yours.

v9 You will rule them with an iron *sceptre.
You will break them like a *clay pot".

v10 So now, you kings, be careful.
You world leaders, listen to this:

v11 Become the servants of the LORD.
Remember that he is very powerful.

v12 Kiss his son or God will be angry.
He may be so angry that you will die.
Only the people that come to the LORD are really happy.
He will make them safe.

The Story of Psalms 2

David, or his friend Nathan, probably wrote Psalms 2. In verses 1 - 3 he asks, "Why are all the other countries attacking me?" In verses 4 - 6, he says that this will make God very angry. This is because David is the king that God put in Jerusalem. Countries that attack David are really attacking God!

In verses 7 - 9 David says that when he became king he also became a son of God. So God will give him everything that he asks for. In verses 10-12, David tells the world leaders to obey the king. This is what "kiss his son" means! David the king is God's son.

Psalms 2 is not only about David and other kings of Israel. It is also about Jesus. The prophets said that Jesus would be king of all the nations. David never ruled the whole world. Jesus will rule the whole world. He will do this when he returns to the earth. Now he is ruling in heaven with God.

When Jesus rules the world, he will rule us also. David, or Nathan, wrote Psalms 2 long ago. Jesus had a friend called Peter. Peter wrote that the message of the prophets was for us. David and Nathan were prophets. One of them wrote Psalms 2 for us! God ruled the nations 3000 years ago. He still rules them today. GOD RULES OK!

What Psalms 2 means

Verses 1 – 3: Though all the good kings of Israel were messiahs (God's kings) it is really about Jesus the Messiah. A man named Luke wrote a part of the Bible that we call Acts. In Acts 4:25-26 he repeated Psalms 2: 3. He tells us there that Herod and Pilate were 2 of the leaders that the Psalm meant! Herod and Pilate were the leaders that killed Jesus. Some of the people in the psalm were the Jews that killed Jesus. They all decided that Christ (the Greek word for "Messiah") must die.

Verses 4 – 6; God put David in Zion as king. When David died, his son Solomon became king and so on. Jesus was the last man that God put as king in Jerusalem. Herod, Pilate and the Jews killed Jesus. Where Jesus died Pilate wrote, "The King of the Jews." Really, Jesus offered himself and God said that he was king. "Sitting above the skies" means "in heaven."

Verses 7 – 9: Jesus is the only person ever born on earth a son of God. Everyone else must become a son of God by becoming born again. "Born again" means "believing in Jesus". God then gives us new life. It is as though we start life again! In Acts 13: 33 Luke repeated another verse from Psalms 2. He wrote, "Paul said that the words 'You are my son' came true when God raised Jesus from the dead". Paul was a friend of Luke. Acts tells the story of the start of the Church.

Verses 10 – 12: This part is important today. We must all become servants of the LORD. If we do not we will die. We will not live with Jesus always in heaven. When we come to Jesus, he becomes our friend. But we must remember who he is. Jesus is God! We must not become too friendly. Though we are friends, we are also servants. But this is the only way to become happy and safe.

Something to do

1. Read Psalms 2 aloud with some friends:

• a lot of people read Psalms 2: 1-3 (the angry nations)

• a few people read Psalms 2: 4-6 (what God says)

• one person reads Psalms 2: 7-9 (King David)

• everyone reads Psalms 2: 10-12 (the crowd when David became King)

2. If you have a Bible, find the book of Daniel. Read Daniel 2. Is it a bit like Psalms 2:9? If you cannot find a Bible, here is a part of the story.

Nebuchadnezzar was king in Babylon. Babylon was about 1000 kilometres east of Israel. Today we call it Iraq. Nebuchadnezzar was king 600 years before Jesus came to the earth. Nebuchadnezzar had a dream. It is in Daniel. He dreamed that he saw a great big man. The head was gold and the body was silver. The legs were copper, and the feet were iron and clay. Silver and copper are metals. A very large stone broke the feet of clay. The whole thing fell down. Daniel said that it meant that all the nations in the world would come under God's rule. GOD RULES OK!

3. Pray that all the nations in the world will obey the rules of God.

honour ~ when people see someone as great and good.
honour ~ when people think that you are important and honest
honour ~ say and do good things to someone
sceptre ~ a special stick that a king held
clay ~ a material that people dig from the ground