The Truth about History

[0:00] Well, we're going to turn now to our Bible reading for this morning, and once again we're looking at the book of Psalms. And this week, Psalm 2. Last week we looked at Psalm 1, and so we're going to look at Psalm 2 this week.

[0:14] I think in our church Bibles you'll find that on page 448. And remember we said last time that the book of Psalms isn't just a random collection.

[0:24] It's quite carefully ordered. There's a pattern to be seen. There are five books of Psalms, five separate collections altogether, probably, very possibly mirroring the five books of the Pentateuch, the first five books of Moses, the books of the law.

[0:43] And if that is so, it just helps to make the point that the Psalms are not just the church's hymn book, although they are that. They're full of teaching, full of great theological truth, which is what, of course, all Christian song, all believing song ought to be full of.

[0:57] It isn't always, but it ought to be. And these first two Psalms, which possibly at one time were all considered as one Psalm, but these first two Psalms in our Bibles, the way we have them, are something like the gateway to the whole book of Psalms.

[1:14] They teach us some very important things, give us, if you like, some lenses through which to look at all the expressions of life and faith that come in the rest of the Psalter.

[1:25] The first Psalm we saw last week tells us the truth about happiness, that God's Word directs His world and His people. And blessed are those who do not turn away from that and to the words of the world, but who turn away from the foolishness of the world and to the wisdom of the Word of God.

[1:46] Blessed is the man who delights in the law of the Lord. And Psalm 2, rather similarly, gives us another very important pillar that we have to understand.

[1:57] If we're going to understand anything about life and certainly anything about this world and history and our own lives, it teaches us the truth about history, about why the world is as it is, and about what the true end of human history will be.

[2:16] So let's read Psalm 2 together then. 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.

[2:41] 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 sent my king on Zion, my holy hill.

[3:01] 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.

[3:15] 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.

[3:26] 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.

[3:42] Blessed are all who take refuge in Him. Amen. May God bless to us.

[3:53] This is His Word. Well, if you would turn with me to Psalm number 2, page 448 in the Church Visitors' Bibles.

[4:11] And this Psalm is, as I said, all about the truth about history. Why do the nations rage? Why is this world in such a mess?

[4:24] We certainly do live in tumultuous times. The airwaves have been full of noise of tumult, haven't they, in these last weeks about war and turmoil, the horrors of terrorism, not just in far, far away places, but on beaches just a couple of hours away and a plane from here where many of us perhaps have been.

[4:46] Noise of economic turmoil and the Greek crisis, all the acrimony, all the hostility, all the fallout right across Europe. The European Union itself showing grave signs of fracture and great fragility.

[5:02] In the late 1990s, there was quite a famous book published called The End of History and the Last Man. And it spoke about liberal democracy and especially the kind of transnational rule of something like the European Union.

[5:22] And it spoke about that as representing the final high point in the evolution of human society. that beyond which no further progress was really going to be possible.

[5:35] This was the high point, the end of history. And all things were going to pan out just wonderfully. Well, just 20 years later and things look rather different, don't they?

[5:50] That optimism about modern man's ability to scale the heights of permanent peace and prosperity, it just doesn't seem to fit too well with the way history seems to be unfolding in this 21st century.

[6:03] Why is the story of human history as it is? One of wars and turmoil, discord, disaster, famine and genocide, seemingly intractable, raging of nations against nation, civilization against civilization, neighbor against neighbor, now that is the question that many people ask.

[6:29] And of course, many people aim that question at God, don't they? Why do the nations race? Why is the world in such a mess if there is a God? If there is a God, it must be his fault.

[6:42] If he exists, why doesn't he put a stop to such things? He doesn't. So, there can't be a God at all, can there? And the Bible is just a lot of fables, a lot of wishful thinking.

[6:53] That is how many, many people think. You've heard that said many times, I'm sure. People often speak like that and ask questions like that. And the truth is that because they do that, very often we as Christians feel rather on the back foot, pushed back into a defensive position.

[7:11] But you see, what Psalm 2 teaches us is that there is no need for us as Christians to be pushed back onto the back foot at all.

[7:24] In fact, it's quite the opposite. In fact, the Christian believer is the one who is on the front foot actually posing, searching questions to the world.

[7:35] because we are the ones who have the privilege of knowing God's revelation. Because the author of history and the controller of all history has given us his unique insight into both the meaning of history and its very clear and definite end.

[7:57] And so it's in fact the one who has listened to God's voice who can ask pointed questions to the world. And that's what Psalm 2 tells us. It's the Bible and it's the Christian believer who can interrogate this world of ours and its thinking.

[8:14] The psalmist knows the answers to the world's questions. And actually he is asking a question of his own with a very different emphasis. So you look at verse 1. The Bible's question is not why do the nations rage?

[8:25] What is the reason for the world's turmoil throughout history? That's not the question being asked here. The clue's in the second line, isn't it? Why do the peoples plot in vain?

[8:41] You see, the psalmist is saying this with incredulity. What possible purpose can you have in raging when your rage is directed as verse 2 says against the Lord and against his anointed one?

[8:56] Cannot you see how futile and vain that rage that rage must always be? See, the Bible knows the reason why the world and its history has been so messy and full of such misery.

[9:09] It's because, as verse 2 says, it's because mankind, its kings and its rulers and its nations and its peoples, it's because they are all united in rebellion against the Lord and his anointed one, his Messiah, his Christ.

[9:24] and the Bible's question to the world, you see, is this. Can't you see that that is the root of your problem? And can't you see how utterly absurd and futile it is to think that you can ever possibly prevail against the one who towers above the earth and sits upon the throne in heaven?

[9:46] How can you think that? Do you, do you, the United Nations, the peoples of this world, do you really know who you are setting yourselves up against?

[9:58] That's the question the psalmist's asking here in verse 1. And it's the real question that this whole world needs to face if it's going to begin to grasp and understand the meaning of its own history.

[10:12] Well, you see, the psalm, after this opening question in verse 1, it speaks with four separate voices in turn. And the first, in verses 2 and 3, exposes the truth about the world of human history as we know it in the world's own voice and with the world's own words.

[10:30] And of course, as Christians, we need to listen, don't we? We need to observe this world and its words and its voices. We need to understand this world if we're going to answer it. So look at verses 2 and 3 where we hear the voice of the United Nations, voice of the powers that be, the ruling elites of this world, the political leaders, the cultural shapers, the intellectual opinion formers of this world.

[10:56] And their words, as the psalmist shows us, are words of rage and rebellion. Verse 2, 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.

[11:14] That is the truth that really explains the history of our world. The world is as it is because of the united opposition and rebellion against God and his Messiah, the anointed one, the Christos, the Christ.

[11:32] In fact, that is the only thing, actually, that can unite our whole world. We all know, don't we, that united nations is almost a contradiction in terms. When has the united nations ever been united? Is there anything that will ever unite America and Iran or China, the east and the west?

[11:53] Is there anything that can ever unite our world of modern secularists on the one hand and Islamist extremists on the other? Well, yes, there is one thing, but only one.

[12:07] And that is hatred and opposition to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that opposition can be sometimes outright raging. We see that, don't we, in the brutal suppression of the church in some places, North Korea, Pakistan, some of the other Islamic nations and so on.

[12:26] And that's verse 1, the rampant rage of those who deliberately target Christians and murder them, who go into churches and blow them up. We've seen that, haven't we, plenty recently in Pakistan, in Nigeria, many other places.

[12:43] But sometimes it's more subtle, it's more snide, it's hidden, it's surreptitious, it's the plotting, as the second line there has it. Murmuring, that word means rumbling and a grumbling sound, muttering away in the background.

[12:58] not so much direct violence, but equal vehemence against God. The quiet but purposeful eroding of the truth of God in society.

[13:11] That's certainly what we've seen in our culture increasingly in the West in the last 50 or 60 years, in schools, in universities, in matters of civil law, in all kinds of ways.

[13:24] Although, of course, today the fact is that those murmurings, those plottings, those mutterings are becoming much louder and louder, aren't they? Much more open, much more trumpeted. Things that were once, just a few decades ago, whispered about in the corridors of power are now shouted openly in the media in a much more brazen way.

[13:45] But you see, whatever the manner, the focus is the same. Verse 3, it's about casting off the bonds, it's about casting off the cords, the concrete, tangible evidence of the rule of God made known in his laws, in his commands, in his instruction for how human beings are to live and how society is to be ordered.

[14:05] And especially in throwing off that whole bondage of the unique lordship of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

[14:17] In our culture, we've seen extraordinary alliances, haven't we, of leaders, of opinion, politicians, writers, opinion formers, educationalists, broadcasters, united together in concerted attacks in a host of different ways on the Bible's instruction for life.

[14:40] For example, particularly in our day in matters of marital fidelity and sexual purity and family life and so on. Matters of the sanctity of human life, the very, very young, the very old, the vulnerable, the frail.

[14:53] Many, many other ways. And at first, it is quiet plottings, murmurings in back rooms of the BBC among avant-garde producers of films and TV programming and so on.

[15:07] In the senior common rooms of universities, liberal academics pushing that agenda. But now, of course, it's flooding out, isn't it, into our mainstream culture all around us today.

[15:22] And so in the West, we're now rejoicing, aren't we, in our post-modern, post-Christian culture. God is long forgotten and God's word is absolutely scorned.

[15:34] And people just laugh. Ha ha! We've cast off that bondage, the stifling commands of God. We've got rid of them. It's just old-fashioned, enslaving nonsense.

[15:44] Good riddance to that. That was exactly the message, wasn't it, just the other week of the Irish referendum about gay marriage. Gay marriage is just the presenting issue. It's just the flagship issue of our day.

[15:58] But what the people of Ireland were doing were sticking up two fingers to God and to the Bible and to the church and to everything to do with that and saying, we've had enough of that.

[16:11] We're throwing it off. It's just a picture, isn't it, of what's exactly true in our own nation and in many other Western nations. You saw it just last week as well in the Supreme Court ruling in the United States.

[16:26] And in Scotland, of course, we're only too glad, aren't we, to shake off any of the dust of what's always called doer Scottish Calvinism that so blighted our past and kept us as slaves as the media would have us believe.

[16:41] Rather forgetting, of course, that it was that so-called doer Scottish Calvinism that brought us liberation from tyrant kings that made us the best educated population in the world at one time, no longer, alas, that laid the ground for so much prosperity through a reputation for honesty in trade and honesty in banking.

[17:04] My goodness, isn't that in tatters? You see, we're much more progressive now, of course. we're much more liberated in our behavior, which, of course, we think has brought us so much happiness.

[17:22] Has it? In a society that has what nobody talks about, rampant and increasingly rampant incidence of sexually transmitted disease.

[17:35] we top the European league tables in that, apparently. It's probably the only thing Scotland will ever top in any league table. As for teenage pregnancy, just the same.

[17:47] And that's despite, here's a frightening statistic, isn't it, that one in three women in our country will have an abortion during the time of their life, but still with a rampant teenage pregnancy.

[18:01] Is the collapse of marriage and family life in our society, is that really such a great liberation? Such a great release from the kind of bondage and slavery and darkness that we imagine God's commands to be, is it?

[18:18] But no, you see, as a society, we laugh. We revel in raging against God and against any who dare say that we should listen to God and who dare say that we should bow to his Christ and listen to his word and live according to his ways.

[18:38] But you see, the Bible says to us and to our society, are you mad? Verse 1, why do you rage so vainly with such utter folly?

[18:51] Can't you see that you're in the grip of a delusion? Can't you see the madness of rejecting God's good and healthy instruction? that alone can bring security and health and peace to human life, to human society, to communities?

[19:13] Are you mad exchanging that for the kind of misery and destruction and destructiveness that you seem intent upon bringing into your whole way of life?

[19:25] Are you mad? can't you see your folly? That's the question that the Bible and indeed that the Christian asks the whole world to ponder.

[19:39] Because you see, as Christians, friends, we know something that this world doesn't about this world's history. We've heard a voice from heaven. Look at verses 4 to 6, you see, where we hear the second voice in our psalm speaking.

[19:52] And it's the voice of God himself. God speaks and his words are words of laughter but also wrath. He laughs, but he's not joining in laughing with the world.

[20:05] He is laughing at the world's rage and railing against him. And he laughs it to scorn, says the psalm. He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision.

[20:17] You see, friends, there is, as we sung, a throne in heaven. And from that omnipotent throne, God laughs with derision at the puny and the pathetic and the pitiful arrogance of human beings.

[20:37] Does that shock you? It will shock you if your idea of God is just a sentimental fantasy of your own making. But you see, the real God of the Bible, when you open your Bible, is shocking.

[20:51] At least here is to proud and arrogant humanity that thinks that it calls the shots. But you see, humanity does not call the shots.

[21:04] Here is God in heaven pricking the bubble of all human pomposity and pride. And nothing cuts us so quickly to the heart, does it, as being laughed at. We know that, don't we?

[21:17] When our children come to us crying, and you say, what's wrong? They were laughing at me. It's what teenagers hate, isn't it? And drives them always to conform so they don't stick out and aren't different and engender the laughter of their peers.

[21:33] Nothing will humble the proud so quickly as scornful laughter. Isn't that true? And friends, here's the truth. When we think like this, God is laughing at us.

[21:50] When we think that we can scorn him and throw off his yoke with impunity, he laughs this world's rebellion to scorn. And the thing is, you see, as Christians, so often, we don't seem to see that.

[22:05] We look around the world and we feel marginalized. We feel as if this world is the one that has the last laugh on us. That's what it often looks like, doesn't it? Think of the scornful disdain that there always is in the media mocking and patronizing Christ and his church.

[22:23] When have you ever seen a clergyman portrayed in a TV sitcom or drama or anything as anything other than utterly feeble? Think of Dad's Army and the epitome of that feeble country vicar.

[22:35] Or it's the Vicar of Dibley or something else. Some of you are old enough to remember the not the nine o'clock news. And Rowan Atkinson's sketches, every one of them, when he was dressed as a vicar, standing in a pulpit, wearing a dress, looking like an absolute idiot.

[22:50] And the church empty. Last week I was here for Harvest Thanksgiving and it was just me, the organist and a tin of beans. Ha ha ha ha ha. You see, that's how our world looks at the church.

[23:01] Pitiful, empty, feeble. Think of the scornful disdain that there is constantly in our newspapers from columnists like Matthew Parrish, like Polly Toynbee, like these others, who heaps scorn on believers, upon the church, on the word of God.

[23:19] It looks to us and it looks to the world as though they do the laughing, that they're in charge, that they're laughing at us. But you see, the psalm teaches us that the reality, friends, is very, very different.

[23:34] Look up and see the throne in heaven. And when you do that, you will see that it is God who has the last laugh, the terrible laughter, the furious anger at the arrogance of man and at the scorn, at the futility and the absurdity of man's rebellion.

[23:56] And you see, it's not merely passive laughter, you see, it is active. In his laughter, God is unveiling his fury at this rebellious world.

[24:06] Verse 5, he speaks to them in his wrath and will terrify them in his anger. What is this word of wrath?

[24:17] What is this great intervention that is going to terrify the world? Well, it's there in verse 6, do you see? He has set his king on Zion. his holy hill.

[24:29] That is God's revelation of terrible judgment upon rebellious man. What does that mean? Well, look at the third voice in the psalm, verses 7 to 9, where we have the voice of God's royal son.

[24:48] God's anointed son speaks himself in words of victory and power. He himself tells us what God has decreed about him. Look at verse 7. I will tell of the decree.

[24:59] 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.

[25:16] God acts against his enemies in the enthronement of his son as king and lord over this whole world. Now of course in the first instance the psalmist is making reference isn't he to God's promise to David in 2 Samuel chapter 7 when God said he would establish his throne and the kingship of his seed forever.

[25:42] But of course David even then knew that God was speaking about something much more than a dynasty in mere time and much more than a rule merely over the nations.

[25:54] His son Solomon his reign would be indeed a mighty reign of peace over enemies. His writ spread far and wide over the surrounding nations. But that was a mere foreshadowing.

[26:08] A foreshadowing of the ultimate fulfillment that God had promised of a throne and a kingdom as he said to David that would last forever. when at last a son in David's line would reign forever over all nations and over the whole earth in glory and blessing forever.

[26:27] Blessing people of every tribe and language and nation. And so what the psalmist you see here foresees is God's ultimate answer to all his scoffing enemies.

[26:39] And we who look from the perspective of the New Testament faith we see even more clearly and even more wonderfully don't we? Because the whole New Testament speaks of the fulfillment of all of this.

[26:52] It's fulfilled in the victorious enthronement of the Lord Jesus Christ risen from the dead God's holy son. In fact this very psalm is quoted isn't it? At every critical stage of life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ at his baptism in his temptations in the wilderness at his transfiguration and above all of course about his resurrection and his ascension to glory.

[27:19] Listen to the apostle Paul in Acts 13 verse 32 what he promised to the fathers this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus as also it is written in the second psalm.

[27:30] You are my son today I have begotten you. You see the very heart of the Christian gospel presented by the apostles is this message that the son of God reigns as ruler enthroned on high that he is appointed to be the son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead as Paul says in Romans 1.

[27:57] But notice verse 9 in the psalm here do you see the shocking nature of this rule? What will he do to the nations to the ends of the earth? Verse 9 he will break them with a rod of iron dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

[28:15] His rule in heaven means the unveiling of the wrath of God in judgment upon this earth. Maybe that shocks you to discover that the very heart of the gospel that Jesus commanded his apostles to preach was this word of the judgment of God in Christ.

[28:40] But that cannot be denied. It might just be worth you turning with me to page 919 to Acts 10 verse 42 just so that you see I'm not making this up.

[28:54] In Acts 10 verse 42 Peter is speaking to Cornelius when Cornelius asks him what it was that Jesus had sent the apostles to preach. and Peter says this Jesus commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be the judge of the living and the dead.

[29:16] Do you see? Turn on just a few pages to Acts chapter 17 and verse 31 page 927 here's Paul speaking to the intellectuals of Athens on Mars Hill to the most learned place in the ancient world just to show that this is not some simple gospel for the hillbillies.

[29:38] What does he say verse 31? He has fixed the day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

[29:52] You may find that shocking but that is what the New Testament gospel is really all about and that's what this psalm is all about. These aren't my words.

[30:04] These are the words spoken from the Son of God himself telling us the plan of God for the whole of human history and indeed for the end of human history. You see the world rages against God.

[30:18] It plots it, it takes counsel, it murmurs, it scorns the Lord, the true God of heaven and it scorns his anointed one, his son, his king, his Christ.

[30:28] It will welcome any kinds of other gods, any kinds of other spiritualities and philosophies and religions and anything except the one true God and the one unique Christ.

[30:41] That it will laugh to scorn always. You can't have that. You can't accept an exclusive message about one Lord and king.

[30:52] No. But friends, the word from heaven's throne room to this earth has been spoken according to God.

[31:05] The Christ, the anointed one, has been enthroned in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And this gospel, spoken from the earliest days as we sang through the prophets, through the psalmists, and now at last, fully and finally in these last days, spoken in his son, in the words of the risen Christ himself, this gospel is the definitive word about the true end of history.

[31:36] Both its terminus and indeed its whole goal and purpose. Not in the evolution of an ever more liberal democracy ushering in an age of peace and harmony on this earth.

[31:49] no, an end at the bar of judgment before the throne of heaven. See, look at verses 7 to 9.

[32:01] These are words of the all powerful victorious judge of all the earth, spoken to us directly from heaven. Well, if that is so, friends, we should be listening, shouldn't we?

[32:15] To the throne of heaven. It would be wise, don't you think? But not only listening, we should be speaking, should we not?

[32:28] You see, verses 10 to 12, there's one last voice, isn't there, in this psalm, and it's the voice of the Christian believer. Because having listened to the world voicing its scorn and rage, but having also listened, having had the privilege of hearing the voice of heaven itself, the words of God himself, concerning the triumph of his son.

[32:50] That means, friends, that we as Christian believers are not cowed into silence, that we are not on the back foot, hiding away, feeling defeated, not at all.

[33:03] Here, the psalmist shows us the Christian believer boldly on the front foot, fearlessly proclaiming a message to the world, even to the great ones, to the kings, to the rulers of the earth. God, he has listened, you see, to the word of true revelation from God, the only world that can reveal the truth about our world and its history and its future.

[33:24] And so he can speak, he has a message, he has a gospel, he has a mighty announcement of news for this whole world. And it is both, as you can see, a fearful warning and a gracious promise.

[33:39] See, first, it is a real and fearful warning what is the message that the Christian brings to the people of this world, from the greatest to the least, from the kings to the lowest ones?

[33:52] What is the gospel, the news that this psalmist proclaims? Well, to use Jesus' own words, the message is simple.

[34:04] Flee, flee from the wrath that is to come. Verse 10, O kings, be wise, be warned, warned, O rulers of the earth, serve the Lord with fear, rejoice with trembling, kiss the sun, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.

[34:24] Don't be fools, you kings, you wise ones, be warned, you politicians, you opinion formers, you journalists, you media stars, the people that everyone listens to, be warned, listen, you lawmakers and judges and supreme courts, you academics, you writers, fear this God, serve him with trembling, kiss the sun, verse 12, bow the knee to his authority now, before it's too late and you perish in the way.

[35:02] That is a very clear warning, is it not? that is the message of the Christian church, that is the message that every Christian believer carries into this scoffing and plotting and raging world.

[35:16] It's a warning, and it's an urgent warning about the wrath of the living God against every pretension in the heart of man to usurp his rule, to throw off his authority.

[35:29] Jesus, the judge, shall come, is what we sang. And he shall judge both the living and the dead. He will judge from the greatest king to the lowest commoner.

[35:46] It's very solemn, isn't it? It's a very serious, solemn message. There is nothing trite, friends, about the real evangelical gospel that the world so loves to patronize.

[35:58] Oh, evangelical, just happy clappy nonsense. There is nothing trite about this evangelical message here, is there? The true gospel, friends, is a real and powerful warning to all, everyone in this whole world.

[36:19] But it is also at the same time a wonderful promise, a gracious promise to all. That dreadful day will come, the end of history, the true end of history. But there is still a day, today, how much longer none of us know, and certainly for each individual we cannot know, but there is still a day of grace, there is still a day of favor, a day of salvation, because God's answer to the arrogant rebellion of man is not judgment alone.

[36:50] That's the truly astounding message of scripture. God did not send his king into this world as a ruthless tyrant to destroy the earth, but he sent him as a suffering king, as a servant king, to be a savior king.

[37:11] He suffered the great avalanche of his own wrath against sin. He was broken by the rod of his own anger against sin, so as he could be for us a savior, so as to become a refuge for everyone, everyone who will flee to him.

[37:32] Not flee from him, that's plainly impossible, as the psalm shows, but flee to him. And so that too, hallelujah, is our message from heaven to this world.

[37:46] It is a certain and wonderful promise. Look at that last line, blessed are all who take refuge in him, all who do serve Christ the king with reverence and fear, who do kiss the son, who do submit to him as lord and master of their lives and of this world.

[38:10] Friends, that is the real truth about history. Jesus Christ and none other is the central figure of history, the central figure of eternity.

[38:20] He rules the universe now with his rod of iron, with a rule that is unbreakable and unshakable. And his rod will break every single human being, every man and woman and child who lives and who has ever lived, either, either with a wonderful, merciful breaking that shatters all human pride and arrogance and brings the real repentance and humility so that we do flee to him and find mercy and refuge.

[39:01] Or, if we will not be broken by his mercy, his rod will break us in the end with a terrible judicial breaking, dashed in pieces like a potter's vessel.

[39:19] Because he will, at last and certainly, he will crush those who, despite all pleas and all offers of mercy, those who go on plotting and laughing and rejecting and casting off the gracious message of his gospel.

[39:46] That's the message, friends, that God has given to us, to you and me who believe and trust him, the message that he's given us for this whole world. How we need to preach that message.

[39:57] We need to preach it to ourselves, don't we, all the time. When we're tried and tested by the laughter and scorn of this world, the powers that be, the people that matter or seem to matter in this world and in our lives and in our arena of existence, whoever they might be, we need to preach it to ourselves.

[40:13] Christ rules, not them, in this world. What a comfort and strength it is to remember that. We need it. We need it when we're tempted to join them, don't we?

[40:26] In wanting to cast off these fetters and bonds of God's rule on our lives, no, be warned, that way is a way of delusion and demonic lies. The truth is that his bonds, his cords are not only our refuge that save us from God's judgment, his bonds are also the very cords of blessing and happiness and fulsome fruitfulness in our lives.

[40:51] God's love. We need this gospel ourselves and we need to preach this gospel, this whole gospel to the world.

[41:04] We're not on the back foot. We know the truth about this world, the truth about history. We have the words of eternal life in our hands, in our hearts and on our lips.

[41:19] the risen Lord Jesus Christ rules history and rules eternity. And so we must tell this world, mustn't we?

[41:31] Kiss the Son, take refuge in the Lord Jesus Christ or face his fearful wrath.

[41:43] The message of this psalm, the message of the whole Bible, the message of the gospel is clear. there is no refuge from him. He is the Christ, the King of kings, the Lord of lords.

[41:59] There is no refuge from him. But there is refuge, says the psalmist. There is refuge in him.

[42:11] Blessed are all who take refuge in him. Amen. let's pray. Gracious God, our Father, how we thank you that in your word, through your Holy Spirit, you open the curtains that veil heaven and earth, and you allow us to see the truth in the heavenly realms.

[42:37] your son, your son, our savior, Jesus Christ, king and lord, enthroned in the heavens and coming to put all things right.

[42:51] May this glorious hope fill our hearts and give our lips the message to proclaim until he comes.

[43:06] For his great glory sake. Amen.