God Laughs (Psalm 2) from South Woods Baptist Church on Vimeo.

Chaos. Anger. Bigotry. Violence. Terrorism. Explosions. Murder. Hatred. Racism. Vengeance. Deceit. Cheating. Abortion. Lying. Stealing. Pornography. Adultery. Rebellion. Arrogance. Bitterness. Devastation. Tragedy. Selfishness. Resentment. Stubbornness. Horror.

It’s just another day on planet Earth.

That’s a bit of the vocabulary that characterizes the actions all about us.

So we long for a better day. Some reflect on the “good old days” of Ozzie & Harriet, Leave it to Beaver, and My Three Sons. Yet while those television shows reflected a make believe world where everything turns out well, the real world languished in the aftermath of the Korean War, the ravages of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, the decade long conflict in Vietnam, the brutality and dehumanization of the Soviet Bloc countries, the bitterness and divisiveness of racism, and the unhinged sexual anarchy that undermined society. No, those were not the good old days. History has no such time.

So you think that I’m an utter pessimist who wants to ruin your Sunday dinner. But not so fast. Just because the world exists in constant rebellion and ruin doesn’t mean that we need to acquiesce and live the same way or hold the same view. Right in the midst of global futility, Jesus came that we might have life and might have it more abundantly (John 10:10). So a tension exists between the seen and the unseen, the temporal and the eternal, the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

The psalmist understood this tension. In the first psalm, as Matt showed us last week, we understand where not to go—the way of the wicked—and where we are going—the way of righteousness. That way is found by delighting in the revelation of God that culminated in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Psalm 2 builds on Psalm 1, while helping us to grasp the bigger picture. Let’s simplify it like this: Psalm 1 helps you to look down and understand clearly where to put your feet in the path of godliness. Psalm 2 helps you to look up and look out to understand what God is doing in the big picture. Psalm 1 keeps you focused on your walk; Psalm 2 keeps you hopeful in your future. We must learn to see life with Christ’s kingdom in view. Or else we will despair in this world. How does this psalm teach us to look up and look out in God’s big picture?

The psalm is broken into four stanzas. Four words may be useful in assigning a title to each stanza: schemes, laughs, reigns, and calls. Let’s consider them together.

1. The World Schemes

The psalmist, whom the apostles identify as King David when citing this psalm (Acts 4:25), begins with a question. Some of the translations also pose verse 2 as a question. A poetic device known as synonymous parallelism in vv. 1–2 amplify the single point that he makes rather than identifying different acts of nations, kings, and rulers. “Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing? [or Why do] The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed.” As Matt explained last week, the same term used positively for meditating day and night on God’s Word (1:2) is now translated as “devising.” Derek Kidner said that it conveys “the idea of murmuring to oneself or, in a bad sense, muttering” [TOTC: Psalms 1–72, 50]. Instead of finding fruitfulness in meditating on God’s Word, the nations scheme together against the Lord and His Christ. They mutter in outrage that this God would dare to call for their obedient submission.

Alec Motyer points out that the language expresses “the sense of fixed determination . . . expressing repeated actions, customary behaviour” [Psalms by the Day, 12]. In other words, here’s no passing thought, a momentary slip-up in the course of human history, an unintended tweet. Rather the nations, its thousands of tribal and people groups, its kings and rulers and presidents and prim[...]