The Angry Song (Psalm 2)

[0:00] I'll be reading Psalm 1 and Psalm 2. Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked, or stand in the way that sinners take, or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.

[0:18] That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season, and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever they do prospers. Not so the wicked.

[0:30] They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

[0:47] Psalm 2. Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up, and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.

[1:05] The one enthroned in the heaven laughs. The Lord scoffs at them. He rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying, I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.

[1:19] I will proclaim the Lord's decree. He said to me, You are my son. Today I have become your father. Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.

[1:34] You will break them with a rod of iron. You will dash them into pieces like pottery. Therefore, you kings, be wise, be warned, you rulers of the earth.

[1:45] Serve the Lord with fear, and celebrate his rule with trembling. Kiss his son, or he will be angry, and your way will lead to your destruction. For his wrath can flare up in a moment.

[1:58] Blessed are all those who take refuge in him. Amen. Thank you, Irene. And thank you, team, for hanging in there with that psalm, reading.

[2:13] So, yeah, my name is William, for newbies, and those joining online, one of the pastors here. And this is a fantastic part of the Bible, the psalms, right? Who loves singing?

[2:25] Yay. Come on, most of us, right? Yeah, this is a musical church family, I'm sure. This is God's songbook, isn't it? This is God's songbook. This is one of the, this is the only book in the Bible where God's words to us are our words to him.

[2:39] Have you ever considered that? Right? A whole book full of our words to him, and it's divine scripture for us. Yeah, so play around that paradox in your head, but actually this is so beautiful, isn't it?

[2:52] That even our heartfelt cries, whatever they sound like, God can use, and God can bless, and God wants us to learn from as well. So, why don't we pray, and let's hear what God has to say for us today.

[3:11] My Lord, as we hear from this psalm, we thank you. we thank you that your songs are songs for the real world, and whatever our emotions today, whether we're joyful, whether we're bitter, whether we're confused, whether we're celebrating, we thank you for words that we can sing with, that we can study, and that we can apply for our lives.

[3:39] May these words be living water to our thirsty souls today. Now, help us to, from here, turn from whatever we're feeling to true happiness. Help us to take refuge, as we heard in that last verse.

[3:52] Take refuge in the Son, and find true blessing in Him. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm going to show a couple of pictures to start with.

[4:04] Anyone recognize what's going on in these pictures? Top left is from just this past week. A bunch of students have basically overthrown the Bangladesh government.

[4:15] As you can tell, they look pretty happy, but also outraged, right? A lot of injustice in that country has just been, hopefully, overthrown. Bottom right, from a couple of years ago, but it has Chinese on it.

[4:29] This is one of the main star affairs in Hong Kong. So, a lot of unrest a couple of years ago, right? And whatever side you take in your family, it was just a really tough time, right?

[4:42] Lots of difficulty. We live in a world that is full of unrest and anger and bitterness and protest. I wonder, maybe even now, turn to the person next to you.

[4:54] What has made you angry in this past week? Yeah, I know. Gotta be bold. Gotta be bold. What is... You can give a safe answer if you don't know the person next to you, but what has made you angry or stressed or upset?

[5:09] Just one thing. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. All right. Yeah.

[5:19] You don't need to write an essay on this, so I'm going to ask you some people to share. Okay. All right. Anyone want to share?

[5:33] What made you angry this past week or upset or stressed? Okay. Julianne. Not yet. Still thinking. Okay. Yeah. Anyone want to share? Enoch?

[5:43] What made you stressed this past week? School. Okay. All right. School. Okay. Anyone else? Anyone? No?

[5:54] Yeah. Alexis? Oh, okay. You've touched a nerve, Alexis. Road, bad driving. Yep. Sometimes from us.

[6:05] Anyone else? Okay. Anything in the news, maybe? Like, you know, maybe you see something in the news, you're like, oh, or a sporting result. Okay.

[6:16] The Olympics have been on, right? Yeah. And, yep, there's some disappointments, I think. Depends on what country that you back. Yeah. Whether it's unfair treatment, maybe at work, maybe it's just bad traffic, maybe it's unkind classmates.

[6:34] We live in a world full of injustice, right? Unfairness. It's a world full of people who make us stress, angry, and upset. Let's own those emotions.

[6:46] I'll share some of my examples. One time I was just lining up, I think I was trying to renew my license at AA Meadowlands, and then this man, older guy, just blew his lid at the counter staff in front of everyone.

[6:58] Have you ever been in that moment? And that's when you, you kind of just look and then just like, look straight and, yeah. And it wasn't just an okay boomer moment, it was like a real, like, he was really frustrated.

[7:10] They were not treating him well. Yeah. Anger. Or, I'm in a WhatsApp neighborhood group chat and, oh, some of the convos on there, right? Yeah.

[7:20] Oh, whose dog's on the loose again? Ah! That's a little thing. Yeah. And perhaps you're frustrated this week. Maybe about your boss or your teacher.

[7:32] Maybe about a classmate that's been bullying you. Maybe you're annoyed because someone online was wrong and it got you really mad. Psalm 2 is an invitation to ponder on the angry song, all right?

[7:48] And Psalm 2 is interesting because, I'll give you a bit of background. Psalm 2, obviously, is not the first book of the psalm, but in some Hebrew Bibles, actually, Psalm 2 and Psalm 1 go together. Some of you will know that we have occasionally dipped into the psalms, right?

[8:03] There's 150 of them. And so, it's helpful to know that Psalm 1 and Psalm 2 go together and they kind of invite us to the rest of the psalms. So, if you know Psalm 1 and 2, you kind of have a doorway into what the rest of the book of psalms is about.

[8:20] We looked at Psalm 1 a couple of years ago, but basically, just a quick two-minute recap, Psalm 1 is this invitation, right, to true blessing, right? Blessed is the one who keeps the right company, whose roots go the right way, and whose judgment will end up being in the right side.

[8:40] Yep. And remember, when we talked about this a couple of years ago, Psalm 1 actually is a wonderful picture of Jesus, the blessed one, right? No one was truly happy like Jesus, and so he models to us what that life rich in meditating on God's Word looks like, right?

[8:58] So, we should look at Psalm 1 and think, Jesus, walking, meditating, drawing deep from the streams of living water.

[9:09] And so, if Psalm 1 is this zoomed-in view of the blessed life, right, a happy song, as it were, Psalm 2 zooms out and gives us the angry song, right?

[9:20] Have a look at verse 1 again in your Bibles. I hope you have them in front of you. Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? Some translations will have the word rage rather than conspire, okay?

[9:33] The idea here in the original Hebrew is like to be restless. Look at the news around us. There is chaos. There's violence. Look at our news feeds.

[9:43] It's just all kinds of unrest. People trying to make a name for themselves or people arguing with each other. In particular, there's actually a consistent, constant rage against God and against His people, against the Christian faith.

[10:02] Is there not? Have you noticed it? And when it seems like the whole world is united against the Lord, what song can we sing as PCBC?

[10:15] Psalm 2, the angry song. We need Psalm 2 in our lives. We need all the Psalms, really, but we need Psalm 2 because it's not just the world out there that gets angry, right?

[10:28] It's because we get angry too. We get frustrated. We get restless and we start to actually imitate how the world reacts to things that are disappointing.

[10:39] Or maybe we go the opposite way. Oh, wow, that's way over the top. Oh, wow, I'm so frightened by what's going on around me. And then we're cowered.

[10:50] We cower in silence. We're scared into not saying anything. And so Psalm 2 is a wonderful invitation. If you accept the invitation to turn from rage to true happiness and blessing.

[11:05] How? By taking refuge in God's honored Son. I'll say that again. Psalm 2, the big idea, turn from your rage to true happiness. How?

[11:15] By taking refuge in God's honored Son. I'll move the slides on and we'll see that the first line, actually, of the Psalm, it hints that it's a good idea to read Psalm 2 together with Psalm 1, like Irene just did.

[11:31] Because, let me read verse 1 again. I'm going to translate more literally and it could sound like this. Why do nations rage and the peoples meditate on empty things?

[11:43] Do you see the contrast that I'm trying to draw out here? In Psalm 1, verse 2, what do we hear? The blessed one's delight is in the law of the Lord who meditates on his law day and night. In Psalm 2, verse 1, what's the contrast?

[11:56] We now have angry people meditating, muttering, stewing on God's word day and night. The original Hebrew has exactly the same word in both cases.

[12:08] Notice again, another contrast, right? Psalm 1, how does it start? With what the blessed person doesn't do. And then Psalm 2 ends with that same word again, blessing.

[12:19] Do you see that? Blessed are all who take refuge in him. So can you see, right? If Psalm 1 and 2 were kind of like, songs on your Spotify playlist, it's just like track one, track two.

[12:30] They flow into each other. They flow into each other. But today we'll focus on Psalm 2. I'm going to walk through this angry song and I'm going to see what it's, why it's important for our lives today, for your life today.

[12:44] Okay, let me read on from verse 1. Why do the nations conspire and the people's plot and vain? Verse 2. The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed saying, let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.

[13:02] For the first Jewish readers who sang these kinds of words, you have to imagine, it must have been very courageous of them to do so. Can you remember what Israel was like?

[13:14] Think back to Ezra and Nehemiah is relevant, right? They're surrounded by enemies, weren't they? Okay? And they were let free and sometimes, they were sometimes taken into the captivity.

[13:26] Their existence was always hanging by a thread, God's chosen people, right? All the nations around them breathing down their necks, ready to pounce at any moment. Imagine this group of people singing these lyrics, right?

[13:41] As enemies like the Assyrians, the Edomites, others are on their doorstep, they're singing, you're plotting in vain. Shame on you.

[13:53] Can you believe that? Even as there are like chariots and horses on the borders or maybe tanks today, right? This is a very brave song to sing.

[14:04] We'll start with that. Have a look at verse 3. This is a quotation of kind of these nations saying, let us break their chains and throw off their shackles. They're referring to the Lord and His anointed.

[14:16] I think there's two ways we could see verse 3 happening even in our world today. One is the direct persecution of God's people. Right?

[14:27] There are whole societies, governments opposed to God. Right? Whether it's a government with a secular anti-God agenda that will applaud, will support, will fund teachings, will fund policies that marginalize Christians.

[14:48] Right? Whether it's governments that will pay officials to investigate pastors, arrest them, tear down their church buildings.

[15:03] Whether it's extremists that get into power and then they start to kidnap and behead and to do horrible things to our brothers and sisters in the Lord around the world.

[15:15] Let us break their chains, they say. Let us throw off their shackles. Look, these are people around the world who fear Christianity. They fear the power of a people driven by the Holy Spirit that they cannot control.

[15:32] But there's another way that I think we see verse 3 happening and this is closer to home. This is our society too. The nations in verse 3 say, let us burst their bonds, break their chains.

[15:43] And what do the nations nowadays sing? Let it go. Let it go. I make no apologies. This is me. Can you see?

[15:54] Can you hear? From, I don't know, me-centered learning, right, in schools, to pride movements, to self-checkouts. The drumbeat of our society in the West is self, self, self, isn't it?

[16:09] Expressively individual. That's what you're called to be. You're free to do things yourself, to run your life yourself, to pick what church, what school you go to to yourself.

[16:20] According to Western society, today, God's timeless rules, they're just like cords we need to cast away. Our society is one that shouts out, break these chains and be yourself.

[16:33] But this song reminds us it's all in vain. it is pointless rage because not all is as it seems. Yes, on the surface, those with power, influence in our society, right, those who have the biggest followings on Instagram and so on, they think they call the shots.

[16:53] They think their storytelling is what's true. But how does the God of the universe respond? Let's keep looking. verse 4 to 6. The one enthroned in heaven, verse 4, laughs.

[17:09] The Lord scoffs at them. Here we change scenes, we've gone from earth, right, to heaven. And here we get God laughing. And I hope you can know the difference.

[17:21] He's not laughing with them, he's laughing at them, right? You guys know the difference? You've been in a situation where people are laughing and it's different, right? He's laughing at them, not with them.

[17:33] God is saying to these upstarts, these rulers, shame on you. I finally got to mow the lawn for the first time in a long, long time, right?

[17:45] Unfortunately. I want you to imagine you're mowing your lawn and then suddenly you notice an ant has crawled up to the handle of your lawn lawn. And then the ant raises one of its fists and then shakes it at you and says, I'll get you.

[18:01] All right? You're laughing. It's ridiculous, right? It's ridiculous. It's the same here. Heaven's king is laughing at us.

[18:13] We think we can get at God. We think we can push him off the throne, live our own lives. He can just laugh at that. It's not possible.

[18:23] This is our father's will, not ours. And look, if the rulers on earth thought they could get angry, then verse five says, well, God can get angry too.

[18:35] In fact, so angry it terrifies the people. And you want to hear verse six that follows. This is God speaking now. And you want to put on like the biggest, thunderous voice that you can imagine, right?

[18:50] God is here saying, I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain. Here the Lord is essentially saying, you see, you draw your battle lines, you bring all your weapons, but my king sits on Zion, my dwelling place on earth, that's where my king is already.

[19:15] You are no match for me, you rulers. This is the view, this is the song that we need in our heads. When powerful governments are banning Christians from doing stuff, when people at work or at school are making fun of you for going to a Christian club, whatever, God laughs at their pointless rage.

[19:40] He will terrify them one day in his wrath. And God is right to be angry at all kinds of things, right? When I expand our vision of God, he's angry against genocide, he's angry against slavery, all kinds of terrible injustice in our world.

[19:56] He's angry at sin that we commit against ourselves and each other, and he will take vengeance against everyone who opposes him. And for now, he laughs at their pointless rage.

[20:12] So far we've seen in Psalm 2, pointless rage that the Lord laughs at. Some of you have been doing lots of musical things, right?

[20:24] Whether it's the world choir games, whether it's just enjoying music on your iPhones and so on. Recently, one musical thing that I've, suddenly this has happened yesterday, one of my kids goes to the local music school in the string orchestra, and I was like, oh yeah, I play violin as a kid, I'll bring my violin, I'll ask if they need some helpers.

[20:51] So I did, and then they said, can you play third violin? Demoted, right? That's how far I've gone. I was like, oh yeah, I don't mind playing third violin.

[21:01] I was like, hang on, we need a viola player. I was like, can you play viola? I don't know, maybe. Now, officially, your pastor is now a viola player in a song.

[21:15] I say all this because, actually, I love classical music. Some of you are the same, right? Some of you are forced to play it, I know, but some of you actually love classical music. You appreciate just being fully immersed in a different sonic world.

[21:32] And one of my most favorite memories actually is attending the Michael Hill violin competitions. So, Michael Hill sells lots of bling, but he would sponsor a violin competition every year.

[21:45] And one year, there were three finalists and they all had to play the exact same piece, Brahms violin concerto. And so, I just have this memory, I don't remember a lot of concerts, but this one, I'm just sitting there and hearing the same beautiful symphony, concerto, sorry, over and over and over again.

[22:05] The same notes. And so, even to this day, if you hummed it, bum, ba, ba, ba, ba, and so on, it just brings me back to the town hall where I was just watching these amazing musicians at work.

[22:19] Songs can do that. For me, it's the Brahms violin concerto, I don't know, maybe you have a song that is super attached to a memory or an enjoyable moment in your, a significant event in your life, right?

[22:31] Maybe it's a worship song, right, at your baptism. Maybe it's, I don't know, just a fun song that was played at your wedding or some other significant event. A good song will trigger memories and recall emotions.

[22:44] And I want to suggest to you, as we kind of keep looking through the psalm, we're going to see how this psalm triggers important memories and emotions, so much so that we see it come up in the New Testament.

[22:55] All right, let me read verse 7 again. I will proclaim the Lord's decree. He said to me, you're my son. Today I become your father. Ask me and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.

[23:10] You will break them with a rod of iron. You will dash them to pieces like pottery. Okay, that's not as memorable as a bronze violin concerto or whatever, but did you know these verses pop up again and again through the New Testament?

[23:28] Kind of like a good hook that just comes back again and again. It's actually one of the, Psalm 2 is actually one of the most referenced song lyrics in the New Testament, other than Psalm 110. For Jesus and his disciples, at important moments in salvation history, this song kind of becomes the background music.

[23:48] And I think you probably would have already guessed, right, as you heard those words, I wonder if you thought, hmm, this king of Zion, he's pretty powerful. He's going to rule the whole earth. He's going to defeat all the other pretend kings.

[24:01] What kind of king can do that? And look how God describes him in verse 7. You are my son. Wow. Which king deserves that kind of title?

[24:13] And where have we heard those lines before? At Jesus' baptism, you see this in the Gospels, Matthew and Mark, as he goes under the water and comes up again, guess what we hear declared?

[24:26] Right? These lyrics. God's voice thunders from heaven at that baptism moment. This is my son whom I love. Can you see what the New Testament gospel writers are doing?

[24:39] They're saying, hey, you know that song that you guys know really well? It's all about Jesus. The rightful heir to God's throne. How about Psalm 2.8, right? It says, ask of me and I'll make the nations your inheritance.

[24:53] Well, it shows up. In Hebrews 1 verse 2, the writer begins, in these last days he's spoken to us by his son whom he appointed heir of all things, i.e.

[25:04] inherits everything. Can you see, right? As God's chosen people, they write the New Testament, their memories are all tinged with this song, Psalm 2.

[25:18] What about Psalm 2 verse 9 then? Surely that's not Jesus. It sounds pretty violent, sounds like something that you wouldn't want to associate with the King of Kings. and yet, if you turn to Revelation chapter 19, the apostle John has a vision that is strikingly similar.

[25:35] Here comes Jesus, right? Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations and he'll rule them with an iron scepter. Not meek and mild, Jesus, angry at all those who oppose him.

[25:51] You see, time and time again, the lyrics and ideas of Psalm 2, they're just bubbling up in the minds of John, of Matthew, Mark, those who write the New Testament. They've thought about this song for so long, they've meditated on it, that it just becomes natural to connect what's happening here in the Old Testament, in the Psalms, with their life.

[26:13] Has that ever happened for you? It can. That's what happens when you have meditated, sat with God's word long enough. It just becomes the soundtrack for your life.

[26:24] to interpret all the hardships, the joys of your life. That's what it looks like. You see connections, you see all the threads of your life.

[26:35] You grab lyrics from God's word and you connect them to what's going on in your life and it all points to Jesus, the King of Kings. And here's a real life example. Have a look at your Bibles, you need to turn your Bibles at this point, to Acts.

[26:50] Acts chapter 4, verse 24. I think this one's so good that I think it's worth actually looking at it in front of you so that I'm not just bluffing you. Because this is where we see Psalm 2 quoted extensively.

[27:10] Have a look. So context, Peter and John, they're on their own sin tour. It's based in Jerusalem. And they've been telling people about Jesus. And then they get arrested, they get told, no, you can't tell people about Jesus.

[27:26] So here's God's people, Acts 4, 24 to 28. Here's God's people with this kind of important moment and choice to make. So on their release, Peter and John went back to their own people, reported all that the chief priests and the elders said to them.

[27:40] When they heard this, they raised their voices to give them prayer to God. Sovereign Lord, they said, you made the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and everything in them.

[27:50] You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David. Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up again and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one.

[28:05] Sound familiar? And then they go on to say significantly, indeed, Herod, Pontius Pilate, met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.

[28:17] They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. I'll pause there. You see what's going on? Here is God's people with an important choice to make.

[28:31] Will they listen to their opponents? Okay, alright, we'll stop, we'll stop. No more talking about Jesus. Or will they just keep going because his name is the greatest, his name is the highest, and everyone needs to know it.

[28:46] And as they pray they realize this opposition they're facing from human authorities is exactly what's going on in Psalm 2. And so they have every right to make that connection, right?

[28:58] And they go, Psalm 2 is telling us about what's happening today. And in fact, they have every right to make this connection because Psalm 2 verse 2, the word that says the Lord and his anointed, anyone know what the word there is?

[29:11] Anointed? When it shows up in the Hebrew Bible, the word anointed literally says Messiah. Okay? Alright? That's a, that's a, that's a, that's an important moment, right?

[29:23] This is how we're supposed to read our Bibles. Can you see? We soak in it day in, day out, until a verse like Psalm 2 that sounds random, sounds obscure, suddenly pops out and says Jesus in full color.

[29:36] Jesus, Jesus, God's son is king of kings, lord of lords. Nothing can change that. Nothing can change that. These believers in the church of Acts knew this and they could keep going, right?

[29:51] Jesus is God's chosen king. This is as sure as the fact that he died for our sins and rose again three days later. It's as sure as the fact that right now you can't go and pay tickets to see Jesus.

[30:04] He is sitting at God's right hand as his honored son. And so the world can go ahead and mocking Jesus, making fun of him in videos and so on.

[30:18] Look, they go, go ahead. Our Lord is just laughing at that. Earthly kings, online celebs, they come and go. Our king, King Jesus, reigns forever and ever.

[30:31] Is that enough to make you bold? More courageous, maybe? Maybe even just to say that you're a Christian at school for a change? Maybe to explain the gospel to your loved ones without fear of rejection?

[30:46] Is that good enough to help you to hold the ropes of prayer for those in our church family worldwide that are being attacked, harassed for loving Jesus? Jesus.

[30:58] The Son is King. So forget all that pointless rage. Let the Lord just laugh at that and put that away. The Son is King. And so if the Son is King, finally, I think the Psalm invites us to join his choir.

[31:15] Alright? I love one pastor how he puts kind of the big idea of the Psalms. He says that the Psalms, if you could title it, you could title it as the King's Choir.

[31:28] Who's sung in a choir before? Who knows what I'm talking about? Okay? Yeah. Yes, admit it. Alright? Alright? Yes, even those four-part choirs. Yes, they count. Yeah. Glee clubs, whatever, you know.

[31:39] Look, being in a choir is a wonderful picture of what it should look like to get into the Psalms, to live it out. It's how we have to use the Psalms, right?

[31:50] We sing these songs, we think about these songs, but we don't do it on our own. We do it with God's people, right? Not just today, but from ages past, all the way back to the first people like David who wrote them.

[32:06] And we sing these songs, I love this picture of the King's Choir, because when you're in a choir, it's not up to you, right? It's not just down to you, you're not the solo. So if you're not a great singer, you just sing along.

[32:19] Others are carrying you. You sound much better than you would normally. These are songs of Jesus we can sing from a hospital bed, from the back of the car, when you're gardening, when you're at school, when you are crying, when you are joyful.

[32:38] And so if this is an invitation to join the King's Choir, what might it look for you and I to sing the lyrics of Psalm 2 this week? Let me suggest three things, and they come from the last three verses.

[32:49] All right. Well, just as kings and rulers are warned and invited to be wise and warned, here are three things I think we can warn each other about. Firstly, don't be scared.

[33:02] Keep worshipping Him. You see, if the challenge from Psalm 1 is like, don't walk with the wicked, right? Don't slip into their ways and stuff. The challenge in this Psalm is don't fear the wicked.

[33:14] Don't be so scared, all right, of even being friends with them or hanging out them. It's bad to be seduced by the world, yes, but verse 10 says, don't be scared by it either.

[33:24] Fear who instead? What does it say? Serve the Lord with fear. Worship the Lord with fear. There is a right kind of fear. It goes towards the one who made the heaven and earth.

[33:37] So, look, church, when your phone is buzzing with bad news, when you're the only Christian in your class, don't be scared. If someone that you love on TV or something embraces Islam or Buddhism or something, don't freak out.

[33:50] God is still ruling through His Son, King Jesus, right? Don't be scared. Keep worshipping Him. Keep trusting Him. Do you know how the story of Acts 4 ends?

[34:02] That story in the early church? They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word God with boldness. God can do that to them.

[34:14] God can do that with us. God can do that if we fear the world around us. If we just turn PCBC into a holy huddle, our boldness for Jesus will shrink and disappear.

[34:25] Might as well pack up and go home. If we fear the world, we'll be tempted to turn away from God's word and to hold that out as words of life.

[34:36] Don't be scared. We're in the King's choir. We sing together. So we worship Him rightly, right? And that will fuel our hearts to sing to our friends and family the goodness of God through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

[34:50] Don't be scared. Keep worshipping Him. Secondly, verse 12, don't betray the Son. Don't betray Him. Verse 12 is actually quite a tricky place to translate.

[35:03] It's a bit of like cross, like, you know, multilingual madness that's going on here. Very technical. Basically, I think kiss the Son is probably not the best translation.

[35:14] I think it's more kiss Him or kiss with purity. And now you're thinking, like, I don't know what that means. That's okay. It's quite hard to picture.

[35:25] Picture this though, all right? Imagine you're meeting royalty, right? I don't know. King Charles or something. If you don't dig King Charles, meet the royalty of basketball or something. And imagine the invitation to bow down to them and maybe even kiss their feet or press noses or, you know, handshake, whatever.

[35:46] Kiss with purity. There are two kisses in the New Testament that Jesus receives. And they come quite close to each other. One comes from a sinful woman who knows she's been forgiven richly.

[36:01] comes in, barges into a tea party, kisses the feet of Jesus, anoints Him with perfume, right? Do you remember that story? Yeah? Do you remember that kiss? What's that kiss representing?

[36:12] Just this wholehearted devotion to the Messiah. But then Thursday night comes and Jesus receives another kiss. Do you guys know from who?

[36:24] Judas, yeah? Judas, the money maker. A kiss on the cheek to say, take this one, guys. Arrest him. A kiss of betrayal.

[36:37] And don't do that, friends. Don't say you love Jesus and then secretly scroll through things that He hates. Don't say to someone, yeah, I'll pray for you, but you're just saying it just to flex and you never actually pray for them.

[36:53] Don't treat your serving roles at church as, I don't know, an ego trip, a way to feel better than someone else. No. Kiss with purity. Don't betray Him.

[37:04] His love is great, but as we've seen, His anger is too. Don't betray Him. Kiss purely.

[37:14] Love Him loyally. And finally, verse 12, right, lessons to learn, warns us, don't be proud. Take shelter in Him. Don't be proud.

[37:26] Take shelter in Him, right? For His wrath can flare up in the moment, but blessed are all who take refuge in Him. You know what? The Bible says no one ever loved like Jesus.

[37:38] Some of you here never even heard about Jesus until this year, maybe, right? No one ever loved like Jesus. He is the faithful husband who lays down His life for His bride, the church.

[37:51] Jesus is the happy one, right? The blessed one who delights, loves doing His Father's will. But remember too, brothers and sisters, Jesus is also the angry one.

[38:02] He's angry at everything that's wrong in our lives, in the world. And so He will come back soon, not as a baby in a manger. He will come back soon as a rider on a white horse, dressed for battle, and every sinner must bow the knee before Him will be lost for eternity, forever.

[38:22] Do you believe this? If not, then come back to this last line. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him. You see how that mirrors the start of Psalm 1, right?

[38:34] Blessed, blessed, yeah? It's deliberate. What these two Psalms, what the whole book of Psalms is saying is turn from whatever emotion you're experiencing, rage, joy, whatever, and get to true happiness.

[38:48] How? Verse 12, take refuge in God's honored Son. No one else. If you're not a Christian here, this is the gospel, right? The good news.

[38:58] God is up here and we are as pitiful as ants, pointlessly raging. And our sin, doing so, deserves His anger and wrath against all our rebellion.

[39:13] And yet God sends His only cherished Son, Jesus. He comes to earth, He dies once for all our sins, and He's risen again.

[39:26] He's now honored at God's right hand, the King of kings. And one day He'll come back and He's going to make all the things that we rage about sorted, 100%.

[39:36] And so while there is still time, you need to make a choice to bow down to Him now or you'll be forced to make the choice and bow down to Him later.

[39:49] There are two ways to live. And I want to invite you, repent and believe in Jesus. You can do it today. You can take cover, take refuge in God's Son today.

[39:59] You can join the King's choir today. And brothers and sisters, for those of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus, we want to remember we need to do this over and over again, right?

[40:11] It's not just a doorway we walk through and that's it. We want to always be coming back. Lord, I need you so much. I'm feeling rage at this. I'm feeling sadness at this.

[40:24] Lord, give me true joy. Where? In the Son. By taking refuge in Him. I pray that's true for you as we enter into, you know, the next few weeks, the next few months, the next few years together.

[40:39] Don't even move on from Jesus. Right? The world can sing their songs. Don't move on from Jesus. We just keep singing and being part of the King's choir. Yes, we'll be opposed, but don't worry.

[40:52] Don't be scared. Keep trusting and worshiping Him. Yes, it is hard, but don't betray Him. And yes, we will look like the scum of the earth, but don't be proud about it.

[41:04] Just keep going to Him and taking refuge in Him. Let's pray. Lord, in the darkness we were lost, and yet you came and found us.

[41:20] You set your love upon us. You gave us the Lord Jesus, wonderful Counselor, King of Kings.

[41:32] So help us now even as we continue to worship you. Back to song. Let this angry song we've heard just drive us to take cover in Jesus. Would you help us to do that now even as we continue to worship?

[41:46] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.