Reflections on Psalm 6

Text of Psalm 6

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments; according to The Sheminith. A Psalm of David. 

1  O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath. 
2  Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled. 
3  My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O Lord—how long? 
4  Turn, O Lord, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love. 
5 For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise? 
6 I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping. 
7  My eye wastes away because of grief; it grows weak because of all my foes. 
8  Depart from me, all you workers of evil, for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping. 
9  The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord accepts my prayer. 
10  All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled; they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment. 

"The one perfectly divine thing, the one glimpse of God's paradise given on earth, is to fight a losing battle - and not lose it."

- G.K. Chesterton

Introductions

This Psalm addresses the troublesome situation Christians face throughout the ages: What do we do when it appears that God's enemies are gaining victory and blessing while God's people languish? How ought a Christian to pray when a severe illness strikes his family? How do we turn to God when the laws of the land become increasingly pagan, tyrannical, or insane? What do we say when the enemies of God prosper in the land while we struggle to make ends meet? David provides us with a faithful and lucid answer.

The context of these early Psalms is Absalom's wicked attempts to dethrone his father, David. David sinned by committing adultery with Bathsheba and having her husband Uriah murdered. His house is thrust into turmoil and division. Absalom has forced David to flee Jerusalem. As David prays throughout Psalms 3-6, he builds his prayers on the fixed promises and arguments of Psalms 1-2. He refuses to despair by failing to trust the promises of God, nor does he presume upon God's will, taking matters into his own hands. David turns to God, recounting the loving-kindness of God and asking God to act. He finally speaks with a deep assurance that God will defeat his enemies and redeem David's life.

What to See:

David opens by pleading with God not to be angry with him and not to discipline him in his wrath. The language is identical to the language used in Psalm 2 to describe how God treats his enemies. David is living in the position of the pagan nations in Psalm 2 - he describes his circumstances in terms aligned with God's words. This isn't some romantic pietism that somehow believes that suffering is somehow the blessing of God. He names it for what God's word says that it is: he is on the run, his life is in danger, and this is what God promises will happen to his enemies.

He asks God for grace and restoration in verse 2 before asking God, "How Long?" This question is a pained question that still believes in the promises of God. He is asking how long God's enemies appear to triumph. How long must David suffer these conditions and the apparent reversal of God's righteousness? At the heart of this question is the sure hope that the answer is "not forever." When a child repeatedly asks on a road trip - "How much longer?" there is, built into this question, the confident hope that, eventually, we will arrive at our destination. Finally, there will be Grandma and Grandpa. We're done with the car seat (for now). David's question reveals his remaining confidence in the goodness of God and the faithfulness of God.

David, knowing that his enemies will not praise and remember the kindnesses of God, argues for his vindication because this is precisely what he will do when God rescues him from his enemies. This is a recurring theme in the Psalms - "Save me, that my lips might praise you." In David's prayer of repentance after being confronted about his sin with Bathsheba and her husband, he asks for cleansing and forgiveness and then promises: "Open my lips, and my mouth will praise you." "Uphold me with a willing Spirit, then I will teach transgressors your ways." He asks for deliverance because he will praise God and teach God's ways.

The Psalm ends with a confident hope: He sends evildoers away. He declares that his enemies will be ashamed once God acts on David's behalf. He is convinced that God has not only heard his prayers but will work in response to those prayers by reversing the situation that David finds himself in. His enemies will be thwarted and ashamed, and David will be restored. These confident declarations also serve as a warning (like Psalm 2) to God's enemies. God will keep his promises. God will hear the prayers of his people and answer them. He loves to bring victory when it appears all is lost.

Living and Singing Psalm 6

God never tires of telling the same sort of story over and over and over again. It is the story of death and resurrection; as Herbert Schlossberg says in his fantastic book *Idols for Destruction*, "The Bible can be interpreted as a string of God's triumphs disguised as disasters." It is one thing to see this as a literary technique as we examine the Scriptures; it is something entirely different to live through that narrative. We live in a culture plunging dangerously into nihilism and paganism. We live in a city desperate to lead the way. The murder of children is defended through all nine months of pregnancy. Denver has been named the city of Lust by Forbes magazine. Meanwhile, our magistrates act in such a way as to make the cost of living untenable. People move here to play for a decade or so, and increasingly, those who want to build lives, families, careers, and businesses move away to more affordable and hospitable places. A Christian might have cause for despair, even surrounded by some of the most beautiful ground on earth. But such hopelessness would be biblically illiterate. God loves these stories. He's given us countless examples in the Scriptures of precisely this sort of thing. He has shouted at us in as clear a language as possible: "Just wait to see what I pull off."

So, how ought a Christian to pray and live in circumstances like ours? How ought a Christian to pray and act when it seems like his marriage has fallen off a cliff or his children are lost? Pray like David. The pain is real. Set it before the Lord. The immediacy of the crisis is real. Set it before the Lord. And then, against all odds, with great confidence in the faithfulness of God, the steadfast love of God, and the goodness of God, call God's enemies to account. By faith in everything God has said, obey the Lord, rebuke and warn, and confidently sing with David, "The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord accepts my prayer. All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled. They shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment."

Psalm 5

Text of Psalm 5

1 Give ear to my words, O Lord; consider my groaning. 2 Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray. 3 O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch. 4 For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you. 5 The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers. 6 You destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. 7 But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you. 8 Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me. 9 For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue. 10 Make them bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you. 11 But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you. 12 For you bless the righteous, O Lord; you cover him with favor as with a shield.

What to Notice

David pleads with God to hear his prayer and to consider his prayer. God promises to hear our prayers, but David goes further and asks God to consider or weigh the argument and content of his prayer. Many times, we think the shape or form our prayers take is unimportant, believing that the fact of our praying is sufficient. We have learned the falsehood that authentic prayer will not follow considered arguments. The Psalms and other prayers throughout the Scriptures, including Jesus' prayers, belie the inadequacy of such a separation. We ought to pray. We ought to pray well, with clear thoughts and arguments that accord with the Scriptures.

David explicitly brings the content of Psalms 1 & 2 before God's face in this prayer. He isn't simply reacting to the direness of his situation (the diabolical pursuit of Absalom) but also meditating on the character of God and setting those before God as an argument. God already knows his character and David's situation, but in prayer, we are to ground our requests before God on the foundation of his nature and words. We "remind" God of what he has said and what he has promised.

Notice David's expression of loyalty- He speaks not merely to God the Lord but to My God and My King. An allegiance to God our King is at the heart of all Christian living. He is not simply a generic king. He is the universal king *and* he is specifically our God and our King. The truth that we are God's royal possession should be a great comfort for all God's people. As David slept in Psalm 4, trusting in the provision of God to keep watch over him, he awakes to face the troubles of his day by rehearsing the character and mercy of God and petitioning God to act in accordance. 

In Psalm 5, David describes the wicked's standing before God and what they seek to do. David emphasizes their standing before God in vv. 4-7. God does not delight in their wickedness. Evil cannot live in communion with God. God destroys those who say lies - who do not speak the truth. God *abhors* - weighty word - the bloodthirsty and the deceiver. These are hard words, and we should clarify who these people are. In our pluralistic age, evil has taken on a far more pliable definition than in the Scriptures. The evil are those who reject God and his law.

The boastful are the proud who define for themselves what is good and evil, what is beautiful and what is ugly, what is true and what is false. They do not acknowledge God. The liar is not simply the one who knowingly declares something untrue; it is the one who speaks what is objectively wrong. And note especially the terrible word "abhor" - We do not like to consider that God abhors anything, but here God abhors those thirsty for blood and those who use words to deceive others. God is just. God is good. God hates what is hateful. And then in vv. 8-9, he describes what the wicked do: They seek to make the path of the righteous crooked. This is a metaphor for the introduction of moral confusion. They make what ought to be plain to the Christian unclear. Good and evil get all muddled up. The wicked deceive. The wicked's desires are destruction, and their lying words lead to death. And the whole thing is covered over with flattery. 

Bloodlust and deception are the two things God is said to abhor in this Psalm. Bloodlust is something different than mere killing. It involves a love for killing and a delight in causing suffering. The images that have circulated since the October 7 terrorist attack from Hamas are illustrative of this thing that God abhors. These men targeted the killing of men, women, and children, as well as the elderly. It was their very purpose and delight to kill in a horrific manner. Israel’s response has resulted in many civilian deaths in Gaza, but it has not been their delight or goal. One is making war on their national enemies. The other is lusting after the blood of innocents. The moral confusion that has erupted in cities all over the globe in the last several weeks is a further testament to how easily we are deceived.

In vv. 8-12, David gives an account of God's mercy. Everything David asks is grounded in the "steadfast love" or the covenant love of God. This steadfast love leads him to worship and ask God to make his paths straight. David turns to God for moral and tactical guidance as the wicked lie, deceive, and obfuscate - covering it all in flattery. He does not trust his own discernment to know what He ought to do. David asks God. He turns to God's word. David ends by holding out the promise of salvation for all those who take refuge in God and those who love him. He asks God to defeat the wicked by causing them to fall under their own counsels - their anti-wisdom. Those who take refuge in God, finding their salvation in him, and those who love him will sing for joy. They will rejoice in God. These verses have a marvelous chain: The Covenant love of God leads his people to worship. The covenant love of God saves God's people from their enemies' attempts to deceive and lead them into sin and death. The Covenant Love of God leads his people to take refuge in him - to turn to him and him alone for mercy and salvation. The Covenant love of God leads God's people to joy. And finally, the Covenant Love of God leads his people to *exult*. This is no quietist salvation - but a salvation marked by singing and the joyful and public rejoicing in the supremacy and salvation of God.

How to Live and Sing in the Light of This Psalm

The first 5 Psalms address a great contrast between the righteous and the wicked. Two things about this contrast are sure: this is not a contrast we moderns *like* or attend to very often, and the Bible does not draw the line where we think it should go. And this is one of the great gifts of the Psalms. They, and God through them, attend to many things that we modern Christians don't often consider. They train us to think differently than the spirit of our age. In other words, they do not work as mere expressions of whatever distortions of Christianity have become popular today. Instead, they serve as prayers that reshape our understanding of the world and how we should pray. Psalm 5's contrast between the righteous and the wicked does two things in this Psalm - it serves as a clarifying distinction which is, without question, the most crucial distinction a human being can recognize, and it is clear - making plain what man constantly seeks to muddle and perceive as unclear. 

David's accounting of the wicked is not merely about what they are but what they do: They seek to deceive and do so with flattery and lies. Christians tend to be the sweet and gullible sort in our day. Empathy is weaponized to deceive - to make what God has said less clear, more nuanced, and less prone to offend. Morality becomes increasingly muddled through deception and flattery, and so the moral clarity of the Scriptures is questioned or downplayed. But we must listen to God. We must trust his word more than our feelings or fears. May He make your paths straight. 

What a terrible and dreadful thing - to be counted among those who are hated by God, who cannot dwell with God, or are abhorred by God. But the solution to this terrible state is fully disclosed in these verses: Worship God. Take Refuge in Jesus. Learn and trust in God's steadfast love demonstrated and given in Jesus. This is the heart of repentance and the good news of the Christian Gospel: All who take refuge in God will rejoice. Turn away from your lies and confusion, and trust God. Believe God. Worship God - and you will sing for joy. 

Reflections on Psalm 4

Psalm 4: The Text

Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness!
You have given me relief when I was in distress.
Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!
O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame?
How long will you love vain words and seek after lies?
But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord hears when I call to him.
Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent.
Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord.
There are many who say, "Who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!"
You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.
In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

Framework

An important reminder when looking at the Psalms is that they build on one another. Psalm 1 established the preeminence of the Scriptures as the foundation for wisdom, righteousness, and fruitfulness. Psalm 2 calls for the nations plotting against God's authority over them to trust in and submit to the Lord's King. Psalm 3 testified to God's people trusting in God even in the face of vast enemies. So, while Psalm 2 gave us a sweeping picture of God's work in history to conquer the nations and Psalm 3 called upon God to break the teeth of his enemies, Psalm 4 will give us a picture of how Christians should speak to their enemies.

Psalm 4 should likely be paired with Psalm 3, with the 3rd Psalm used as a morning prayer and the 4th as a prayer to end the day (it is quoted during evening prayer in the Book of Common Prayer). Both Psalms presuppose the Christian is surrounded by enemies who have no regard for the word nor the glory of the Lord, and so they refuse to honor Christ, God's King.

How the Psalm is Organized and Some Observations

V. 1 - Calling Upon God

• David bases his present prayers on God's past faithfulness. God had answered his prayers before, so David called upon him again to be gracious to him and hear his prayer.

V. 2-5 - Speaking to Those Who Hate the Word of God

David now speaks to his persecutors, to his enemies, and gives us a model for speaking to our enemies:

• He names their fundamental sin: They deride what he glories in. They reject what he honors. David has told us in chapter 3 that the Lord is his honor and glory. He has told us that his delight and glory are in the law of God. These people reject the glory of the Lord; they treat what is most honorable with shame—calling what is good and what is evil good.

• He again declares God's promises and the authority of God's king. God sets the godly apart. Those who trust in God are made holy by God. He hears their prayers. He cares for them and protects them. God's authority and his covenant grace are the central message of David's response to the rebellion of his enemies.

• In the light of this grace, he offers wise and godly counsel to his enemies: Cease your rebellion against God. "Be angry" acknowledges what is plain: you do not like the authority of God. You do not like the kindness of God towards me. But instead of that anger leading you further into sin and, therefore, destruction, consider it. Consider the folly of your anger at God at the rejection of his word and his king. God's authority and law make you angry, but instead of continuing your sin, take a break. Lay down. Consider these things in the silence of your bed. Reflect on the good authority of God. Reflect on his grace towards those who are his.

V. 6-8 - Godly Counsel rejected, God's King refused, yet God's people delight in God's favor and rest in his promises.

• David's enemies' response is to question God's goodness. "Who will show us some good?" explicitly denies the excellent counsel just given them.

• David then prays the blessing of Numbers 6:26 - a blessing of grace and glory - that God would show his face to God's people. In front of God's enemies and their continued rebellion against Him and His word, David asks that God's people would see again, in God's acts on their behalf the faithfulness and glory of God. This is not simply a prayer for the defeat of his enemies, but something more - namely, that God would be seen and known as *their God* and as gloriously faithful to them. This is seen especially in the joy of God's people, not merely in abundant crops and good wine, but in the peace that comes in God's saving grace towards his people - protecting and revealing himself to them.

• -The Psalm ends with a simple act of faith: God's people, fully trusting in the provision of God over their enemies, can sleep safely, for it is God who keeps them safe.

Living in the Light of this Psalm

We should not be surprised when the ways of God are dishonored and mocked. We should not be surprised that we have real enemies who do not love and trust the words of God. But how do we respond to these enemies? Jesus commands us to love our enemies, and this Psalm shows one fundamental way we are to do so. It is not by softening the hard edges of God's word. It is not by trying to find common ground. It is by doubling down on the promises and goodness of God. It is by reasserting God's great authority and holiness, pointing out the folly of man's anger in the face of this authority, and then giving counsel: Stop sinning. Stop your rebellion. Consider the holiness of God, the authority of God, and the grace of God. Be silent and consider these things again. Repent of your sins. Take refuge in the God who reigns and keeps his promises to bless his people and forgive their sins.

The Psalm does not give us a grand picture of God's enemies turning from their rebellion and listening to such counsel. The counsel is discarded as soon as it is provided. But the Psalm teaches us how to live in such times as ours - when God's law is mocked and rejected when God's king Jesus is derided and his ways abandoned and castigated as hateful, arrogant, or worse. It calls God's people to pray for deliverance, to stand faithfully and joyfully in the truth, calling for the repentance and salvation of these same enemies, and for God's people to find peace and rest in the promises of God, given to us in Christ - that he will, indeed rule all the nations, bless all who take refuge in him, and in the end silence his enemies.

Psalm 3 - Enemies Surround Us, Whether You See It or Not

The Broader Psalm

One of the first things one notices when a church begins to reclaim the Psalms in Christian worship is how much language of warfare and judgment are in them. They assume a world that feels far different from the one we've been taught to believe we live in, where everybody should get along. When our church began singing through various Psalms, we started hearing from people almost immediately that our singing had become far too martial - too much talk of fighting and warfare and enemies. This wasn't because we started looking for music that emphasized this in particular; instead, this theme comes up almost everywhere when one begins to sing across the whole of the Psalms. It is one of the primary reasons churches avoid singing the Psalms or only do so with a great deal of selectivity. The Psalms position the people of God in a very different place in the world than the one we most want to be in. We don't like the *place* the Bible puts us with those around us. We've come to believe what I heard an evangelical pastor say recently, "We don't have any enemies!"

It is important to remember that the Psalms don't just give us prayers for specific circumstances in which we may find ourselves. They also describe our circumstances, which is helpful, especially when we're too blind to recognize our situation. We don't come to Psalm 3 and file it in the folder labeled: "If you ever happen to find yourself surrounded by enemies..." We come to Psalm 3 and find a world in which those who love God absolutely *do* have actual flesh-and-blood enemies, whether we acknowledge it or not. This is the world that the Bible describes; therefore, it is the world we live in. This is hard to accept for Christians taught to be blind to the pervasiveness of friend and enemy language running the whole length of the Bible.

But Christians are commanded to hate evil. We are told to oppose the wicked. And God does not define 'evil' and 'wicked' the ways that our society does. The enemies of God are not only Hamas or some distant element. While the difficult command of Jesus is to "love your enemies," we do not know the difficulty of this command because we've never identified our enemies the way God does. All who love and celebrate sin, defined by opposition to the Word of God, are evil. These are the wicked. These are your enemies. Secularism has taught us to think of the world as filled with the possibility of neutrality: Some love the Word of God, some hate the Word of God, and some are neutral. The Bible says there are only two kinds of people in the world: Those who love the Word of God and those who hate the Word of God. You must be friends of one and enemies of the other. The only distinction is faith and where that faith lies.

Observations from the Psalm

- The notes for this Psalm tell us that David wrote Psalm 3 when he was fleeing from his son Absalom, who had cunningly turned many Israelites against David and was coming after his throne. David was being pursued *again*, but this time, his central enemy was from within his own household. The enemies in view include Absalom, David's own son. And with that, we see that our problems with reading, let alone learning to pray and sing Psalms like this, only get worse, not easier. Here is a friend-enemy distinction that lies between a father and a son. The words of Jesus from the gospels, "...a man's enemies will be in his own household..." (Matthew 10:36). Loyalty to Christ supersedes all other loyalties.

- Verse 2 shows us the fundamental claim of the enemies of God's people: God's salvation is not coming. God's salvation is not true. There is no real salvation there. Salvation not as a sort of other-worldly disembodied hope but salvation as the total weight of God's blessing and grace towards his people.

- Faith sees God's promises as a shield. Faith makes it possible for God's people to sleep when their situation seems dire. Faith can keep fear at bay. Faith calls upon God to fight against the wicked.

- We are instructed to call upon God to break the teeth of the wicked - this is asking God to shatter their strength to harm and devour. It acknowledges their ability and desire to hurt and consume and asks for God's mercy to break their ability to do so. The enemies of God and God's people are not simply making independent life choices different from yours. Their opposition is to the ways of God and, therefore, to all those who live under the ways of God.

Applying the Psalm

The enemies of God's people are not far off. In many seasons and times, including our own, they surround God's people. They do not sit passively by, simply wanting to be left alone. They have teeth. They want the end of any semblance of God's law at work in a community and at work in society. Millions of dollars are being spent by the pornography industry. Thousands of children are murdered in the womb each year, and laws are weaponized in our state to blind us to this and protect this as a "right." Narratives seeking to redefine justice, reframe history, and enslave God's people to a law that is not God's are put forward on billboards, in movies, in DEI offices, and on your Facebook feed. If we had eyes to see, we'd know that we are surrounded. The temptation is to either capitulate or to lash out in fear. The allure of Christians in an age like ours is to either get along with the evil that surrounds us or merely become the opposite of the evil that threatens us. But the Psalms teach us to pray. Jesus instructs us to love these enemies. We pray that God might break their teeth. We love the ones we can rightly name as wicked and enemies of God. If you love the Lord, you have enemies. So sing.

Psalm 2

A Timely Introduction

There is a lot of online noise right now about a thing called *Christian Nationalism* - Its hard to fully outline the debate as the term means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. It began as a term of derision, has been defined several different ways by several different proponents and defined rather differently by its detractors. What's immediately relevant as we consider Psalm 2 is the assumptions underlying much stated opposition to *Christian Nationalism* and frankly some wrong-headed assumptions that undergirds much Christian thinking in our own day. That is the assumption of neutrality - that its possible, whether we're talking about politics or social issues or economics or theology or morality. There is a terrible lie that things can be good and righteous, bad and unrighteous, or religiously neutral - things that don't have much of anything to do with God. Much of what has shaped our modern Christianity has been built on a myth that the Bible dispels completely and this Psalm destroys -namely that anything in this world or our lives is neutral, is not decisively under the authority of Jesus Christ. How that all works is what makes some of the *Christian Nationalism* debate interesting - whether one uses the term or not. What no Christian should be unsure of is what is entailed in the confession that Jesus is Lord - which is the basic confession of the Christian Faith. Let's look now at Psalm 2 and let it reshape our understanding of well, everything....

Psalm 2
Why do the heathen nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of 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."
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 set my King on Zion, my holy hill."
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.
You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel."
Now therefore, O kings, be wise; 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.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

1 - Seeing the Whole Psalm

This Psalm raises a question with a whole accounting of history and our present day inside of it. Here are nations - not just individuals, but whole cultures plotting, raging against their service to God and his King. And they find some sense of unity in this rebellion - taking counsel together. The Psalmist asks why they do this - this vain thing. Here is the regular pattern in history - the peoples, the cultures, the nations conspire to cast off the rule of Christ over them. The Psalm is built on an idea central to the whole of Scripture - God is the world's king. He rules over all the nations of the earth. He is not merely Lord and King to particular individuals who choose a particular religious identity. His claims are total - over every tongue, tribe and nation. But his reign is embodied. The Psalm points to a historic fulfillment in the reign of Jesus the Messiah over those nations. They are given to him as a possession. But at the heart of this text is an antithesis - the antithesis as it plays out across history and among the nations of the earth. All peoples are subject to God and his law and these peoples conspire together to be free of God and his law.

But the Psalm also moves historically. The nations rage, God laughs and then establishes his king in Zion. The nations are given to him to conquer and then the nations are exhorted. This is the whole of history compressed into a handful of verses. Christ has come, Christ has died, Christ has risen, and Christ has been exalted to the right hand of the Father where he reigns over all the nations of the earth - All authority in heaven and earth has been given to him and his witnesses have been sent to all the nations to baptize them - to bring them to confess that Jesus is Lord and to bow the knee to this king.

2 - Observations of the Psalm

- All the nations are conspiring against God and against his king - billions of dollars, the full weight of the media and military all put to use by the most worldly minds available to them. They seek to corrupt, to undermine, to persecute, to ostracize and to put to death God, his king and his people. What is God's reaction? Laughter. Superimpose this Psalm onto the hill of Golgotha and the crucifixion of Jesus. The Supreme Political power of Jesus' day conspires together with the religious might of Jerusalem - to put to death God's king to escape his rule. What do we hear from God at this moment? We hear a sound we could hardly expect: We hear laughter. God laughs in the face of all of it. He holds all these impressive powers in derision. He is no respecter of man's pompousness.

- Fear is a non-negotiable aspect of faithful Christian believing. We delight in the Son, but we also tremble before the Son. We serve and rejoice in the Son, but we also fear the Son. Christianity does not turn us into casual worshippers. Faith in Christ brings us to the brink of weighty glory and holiness and teaches us to rejoice in it.

- God's answer to the rebellion of the nations is to reassert his authority and the authority that belongs to Christ. Christ reigns over all the nations. He laughs at their insolence and puts his king right in the midst of those rebellious nations.

- The Psalm ends with a promise and a warning. The promise is to Christ - all the ends of the earth will belong to him, the rebellion of the nations will be dashed to pieces. Rulers who refuse to acknowledge his authority, to believe his authority to submit to his authority will be dashed to pieces. The warning is to those same rulers - that they must do three things: 1) Serve the Lord with gladness, 2) Kiss the Son - showing reverence and affection, and 3) take refuge in God. Here is the gospel in reverse: We take refuge in God - turning to him, seeking God's mercy - we kiss the Son, we love the Son, we honor the Son and then 3) Serve the Son gladly. Here is no embittered servitude, but happy submission to God.

- Notice the responses of the repentant - the Psalmist puts together things we have a hard time holding together: Rejoicing and trembling. Affection and submission. The worship of the Lord grants a fullness of life and experience that cannot be reduced to one emotional experience. It is joy, refuge, fear, service, worship all together.

3 - Applying and Praying the Psalm

- Do not underestimate the hostility of the world around us to the rule of God.

- Do not underestimate the authority of Jesus over the world.

- Take hope in the view of God as he beholds the nations' blasphemies - Our world looks insane, gathered together in rebellion against God. God is not worried. God is not frustrated by the nations. God laughs at their insolence. He does not view them as a viable threat to his authority. Do not be afraid.

- Do not underestimate the promises of God for the world- more particularly his promise of the world for Jesus. The Scriptures do not tell us that God intends to save a few folks from the nations to heaven. They declare - this Psalm declares that the nations belong to God now and that every ruler in rebellion against him will be cast down and all the nations will belong to Jesus.

- Hear the good news: God opposes the proud, but shows mercy to all those who take refuge in him. Confess and believe that Jesus is Lord. Kiss the Son. Love the Son. Delight in the Son. Finally, serve the Son - obey his commands with gladness. And learn to laugh - to laugh with your Father who laughs in the face of all who stand against him.