We've been warned

The last two verses of our psalm point to the fact that all of us must submit to God and His Anointed One while there is time:

Now therefore, O kings, show discernment;
         Take warning, O judges of the earth.

Worship the LORD with reverence
         And rejoice with trembling.

Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way,
         For His wrath may soon be kindled.
         How blessed are all who take refuge in Him! (Psalm 2:10-12)

Dear reader, it is not just the proud, haughty kings of King David's era who have rebelled against God. We are all guilty of saying, as the kings did, "let us cast away his cords from us!" 

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Romans 3:23)

At some point, and at some time, we have all said, I am going to do it MY way! Come on, be honest! You know what I'm talking about, right?

At first blush, you would think that everybody would welcome the Messiah, because the scriptures tell us that He came to save us from our sins. But it's not just salvation - Jesus didn't come to save us so that we could get a ticket to heaven and then go on our merry way, not paying attention to God anymore. We can see in these verses that the issue here is lordship. The psalmist is trying to get his readers to realize: it's the Anointed King Who will reign. If He doesn't reign by our willing submission right now, then His reign will be by a forced submission when He comes to earth again. In other words, He is not going to take second place to anyone. Not a back seat drive, nope! Every knee will bow!

The warning of verses ten through twelve applies to each and every person -- all must show discernment and take heed to the warning. Some translations include the words "kiss" instead of "do homage." This is pointing to the ancient way of obeisance, the prostrating of oneself before the ruler or leader. It's a way of expressing submission before a monarch - so as not to incur his displeasure. All people should bow before the Lord; we should submit to Christ as Lord before He returns in judgement, so that we do not "perish in the way."

And we don't have much time to dither about it, either. 

There is an urgency, here. That phrase, "His wrath may soon be kindled," tells us a lot. First, we need to be aware of how brief our own lives are. That's a given. We never know when we go to bed at night if we will be breathing in the morning. I don't mean to sound callous -- but it's true. Our lives are short in view of eternity, and we don't know how long the Lord has allotted us for our time here on earth.

Perhaps even more importantly, the signs of our times point to the imminent coming of the Lord. The first time He came to earth, it was in mercy -- He came to save. The second time He comes, it will be in wrath -- He will come to judge. The end time events that we see predicted in the Bible seem to be lining up, as prophesied. But even if we are incorrect in our interpretations, or even if His coming is not when we humans think it may be, we need to submit to our Redeemer before His coming, or before we die.

It's for sure that if we don't submit to King Jesus before we die, we will face the judgment:

And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, (Hebrews 9:27) 

Many people today are seeking places of peace and safety. They analyze locations and cultures and political scenes; they compare the rate of exchange of the currency; they look into the education systems; they travel to new regions to check them out, etc, etc.

What they don't realize is that we can't find peace and safety anywhere here on earth -- only in our Savior, Jesus Christ. World chaos and war will only increase in frequency and in intensity as His coming draws near. If we can't escape, what CAN we do?

Ah, there it is . . . the last line of the psalm . . . it's an invitation from a merciful God: "how blessed are all who take refuge in Him." As we look around us at the chaos in our world, we can be truly happy and blessed by taking refuge in our merciful God. 

What does it mean to "take refuge"?  It means that in spite of our circumstances, we make the conscious decision to put our lives in His hands and to find our security in Him. When we are weak we are able to look to Him and find a place of home, a place of peace, a place of complete security.  He provides protection for the vulnerable and peace for our times of distress. (There are forty-five references to God as refuge in the book of Psalms alone!)

The New Testament church took refuge in Him by praying Psalm 2 as they were facing persecution. If you have time, check out the passage in Acts 4, verses 23 through 31, and you will see that they prayed David's words in their earnest plea to God. Even when it looks like the enemy is winning, we can do the same!

When we take refuge in God, we can rest assured that He has everything, even the rebellion of wicked people, under His control. 

We will complete our study of Psalm 2 tomorrow . . . .