Psalm 2 • When God Laughs
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
Let me ask that you would look in your bibles this morning at Psalm 2, Psalm 2.
Kurt Pegler said this is the unofficial start of summer, and so it's the second addition of Summer Psalms, as we will be going through the Psalms during our summertime Sundays.
And Psalm 2 is the most frequently quoted Psalm in the New Testament.
So if you say, "What Psalms are frequently there?" you would say 2 and most important to the apostles and prophets in the New Testament Psalm 2.
One of the reasons I think perhaps is a verse that you're going to recognize as I get there, which reminds us that we are called to "kiss the Son."
Isn't that a great summer Psalm to begin with?
You've heard of sun-kissed oranges: This is a Son-kissed Psalm.
[Laughter]
And I think you'll find it ever more sweet as the Lord is telling us here of His great passion for His people as He sends a Savior to save.
Let's stand as we honor God's Word.
Psalm 2: In your Grace bibles, that's page 448, Psalm 2.
The psalmist writes, "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.'
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 in 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."
Let's pray together.
>>> Heavenly Father, would You bless us by teaching us how we might take refuge in Your Son this day?
This psalm, for all its magnificence, is a call to intimacy, to closeness to the Son, to a relationship so dear it's being called kissing the Son, an embrace of grace that shows how great is Your love for us and as we respond, the blessing of Your care now and forever.
So bless us by understanding that our lives might reflect this goodness, we pray.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
>>> Please be seated.
It's been a few decades, but I remember vividly it was a Sunday evening and the assistant pastor was preaching.
And just to, I think, put us at ease a little bit, he reminded us that the truth of the Word was more important at the time it took to deliver it.
And to make that point, he took us to Acts 20 where the apostle Paul preached until midnight, and a boy named Eutychus, listening at the window, fell off the window and had to ultimately be rescued by Paul.
And the pastor made some kind of chuckle aside of, "Aren't you glad it's not you whose name is eternally in the Bible because you fell asleep during a sermon?"
[Laughter]
Now, we chuckled like you just did, and that's where the night got truly memorable.
What happened after the chuckle is that a man toward the back of the church stood up and said, "Pastor, I rebuke you.
Humor is not an attribute of God.
It is not in the Bible.
And you would not have laughed if that was your son that fell down."
Now, in case you are wondering, this is not the part of the sermon I want you to apply.
[Laughter]
But I have had some years to think about that event, that evening, and ask the question: Is it true that humor is never in the Bible?
Does God ever laugh?
And, of course, the Psalm in front of you answers the question, doesn't it?
It specifically says in verse 4, "He who sits in the heavens laughs."
Why?
If you get nothing else from today, what I want you to hear is this: When the Bible tells us that God is laughing, He is not laughing at you, not your foolishness, not your weakness, not your sin.
The intention of God is not to laugh at you: It is to rejoice over you.
And that message is in this Psalm as you see the reasons that God laughs.
If you begin to kind of eliminate alternatives, you might say, "Well, one of the reasons that God appears to be laughing is that He's laughing at human plans."
As a matter of fact, many times people summarize is--, summarize verses 1-4 of Psalm 2 by simply saying, "What this Psalm is about is men plan and God laughs."
And there's a certain sense to that, that we don't even know what's going to happen tomorrow; how can we rightly and well plan our plans, as well laid as they may be are certainly not a sure thing.
But if God is simply laughing at our plans, that's going to be more than a little discouraging.
After all, is God laughing at the fact that, you know, some months ago, the European Space Agency launched a probe that landed on a comet?
Do you remember that news?
I mean, ten years of space travel, three billion miles, and the amazing technological achievement was they landed the space probe on a traveling comet.
Amazing.
Only to have one little problem: Do you remember?
It bounced on landing and bounced into the shade and it was powered by solar cells, which means it couldn't function properly.
Do you think God just laughed?
Is God laughing at our mishaps?
If that's the case, perhaps we should just dedicate to Him all our old VHS tapes of "I Love Lucy" and "The Three Stooges" and "Scooby-Doo" and be done with it.
But it's more than that.
God is not simply laughing at plans.
Another alternative, of course, is that He's landing, that He's laughing not just at human plans but human plotting.
Verse 1 says, "Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?"
That word plot, by the way, is just exactly the same Hebrew word as the word meditates in Psalm 1 and verse 2, where it says of the righteous man, "His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night," same Hebrew word.
The law is meditated on day and night and that same word is translated plotting in Psalm 2, because apparently the kings of the earth are raging as they meditate.
And when you ruminate while you're raging, you are plotting.
And so it's translated as "the kings of the earth are plotting."
And as you think about what that means, that there is some sort of human intention of undoing the plan and purposes of God, the psalmist says, "They plot against the Lord."
And maybe that's why He's laughing, as though a human king, a human ruler would have the temerity to plot against God.
It's kind of like, you know, Woody Alling--, Woody Allen planning to punch out Mike Tyson, you know, kind of a.
I don't think Mike Tyson is too upset about that.
He would just laugh at it, a lion chuckling at a mouse's roar.
Is that all it is?
Is God just laughing because there's such a mismatch of human plotting against His power?
Not even that.
Something else is going on.
Why does God laugh?
Verse 2 says it very specifically.
"The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed."
The Hebrew word "anointed" is translated in the New Testament as the Greek word "Christ."
"They plot against the Lord and his Christ."
The Jews for centuries identified Psalm 2 as a Messianic Psalm, a prediction of the coming One who would be God's provision for the nations.
And what God is actually laughing at with derision is that the nations, the peoples of the earth would say that their plans are better than His provision.
God had said through Abraham so long ago that through the line of Israel and to David in particular there would come an eternal and universal kingdom that would be ruled by steadfast love, that there would be an anointed one who would come and establish the kingdom of God.
But there are people who say, "I don't want that.
I don't want the expression of God's eternal and steadfast love.
I've got a better plan."
And God laughs.
"You've got a better plan than My provision?
You do not understand the blessing that I intend."
We think about it perhaps in terms of just occasional things that we face in our lives, the daily tasks.
Last week I talked to you about the blessing of recognizing that all honest work is holy work.
And that means work ultimately is worship.
That's God's plan: that our work would not be something separate from our dedication to God.
But in fact, in our work, we are instruments of God's testimony, that we are actually means of His transforming the world around us, the world of our city and society, that God intends for our work to make a difference.
Whether our efforts are large or small, we are testifying of eternal things, transforming the world and preparing to support the work of God's church, so much so that our work is our calling.
Every position a pulpit, every office an altar, every mess we face an opportunity for mission.
That's God's plan.
His provision for us is that we would have a holy calling regardless of what we face.
And what that means is there's satisfaction and joy in the work that God calls us to do as we perceive it being a calling from Him.
What difference does it make?
Baylor University in July of 2014, just about a year ago, said this in a study: "Those who believe that God is present in their workplace, that faith can actually guide their work decisions and that their work is a mission from God actually experience greater job satisfaction than all others measured and actually want to expand their job influence."
If my perception is not that my work is just a way of multiplying my toys or measuring my worth or making it to the weekend: If my daily work is a calling from God to make a difference in the world, suddenly I find satisfaction and meaning and significance in it.
And it's what God intends.
"You got a better plan than that?
Don't make Me laugh," says God.
How do our families learn that?
I mean, if we want something for ourselves, we would certainly want it for our children, that they too would understand that there is significance and satisfaction in what God calls them to do with the unique gifts that He has given them as individuals.
We would want our families to know that.
But we recognize in our society today it's harder and harder for God's people to communicate to another generation their calling of God.
CNN last month ran for almost a whole week a set of stories in which they were exploring research by the Pew Foundation in which they said, "While 75 percent of Americans identify themselves as Christians, only 25 percent actually attend church regularly."
The consequence is that those who have been nominal in their faith are quickly becoming more and more what they call nones, not N-U-N: N-O-N-E-S.
Really committed to nothing.
And the consequence of being committed to nothing is that I only pursue what brings me happiness in the moment: my satisfaction is in my toys; my satisfaction is in what brings me pleasure in the moment.
And if my job doesn't do that, I'm ultimately unhappy, dissatisfied, feel like a peon before the bosses who control my life.
And that is not what we want for ourselves or anyone else.
So what do we do about that?
We recognize that God has a plan.
And the plan is that there would be heads of homes who lead their families in worship, who prioritize the corporate worship of God over the lake and over personal advancement and over sports, that there would be this regular participation of the people of God in the purposes of God so that what we do and our children do is perceived as being lived before the face of God in every moment of every day.
And that's not just legalistic: That is actually providing for God's people the blessing that He intends.
You know, once the Pew Foundation sent out those numbers that were so covered by CNN, the LifeWay Research Society of the Southern Baptists began to crunch the numbers a different way.
And they said, "Yes, it might just be legalistic to say to people, you know, 'You go to church and your family will be blessed,'" but as they began to examine those 25 percent of Americans who are consistent in their church attendance, consistent in their worship, they found something amazing.
It is that in this time in which we think we are losing a younger generation to other things that actually of those who are called convictional Christians who are regularly involved in the life of their church, the faith that their children is--, are expressing, the faith that their children is expressing is actually becoming increased; that more and more children of the convictional Christians are staying in church with greater percentages than in previous generations.
So that what you see happening is in a society that is increasingly making being a Christian difficult, when there are convictional families, when there are heads of homes who dedicate themselves to saying, "My God has a calling upon their lives," their children see with even greater clarity.
And the consequence is those children are actually more committed to the church than previous generations.
And I'm not just saying that's great for the church: I'm just saying that's great for our families as we communicate to our children, "God has a calling on your life; your work, whatever God calls you to do, is important for the kingdom; God makes you a testimony; He makes you an instrument of transformation; He makes you able to support the life of the gospel as it goes across the world; you have significance in what you do."
That's communicated in families, families that are held together by marriages that reflect that glory of God.
If you say, "Listen, I've got a better plan than being a convictional family that will communicate the values of Christ and the significance and blessing of children to another generation," God will say, "I'd like to hear that plan, because I'm going to laugh at it."
But what holds that plan together, what makes it happen is marriages that reflect the goodness and the blessing of God, so that there is that modeling; there is that willingness to show that God's plan for couples is also to be communicated on to another generation.
After all, you and I know that however hard the workplace may be, whatever the trials may come, if we're together with another of God's calling, we have strength and joy, even in the hardest of times.
That's actually God's plan.
But you and I recognize there's challenge of that in our society today, right?
As the repercussions of the pill and the sexual revolution of the 1960s continue to work itself through our society, redefining sexual expression, redis--, redefining sexual identity, redefining marriage definition: That's not news to you; it's not news to me.
But one of the interesting commentaries on that I read recently was by one of the most thoughtful young Christian bloggers, Justin Taylor.
Some of you may read Justin on "The Gospel Coalition" website.
And he wrote about this sexual revolution, which we all are still experiencing.
And he said, "How does this actually reflect upon the wisdom of man versus the provision of God?"
He said, "From one angle, we have ushered in a society where everyone now can freely love and take pleasure in anyone and anything they want.
But from another angle, that same sexual revolution has become a permission slip for the strong and the privileged to prey upon the weak and the defenseless, so that sex trafficking and campus assault and marriage and child abandonment and body image anxiety are of such a magnitude as would have been unimaginable even a generation ago.
As the push to cast aside the cords of God, to burst the bonds of God's provision, we cast aside what we identify as tradition or taboos or faith, but the consequence is now that we privilege men over women, adults over children, the upper-class over the lower orders that are dependent upon income from sometimes the most difficult means, characteristics of a society that have not been seen since the excess and decadence of the Roman era."
Now, I must tell you, I don't know if every word there is correct; I don't know if you've got statistics to back it all up, but we all recognize how great have the changes been in a generation as a society has said, "Let's just burst the bonds; let's just cast off the cords of God's provision.
We've got a better plan."
Really.
Really?
Against the backdrop of those faith bonds being removed, I think of the growing number of studies, even by the secularists, who examine families of faith to say that those who are pure before marriage and faithful within marriage actually express greater satisfaction in relationships and sexual fulfillment than all other marriages.
Pure before marriage and faithful within it: Now, isn't that a quaint notion?
And, yet, God is saying, "Here is My provision.
Here is My plan for blessing."
I read about it, seeing a summary of those studies in a recent book 2012 by J. Budziszewski, I had to spell that out phonetically in my notes, J. Budziszewski in his book "On the Meaning of Sex."
And he wrote these words: "The natural habitat of romantic love is not the fly-me-to-the-moon weekend escapade with a temporary lover.
Rather, the natural habitat of romantic love turns out to be humdrum matrimony.
The marriage state does not put an end to romantic love.
Far from it.
For many people, the first experience of ecstatic romance comes only after they have been married a long time, going about the everyday business of loving each other for years.
And then comes the celestial gleam."
Now, I'm not sure what a celestial gleam is, but I think it's a good thing.
[Laughter]
As he just summarizes what people say and what they've studied and identified that when people love each other selflessly, calling each other friend as well as spouse, as they weather through the trials and the difficulties, that God does something to make the romance special, lively, warm, beautiful.
Because Kathy and I wrote a book on marriage, we still get radio interviews with some frequency.
And we've just learned to anticipate a standard question that will come in those radio interviews when we say we've been married something like 38 years.
And the standard question is: How do you keep love's fires lit after the initial passion dies?
Now, first of all, I'm not about to confess that the initial passion dies with my wife right beside me, right?
[Laughter]
I actually do want to say, "What are you talking about?"
When a marriage has weathered storms and crises, trials and tears, excitement and escapades, built a family, built trust, built memories together, when you cannot remember life without your other, when your lover is your friend and your confidante and your heart and your spouse, when you hate being apart and you love getting back together: When that happens, you want to tell me you got a better plan?
I will tell you: This is the blessing of God upon His people.
And, yes, it is my anniversary week, so I get to say all this.
[Laughter]
But if you're going to tell me there's a better plan than this, because what I want to say to young people as they are beginning their marriages and somebody says to them, "What do you do to keep the passion going?
What do you do to keep love's fire lit?"
I want to say, "Listen, the devotion of you to another person so that your heart becomes one and beats together through the good times and the bad times, I want to tell you something: It only gets better, better and better and better as God makes two people one."
That is His blessing.
"You got a better plan?
Don't make Me laugh."
[Laughter]
Which is actually what God says in verse 5, loosely translated.
[Laughter]
After God says He laughs at those who say they have a better provision, "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 don't really like verse 5.
"He will speak to them in his wrath; he will terrify them in his fury."
We've been talking about a God who laughs: I'm not too intimidated by that.
But then God says, "No, listen: I laugh at the understanding that you look at My blessing and you say you got a better plan.
I have intention to have My people know the beauty of walking with Me, the significance of their lives, the wonder of their love shared.
And you're going to take that away because you say you've got a better plan?
Don't make Me laugh.
In fact, I will tell you something: That will bring My fury."
You and I know that laughter can sometimes be accompanied by an edge of anger.
I have a sister-in-law who wears a t-shirt that says, "Don't start with me."
[Laughter]
Now, I laugh, but I'm also a little bit cautious, right?
[Laughter]
And God is saying He laughs, but He's saying, "You need to listen to Me.
I told you that you are warring against the Lord and His anointed, the One who is meant to bring the blessing of God into the world, into your families, into your daily life.
And you say you have got a better plan."
That anger should accompany laughter, if God is laughing at the wrong but also angry at the damage.
I mean, you and I know that laughter and anger can sometimes go very close together.
I can remember when our first daughter was born and I took a couple of preschool boys to visit mom and new baby in the hospital.
And the little boys were not nearly as interested in baby sister as they were in the bouncy hospital beds.
Right?
[Laughter]
Because they could get on the hospital beds and they could bounce all the way to the ceiling with shrieks of laughter.
And I very quickly said, "That's enough."
Which, of course, led to one more super bounce.
[Laughter]
Which sent Jordan rocketing off of the bed to crack his head open on the floor.
Now, two things are happening right at once: I care a lot and I'm really mad.
[Laughter]
Right?
I'm so concerned, but at the very same moment, I'm upset, I'm angry, that he would hurt himself in that way.
And when God has said here, "Listen, you're actually plotting against My anointed, My plan, the rule of love, the rule of righteousness that I intend for My people and you want to undo that": God has a righteous anger at such things.
And it's meant to caution us.
At the same time, it's meant to comfort us.
What does God do with His anger?
Verse 6 again, "'As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.'"
Who's He talking about?
David initially.
And then David's line: "But Christ Jesus who will come to be King, who will rule in righteousness and love and redemption."
God says, "You want to undo My plans, but I have set My King on Zion.
I have a bigger, better plan, and I will rule."
It's the reason that this Psalm was so frequently quoted in the New Testament.
Is as New Testament Christians were going through heartache and persecution, as they were facing the bitterness of trying to stand for the Lord, they believed that this Psalm was the evidence that God will fulfill a purpose beyond them through the power of the Holy Spirit and that this Psalm's promise that God would establish His King with a forever kingdom was their hope in the hardest of times.
You want to see it?
I'm just going to ask that you look at a place in your Bible.
Look at Acts 4, where you actually see this Psalm quoted.
Acts 4: In your bibles, that's 912, Acts chapter 4.
You're going to, some of you, remember the account; it's after the resurrection.
Peter and John go to the temple.
And they see a man who's lame.
And he asks for their money.
They say, "Silver and gold have we none; but such as we have we do give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ risen from the dead, arise."
And he walks, to the upset of the Jewish leaders who recognize now this resurrected Jesus is going to have a lot of evidence of His continuing power.
And so they arrest Peter and John.
And they say, "You must not preach this resurrection of Jesus."
What happens next?
If you're in Acts 4, look at verse 23.
"When they were released," that is Peter and John, "they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them.
And when they," that is the people of the church, "heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, 'Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,'" now you'll hear the words, "''Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed,' for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.'
And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness."
The laughter of God is the power of the Spirit poured into the activities of the church.
Do you recognize what happens when God laughs?
His Spirit arises.
"I will set My King in Zion.
I will send My holy servant."
I'm not saying that it will happen in a moment.
The New Testament church did not believe that there would not be persecution ahead, but they believed the promise of God was He would accomplish His purposes, that ultimately the name of Christ would fill the earth as waters cover the sea, that there would be opportunity by the church, through the church, through God's people, to accomplish the great and mighty work, because the Holy Spirit would fill them.
When we recognize that what is happening in our world is people trying to burst the bonds of Christ, to cast away the cords that they view as restraint, we recognize that God does not merely laugh: He says, "Don't make Me laugh, because I will send My Spirit to help My people."
It's what you and I profoundly believe: that we do not worship in this place nor serve God in the workplace, kind of hope against hope, "I wish this will happen now for some good."
We believe that Psalm 2 and everything leading up to it and following it is saying, "God will fulfill His purposes; the Spirit is alive in this place."
That when God breathed upon His Church at Pentecostal, what He was doing was He was promising that that Holy Spirit would work through us and beyond us to do the work of God that He has called us to do.
It is actually the promise that is here.
Once God says, "Don't make Me laugh," He tells us why when that laughter comes, it is actually the best medicine for this world and the people of God.
After God truly does experience or express that we are to take note, He tells us why we should take note of what He will do through His Son.
Look at verse 6 again.
"'As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.'"
Here comes rescue.
"You kings and rulers, you counselors, you think you're going to: I have set My King up.
He will do what I intend.
I will establish my King."
Verse 7: What will He do?
David now speaking says, "I will tell of the decree that the Lord said to me."
Here is David himself now looking back at 2 Samuel 7.
What did God promise to me, King David?
"The Lord said, '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.'"
I know the words go by so fast.
Every phrase a promise, every phrase a commitment of the power of God to do what is necessary for His people.
Verse 7, "The Lord said to me, 'You are my Son; today I have begotten you.'"
The words in Romans chapter 1 and verse 4 as God says, "Jesus has been declared to be the Son of God by his resurrection through the Holy Spirit."
The Holy Spirit in raising Christ just saying, "I have sent the King.
He is My begotten Son.
He is of the line of David."
Verse 8, "'Ask of me,'" says God to David, "'and I will make the nations your heritage.'"
What was the promise to Abraham, the forefather of David?
"I will make you a father of many nations."
Here is the Abrahamic covenant comes to fruition.
"'And the ends of the earth will be your possession.'"
Again, the covenant with David that there would be an eternally universal kingdom out of which would come the ruler over all things for the good of God's people.
Verse 9: "'You,'" that is this line of David, "'you shall break them.'"
Don't think of breaking like breaking a stick; think of like breaking a horse, taming it.
"You shall tame the unruly nations; you shall tra--, tame evil."
Some of your bibles actually use the word shepherd there.
"You will shepherd the nations with a rod of iron."
Oh, say scepter.
It's the same word.
Do you remember way back in Genesis 49?
God said through Jacob, "The scepter of Judah shall not depart from his people."
That God is saying He had a plan that would go from Abraham through Judah, through David, to Jesus, and God is working the plan, which is ultimately giving His people confidence that regardless of what they face, God is at work.
And there is a consequence of that.
Verse 10, "Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth."
You know, in a place of grace, we sometimes wonder if warnings are gracious.
Listen, if God did not love, He would not warn.
He has said, "I will send My Son.
He will conquer evil and forgive your sins.
Come under His rule.
Come under His understanding.
Be wise.
Be warned."
And that kind of warning is actually a great grace.
We sing it so consistently; we don't even recognize what we're saying, right?
In "Amazing Grace," "'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear."
Well, why is that gracious?
Because that same "grace my fears relieved."
If I don't recognize the consequences of sin, I will not turn from them.
But if I see the consequences, fear that, then I will turn to the One who says He will rescue me.
And that is actually what God is saying He will do.
"Serve the Lord with fear," verse 11, "and rejoice with trembling."
Such strange words: fear, warning, trembling, and rejoice.
7 One of these words is not like the others 7
7 One of these words doesn't b-- 7 7
[Laughter]
>>> Fear, warning, trembling, and rejoice: Which word doesn't fit?
Rejoice.
As though what the psalmist is doing is saying recognize in what God is providing, warning not to turn from His blessing, is actually giving you cause to rejoice.
There is a path of salvation.
There is a path of goodness.
And who's being called to it?
Look at verse 12.
"Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way."
The psalmist is wrestling the very enemies of God, the ones who said they had a better plan, who turned away, who counseled against the work of the Messiah.
And to the very enemies of God is offered this intimate invitation.
Come on, "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry."
You don't want that.
You want the blessing and the goodness that He intends as you're not following your way but His.
So that ultimately you see what is promised, the very last line: "Blessed are all who take refuge in him."
What God is doing is providing a plan of refuge.
A friend of mine tells the account of a decade or so ago on the M-25, the highway that's outside of London, dense fog came upon a particular night.
And because of that, a truck could not navigate a turn well enough, couldn't see the curve and steer rightly.
And so the truck overturned with its load.
Because it was on the blind side of the curve, cars were coming around in the fog to hit the truck.
Police soon arrived, put cones on the road to try to stop the oncoming traffic, but the fog was too thick.
And cars either did not see the cones or ran right over them, only to have the police who were there for the rescue to hear the screeching of breaks and the crunching of metal and the screams of those who went into the wreck.
Because the police were desperate to stop the cars, they actually began to pick up the cones and throw them at the windshields of the cars as they passed to do anything to get their attention, putting themselves in peril to rescue the people in need.
It's what God has done through His Son.
Do you recognize it?
As God says, "I will establish my King on a holy hill," what He would ultimately do would take the body of His Son and dash Him against a cross to say to you and to me, "Take heed; be warned.
The consequences of sin, of walking away from Him, will serve you no good."
But it is the voice of compassion.
It is the voice of rescue who says, "You may take refuge in Him."
And He has shown you how great is His care by giving Himself for you.
I don't know the path you're on.
If it's one that's away from God, God laughs, not at you: to turn you, "That will not help; that will not do what you intend."
And He so much intends for you to find refuge in Him that He points to His Son and He says, "I sent Him at His own life's peril for you."
Believe me, there is a different and better way.
Trust Him and the power of the Holy Spirit will work in you and for you.
Your refuge is not in your path; it's in Him.
Find your refuge in Him.
Kiss the Son, and He will hold you forever.