This post is number 4 in a series of short pieces about the Psalms. Photo by Alabaster Co on Unsplash
King of kings
Click here to read: Psalm 2
Psalm 2 tells us a really important idea we need to know about God’s king for the earth. It was written when God’s king looked weak and he only ruled a few people. But God gave that king something very special which made him the most powerful man on the planet. What was that? A promise!
Do you ever make promises? To your mum: “I promise to tidy up my mess.” To your friend: “I promise not to tell anyone your secret.” How easy do you find it to keep your promises? Sometimes we break them, don’t we? Maybe because they are too hard. Or because we don’t want to keep them any more. Or because we didn’t really mean them. We are not always very good with promises.
God is not like us. When he makes a promise, it always comes true. He never lets you down. He made a promise to the king of Israel which was written down in this Psalm. God said he would treat the king as his son. What an honour! Then he said his son could ask to become the king of everywhere. What a bigger honour!
Maybe you’re wondering if that’s fair. Shouldn’t each country have its own king or president? The Psalm does not say they won’t. But every ruler, in order to run their country properly, needs always to remember there is someone above him or her: God. God made us and he has the right to be in charge of all of us. He’s the king of kings.
However, God has decided to have somebody on the earth to act for him. An earthly king of kings. In this Psalm he promises this will be one of the kings of Israel. What sort of king will he be? Tough! Do you remember that in part 1 of the Psalm it said that other kings kept trying to fight God but God thought them silly? Well, his king of kings will prove that. If they try to fight, they will lose.
But there’s time for them to change their minds. Let other kings listen to the LORD and be so frightened of who he is, that they will give up their mad ideas of defeating God. Instead, let them submit to God’s rule by coming to bow to his king of kings on the earth. If they don’t then one day he’ll get angry with them and that will be the end of them. But if they do then they will find peace not war, safety not danger, hope not fear.
God’s promise to Israel’s king took a long time fully to come true. As I wrote in part 1, some kings like David were a little like this and acted like God’s son for a time, with victories over God’s enemies. But it was never as dramatic as Psalm 2 says. However, Jesus is making this all come true. Today, people from many different countries trust him as their king. Those Christians obey Jesus even when it means disobeying their own rulers. And whenever rulers try to beat Jesus by punishing Christians they find they always lose in the end. Jesus breaks them, whilst his kingdom keep growing. You can never win in a fight with God. You can never win in a fight with Jesus.
We need to believe in Jesus. Trust him to look after us. Obey his ways. He is the king of kings.