2023.01.04 Psalms 002 – We make our relationship with God so difficult

We make our relationship with God so difficult. But it really shouldn’t be. The simple reality is that we must make a choice. You really can’t sit on the fence with God.

We make things so difficult. I guess when you’re a person, that’s what you do.

Yes, this is an Old Testament passage. It’s from Psalms. It’s all OT stuff. And yet, there are things to learn from it. Especially when the passage, like this one, points to the New Testament. And therefore, to us.

Here’s what I mean by that.

There is a debate among Old Testament scholars as to whether Psalm 2 can be considered messianic. That is, does it speak specifically of Jesus Christ? This is a complicated question with which we will deal again in the expositions of other psalms. But I say at the outset that if any psalm can rightly be regarded as messianic, it is this one. Psalm 2 speaks of the rebellion of the world’s rulers against God’s Anointed—the actual word is Messiah—and of the Father’s decree to give him dominion over them. This determination, plus the psalm’s ready and obvious application to the hostile circumstances of their day, made Psalm 2 one of the psalms most quoted by the writers of the New Testament.  ¹

Of course, read the whole thing. But verse 12 really sums it up. The choice we have when it comes to our relationship with God. Specifically, in our case, with Jesus.

^{Ps 2:12} Kiss the Son, lest he be angry
and you be destroyed in your way,
for his wrath can flare up in a moment.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Again, this is Old Testament. So we need to consider the words for what they are – Old Testament type of language, where outcomes are very much about here on earth. But today, for Christians, our ultimate outcome is the next life. So let’s keep that in mind and consider the options in verse 12.