Psalm 2:1-12

    1 Why do the nations conspire
        and the peoples plot in vain?
    2 The kings of the earth rise up  
        and the rulers band together against the LORD
        and against his Anointed One, saying
    3 “Let us break their chains,
          and throw off their shackles.”

The world does exactly what Psalm 1 warns us not to do. The world wants nothing to do with God. The world ("like sheep without a shepherd") is willing to listen to any shyster who claims to have found Jesus' bones and say, "See -- I knew it all along." The world is especially hateful of the doctrine of forgiveness, because to be forgiven implies that something needed forgiving. If I am forgiven, then something I did must not have been good. The world sneers at God.

What is God's response?

    4 The One enthroned in heaven laughs;
        the Lord scoffs at them.
    5 He rebukes them in his anger
        and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,
    6 “I have installed my King
        on Zion, my holy hill.”
    7 I will proclaim the LORD's decree: 
        He said to me, “You are my Son;
            today I have become your Father.
    8 Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance,
        the ends of the earth your possession.
    9 You will rule them with a rod of iron;
        you will dash them to pieces like pottery.”

God doesn't fear his own creation. God offers his gospel and his forgiveness despite what the heathen say about him. He sent his Son into the world to reign and to live and to die in our place and to rise again. And this Son is the one who will judge the world on the Last Day.

When God says of Christ, "You are my Son," he isn't only talking about one event in Nazareth involving a teenage girl engaged to a carpenter. The Son is the Son of God forever. He is eternally God's Son, and his relationship with the Father is eternal and it is unchanging. We praise God that he became human for us; it helps us understand his Father-Son relationship better. The great mystery is why -- but his answer is simply, "I love you."

    10 Therefore, you kings, be wise;
        be warned, you rulers of the earth.
    11 Serve the LORD with fear
        and celebrate his rule with trembling.
    12 Kiss his Son, or he will be angry
        and your way will lead to your destruction,
        for his wrath can flare up in a moment.
     Blessed are all who take refuge in him. (NIV)

You might be aware that the word for "son" in Hebrew is ben. A "Benjamin" is literally "the son of my right hand." The word here, however, isn't ben. It's bar. You've heard it before in names like "Barabbas" (son of the father)  and "Bartholomew" (son of Ptolemy). Bar is more common in the Aramaic language than Hebrew (Ezra 5:1, 2 and 6:14 all use it in Aramaic parts of the Bible), but it occurs in Proverbs 31:2 in a Hebrew passage probably written by Solomon.

We submit to Jesus Christ because he is truly God. Our lives are the time God has given to each of us in which we have time to come to faith in him, and do with that faith whatever we have the gifts to do. For one person, it might mean simply hanging on to that faith. For another, it might mean passing that faith along to another person, especially a child. For another, it might mean being a part of a community of believers that supports the faith of dozens or even hundreds of believers. And so on, and on.

Blessed are all who take refuge in him.