Christmas Invitation

It’s a season for invitations. School-aged kids bring home typed notices of classroom Christmas parties, with instructions about what to bring. Families and friends nail down a date for their get-together over a text thread. You might even open a fancy, gilt-edged envelope from your company, asking for an RSVP to their year-end gathering. But no Christmas invitation you receive will be as important as the one the psalmist issues to us in Psalm 2:10–12. In light of all we’ve learned about the King God is sending into his rebellious world, we have an invitation—a summons!—to answer.

First, we need to be wise. David begins Psalm 2 by asking “why?” Why are you raging against God and opposing his Messiah? Why do you think you can defy him and get away with it? Why are you trying to control your own life? It’s all in vain! He returns to that message here: “Now therefore, O kings, be wise.” Use your head! Trying to be your own god will not end well for you! You can try to hold onto your little kingdom like Herod at Christmas, or you can wise up like those magi who recognized the superior glory of Jesus. They traveled far to lay their treasures at his feet. They fell down and worshipped him, and rejoiced greatly (Matt 2:1–12). Be wise and come to this King!

Second, we need to be warned. The warning comes in the form of two options that God presents to us: “Serve Yahweh 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.” Option 1 is to recognize that Jesus is the King God has established over all the nations. Lay down your resistance and pledge your loyalty to him—that’s the idea behind that image of “kissing the Son.” Stop trying to be god in your own life, come down from your throne, and “serve Yahweh” instead. Offer him all that you are and all that you have. You will be surprised to find yourself “rejoicing,” because this King’s yoke is easy, and his burden is light (Matt 11:28). Those who take refuge in Jesus discover that they are “blessed,” or happy (12)!

Option 2 is not nearly as pleasant. For those who insist on trying to remain “king” and “ruler” in their own lives, there remains only that rod of iron, which shatters the enemies of Jesus like so many clay plots. If you don’t want to “kiss the Son” in humble submission, you will find that this King of love does in fact have wrath and anger toward those who reject his Father, and that all his enemies will “perish in his way.” This imagery of Jesus will appear again in the Bible, at the end of the story; John sees Psalm 2 in living color in Revelation 19, when Jesus rides out as the avenging Lord.

So to be clear, you have two options: rejoice and tremble, or resist and tumble. Ask Jesus to rule in you now, by his Holy Spirit and his Word. Or he will rule over you at his return, when none of his enemies will remain standing. There will be no refuge from him on that day when he appears; there is blessed refuge in him now through the gospel!

Finally, we need to be worshipful. Before we leave Psalm 2, it is worth lingering over that curious combination of images in v11: “Serve Yahweh with fear and rejoice with trembling.” Fear, trembling…and rejoicing? We don’t normally put these together. But when you rightly understand the God of the Bible, his Christ, and who you are before him, there is no response but amazement, awe, and adoration (Phil 2:12–13). Is there any of this in your own Christmas worship? You might review Psalm 2.

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Article by Eric Smith
Senior Pastor, Sharon Baptist Church