Psalm 2 (part 3) - The Only-Begotten

Psalm 2 (part 3) - The Only-Begotten

Psa. 2:7 “I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD:
He said to Me, ‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.
8 ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.
9 ‘You shall break them with a rod of iron,
You shall shatter them like earthenware.’”

Imagine being present in the midst of the heavenly council. There is the glory of the Father; the presence of the Son; the wind of the Spirit. Also we find the seraphim and cherubim, perhaps the elders as well that we find in Revelation 4 and 5. And there you are, tiny and scared like a church mouse. You can hardly breathe. Isaiah fell on his face. You probably should as well.

But let’s take a step further and find you behind a curtain as the Father and the Son whisper back and forth to one another in glorious intimate and profound words. Their secrets want to make your head explode with wonder. The Son will be installed (last week’s section) and begotten (this week’s section) into the world scene? And, at His request, He will be given Kingship and Mastery over everything? From Jerusalem to the ends of the earth? Every enemy will be vanquished, and He will be King of kings and Lord of lords. And there you are quivering and trying to disappear.

This divine interaction tells the story of the outcome of human history. This is where we will end up, with earth’s ruin ruined, and the glory of the Son vindicated. We do not know all the steps to get there. But man, oh man, you had better be standing on the Son’s side when it comes about.

This glory of the Son is often called into question by the use of the word “begotten.” It certainly is used most commonly of bearing children. If that is the case here, then the Son would be an offspring of the Father, something of a creation of the Father, and therefore not God Himself. Remember, in our understanding of the Trinity, there is but one God with Three Person. All are fully God and not brought about by the others.

In the verse above the title, we see the word used in the Book of Job. In a section where God speaks, God asks about begetting and giving birth in creation. But the answer seems to be, no, rather these things were established by the eternal decree of God, a phrase that we find here in Psalm 2. The Trinitarian God has in the forever past decreed that the Son would, one day, be revealed to the world in an action that is so mysterious, we have to stretch words to describe it. God in this Psalm dictates the use of “installed” or “begotten,” unmasked to the world as the One who will rule in a new heavens and new earth which will be fully submissive and reconciled to God.

The way this is described in the NT uses the same word, with safeguards and curbs wrapped around to keep us from being too literal with “begotten.” John 1:14 “And the Word (the Son) became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” That is, the Word, who already existed before the unveiling, now reveals, according to divine eternal decree, the glory of the Father, the glory of the Godhead. Earlier in the chapter, John begins, “John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.”

Charles Wesley in Hark the Herald Angels Sing says it like this: “veiled in flesh, the Godhead see; hail the incarnate Deity, pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus, our Immanuel” (God with us). Jesus is not God’s creation. He is Himself God the Son, one with the Father and the Spirit. He deserves the same worship as does the Father.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

If you had never heard of “the Strait of Hormuz” before, you have no doubt heard about it now. Because of hostilities, one nation is impeding the flow of ocean vessels through this strait, with ships “trapped” both inside and outside the Persian Gulf. One of the key categories of products being held hostage is energy.

This newsletter is not about geopolitics, so the description above is illustrative of another energy problem. When we think about the members of the Trinity: Father, Son and Spirit, it is the Spirit who brings energy to the church’s and the believer’s life in order to enable us to do the will of God. It is not oil, though that emblem is used in the Bible. It is a spiritual energy, a spiritual enablement that allows us to serve in ways that would be impossible without such energy.

As oil and fertilizer are being held up by the hostilities around the Strait of Hormuz, so spiritual enablements are similarly obstructed by spiritual hostilities. We sometimes summarize these hostilities by referring to an unholy trinity: the world, the flesh, and the devil. All three of these work against the free flow of the Spirit’s energy into the life of the church and the life of the Christian.

Think with me for a minute about that listing of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5: 22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control.” Is the flow of such things ever impeded in your life? Of course it is. Why? Well, it could be different reasons, but they would find their root in sins of the flesh, or the influence of the world, or the opposition of the devil. And as sure as there are hostilities between tribes and nations in the world, there are spiritual hostilities opposing the work of the Spirit in our lives. Some of these are very, very close to home.

And it is that battle close to home, inside our own souls, that we should address first. Yes, it is convenient for us to blame the ungodliness of the world or the schemes of the devil, but in the end, without the flesh, those may not be so effective. What is flesh? It is you and I adopting a self-sufficient attitude toward the governance of our lives. We want to do what we want to do. We choose to set our own agenda. We make our own decisions without time and attention to what God wants. And it creates an energy blockade.

The problem is the problem of one’s own self, and it is through our own self-centeredness that we obstruct the Spirit with the “Strait of Me.” We are our own worst enemy, and we ourselves are the obstacle over which we stumble, obstructing the free flow of the Spirit’s energetic graces, such as the fruit of the Spirit.

The Reformers who broke from the Roman sacramental system had to study their Bibles and reformulate how it is that God’s grace flows to us. In my understanding of the sacramental system, one is given “chunks of grace” per sacrament performed or to which one submits. Go to confession, get a chunk of grace; last rites, get your final chunk. But the Bible describes other “means (conduits) of grace,” and they see these means as ways of adjusting our posture before God to seek the continual flow of His grace into our lives. Prayer is one of these means of grace, not a meritorious act, but a posture of supplication for God’s mercy and grace in our lives. Attention to God’s Word is a means also, as is the gathering of the people of God under the ministry of the Word, including participation in the ordinances of Baptism and Lord’s Table. All of these put the self in its proper place, with bowed head and bended knee to the One whom we worship. We do not worship ourselves or the church. We worship the Head of the Church, the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us.

When we leave off from such personal and congregational practices, done honestly and humbly, we are in a position to enjoy the free flow of the Spirit’s energy that produces good things from above. May such straits be opened. May our hearts be open to what God wants to do in us and through us.