Psalms 2:1-12 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his anointed, saying, 3 “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” 4 He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. 5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, 6 “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” 7 I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. 8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. 9 You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” 10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. 11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. 12 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.

All kings and judges will one day lay their earthly crowns and offices at the feet of the One, True, King- Philippians 2:10-11 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. God has revealed to us in His word that the whole worship of Him, both internal and external, should be done with this attitude “with fear”, not with a fear of man, not with a slavish and unhappy fear of God, but with a godly, loving, and reverential affection for Him, with reverence, and awe, without silly and fleeting affections, without careless and foolish neglegence, but with a true and grounded fear in the One whom all things animate and inanimate, bow lowly to. He also calls us to REJOICE in trembling. Again, how we are reminded that our God calls us, rather commands us, to rejoice in Him. At times in the past I would have jumped at the verb “trembling” and forgotten the expressive emotion of REJOICE. Not any more. Both are to be present, and both are to feed the other. I can’t truly rejoice unless I tremble before Him, and I can’t truly tremble in the way he prescribes unless I have a heart of bursting joy over this great God that I fear and love, worship and adore, honor and revere. REJOICE in trembling! That is our instruction. I pray God helps me to understand what it means to pursue such a sobering paradox. I pray God burns into my heart a trembling before Him that has as its greatest sustenance a true and living joy which cannot and will not be contained. I pray God fills my heart, my family, and my church with such all consuming delight in Him that we overflow into the lives of every human that God has created in His image for His glory.