Through the Bible with Les Feldick
LESSON 2 * PART 2 * BOOK 78
PART 1 of the MESSIANIC PROHECIES – Part 2
Psalms 2, 8, and 16
Okay, we’re going to pick right up where we left off at the end of the last program, and that was in Psalms chapter 2. We’re looking at the Messianic Psalms. There are sixteen of them that deal particularly with the coming of a promised King and Messiah. They are so plainly put, that there’s just no room for argument that these prophets were speaking of that. Which now, of course, we understand is just right out in front of us as the world events are taking place.
So, we’re going to come back to Psalms chapter 2. We have just covered in our last half hour the fact that Jesus Christ was the Only Begotten Son of God by virtue of His resurrection. That alone sets Him apart from everything else. Now we’re going into the next aspect of the Psalms, where God says in verse 8:
Psalms 2:8
“Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen (or the non-Jewish world) for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” Now that doesn’t just mean the little Nation of Israel; that means the whole planet is going to come under the rulership of this Kingdom. But before that can happen, He has to defeat His enemies. We see that in verse 9.
Psalms 2:9
“Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Now let’s jump up to some of the other prophets and see how they picture that. We’re going to look at Daniel first, because Daniel is the very benchmark of most end-time prophecy.
And you remember that Daniel was in captivity in Babylon at the time of Nebuchadnezzar. The king had had a dream, and he couldn’t remember what it was. You remember that Daniel was brought up from wherever he was, and he not only rehearsed the dream, but interpreted it. It was a prophetic thing. It was a prophecy concerning the coming Gentile Empires beginning with Babylon and going all the way up to the Roman—which, of course, took us up to the time of Christ.
All right, I just want you to see a little bit of this to show that before the King and the Kingdom can become a reality, He would have to destroy all the empires that were still on the scene at the time of His coming—which, of course, would be the four major empires that Daniel 4 told about in the first place.
All right, now you want to remember that he saw a vision of a human being – humongous in size – frightening in its appearance. It had a head of gold, a chest of silver, belly and thighs of brass, the two legs of iron, and the feet and toes were iron mixed with clay. These were indicative of the Babylonians, the Medes and Persians, the Greek, the Romans, and then the one that we now see as coming up, a Revived Roman Empire.
But the place I want to take you to here in Daniel chapter 2 is verse 35. There is no indication here of a two thousand-year interval. There is no indication that these empires are now in possession of nuclear weapons and modern warfare and so forth. Yet we have to realize, that it is all part of the reality of it now. But when the Tribulation will have run its course, the end result will be—verse 35 of Daniel 2.
Daniel 2:35a
“Then was the iron, the clay,…” We’re starting from the feet, remember, because that’s where the steamroller is going to hit it first. It’s in the form of a stone cut out without hands in the symbolism. But in the reality, it’s the Second Coming of Christ.
Daniel 2:35a
“Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, (See what the Psalmist said? They would be smashed. All right, all these symbolic pieces of the kingdoms were smashed together.) and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them:…”
All right, now get the picture? What is being driven into nothingness? All the Gentile Empires. Now just look at the world today. Everything is global. You all realize that. All the banking systems are global. Manufacturing is global. Communications is global. Everything is coming into a global connection. All right, now when Christ comes, He won’t just destroy one segment of it in the Middle East. It will be a global destruction from pole to pole and from east to west. It will totally be swept away, so that no sign of any of these pagan, ungodly, satanic empires will be left. And then finish the verse.
Daniel 2:35b
“…and the stone that smote the image (That’s Jesus the Christ.) became a great mountain, (Or kingdom, and what does that Kingdom fill?) and filled the whole earth.” It’s going to be a complete earthly kingdom involving every nation and tribe and tongue.
All right, I’d like to have you look at one more that we’ve used quite often over the years because of the simplicity of it. Let’s go up to Zechariah—the next to the last book in your Old Testament—and jump up to chapter 14. And like I said, it’s the simplicity of this verse, and that’s why I use it.
Zechariah 14:9
“And the LORD (Now that word capitalized in the Old Testament is Jehovah. It’s God the Son as we understand Him in the New Testament.) shall be king over all the earth: (Every square mile is going to be under His power and under His jurisdiction.) in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.”
He is going to be absolute. He will not have a bunch of subservients laboring under Him—except, of course, the Twelve are going to rule the Twelve Tribes of Israel. But He is going to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords. One LORD and his name shall be called one. And, of course, we can pick that up in Revelation. You know the verse as well as I do, so we’ll just spare the time to look it up—His name shall be King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Now let’s go back to Psalms chapter 2 and finish the chapter, so we can go on into the next one. Verse 10, and now the prophet writes:
Psalms 2:10-11
“Be wise now therefore, O ye kings; (not just Israel’s, not just the Gentiles, but all of them) be instructed, ye judges (or rulers) of the earth. 11. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.” But will they do it? No way. There’s no fear of God in their eyes. They have no recognition that He is Sovereign above them all. But nevertheless, the instruction is here. Now look at verse 12.
Psalm 2:12
“Kiss the Son, (In other words, a sign of endearment, recognize who He is.) lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath (Now you’ve got to remember that we’ve been living 2,000 years under the Grace of God. His wrath hasn’t been exposed one iota. But, oh, when it will be, it’s going to be beyond human comprehension. And so the warning is again–) when His wrath is kindled but a little. (But for the believers, whether it be Jew or Gentile, they are–) Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him.” Because He alone is the Savior of the world!
Now let’s jump forward to chapter 8, which is the second in our series of Psalms that are Messianic in character. Psalms chapter 8 and we’ll start at verse 1.
Psalms 8:1a
“O LORD our Lord,…” Now what do you see there? Well, you see two forms of Lord. Do you realize that? One is all capitalized, and the other one is just capital L small o-r-d.
Now, just to show you that that’s not a quirk of Scripture, jump ahead to Psalms 110 verse 1. We see the same thing. It’s almost a phenomenon. It is just one of the few times in Scripture that we have this, and I have to explain it. Psalms 110 verse 1. We may be looking at it later on this afternoon.
Psalms 110:1
“The LORD (all capitalized) said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” I have to explain this, because I just got through telling you that the capitalized LORD is Jehovah. It’s God the Son. It’s Jesus Christ.
But in these two instances that cannot be the case, because it isn’t God the Son speaking to God the Son. It’s whom or who is speaking to the Son? Well, God the Father. So we just have to kind of ride with that without trying to get real nitpicky in both these cases – because especially Psalms 110 makes it so obvious. Just look at it, where the “LORD (God the Father) said unto my Lord (God the Son), sit thou at my right hand,…” Isn’t that exactly what happened? God the Father didn’t sit at the Son’s right hand. So we just have to take all these things into consideration.
Now the same way back here with Psalms chapter 8, come back with me again. Here we have those same two spellings of Lord, and it’s for the same reason.
Psalms 8:1
“O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.” Well, now we’re dealing with both personalities of the Godhead, with God the Father certainly putting God the Son in that place of glory and authority above all the heavens. All right now drop into verse 2.
Psalms 8:2
“Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings (or nursers) hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still (or defeat) the enemy and the avenger.” All right, let’s jump all the way up to Matthew 21 for a minute and see how the Lord Jesus Himself puts His stamp of approval on that very verse. Matthew 21 verse 16, and remember now, this is during the Lord’s earthly ministry. So a good portion of this is in red, if you have a red-letter edition. And here we have in verse 16 where Jesus said:
Matthew 21:16b
“…Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” What’s He quoting? The Psalms that we just read. Word for word. See how it all ties together. And that puts the stamp of approval on the Psalms as the Word of God, because Jesus Himself used it as such. All right, back to Psalms chapter 8 and verse 2, repeating it.
Psalms 8:2
“Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. 3. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou has ordained;”
Now, I’ve got to stop again. Let’s jump all the way up to Colossians chapter 1. These are verses that we’ve used over and over again to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt. Who was the Creator of the Universe and everything in it? Well, it’s God the Son, Jesus of Nazareth. Oh, people don’t like to think of the earthly Jesus as the Creator of Genesis 1. But, beloved, He was! And here we have it in Colossians chapter 1. I usually like to drop down to verse 13, so that we identify who this Creator is.
Colossians 1:13
“Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:” Now verse 15.
Colossians 1:15
“Who (the Son up in verse 13) is the image (or that visible likeness) of the invisible God, the firstborn (He is ahead of everything else that was ever created. He was–) the firstborn of every creature:” Now here it comes.
Colossians 1:16-17
“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things (Everything!) were created by him, and for him: 17. And he is before all things, (He came out of eternity past; and, consequently, there was nothing created before God Himself was there? And so was God the Son.) and by him all things (are held together) consist.”
And then I’ve got to go on to verse 18. Because here’s His role, so far as you and I are concerned. Not only is He the Creator of us and everything around us, but:
Colossians 1:18a
“And He is the head of the body,…” Of which we are a part. And that’s how we are intricately connected with this Creator, God the Son. And we’re going to be in His presence for all eternity! My, we can’t wait for the time when we’ll be able to look into His eyes! And we’re going to see Him as He is, the Scripture says.
All right, now back to the Psalms again. How all this becomes a living reality, and how this Book is so miraculous. All right, back to Psalms chapter 8 and verse 4, after considering the heavens, space—oh, my goodness. You know, I think we’re all hearing it from every direction—the magnitude of space. How it’s beyond human comprehension.
My, I was just reading an article again last night that our scientists have picked up light beams from sixteen billion light-years away! Now see, that’s beyond human comprehension. A light-year is the distance that light can travel at the rate of a hundred and eighty-six thousand miles per second for three hundred sixty-five days. You see, we can’t comprehend what one light-year is. And now they’re talking about billions of them?! That’s our God. He’s the Creator of it all. Now, in light of that, I like verse 4.
Psalms 8:4a
“What is man, (The simple manifestation of the dust of the earth that we are.) that thou (O God—I could put in there.) that thou (God) art mindful of him?…” Then in the other half of the thought—the Son of Man, whom God brought into a particular relationship with you and I. This is all beyond our comprehension.
I think I’ve got a verse in Hebrews I wanted to look at—Hebrews 2:6-8. Let’s look at that a minute; where, again, the writer makes it better and plainer than I could ever hope to do it.
Hebrews 2:6
“But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him?” In other words, why did God have enough concern for mankind to do the work of redemption—which required God the Son to take on human flesh and co-habit planet earth with man in order to become the sacrifice for all concerned. All right, so this is the question. Why?
Hebrews 2:6b-7a
“…What is man, that thou are mindful of him? or the son of man, (a reference to the Christ) that thou visitest him. 7. Thou madest him (Now, I’m sure we’re speaking of the Christ here, God the Son.) a little lower than the angels;…” That’s hard to comprehend, isn’t it? But He was, because He became humanity.
He took on human flesh; and as such, He took Himself below the realm of the angelic hosts. All right, it doesn’t stop there, even though He was a little lower than the angels.
Hebrews 2:7b-9a
“…thou crownedst him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: 8. Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. 9. But we see Jesus,…”
Now, do you get the connection? Here is little insignificant man on insignificant planet Earth in view of the whole of creation. Absolutely nothing compared to creation and yet what did God see? He saw the value of the human race. That’s why He created it. I think I’ve explained it from the time I first started teaching Genesis years and years ago. Why did He create the human race? He had the eons of angels. Why the human race when it became such a failure?
Well, you see, the angelic host did not have that wherewithal to return His love. Now, again, we can’t understand that. But they couldn’t. But He created man with the ability within us to return the love of Deity. Animals can’t do that. So we alone, in all of God’s creation, can be an object of His extended love that would respond.
And He put the same thing into the marriage relationship. I always like to put the two together. What did God put within the female makeup? That ability to respond to the love of the husband. It’s something that’s beyond human understanding. When a husband and wife relationship is working as it should be, it’s beyond understanding. This is what we have to do to put all the things together.
God had such a love for this insignificant creature that He made from the dust of the earth, that He was willing to actually leave the glories of Heaven, walk the dusty paths of the land of Israel, and go to that Roman cross, and—as Philippians puts it so beautifully—“even the death of the cross.” For what purpose? To redeem at least enough of mankind that He can extend His love to for all eternity. Now most of that is beyond our human comprehension. And that’s why I think the Psalmist puts it this way.
Come back with me again, if you will, to Psalms chapter 8. What is man that God should even be mindful of him. And who is the Son of man who would go to such lengths to redeem mankind? Now verse 5, and as we just read in Hebrews, this is where the writer got it.
Psalms 8:5-6
“For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. 6. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:”
Now you know, I’m thinking of another individual who was given dominion of everything. Who was it? Adam. Adam was given dominion of everything from one end of the planet to the other. But Adam dropped the ball. So the whole 6,000 years of human history, with all of its misery and turmoil and death, is a result of Adam’s failure. But the Second Adam—as the New Testament calls Jesus Christ—He’s going to make the whole thing right once again. And He will absolutely have everything under His dominion.
Let me take this back to I Corinthians chapter 15. We’re also going to look at Philippians chapter 2, because I want you to see how all of Scripture is constantly dovetailing. There isn’t a book on Earth that can even come close. Yet mankind scorns it and ridicules it.
I Corinthians 15:27
“For he (There again, I think that’s a reference to God the Father.) hath put all things under his (Christ’s, God the Son) feet. But when he saith all things are put unto him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.” All right, now flip over to Philippians chapter 2 verse 7.
Philippians 2:7-8
“But (speaking of Christ Jesus) made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, (or a bond slave) and was made in the likeness of men: 8. And being found in fashion as a man,(See that? His becoming human–) he humbled himself, (from that exalted position in Glory) and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” That’s the one I referred to a moment ago.
Philippians 2:9
“Wherefore (Because He was obedient to that horrible crucifixion.) God (the Father) also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:” And then they try to bring Him down to the level of some of the religious gods of this world. Isn’t it pitiful?
Philippians 2:10-11
“That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”