Serve the LORD with Fear, and Rejoice with Trembling

In this first of two sermons on the second Psalm, what was introduced in the first Psalm is expanded and explained. In particular, the ones who walk not in the counsel of the ungodly, stand in the path of sinners, and sit in the seat of the scornful, are shown in their fully active opposition to the Lord's purposes shown most perfectly in the person of His Anointed. The inspired metaphor of the chaff in the first Psalm is not the whole story. Chaff is passive and helpless before the slightest wind. That fundamental weakness does not mean that the ungodly are not often very active; they are. Helplessness before the Lord's judgment and active opposition to the Lord are twin and equal truths of the ungodly. But the Psalm does not only reveal the nature of the ungodly, it reveals the divine disposition toward the schemes and the ungodly. Not only will the schemes of the ungodly fail, but the Lord who sits above the heavens and rules the nations laughs at and mocks them. This description (condescending to our understanding) also shows the Lord's active opposition to the ungodly. – Pastor Schlegel