¹⁰Now 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.

Psalm 2:10-12

When I was in eighth grade I had the privilege of being a student leader for a Christian club at my middle school called Youth Alive. We met after school for an hour, read the Bible, listened to a guest speaker and prayed. We met in the choir room and my very kind choir teacher, Ms. Hamilton, graciously chaperoned the room.

One day during a meeting I had a very humbling experience. I was joking around with my co-leaders and laughing about something that was said during the meeting. Suddenly Ms. Hamilton came out of her office and scolded us in front of the group. She called us into her office and told us that leaders shouldn’t act this way. We weren’t showing reverence for God’s Word and taking seriously the sacredness of God and prayer. We were stunned and wide-eyed.

I learned that day about reverence. Reverence is about taking seriously the honor and sacredness of something. We don’t take it lightly or make it into a joke. We don’t belittle the holiness of God, His Word, or His presence. We remember how special He is and treat Him with the honor He is due. Ms. Hamilton was 100% right and I was humbled that day.

Psalm 2 is about the holiness and complete authority of the Lord’s Anointed King (who is Jesus) and the reverence we should have for Him. There is a clear message of warning to anyone who would rebel against Him and foolishly oppose the King. Earlier in the psalm we hear of God’s wrath and fury that will be ignited against all who persist in opposing Him. “Then He will speak to them in His wrath, and terrify them in His fury…” (Psalm 2:5). God’s patience will at some point turn into justice towards those who persist in disobedience.

Psalm 2 is a helpful wake-up call to a culture that likes to downplay or completely ignore the sacredness of Christ and remove any and all offense from His teachings. We comfortably talk about the love of Christ, but forget that Christ’s first preaching message was “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17). Christ is the demonstration of God’s love, but also His love is a call to salvation from God’s wrath through repentance of sins. The cross of Christ displays both the love of God and the seriousness of God’s wrath.

We need to keep a holistic perspective of God that includes reverence. We should take seriously His holiness and learn what it means to “rejoice with trembling” as Psalm 2:11 puts it. We are loved by a holy and awesome God. He could destroy us for our sins, but chooses to love and redeem us. May we respond with humility, gratitude and reverence.