I’d like us to consider Psalm 2 from three perspectives. First, we’ll examine the message of the psalm. Second, we’ll look at how the New Testament uses it. Finally, we’ll ask how this psalm speaks to the task of world evangelization.

The Message of Psalm 2

Psalm 2 begins with a question: “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?” (verse 1). Verses 2–3 specify this futility: the kings of the earth reject Messiah’s right to rule. In response, God gives the nations the cosmic raspberry and ridicules their pride, claiming that he has set his king on Zion (verses 5–6). In verses 7–9, the psalmist recalls this coronation, noting especially God’s promise to make the nations his heritage. Armed with this confidence, he rebukes the rulers of the earth, telling them to serve Yahweh by bowing the knee to God’s anointed king (verses 10–12).

So if we were to s…

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How can we reconcile God's sweeping control over creation with the existence of such horrors as cancer, famine, genocide, sexual abuse, tsunamis, and terrorism? Voltaire sums up the issue nicely in his "Poem on the Lisbon Disaster," written after the devastating Lisbon earthquake of 1755:

Ill could not from a perfect being spring,
Nor from another, since God's sovereign king.

His point is that since God is good, he can't properly be the source of evil. Likewise, if God is all-powerful, no one else can thwart his intentions. So we're stuck, it seems. Who's to blame for the suffering we experience? Though we lack the space here for an extended discussion, let's consider seven biblical affirmations.

1. Evil is real.

That is to say, we distort the Bible and do ourselves a profound disservice by minimizing the existence of suffering. God invites us to acknowledge ou…

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(Update: we've got video)

The audio of Bob Blincoe's message, "Christian Hedonism—The Missionary Advantage of Desiring God," is now online. You can also read the notes.

Here's how he defined "the missionary advantage":

The missionary advantage is God's clear promise that Jesus Christ will go with us as we make disciples of the "ethnē" (the nations). Jesus will go with us through our Gethsemane. Therefore we can say with the poet, "Riches I heed not nor man's empty praise; Thou my inheritance, now and always…"

Remind your missionaries one hundred times that Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth. Remind them that they have a heavenly Father who knows their needs.

(Update: the video is now online as well.)

The notes and audio from Eric Mason's message, "The Role of Suffering in Sanctification," are now online. He gave an illustration of suffering from his own life:

Some of you are in situations right now where you're struggling with perspective. No matter how many times suffering happens, during the first 25% of it we typically forget its purpose. When my wife and I first got pregnant, we were really excited. There was one doctor's appointment where I didn't go with her. I was in class at seminary and she paged me and I called her and she told me that the child didn't have a heartbeat.

As I drove to the hospital I was really wrestling with God. When I got to the hospital I laid my hand on my wife's belly and prayed for God to raise the child from the dead. I called the doctor back in to do another ult…

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(Update: the video is now online)

The session notes and audio for Sam Storms' third and final message, "The Practical Sin-Killing Power of Christian Hedonism," are now online.

He laid out these five ways to work for your own joy and the joy of your people.

1. Weave into the spiritual and intellectual fabric of your people the awareness that God's designs in the moral commandments of Scripture are to expand their capacity to enjoy him and not to inhibit it. (See Jonathan Edwards' sermon "Christian Happiness.")

2. Preach often on the bigness and the beauty of God.

3. Labor to turn their eyes from the pathetic, little, transient pleasures of what can be seen and felt and tasted to the grand and eternal pleasures of the glory that is to come.

4. Build into the mental, emotional, and theological framework of your people an understanding of how sufferi…

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Paul Tripp just delivered two messages at the pre-conference seminar. Here are some notes taken from the first session, "The Pastor: Who Do We Think He Is Anyway?"

I have this experience as I travel around the world. By means of what God has called me to do I am some place almost every weekend. I am usually in great churches. Somewhere on the the weekend, someone on the pastoral staff will grab me, pull me into a room, and unfold for me some kind of mess in their personal life. It’s happened again and again. I was on one of those weekends and I was walking in a hallway trying to get a break between sessions. A hand pulled me into the bathroom and there was a pastor in the bathroom weeping and saying, “I need help.”

I want to speak today into what I would call “pastoral culture,” the real life and heart behind pastoral ministry. I’d like to get into it by discuss…

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John Piper shared these benefits of eloquence in the conclusion of his message this morning. You can listen to his message now or check back tomorrow for the full manuscript read the manuscript.

1.Eloquence—that is, artistic, surprising, provocative, or aesthetically pleasing language—may keep people awake and focused because they find it interesting for reasons they can’t articulate.

2. Eloquence may bring an adversarial mind into greater sympathy with the speaker.

3. Eloquence may have an awakening effect on a person’s heart and mind short of regeneration, but still important in awakening in them emotional sensitivity to beautiful things.

4. Certain kinds of eloquence (cadence, parallelism, meter, rhyme, assonance, consonance) may not only add interest, but also increase impact by helping the memory.

5. The beauty of eloquence can join with…

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In today's panel discussion, Justin Taylor asked questions of John Piper, Paul Tripp, Dan Taylor, and Bob Kauflin. Here are the questions and you can listen for the answers.

• Bob, you had a Job-like experience. How did the Lord use his words and the words of others to bring you through it?
• Paul, a lot of people must think you had an idyllic upbringing. Could you tell your own story about how the Lord brought you to himself?
• John, what do you mean by “the joy and the miracle of self-forgetfulness”? Are there strategies to cultivate it?
• How do you recognize the work of the Spirit in your life and the fruit of it and the progress you’ve made? Paul said, “Be imitators of me,” and yet he was being humble. How does that work?
• How should we use our bodies in worship?
• What would be some counsel for people to become more creative in a God-centered way?
…

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The following is from notes I took during Mark Driscoll's session. You can listen to his message or read more complete notes.

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Pray for the shepherds. Pray for them more than you criticize, e-mail, gossip, or blog about them. Pray that they would have a discerning mind to know who is a sheep.

Pray that they would have a thick skin. Pray that they would have a humorous outlook. That they would laugh at themselves, that they would have a tender heart toward Jesus and the sheep. That they wouldn’t be hammered, that they would keep a tender heart, that they would have a humble disposition, that when criticisms are true, they would repent. That they would look at a criticism for a kernel of truth to be sanctified by.

Pray that shepherds would have encouraging families, that their wife would endure all the criticism, backbiting, peopl…

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During his message tonight, Sinclair Ferguson shared with us a list of 20 resolutions from the book of James for how to control our tongue.

1. I resolve to ask God for wisdom to speak out of a single-minded devotion to him. (1:5)

2. I resolve to boast only in the exultation I receive in Jesus Christ and also in the humiliation I receive for Jesus Christ. (1:9-10)

3. I resolve to set a watch over my mouth. (1:13)

4. I resolve to be constantly quick to hear and slow to speak. (1:19)

5. I resolve to learn the gospel way of speaking to both rich and poor. (2:1-4)

6. I resolve to speak in the present consciousness of my final judgment. (2:12)

7. I resolve never to stand on anyone’s face with the words I employ. (2:16)

8. I resolve never to claim as reality in my life what I do not truly …

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