Just how powerful is God?

In Psalm 2, the nations rage against God — and He simply laughs. In this study on God's attributes, Dr. Toby Holt explores the omnipotence, or all-power, of God. Earthly rulers conspire against the Lord and His Anointed, but God, enthroned in heaven, is utterly unthreatened. "Omnipotent" means God can do anything He wills, though He cannot act against His own nature. He has set His King — His Son — on His holy hill, and that King will rule over all. The wise response is to trust the Son.

Questions this study answers:

1. What does God's power look like in the face of rebellion? Unshaken. While rulers plot, God remains enthroned and in complete control. Their defiance changes nothing.

2. Why does the psalm say God laughs at earthly rulers? Because their rebellion is futile against the Almighty. Their threats are nothing before His infinite power.

3. How should we live in light of God's omnipotence? By trusting Him rather than fearing the powers of this world. The all-powerful God invites us to take refuge in His Son.

"He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold them in derision." — Psalm 2:4 (NKJV)

Dr. Toby Holt is President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio. Find more verse-by-verse Bible teaching at newgeneva.org; support this ministry at newgeneva.org/give.

All right, as we said a few moments ago, we're starting a new sermon series, a short sermon

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series on what's called the attributes of God. And today the attribute we're talking about is

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God's omnipotence or his power. Now, before we go any further, let's make sure that we're all

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on the same page when we use this word. Let me ask you a couple of questions. If I say that God

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is powerful, would you agree? Yes. All right. We're on the same page so far. If I was to say

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he's all-powerful, would you agree? Yes. If I was to say that there's nothing that God can't do,

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would you agree? Well, let me explain what I mean. Again, this is trying to get us all on the same

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page. You see, we know that God's powerful. That's not a shock. It's in the job description of being

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God, that he's powerful, he's all-powerful. With that said, if I was to ask you if there's certain

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things that God can't do, the answer is yes. God can't sin. God can't lie. God can't steal. God

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can't cease to exist. There are things that God cannot do. God cannot create a rock or a boulder

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that's too heavy for himself to lift. God cannot heat a burrito that's too hot for himself to eat.

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There's things he can't do that would put him in conflict with his own nature. You understand that?

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so when we say that God is omnipotent, we're saying, yes, he's all-powerful. However, that

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doesn't mean he can do anything. He certainly cannot cease to exist. He cannot sin. He cannot

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lie and the like. He can't do anything at all, but he can do anything he wants to do. So that's

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one qualifier, as we set out this morning. Beyond that, beyond that, of the things that God does,

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is there any force or entity or enmity that can push back and frustrate his will?

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Well, no. When we say that God's all-powerful, another thing we're saying is that there's no

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one in this room, there's no one outside this room, that has the ability to frustrate his purposes.

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God is transcendent, and what that means is there's nothing above him. There's no one above

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him, no force, no entity, no group of entities that have the ability to frustrate his purposes.

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If you were to take the combined power of all the people in this room,

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Our power is not enough to contend with God.

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If you were to take the combined power of every demon in hell,

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every angel in heaven, every bird in the sky, every beast in the fields,

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every person in this room, every king, every nation,

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pile them up cumulatively and seek to contend against God,

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we could not budge them an inch.

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As the saying goes, it would be like the force of a gnat

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pounding its head against a world of granite.

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Would not make a difference.

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God is powerful. God is all-powerful.

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And yet, and yet, what we're seeing in today's text is interesting.

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What we're seeing in today's text is that in spite of that imbalance,

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which I think we all know is true,

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in spite of the imbalance of God's power compared to ours, even cumulatively,

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in spite of this imbalance between the strength of God and the strength of men,

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the irony is that men still try to contend and fight against their Creator.

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They still try to contend against Him, thinking that they can prevail.

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That's what we see.

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in the first three verses of today's text.

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If you would, take a look with me again.

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We're going to go through this.

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Four stanzas, three verses each.

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We'll go through them one block at a time.

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The first stanza is three verses,

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and you'll notice it comes through the point of view of the world.

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The world is the first three verses.

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The second three verses come through the point of view of the Father.

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The third set is the voice of the Son,

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and the fourth set is the voice of the Spirit.

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So take a look at the first three as we continue.

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Verse 1.

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You know, if you want to know, let's say you've got two guys, two men.

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You want to know which of the two is more powerful.

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Well, there's ways you can test that, right?

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you can take two guys, you know, you go have a bench press competition, maybe you put them in

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an MMA cage or what have you. The power of one person in contrast with another person can be

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tested. There's a lot of ways to accomplish that. With that said, sometimes people, and I think it's

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really all the time people, misjudge their own power, misjudge their own power or how much power

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they have. Back in the 80s, this does date me a little bit, but in the 80s, I was young, but I was

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watching wrestling with my dad. I'd probably watched wrestling, I don't know, in five, six

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years. My dad and I on Saturdays, we'd watch wrestling. Now, one of the things that was kind

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of funny back in the day was they'd cut these promos. You'd have these scrappy wrestlers. Some

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of them were kind of smaller guys, you know, muscle bound, but smaller guys. They'd flex and

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pose and sweat and yell and scream. And they'd say something like, they'd look at the camera and

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they'd say, Andre the Giant, I'm coming for you. When I get into the squared circle, when I get

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in there, I'm going to rip your head off and the like. Now, I watched wrestling a lot of years,

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and I never saw anyone rip the head off of Andre the Giant. What's the point? The point is this,

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that we sometimes misjudge our own power and ability to defeat our foes, to overcome our

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adversaries. At the same time, we often misjudge the power of our adversary, of our enemy. In

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verses 1 through 3, that's what we're seeing. In these verses, you've got the kings of the earth,

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the rulers of the nations. You have the powers that be, and they're plotting a victory, right?

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They're plotting a victory, scheming about how they are going to win. Only this time,

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they're not going against Andre the Giant. This time, these guys are going against God himself,

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the triune God, which we see throughout this text. Now, how do you think, if that's all you knew,

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if you just had the first three verses to look at it, how do you think that's going to turn out

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for these guys? Well, not too well. You see, you could take every muscle, you could take every

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weapon, you could take every nuclear weapon and every arsenal on earth, and you could point at

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all the throne of God in the heavens above. It wouldn't budge him an inch. It wouldn't even

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cause him to stand up. All of our arms, all of our power, and yet that doesn't stop men from

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scheming and thinking that they can. You see what's going on in verse 2? The kings of the earth

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set themselves verse 2 says they set themselves they gather together right they gather in the

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war room and the rulers take counsel together use the hushed tones the smoke filling the room

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they come together against the Lord and against his anointed saying let us break their bonds and

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pieces and cast away their cords some of you are familiar with the movie Dr. Strangelove

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actually you know the war room Dr. Strangelove they all come together and the smoke is filling

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the room and they're all talking about how they're going to do what they're going to do

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Well, this is the similar picture.

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It's the kings of the earth coming together in the warren, so to speak,

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and declaring how they're going to take down this king,

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how they're going to take down the king who has set the universe on its axis.

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Now, with that said, who wrote this text?

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We believe King David wrote this text.

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So which kings is he referring to in his mind's eye?

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Who are these pompous, arrogant buffoons who think they're going to break the Lord over their knee?

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They're saying they're going to break those bonds in pieces.

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They think they have this ability.

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Who says that?

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Who talks that way about the God of heaven?

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Well, when David, when the psalmist is talking about the kings of the earth,

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he's probably not in his mind talking exclusively about just some king over the border

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or some set of his contemporaries.

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Rather, he's probably talking about foreign, pagan, wicked kings and rulers of every generation.

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In other words, he's probably talking equally about a pharaoh as he is about a Hitler.

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He's talking equally about a Nero as a Stalin.

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He's talking about all those who contend against God,

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and even if it's not against God by aiming upward, they contend against his proxies.

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The church, God's law, God's word, God's will.

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If you give a man enough power, he'll start to think highly of himself.

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If you give a man enough power, he'll start to believe his own press clippings, as they say.

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And if you give a man even further power,

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maybe utmost power amongst his contemporaries,

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you know what he starts to believe then?

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He starts to believe that he's a god.

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He starts to believe that he himself is divine.

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Pagan kings often got to that point in their thinking,

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and their people and their contemporaries often treated them accordingly.

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With that said, if you were to go to a Nebuchadnezzar,

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If you were to go to a pharaoh and you were to say, oh, pharaoh, there is yet still one greater than you.

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If you were to go to one of these kings of the nations, one of these rulers of the earth,

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one of these high and mighty individuals and say, you are powerful, absolutely you are.

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However, there's a king whose power transcends yours and to whom you must bow before.

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You tell that to a Nebuchadnezzar or a pharaoh or what have you, what are they going to do?

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They're going to go to war.

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they're going to go to war against that god or at the very least against his proxy here on earth

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if you doubt that what do you think pharaoh was doing think of pharaoh even after god had

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demonstrated his power you know 10 plagues no man alive could whip up these 10 plagues god

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did he dropped him in pharaoh's lap and even after you would think that pharaoh had learned his lesson

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after the death of the firstborn and the wailing of the people of egypt even after that the heart

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of his heart was as such that as the Israelites were leaving, as they were heading out of town,

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and as a pillar of fire, which was the manifest power and authority of God himself, was leading

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them through the desert towards the Red Sea, what did Pharaoh think? He said, uh-uh. He said,

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I'm coming after them. And so he took his army, he took his chariots to pursue God in the form of

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the pillar of fire, the pillar of smoke, to pursue God and to pursue God's people with the intent of

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waging war and dominating the outcome and winning the victory he thought should have been his the

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day Moses showed up on the scene. That was his intent, to wage war. Pharaoh thought he could

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break the will of God, that the bonds that God was looking to set upon him, he could break them

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in pieces. And so Pharaoh sent his entire army out to do battle. Not a one of them returned.

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Not a one of them came back.

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That brings us to our next verses, verses 4 through 6.

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This is the word of the Father.

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Verse 4.

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He who sits in the heavens shall laugh.

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The Lord shall hold them in derision.

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Then he shall speak to them in his wrath, distress them in his deep displeasure,

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saying, Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion.

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This is, again, a messianic psalm pointing to the personal work of Jesus Christ.

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You know, if you were to step into the ring,

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I guess I got all sorts of wrestling and boxing analogies today,

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so one more.

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If you were to step into the ring, a boxing ring or what have you,

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with a larger opponent,

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you go into the ring, you lift up the ropes, you climb on in,

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there's your opponent.

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And as you look at this opponent, maybe it's a sizable opponent,

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if that opponent was to look at you and to start laughing,

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that would probably be one of the most unnerving things that he could do.

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One of the most unnerving things.

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Why?

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Because we do not laugh at that which doesn't threaten us.

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We tend to laugh at those things we think pose no threat.

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And that's what we see in verse 4.

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See, in the previous verses, what happened?

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In the previous verses, you had the war room, right?

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The smoke-filled room, the guys talking, the kings talking about their plans

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to defeat the purposes and the will of God.

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Kings and rulers of every generation, they come to this determination.

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Even corporations in our own day can do that.

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There's all manner of smoke-filled rooms, so to speak, by which people plot and scheme,

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either against God himself, against God's word, against God's church, against God's people.

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They do that, and what happens in verses 4 through 6?

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In verses 4 through 6, we see that God is not threatened in the least.

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All this weird stuff that's going on in the world around us,

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it might unnerve us a little bit, but it absolutely does not unnerve God.

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God is not sitting in heaven when odd stuff happens in the media,

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the press, the world around us, twiddling his thumbs wondering,

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oh my, what am I going to do about this?

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He's not anxious. He's not nervous.

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Even if all the kings of the earth were to plot against him in a single moment,

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he's not worried about their impending attack.

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Now how do we know that?

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Because verses 4-6 say he doesn't even get out of his chair.

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Verses 4-6 say this God remains seated.

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He doesn't even bother to plant his feet.

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He sits in his throne, reclining, so to speak,

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and the first thing he does is laugh.

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That should be sobering.

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That should be sobering for any king, any business, any entity

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that determines to plot against him or his people or his word or his church.

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God's response to all that is to laugh, at least at first.

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at least at first, but he doesn't laugh long.

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He doesn't laugh long.

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I want you to notice in verse 5,

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God's laughter turns to fury.

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God's laughter turns to anger.

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Now, are there any examples of that?

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Well, yes.

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I mean, we just talked about the example with Pharaoh,

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the way he dealt with this king, this leader among men,

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who posed and positioned himself as a god among his people

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and who contended against him.

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God dealt with Pharaoh and his people, and he dealt with them definitively.

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There's a lot of other examples.

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I was thinking, is there any in the New Testament?

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And one came to mind in Acts chapter 12.

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In Acts chapter 12, there is a villain.

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His name is Herod Agrippa.

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Now, what did Herod Agrippa do?

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Well, he was the king of Judea around 41 B.C.

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Now, to be the king of Judea, remember, that's the southern kingdom of Israel.

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To be the king of Judea wasn't really all that great a thing,

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because the reality was the Romans had him as kind of this proxy king over the people.

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With that said, he did have some authority,

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and he was an especially vindictive and cruel and self-absorbed guy.

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Well, in Acts chapter 12, you have King Agrippa,

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and he has just met with some other leaders, and he's just made treaties.

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He's just flaunted his political skill, his administrative skill.

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He's got some treaties, and on this particular day,

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basking in his own success, he's going to conflate his ministerial success,

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his administration, with godhood, with divinity. Acts chapter 12, verses 20 through 23. Just listen

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as I read it aloud. Herod, Herod Agrippa, had been angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. This was

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a nation to the north. But they came to him with one accord, and they made Blastus, the king's

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personal aide, their friend. And they asked for peace because their country was supplied with

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food by the king's country. So on a day set by Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, he sat on his

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throne and gave an oration to them. And the people kept shouting the voice of a god and not of a man.

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Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give glory to God and he was

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eaten by worms and he died. In Acts 12, you have a king. He's got a throne. He's got robes, right?

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He's got earthly robes. He's an earthly king sitting on an earthly throne. And he sits there

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and he smiles and nods as the people say, the voice of a God, not a man. He affirms this.

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Louder, please, is basically what Herod was doing at this time. But here's the thing. Judea already

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had a king and his name was Jesus. Judea already had a king. There was one reigning in Zion,

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so to speak. At this point, remember this is Acts 12. Jesus already resurrected. Jesus already

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ascended he's already seated at the right hand of the father the whole earth is his footstool

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again that's a picture of power right the earth is his footstool and that's where jesus is at this

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point judea had the only king that they ever needed his name was jesus we see in verse 6 of

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today's reading god says i have set my king i've set my king on my holy hill of zion with that said

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What business did Herod have exalting himself as divine in the midst of God's people?

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Well, he had no business.

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And in Acts 12, God had seen enough.

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And so God acted immediately, definitively.

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And in that moment, whatever power Agrippa thought he had was not enough

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to protect him from even the worms that devoured him.

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Do you see the irony and the indignity in how Herod went down here?

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One moment, he's encouraging people to call him divine.

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Moments later, worms, probably parasites that were so small he couldn't even see them,

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are unleashed upon him, taking him down from the inside out.

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Let me ask you just a thinking question.

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If you can be defeated by a worm, how powerful are you?

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If you can be taken down by a virus, by bacteria, by something who's so small you can't even see it,

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if something like that has the singular power to defeat you, then how powerful can you be?

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For the tyrants of this age or any ages, there's a lesson here.

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If we're so weak that a worm or parasite can put us in the grave, then what business do we have railing against

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and almighty and omnipotent God.

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Now let's look at verses 7 through 9 of our text.

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Verse 7.

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I will declare the decree.

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The Lord has said to me, you are my son.

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Today I have begotten you.

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Ask of me, I will give you the nations for your inheritance,

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the ends of the earth for your possession.

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You shall break them with a rod of iron.

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You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.

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You know, if we were to take our Bibles and flip all the way to the back,

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if we were to look at the book of Revelation,

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there's a description of Jesus Christ as one who is seated upon a great white horse,

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and he's wearing a great long robe.

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Now, do you remember what words are written on the robe?

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We can sometimes picture this, you know, white horse, Jesus on it,

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the sword coming out of his mouth, the fiery eyes and the like.

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We can sometimes picture this, but sometimes we forget.

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He's wearing a robe, and there's words on the robe.

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Does anyone know what they are?

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The words are this.

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King of kings and lord of lords.

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King of kings and lord of lords.

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You see, it's one thing to be a king, right?

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It's one thing to be a king.

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We've got kings in the world around us.

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Sometimes their nation or their country is very large.

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I've read of a guy who once bought an island and called himself the king.

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He's just the king of the island, I guess.

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So you can be a king of vast territory or a king of small territory.

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It's one thing to be a king among men, or a ruler, or a leader, or president even.

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But it's an altogether different thing to be the king of the kings.

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You follow this?

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It's one thing to be king, or president, or leader, or what have you.

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That's one thing.

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It's an entirely different thing to say that Jesus Christ is the king of kings.

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That he and his authority and his will and his power triumphs over even the greatest of these or all of them together.

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And that's what's written on his robe.

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The king of kings.

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The lord of lords.

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The implications here are that his reign is supreme.

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When I talk about the omnipotence of God, know this.

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There's no one that can frustrate his will.

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His will stands.

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And that's what we see in verses 7 through 8.

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The Lord said to me, you're my son, today I've begotten you.

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Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance

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and the ends of the earth for your possession.

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Even way back in the Psalms, remember this is written in the Old Testament

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prior to the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

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But even back in Psalm 2, you see a messianic promise,

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messianic prophecy of this one who would come and would reign and who would rule you see a picture

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of jesus the son is repeatedly talking about this guy and when he would come he would reign he would

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rule and the nations would be submitted to him they'd be his inheritance psalm 2 is declaring

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the coming the advent of one who would be the king of kings the lord of lords one before whom

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every knee shall

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bow. That's

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omnipotence, where there's not a one who

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can stand against you. Where you

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have all the power. You say something,

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it comes to pass.

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You desire something, it happens.

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And everyone, from the smallest

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to the greatest, bows before you.

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That's who Jesus

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is. That's the power

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and the authority he has. And when this one

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comes, all of us, every man,

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woman, child in this room, and every man, woman, child

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than the world around us. Every culture, every age has just one choice, really. You bow before Him

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willingly, through the grace of God, working in your hearts. You bow before Him willingly, or

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you're broken, a rod of iron. Now, presuming that that's true, and I would submit to you it is,

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assuming that it's true, who do you think's the hardest to convince of Christ's authority? Who's

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the hardest to convince? Well, it's probably going to be the leaders of any given age, because they

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like to think that they're the ones in charge and that brings us to our final verses let's look at

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verses 10 through 12 they contain a warning to these individuals to those who continue to contend

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against the power of god verses 10 through 12 now therefore be wise oh kings be instructed

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you judges of the earth that's another way of saying guys guys time to think this through

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let's pause let's think on this for a moment be wise o kings be instructed you judge to the earth

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serve the lord with fear rejoice with trembling kiss the sun lest he be angry and you perish in

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the way when his wrath is kindled but a little and then finally verse 12 most encouraging words

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in this chapter is the ones it closes with blessed are all those who put their trust in him

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some are broken some are blessed what's the distinction between the two the relationship

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they have with jesus christ as we look to wrap up this morning let me ask you have you heard of the

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phrase el shaddai the hebrew phrase you know the abey grant song el shaddai el shaddai what does

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that mean though remember there's so many names of god and some of them are hebrew and we kind of

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lose track you know adonai el shaddai what have you what does el shaddai mean well let me tell

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what it means in Latin, which will help you understand what it means in English. In Latin,

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it's Deus Omnipotens. Deus Omnipotens. In other words, El Shaddai means God Almighty or the

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Omnipotent God. El Shaddai doesn't just speak to his grace or his love, which we absolutely know

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that he has and he pours out in great measure, including the hearts of you and I here gathered

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this morning. It doesn't just refer to that. El Shaddai is referenced more specifically to

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the power of God, to his omnipotence. You see, back in the Old Testament, they had gods. Even

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in the New Testament, whenever Paul shows up in Athens, they had gods. They had all sorts of gods.

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There was a pantheon of gods. Paul walks into Athens, looks around. There's statues and altars

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to just about every god. They even made an altar to something they just called the unknown god,

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in case they forgot one. There's all manner of gods. Old Testament, New Testament, everyone had

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their gods, and all of these gods had limited jurisdiction. Think about it. Why would Athens

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have all these gods? Well, the reason why is because the people, as they manufactured these

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things out of wood and sawdust and whatever else they had, as they manufactured these false pagan

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pretend gods, they assigned to each one of these gods different powers. They said, well, this god

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will be the god of the rain, or this god will be the god of the fields, or the trees, or the flowers,

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or the frogs or what have you they gave a limited jurisdiction to each one of their deities and then

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if they had a specific need in a specific area a fertility god or what have you then they'd go and

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make sacrifices to that particular god in the old testament and in the new testament they had all

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manner of gods who had limited jurisdiction with that said what else should i mean i'll show you

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god almighty there is no area in your life today that he does not have control of or say over

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It means there's nothing that can happen that falls outside of his ability to affect.

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El Shaddai means there is no limits, there's no jurisdiction upon God

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that in any way narrows his band of options or choices.

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God does not bend his knee to anyone.

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Everyone is called to bend their knee to him.

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There's no region or activity of life where God's jurisdiction ends.

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With that said, in our own life, if you have a king of a pagan nation,

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if you have leaders of municipalities, if you even have elders, pastors, and local churches,

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to the degree that we have any authority, to the degree in this room that we have any authority

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in our families, in our jobs, or what have you, all of that, all of the authority that we think

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we have, all the power that we think we have, even if you're the president or king or ruler,

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it's all delegated from the one whose jurisdiction overarches everything else.

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You understand this? All authority is delegated. Every authority you have as a husband, father,

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son, daughter, every authority you have in your job, your vocation, or you might ever

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have in government or what have you down the line. It's all delegated. It's been granted

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to you by one who has authority over you. King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4, at one point

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he didn't get that. He walked through the garden saying, look at all this great stuff

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that's for my glory. God struck him dumb as an animal. And only after a season of time

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did God prompt him to look up. And when he looked up, he recognized the power and the

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authority of the god of heaven the one who transcends all let me close again just by looking

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at that final verse despite all these words and warnings and they are warnings kiss the sun lest

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you be destroyed despite all the warnings that we see in psalm 2 that speak to the danger of

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offending a holy god psalm 2 concludes with grace in verse 12 we read this says blessed are all those

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who put their trust in him.

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Those who don't, they'll be broken.

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Those who trust in themselves, their own strength,

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and their own virtue, they'll be broken.

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But blessed are all those who trust in him, in the Son.

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You know, the bad news this morning is that every one of us,

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every man, woman, and child, every peasant, every king is a sinner.

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And in a very real way, every man, woman, and child

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comes into this earth sitting on the train tracks of God's wrath.

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Now that's bad, right?

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But the good news is although we have that as a problem,

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And the good news is that God has a solution, and that solution comes in the person of God's own Son.

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In Psalm 2, the psalmist is looking ahead, looking ahead to the day when one would come.

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One who would come who would reign and who would rule, absolutely, yes.

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But at the same time, one who would condescend, one who would be born in a manger,

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one who would live out his life being spat upon,

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one who had no form or appearance that anyone should even like him,

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One who would come down from that throne, where he doesn't even have to move if he doesn't want to,

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but he would willingly come down from that throne to be born in a manger,

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to live out his days among people like us, and ultimately to die on our behalf.

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Psalm 2 closes with a reminder that this one has purchased us back from sin and death.

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And our call is not to earn his love.

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Our call is not to earn our salvation.

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Our call is not to earn his approval.

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Rather, verse 12 says, blessed are those who trust in him.

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Blessed are those who have faith.

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This morning, if you have any hope for the future,

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it's not based on your own strength any more than the kings of the earth.

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Your hope for the future, your hope for the other side,

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is not based on your own strength.

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It's based on the strength, the person, and the work of Jesus Christ alone.

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So our response should be what verse 12 calls us to do.

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It's to trust in him.

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Stop relying on our own strength, on our own glory as Herod Agrippa did.

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But point only to the one on the throne.

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This morning I want to encourage you to place your trust in the King of Kings,

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the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

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an all-powerful God who has an all-encompassing love for you.

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Let's pray.