The Omnipotence (Power) Of God

Questions This Sermon Answers:

1. What is Psalm 2 about?

Psalm 2 is a messianic psalm in four voices: the raging nations (vv.1-3), the Father who laughs and sets His King on Zion (vv.4-6), the decreed Son who inherits the nations (vv.7-9), and the closing warning to "kiss the Son" (vv.10-12). It declares that no power on earth or in hell can frustrate God's purpose. As verse 4 says, "He who sits in the heavens shall laugh." Dr. Holt preaches it as a window into the omnipotence of God and the kingship of Christ.

2. What does it mean that God is omnipotent?

Omnipotence means God is all-powerful and can do all that He wills. Dr. Holt clarifies it carefully: God "cannot do anything at all — He can do anything He wants." He cannot sin, lie, cease to exist, or make a rock too heavy for Himself to lift, because such things contradict His own perfect nature. The Westminster Confession (2.1) describes God as "almighty," "most absolute," working "all things according to the counsel of His own immutable and most righteous will."

3. Why do the nations rage against the LORD in Psalm 2?

The nations rage because sinful men misjudge both their own power and their Creator's. Psalm 2:1-3 pictures kings taking "counsel together, against the LORD and against His Anointed," vowing to "break Their bonds in pieces." Dr. Holt compares it to a smaller wrestler shouting threats at Andre the Giant, or rulers in a smoke-filled war room plotting against "the King who set the universe on its axis." It is rebellion that cannot succeed, for God cannot be moved an inch.

4. What does it mean that God laughs in Psalm 2:4?

Psalm 2:4 says, "He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold them in derision." God is not threatened in the least; He does not even rise from His throne. Dr. Holt notes that "we do not laugh at what threatens us" — to be laughed at by a stronger opponent is deeply unnerving. Yet God does not laugh long: His derision turns to wrath as He declares, "Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion."

5. How does the death of Herod Agrippa illustrate God's power?

In Acts 12, Herod Agrippa gave an oration in royal robes and the crowd cried, "The voice of a god and not of a man!" He accepted the praise — but Judea already had a King, the risen and ascended Jesus. "Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him... he was eaten by worms and died." Dr. Holt draws the irony: one moment encouraging people to call him divine, the next undone from the inside by parasites too small to see. If a worm can defeat a man, how powerful is he really.

6. Who are the "kings of the earth" in Psalm 2?

They are the pagan tyrants of every age who war against God or His proxies — His church, His law, His word, and His will. Dr. Holt names them as "a Pharaoh as much as a Hitler, a Nero as much as a Stalin." His case study is Pharaoh, who even after ten plagues and the death of the firstborn pursued God Himself in the pillar of fire with his army and chariots — "and not one of them returned." Give a man utmost power and he begins to think he is a god.

7. How is Christ the King of Kings in Psalm 2?

Psalm 2:7-9 records the Father's decree: "You are My Son... Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance." In Revelation, Christ rides the white horse bearing the name "KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS." Dr. Holt explains that it is one thing to be a king of some territory, and altogether another to be the King of kings whose will triumphs over them all together. The Westminster Confession (8.1) names Christ the Mediator, ordained to be "King" of His church.

8. What does "Kiss the Son" mean in Psalm 2:12?

To "kiss the Son" is to submit to Christ in willing homage and trust rather than rebellion. Psalm 2:12 warns, "Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way... Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him." Dr. Holt frames the choice plainly: every person will either bow before Christ willingly by grace or "be broken with a rod of iron." Some are broken and some are blessed, and the difference is the relationship they have with Jesus Christ.

9. What does the name "El Shaddai" tell us about God?

El Shaddai, rendered in Latin "Deus omnipotens," means God Almighty — it speaks specifically to His power. Dr. Holt contrasts it with the pagan gods of limited jurisdiction; in Athens (Acts 17) Paul found altars to every god, even "to the unknown god," each assigned a domain like rain or fields. But El Shaddai means there is no area of life God does not control, nothing outside His ability to affect. God bends His knee to no one, and all our authority is delegated from Him.

10. How does Psalm 2 point to the gospel of grace?

Psalm 2 ends not in terror but in grace: "Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him." Dr. Holt observes that every sinner sits "on the train tracks of God's wrath," yet God's solution is His own Son — the omnipotent One who did not even have to rise from His throne, yet willingly "came down, was born in a manger" (Isaiah 53) to die in our place. Our call is not to earn His love but to trust Him, resting in an all-powerful God who has an all-encompassing love for us.