Reflection
Reflection on Psalm 2
REFLECTION ON PSALM 2 Oct 2022
Last month I gave myself to write about each one of the Book of Psalms, a task I reckoned would take me to the age of 93, if not longer! So hear goes on my second offering.
Psalm 2 (Paraphrase by Leslie F.Brandt, first published by Concordia Publishing House, in 1973)
Why is that dictators and governments throughout our world persist in persecuting the people of God? They may be divided in everything else but they unite in their endeavours to free themselves from the restraints of religion.
Disconcerting as this is to me, our great God laughs at their foolish effort; And His laughter will have the sound of fury in the day He determines to act against them.
He will reveal to them who truly is Lord and King.
But to me, even in the midst of my consternation, He speaks as a loving Father.
“You are My son and servant,” He says. “Trust in me; the destiny of the world is in your hands. You shall be the overcomer; you shall frustrate their attempts to destroy you.”
So wise up, you who sit in high places. Begin serving the God you are trying to silence.
Bow your heads in submission before He crowns your head with divine wrath.
Only those who rest in God’s will are really secure.
Cue the music “Messiah” by G.F Haendel 1st Bass solo “Why do the nations so furiously rage together?”
Yes! WHY ? Why do leaders of nations choose to fight against God’s people ? The Psalmist, probably King David, was left in a quandary. Not because he was fearful but because he believed in an all-powerful God and he could not understand why others didn’t. In his day it was surrounding nations seeking to destroy the Hebrew kingdom (is it any different today?). Without trying to plumb the depths of political philosophy, we can see that belief in God by some seems to bring out the worst in others. But to what end ? The writer suggest – nay, states – that God scoffs at those who persecute His people. His scoffing, though, is not just laughter; it is in holy anger. How dare they?
Those who fight against God do so out of rebellion. They say that no one can tell them what to do. They want freedom.
Such ‘freedom’ often leads to control by the oppressors, forcing their ideas on to those they’ve defeated, taking away freedom. Beware those even in Western Europe who are currently trying to take away the freedom of Christians to live and act according to their beliefs.
Verses 6 to 9 need to be regarded in two ways – firstly as encouragement to King David and the kings who would follow him; secondly, looking forward to the time when God would intervene in the affairs of the whole of mankind by sending his Messiah.
Even though some might well have opposed the appointment of David as King, mainly because of what one might call ungodly misdemeanours, he is assured that his own rule has been decreed by God himself. David is a ‘son’ of God, acting with divine authority in ruling over his own nation and standing up to those nations who oppose him and thus rebel against God.
This passage is also seen as Messianic prophecy – God will, in the person of his “only begotten Son”, defeat the power of evil completely, leaving those who oppose Him with the choice of rejecting His rule, with all that that implies, or bowing the knee in worship.
War or persecution do not come into it. This is personal. We all have a choice – to worship and obey the Almighty or to rebel against Him. Those who rebel are warned of their potential peril but the love of God seeks them out to take refuge in Him.
Submission to a loving God is not a negative; rather it brings with it a privilege of loving service in this life and fellowship with Him in eternity.
No choice, you might think – yet each of us has to make that choice.