“Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?. . .Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” Psalm 2:1,3
June 19, 2023
It was on October 19, 1781 that Brigadier General Charles O’Hara of the British army gave his sword to Major General Benjamin of the Continental army. This took place while the British band played an old tune, “The World is Turned Upside Down.” The occasion was the defeat of the British and their surrender at Yorktown. The footsteps of the coming of Israel’s Messiah can be heard in many of the Psalms. They reveal a messianic hope in Psalm 2, one of the royal psalms. They were meant for all the sons of David, for they see the king in his ideal. But only in Jesus Christ is the ideal realized. The description of Psalm 2 by Derek Kidner is spine tingling, “It is unsurpassed for its buoyant, fierce delight in God’s dominion and His promise to His King.” Immediately the rebellion of the nations against God is mocked. The vaunted arrogance of the nations is doomed to futility (2:1-3). Here we see the puny kings of the earth plotting against the Lord and the Lord’s anointed. Defiantly they are strutting across the stage of history, seeking to devise ways to overthrow God’s rule and God’s ruler. They passionately desire their autonomous rule. C. H. Spurgeon captures the thought splendidly, “We have, in these first three verses, a description of the hatred of human nature against the Christ of God.” Before our very eyes we see the demagogues in our own nation attempting to redefine manhood and womanhood, advocating the mutilation of youth under the euphemism of gender-affirming care, and redefining marriage. The desire for freedom fuels rage against God’s moral laws. Dear Christian friend, pray that God will confound, confuse, and bring to nothing those that snarl at God’s commandments. At the same time, we must show and tell others about the true freedom found in Jesus Christ.
H
“O wonderfully patient Father, though many are seeking to turn our world upside down, turn many from their unbelief into fervent followers of your Beloved Son.”