Why do the Nations Rage?
Text: Psalm 2
I hope everyone had a joyful and blessed Independence Day and that you were able to celebrate the freedom that was won for us by our Nation’s Founders. And I know it’s a few days past Independence Day, but I do want to tie in my sermon with that this morning… So, we’re not in John’s Gospel today… instead, we’re going to be looking at Psalm 2. If you’d go ahead and turn there and follow along as I read that Psalm, we’ll get right into it.
(READ TEXT).
So, there’s this vast conspiracy against God… I’m not making that up – God says it right here in His Word. And it’s all the worlds forces – Courts, governments, academic and educational institutions, the entertainment industry, the world’s military forces, organizations, centers, forums, and clubs – and even ordinary, every-day, run-of-the-mill people… All are plotting a coup’ against the Sovereign King of Creation. Some openly, some privately, but all have allied themselves against the Lord and His Anointed (that’s Jesus Christ). They oppose His authority; they reject His law; and they challenge His right to determine what is good, and moral, what is right and wrong.
And in order to assert their own autonomy, they will go so far as to embrace irrational philosophies, and affrim wicked, twisted moral standards, attack the foundations of an orderly society, attack the gender roles created by God Himself when He made Adam and Eve; they’ll identify as whatever they please, and even re-define marriage by court order – and all of this is done for one reason.
Because the sinful heart hates God.
Now isn’t it interesting that Psalm 2 sounds just like our world today?
The word there for “nations” is the word “Goyim” and that’s what it literally means – “Nation”, but it refers to the people who don’t know God. People who are not believers. And they rage against God. They set themselves against God and His Word, and His authority. They plot vain things, and want to be free from God and God’s Moral Law. That’s what we see in these first three verses.
So this is a Psalm for our time… really for all time… All of human history is marked by this. Rebellion against God.
Now before we dig much further into this, I want to explain to you that this… Psalm 2, is what’s called a Messianic Psalm. That means that it makes prophetic references to Jesus. This particular Psalm is quoted at least 7 times in the New Testament, and when that’s done, it’s always in reference to Christ. So the meaning is clear to us who have the full revelation of God’s Word – RIGHT? We have the completed canon of Scripture, both the Old and the New Testament.
Now King David wrote this, and it’s initial meaning would refer to him – as he established his throne in Jerusalem. When that happened, the people of Israel celebrated, but the nations all around Israel were enraged. So like I said, initially it could be applied to David. But we, having the New Testament – we see the full picture here. It wasn’t just talking about David – it’s talking about Jesus.
ALL OF SCRIPTURE POINTS TO CHRIST!
And so the primary meaning of this Psalm is Messianic. And we can even see that in verse 2… “the rulers take counsel against the Lord, and against His Anointed”… We see that again in verse 7.
Now, those first three verses of our text are describing for us the sinful hatred of unbelieving humanity against God’s authority. They hate God. They hate His Son, the Messiah, the Anointed One, and this hatred eventually leads to outright rage. Fury! Irrational anger! I don’t know if you’ve ever seen an unbeliever express this kind of rage before – but I have. On more than one occasion. They become totally irrational and unreasonable. You might think “TDS” is bad… well this is worse. They rage against God, and they rage at God, and are enraged by God and His Word, and His objective moral standard of right and wrong, good and evil. And verse 1 goes on and says, “they plot in vain.”
Now this is very similar to Paul’s language in Romans 1… Romans 1:21 “For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened”. He says, that these people who did not honor God, or give thanks to God, became FUTILE (or vain) in their thinking. Again, that’s talking about people being irrational, illogical, minds darkened by sin.
So both David, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and Paul, again by inspiration of the Holy Spirit are describing the fallen state of all humanity. That’s every one of us, before we were saved by the grace of God through faith in Christ. In Romans 3:9-12 Paul writes, “… all – both Jews and Greeks are under sin, as it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.’”
And all of that – both Jew and Gentile, and all the nations… all of that comes to a head with the death of Jesus…
Hold your place there in Psalm 2 and turn with me to Acts 4:24-27 (READ).
So there it is right? You’ve got Herod and Pilate --- who hated each other, but they worked together to get Jesus… You’ve got both Jews and Gentiles conspiring together to get Jesus… You’ve got the religious leaders and the lay people conspiring together to get Jesus. All coming together with one evil, wicked goal – to set themselves against the Lord and His Anointed.
And the human heart is still the same today. So when we see the things that we’re seeing in our world all the immorality, all the perversion, all the wickedness… And we see politicians support it, and even religious leaders support it, this shouldn’t shock us – that’s exactly what they did in Jesus’ day. When our society does everything possible to rid our laws and moral standards of any remnants of God’s law – it’s the same thing that’s always been happening. Now granted, there’s an ebb and flow to it… Sometimes a nation can be greatly influenced by God’s people, and God’s Word, and we don’t see the rampant wickedness that we see now… but the story of history is that as a nation, or as a people forgets God, and turns away from God, and hides their light, darkness encroaches.
And I get it – it can be concerning. It can be frustrating. It can be scary and frightening at times.
But look at what God does… Psalm 2 verses 4, 5, & 6 (READ).
You see the contrast there? The world is set against God – it’s raging against God, and His moral absolutes, and His standards, but God laughs. It’s amusing to Him that man thinks they can overthrow the Sovereign, All-Mighty, All-Knowing God. It’s absurd! So He holds them in derision. That means God’s response to them is contempt. Why? Psalm 115:3, “Our God is in the heavens; He does all that He pleases.” From our limited, finite perspective, we see the nations rage… we see the sin and wickedness, and troubles and if our eyes are only on the wind and waves crashing around us, we forget that our God is sovereign and All-Mighty. But from God’s perspective, He laughs. It’s absurd to Him.
I’ll just give you a couple of examples of that…
Remember how God demonstrated His sovereignty to Nebuchadnezzar?
Nebuchadnezzar was the most powerful man in the world at the time… he was proud and arrogant, his armies were unbeatable… but what happened to him? He went mad, went out from among men and ate grass in the fields like a cow or ox. His hair grew long, and his nails grew long, and he had to live that way until he acknowledge that God is sovereign and All-Mighty.
We could look at Elijah facing off against the priests of Ba-al on Mt. Carmel. Or Pharaoh giving an order to murder all the Hebrew baby boys, but then his own daughter ends up raising Moses…
“Our God is in the heavens; He does all that He pleases”. So what does He do? Verse 6, “As for Me, I have set My King on Zion, My holy hill.” The nations can rage all they want, they can scream and yell, and demand their freedom from God, and God will laugh and do what He pleases. He tells us that He will make the nations His Son’s heritage, and the ends of the earth His possession, and His Son, Jesus, will break the wicked with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a clay pot.
Turn with me, quickly to Proverbs 1:24-31 (READ).
That’s terrifying…
And again we see a parallel here between this Old Testament passage and the writings of Paul… Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10, “The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they REFUSED TO LOVE THE TRUTH and so be saved.”
Do you see it?
Proverbs 1:29 – they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord… 2 Thess. 2:10 – they refused to love the truth and so be saved. The nations rage because they hate God, they hate His Son, they Hate His Word, they hate His absolute moral standards, they hate His Church, and they hate the truth. And here is the truth – JESUS CHRIST IS LORD! And as Lord, He calls us to turn from our sin and trust in Him for salvation. He calls us to follow Him in holiness and to be sanctified in truth, and His Word is truth. As Lord He tells us that certain lifestyles are not only sinful, but is in-fact and abominable rebellion against Him. And here is the truth – HE IS COMING AGAIN. And you can either bow your knee to Him as your King, or your will bow your knee to Him as your conqueror.
That’s why this Psalm ends as it does. Look at verses 10, 11, and 12… Let me just read it as it is in the Hebrew: “Therefore kings, be wise; be warned, you judges of the earth. Serve Adonai with fear; rejoice, but with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish along the way, when suddenly His anger is kindled and blazes hot. How blessed are all who put their trust in Him and who take refuge in the Refuge Giver.” What an incredible promise of grace that is! God will laugh at the nation’s absurd ideas of overthrowing Him, and He will crush them in their continued rebellion and stubbornness. But if they turn unto Him, if they bow the knee to Him as Savior and Lord, He will show them mercy and kindness and give them refuge. A refuge that only He can give.
The world will continue to rage. They will rage against us – they will even rage against each other – but ultimately they will rage against God. They will do all they can to try and ‘cancel’ God, and go back to Babel where they attempt to build their own utopia… their own ‘heaven on earth’.
But our hope is in greater things. We serve a far better kingdom. And our King is coming soon.
CLOSING
