Psalm 2: Our Nation Vs. Our God

Jonathan Newlon

Uniontown Church of Christ

4 November 2020

Psalm 2: Our Nations vs Our God

Introduction

The following story is taken directly from the U.S. Treasury website. The motto IN GOD WE TRUST was placed on United States coins largely because of the increased religious sentiment existing during the Civil War. Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase received many appeals from devout persons throughout the country, urging that the United States recognize the Deity on United States coins. From Treasury Department records, it appears that the first such appeal came in a letter dated November 13, 1861. It was written to Secretary Chase by Rev. M. R. Watkinson, Minister of the Gospel from Ridleyville, Pennsylvania, and read:

Dear Sir: You are about to submit your annual report to the Congress respecting the affairs of the national finances.

One fact touching our currency has hitherto been seriously overlooked. I mean the recognition of the Almighty God in some form on our coins.

You are probably a Christian. What if our Republic were not shattered beyond reconstruction? Would not the antiquaries of succeeding centuries rightly reason from our past that we were a heathen nation? What I propose is that instead of the goddess of liberty we shall have next inside the 13 stars a ring inscribed with the word PERPETUAL UNION; within the ring the all seeing eye, crowned with a halo; beneath this eye the American flag, bearing in its field stars equal to the number of the States united; in the folds of the bars the words GOD, LIBERTY, LAW.

This would make a beautiful coin, to which no possible citizen could object. This would relieve us from the ignominy of heathenism. This would place us openly under the Divine protection we have personally claimed. From my hearth I have felt our national shame in disowning God as not the least of our present national disasters.

To you first I address a subject that must be agitated.

As a result, Secretary Chase instructed James Pollock, Director of the Mint at Philadelphia, to prepare a motto, in a letter dated November 20, 1861:

Dear Sir: No nation can be strong except in the strength of God, or safe except in His defense. The trust of our people in God should be declared on our national coins.

You will cause a device to be prepared without unnecessary delay with a motto expressing in the fewest and tersest words possible this national recognition.

The Motto was Chosen, “In God We Trust.”

Let’s now read Psalm 2 to see what kind of state our world and even our nation now finds itself in.

(Read Psalm 2)

I. The Nations Rage Against the Lord

a. World Demographics (the world is largely against God)

I want to start by taking a look at the demographics of the world population in terms of religion. The most popular religion in the world is, in fact, Christianity. Christianity is, of course, being used as a blanket term here including all denominations and sects of it. As of 2020, 31.1% of the world identifies as being Christian. Half of the Christians in the world are Catholic. The other half is divided amongst Protestants, Orthodox, and “other.” As we can see, even in the “Christian” world, there is real concern about how many are actually serving the Lord and living by what the Bible says.

Let’s take a look at the 68.9% of the world that isn’t Christian. Of that group, the largest is of the Muslim religion. 36% of non-Christians identify as Muslim. It is very concerning as the Muslim religion is vehemently against the One True God that we serve. They call us infidels and say that we must be put to death. In fact, one of the calls of the Koran is that the Muslims should put to death any who will not show faith in Muhammad or proclaim that Allah is god. Another 23% of the non-Christian group identifies as Atheist or Agnostic. They either believe that there is no God or they just believe in some sort of Cosmic power without a personage. These people, like the Muslims, tend to be vehement enemies of Christianity. We constantly see people like noted Atheist Karl Sagan calling Christians “fools” or “idiots.” Many people surely work against the Lord today, but we know that no matter what, God is in control.

b. God’s own Nation turned on Him.

The world being against God is nothing new. In fact, we constantly see how God’s own nation constantly turned on Him throughout the Old Testament. Let’s just look at the book of Exodus to see how God’s own nation of Israel waivered on their faith in Him. This starts in Exodus 14. Moses and Israel had just fled Egypt and were not standing on the banks of the Red Sea. They looked back and saw the armies of Egypt pursuing them. They lost their faith in what God could do and they asked Moses starting in verse 11, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”