Raging Against A Wrathful God
An audacious world rebelling against a holy God, A sovereign God, angered by sinful rebels, God’s Anointed, given full authority to judge rebels, an admonishment for rebels to seek refuge in the Son.
Through Hebrew poetic language, Psalm Two skillfully draws the reader’s attention through the repetition of persons and places, and the contrast between an earthly and heavenly perspective.
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”
Nations & people, kings & rulers, rage, plot, and take collective counsel to set themselves against God. This timeless observation establishes that all people groups, across all time periods, societal statuses, and political classes, are collectively rebelling against God. Psalm two points to the book of Genesis, which records the first instance of the entire human race banding together to do something great; aspiring to build a tower that would reach God as a demonstration of human accomplishment. That didn’t end well, and God dispersed them.
That defiance continued, not through physical infrastructure, but through the heart condition seeking to “burst the bonds” and “cast the cords” against the Lord and His Anointed, a complete rejection of God’s sovereignty in all aspects of human life.
He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”
In vain, the nations rise in audacity against God. The Christian God is neither distant nor unmoved. God did not walk away from the world He created; He cares enough to be angered by humanity’s sinful rebellion, and He cares enough to provide a solution to this rebellion. As we consider the work of global missions, there are times when people get confused about humanitarian work, community development, and social efforts. We will be doing those we serve a disservice if we do not fully deliver the message of God’s wrath against sin and rebellion. God himself placed the twin priorities of establishing His wrath against sin and then demonstrating His offer of refuge.
The psalmist raises our eyes from the earth to the Heavens, “He who sits in the heavens”, “the Lord”, “He”, is angered and laughs in derision at mankind’s rage. God intends to respond in fury and through His representative, sent from the heavens, to those who are on the earth. This chosen representative will be from a kingly lineage and sent as an emissary of God to a geographically significant location: Zion, a hill in Jerusalem, the capital of Biblical Israel, and the site where God’s temple will be built. This king will represent an earthly Davidic kingship, the Levitical priestly system, and most importantly, be God’s anointed one, the Messiah. This culmination of King, Priest, and Prophet all points to a singular, unmistakable, and undeniable individual. Jesus Christ.
Consider the weight of penning these words of poetry and prophecy. The Psalmist writes in faith about what he hasn’t experienced, but will come to pass in the fullness of time. Believers on this side of world history, who witnessed the unfolding of these prophetic words, revealed in the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, now get to share about this King of Zion in all of its fullness. The clear message in missions must include Jesus, the Davidic King; the Great High Priest; and the prophesied Saviour.
I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
The psalmist shifts from narrating to a first-person perspective, “I”, referring to Himself in relation to the Lord. Who is this son? When will this Son make the ask for authority? The identity of the son will require a millennium of patience, until fulfillment is found in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, recording God the Father proclaiming upon Jesus that “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Mk 1:11; Lk 3:22), and the Gospel of John, stating Jesus as, “The only Begotten Son of God”. This Trinitarian view is essential for explaining the gospel: the Old Testament provides early indications, while the Gospels and the New Testament give it a full definition.
The ask for authority occurred after Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross and his victory over death, He would declare to His disciples in the familiar great commission passage that,
“All Authority has been given unto me, therefore go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teach them all that I have commanded you, and I will be with you to the end of the ages.”
The Son has authority over all the “nations” and the “ends of the earth”. As the Son of God, Jesus Christ, commands the apostles and all Christians that follow, to go and make disciples “Of all nations” and he will be with them “to the end of the ages”. The messianic king, now assuming his kingship, commands his people to go declare the message that God is angered by humanity’s rebellion, and has in His response, judgment resembling the “breaking by a rod of iron” and the “dashing like a potter’s vessel.”
Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
What was Jesus’s role in this judgment, my friends? He was sent to be broken and dashed, His body bore the stripes for our transgressions (Isa 53:5,). It is half the story to share only of God’s love if we do not share about God’s wrath. It is half the story to share about God’s wrath on mankind if we do not share about God’s wrath that was poured on his Son. For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son (John 3:16-17), and in pouring His wrath on the Son, He provides the refuge so keenly needed by raging rebels.
The Psalmist returns in his narrator’s perspective and speaks to kings and rulers, authoritatively warning them to choose wisdom and to serve the Lord with joy and in reverential fear. This same reverence is also to be accorded to the Son; He too is angered with sin, He too can judge fatally, He too has the same wrath that God the Father has. Here we see an early echo of the words of Jesus, “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30).
The psalmist ends on the note of blessing, which is the beginning theme of the book of Psalm, blessed is the man that does not, sit, walk, stand, in the congregation of the evil, but meditates on God’s Word. Blessed are those who take refuge in the Lord’s anointed.
