Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.
Psalm 2 speaks very clearly to God’s appointment of His Son as the ruler of all things earthly. We read about it more as we recognize in the New Testament that Jesus is revealed as God the Son, the one to whom is given all authority in heaven and on earth to redeem humanity from the curse of sin. It is Jesus who has inherited the nations and who possesses the ends of the earth. It is He who will be able to come in judgment over all this world, which He has redeemed to Himself.
There are essentially two responses which we can have to this redemption. On the one hand, as we are warned against in the Psalm, we can ridicule the idea, reject the Son, rage against him, plot against him, and attempt to establish our own plan instead. This is folly in the highest degree. It rejects the salvation which God has purchased on our behalf, and attempts to replace it with our own efforts, or, worse yet, with our lack of efforts, merely leaving it at a place of rejection. This, we read, kindles God’s wrath and results in his fury being directed against us, as it is against all else which rejects God’s mercy. In effect, if we want to work out salvation on our own terms, God allows us to try, but we are told in no uncertain terms that we will fail.
The other response we can have is to thankfully look to God who has worked out salvation on our behalf. He is the judge who comes and issues righteous judgment. We look to him in trust, recognizing that his judgment is true and good. For those who trust in God the Son, his mercy and forgiveness is present. It is as if he says, “There, you see and receive the pardon which I have worked for you. You were not able to do so, but I was. Receive my reward.”
Why do the nations rage? It is folly in the highest degree. Let us rather look to the Son, Jesus, who has purchased our salvation.
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