Psalm 2, pt. 1
1 Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
This is a question that one might be tempted to try to answer before going further. He might look around at his world and associate current events with the question, or he might explore the words David used for a clue as to what exactly he was referencing. But the next two verses tell us both what he was looking at and the reason for it.
2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
The ‘rage’ is against God and against His Anointed One. In David’s mind he may have seen himself in this picture as the ‘anointed one’ and surely he was, but we must remember, ever and always, that in this role he was a dim picture of his coming ‘Son,’ the Truly Anointed One Who would be the Last and the Eternal Heir to his throne.
The problem that has caused the rage and the conspiracy is the restraint and constraint upon wickedness imposed by the rule, the Law, of God.
Make no mistake, God’s Laws are generally and universally hated, particularly the ones which either directly or by extension constrain men from wickedness.
David, no doubt, had imposed restrictions on wickedness in the vast territory of the Gentiles (‘the people,’ v.1) over which he reigned. It is almost impossible to imagine that it would not have been so. And even
though his power was great and his ability to enforce his edicts vast, both the rulers as well as the populace of those vanquished nations raged against his laws, which were, of necessity, extensions of the Law of God.
One could imagine a long list of things David probably forbidden which were historic and cultural practices of the heathen. There is no doubt that there were probably efforts to evangelize these people to teach them
the Truths concerning God that were known to the Jews, but those efforts were more than likely not well received in most places.
But David’s love of God’s Law is well documented (Psa 119) and it must have guided his rulership of the vassal states that reached hundreds of miles from Jerusalem.
But, undoubtedly, this observation of David extended beyond himself to the Rulership of God and His Anointed over the whole world. The picture grows exponentially larger in this framework and extends to all of the earth through all of time.
There were conspiracies against David that he often mentioned in the Psalms. Some of them reached even into his family. His godly rule produced constraints on both the Gentile (heathen) populace as well as on many of the unconverted Jews (who really coveted the ungodliness of the heathen).
And THAT, he rightly surmised, was the real cause of the rebellious attitudes which led to the conspiracies with which he continually fought.
His answer to his problems as King, however, is still the answer to the resentment and hatred of the world, both heathen and ‘Christian,’ the restrictions upon their wickedness, most especially those restrictions
which are based in the Word of God.
Why do the heathen rage? There you have it.
— March 31, 2020