Psalm 2

Psalm 2 (NRSV)

1 Why do the nations conspire,
and the peoples plot in vain?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and his anointed, saying,
3 “Let us burst their bonds asunder,
and cast their cords from us.”

Lord,
What is this, a multi-national conspiracy? The poet believes that a consortium of nations led by arrogant rulers is plotting to overthrow the rightful rule of God. Was it so? Is it so? Is it another portrait of sin?

When I think of sin, my first impulse is to consider the misdeeds of individuals, my sin and my neighbor’s sin. It’s a personal thing, a person(al) thing.

But Lord, this is about nations and cultures. More than a personal reality, sin is here identified as a social reality, nations and governments and kings and peoples conspiring against God. Sin is not lodged only in Tom and Mary and Dick and Jane, sin is lodged in the communities within which we live. It is a part of our social reality, so speaks the poet.

So, could it be?
The culturally promoted attitudes that created slavery, gender abuse, class warfare, the manipulation of the weak, taking advantage of the vulnerable, the celebration of pornography and the demeaning of sexual integrity, a new sex-slavery, dishonestly describing those who are different, the mongering of fear, is this the cultural conspiracy against the Lord?

Lord, help us.
Change me that the conspiracy might be weakened.
Change our churches that testimony might be given concerning the plot of the peoples.
Grant wisdom and power to speak to rulers who counsel together.

Help us Lord to speak for your Kingdom, the Kingdom of Christ.

Confess your sin.
Pray for those who need God’s special blessing.
Name 5 things for which your are grateful

Amen

4 He who sits in the heavens laughs;
the Lord has them in derision.
5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
and terrify them in his fury, saying,
6 “I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.”
7 I will tell of the decree of the Lord :
He said to me, “You are my son;
today I have begotten you.
8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
9 You shall break them with a rod of iron,
and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
be warned, O rulers of the earth.
11 Serve the Lord with fear,
with trembling12 kiss his feet,a
or he will be angry, and you will perish in the way;
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Happy are all who take refuge in him.
[1]

a Cn: Meaning of Heb of verses 11b and 12a is uncertain
[1] The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1996, c1989. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.