In the garden of Eden, two individuals rose up in rebellion against the rule of God. Later, their offspring built cities until finally they decided to build the ultimate city: a citadel of defense, a monument to human arrogance to stand against the authority of God. The city of Babel was the capital city for the kingdom of man. This institutionalization of evil is expressed in Scripture perhaps nowhere more vividly than in Psalm 2.
The psalm begins with a question: “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?” (Ps. 2:1). This speaks of national fury and hostility. It is not that nations are merely grumbling and voicing mild dissent. Rather, they are so enraged that they devise a plot. It’s as though there were an international summit where the power brokers of the nations, as much as they compete with one another, agree to stand shoulder to shoulder against a common enemy. For example, the United States was allied with the Soviet Union during World War II. They stood together against the threat of Germany. Sometimes serious exigencies create strange bedfellows among people who would otherwise remain apart.
In Psalm 2, we see an international summit fueled by institutional fury. The leaders come together to brainstorm and agree on a plan of action, which the psalmist says at the outset is a vain thing. It is not vain in the sense of proud or arrogant, but vain in the sense of utterly futile. The psalmist is essentially asking, “Why are the nations in their fury coming together to plan an action that has no possible hope of success?” It is an exercise in utter futility.
The psalmist continues, “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together” (Ps. 2:2). The kings of the earth—the presidents, prime ministers, congresses, senates, and parliaments of the earth—are said to “set themselves.” Their muscles are taut. They are in a posture of readiness for conflict and in absolute rigid defiance. They are setting themselves with all the strength they can muster against something.
Why do the kings of the earth set themselves and take counsel together, and what are they against? Two things have provoked this political, institutional determination and opposition. They are against the Lord and against the Lord’s Anointed—in other words, against the Lord’s Messiah, against Christ. The picture that the psalmist draws here is one of international revolt against God and against His Anointed One.
In this summit of nations, what is the agenda, what plans are made, and what agreement is reached? They take counsel against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us” (Ps. 2:3). The kings of the world come together and determine to break the bonds of God. This is an international declaration of independence from almighty God and independence from the One whom God has anointed and appointed to be King of kings and Lord of lords.
The kings of this world proclaim to Christ: “We will not have You rule over us. You are not our King.” They declare: “We’re not going to be under God at all. We’re not accountable or answerable to Him. We will not be obedient to God because His law is to us shackles and ropes that restrain us and tie us down. We’re going to break those bonds and tear up those ropes, and we will be free to run this world however we want. We will not worry about God’s law.”
How does God respond? Does He say: “I see your intercontinental ballistic missiles all lined up and aimed at Me. I see the totality of human power directed against Me. I see that you’ve taken polls that have declared that I and My Son are irrelevant, so let Me surrender to the kingdom of this world”? No. When God sees human institutions in total agreement, determined to declare their freedom and autonomy from the reign of Christ, Scripture tells us in verse 4, “He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.” We can imagine this summit and all the tanks, planes, bombs, and missiles aimed against heaven. God looks down at the collective power and determination of the kings of this world and comments, “Look at these people,” when He could take His thumb and squash every human institution in an instant.
God holds them in derision, but not for long: “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’” (Ps. 2:5–6). The greatest political issue in the history of the world is the question “Who is king?” God has not given us a referendum by which we either acknowledge or fail to acknowledge our King. God has set His King on Zion, and no power in heaven or on earth can dethrone Him. You may disobey Him. You may hate Him. You may ignore Him. But you cannot remove Him, because God has made Him King, and His kingdom will reign forever and ever.
Ligonier Ministries