Psalm 2 – 150 Days of Purposeful Meditation (Day 2) Remix

God is laughing hysterically at the state of our Union.  We celebrate this day as our independence day.  The day that our nation declared independence from the authority that then ruled over it.  Since then, we have been on an increasing decline drifting farther and farther away from all authority…except our own.

The Kings of Psa 2 “take their stand together against the Lord and His anointed…[so that they may] tear [the Lord’s] fetters…and cast away [His] chords from them.”  They want the right to rule and govern themselves apart from God, their creator.  They want to make their own decisions about what is right and what is wrong.  They want to make their own standards of law and morality.  They want to write their own commandments to live by.  They do not want the Lord or His Anointed sticking their noses into their business.

Sound familiar?  Our own nation, as many freedoms as we boast of (even the fact that I am able to write this without threat of open persecution is indicative of the freedoms we enjoy), as much relative good as we pursue; it is all ultimately for the expressed purpose of pursuing our own standard of “happiness” apart from any outside ruling authority.  This agenda is very clear, though its hard to know where to begin the discussion.  Marriage, abortion, homosexual “rights”, even the blurring of gender and gender roles.  These are among the many issues that our government is in the process of redefining and legislating according to its own agenda (admittedly the agenda of the “people”), apart from the expressed agenda of the Lord and His Anointed.  We quibble about gun control, taxes and privacy while as a nation we collectively thumb our noses at our Creator and His chosen King.  We have nationally rejected His law, His way and His chosen One.  The message of this Psalm is for us, today.

How does the Lord respond to the state of our union today?  Is He worried?  Is He afraid of where we may go next?  Is He concerned that we used to follow a morality consistent with Judeo-Christian values and have in recent days made every attempt to distance ourselves from those values?  No.  This Psalm tells us that as He looks down from Heaven upon the United States of America with its “In God we trusts” and “God bless America’s”, He sits back and laughs hysterically.

4 He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them. (Psa 2:4 NAU)

He laughs and He mocks us as we seek to redefine morality in our own image.  Autonomy is the god of our day along with his children, relativism and tolerance.  These have become our championed values, the new morality and anyone who resists this morality is counted as treasonous.  And since the Lord and His Anointed One are decidedly against the gods of our nation; we seek to sever our connection with Him at any costs.  And yet this is the very thing that moves God to hysterical laughter, even mockery.

We love the idea of “free will.”  There is a doctrine in the world of men that speaks of free will as that which is an inalienable right, an innate quality of mankind.  And yet in this we have deceived ourselves.  There is no such thing as absolute freedom among men.  We are created beings and by definition are subject to our creator.  Thus there is no absolute freedom.  And even if there were no creator and we came into being solely on the basis of chance (which the probability of such a theory, though widely held, flings one headlong into insanity); then it would be chance to whom we are subject and not we ourselves.  Thus again, leaving no room for absolute freedom.  Either we are subject to a Creator or we are subject to chance.  Nevertheless, we are created beings and as such are ultimately subject to the divine will.  We may not acknowledge that, but God certainly knows it to be true.  And He no more needs to convince us of that than we need convince an ant that the underside of our boot is able to crush them.  It simply is.  Thus we may mock the futile attempt of an ant to run away in terror as we approach it with the expressed purpose of crushing it knowing that it will never be anything more than a futile attempt.

Clearly that is the nature of the message of this Psalm.  Our attempts to throw away His fetters, to disconnect ourselves from the Sovereign will of God are futile.  We may feel that we do well to run far away from the approach of the iron rod that is coming but it will never be anything more than a futile attempt.  This Psalm is forward looking.  It predicts the time in the future when the Lord’s Anointed will literally reign upon the earth and when the kings of the earth will literally reject and rebel against His authority.  And yet none will escape His Almighty judgments against their rebellion.

 9 ‘You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.'” (Psa 2:9 NAU)

Yet while the prediction of this Psalm will ultimately not be fulfilled until that day, we know that the judgments of the Lord may also be given in the present day.  There is no promise in scripture for the United States of America.  There is no promise for its endurance, for its remaining prominence, for its future.  There is really no mention of the United States in any of the prophetic writings, no matter how some bible teachers stretch and twist the words of scripture to attempt to place her on the map.  Either she will fall prior to that day or she will be so greatly diminished that she is not worth mentioning.  Sometimes silence speaks louder than words.

What does that mean for us?  Even as we celebrate the day that our nation took on its own international identity, we should set realistic expectations about our place in His world.  We can either ignore prophecy and assume that it doesn’t apply to us or acknowledge that His word is true and valuable (Psalm 1) and act accordingly.  If you choose to acknowledge the truthfulness and value of God’s word you would do well to consider the following warning:

10 Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; Take warning, O judges of the earth.
11 Worship the LORD with reverence And rejoice with trembling.
12 Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, For His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him! (Psa 2:10-12 NAU)

The real issue facing our nation today is a matter of worship…and obedience.  Who will we worship and who will we obey?  Do we continue to worship our independence and seek to obey the god of autonomy?  Or do we return and worship the Lord with reverence and seek to obey His Son, the King whom He has chosen?

The cost is real.  “Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled.”  The warning is that this Son, the divinely chosen King, may become angry and cause the rebelling nations to perish.  This is the same perish from Psalm 1, mentioned in an earlier post.  These two Psalms were meant to be taken together as an introduction to the whole book of 150 Psalms.  Thus the identity of the blessed One of Psalm 1 and this One mentioned here as the Son who is installed as King are one and the same.  The reason why He is chosen above all others is clear from Psalm 1, because of His love for and delight in the will of God.  Furthermore this connection to that which will perish is another indication as to His duty as the blessed One, the chosen King.  He is sent forth with a “rod of iron” to “shatter” those who have rebelled against the Lord of Heaven.  His anger is a righteous anger, a holy anger, a God sanctioned divine anger sent down from heaven against ungodly rebellion.  This day is coming.  The King has been chosen.  Indeed scripture testifies elsewhere:

having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent,
31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed (Act 17:30-31 NAU)

“Do homage to the Son…”  “Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling.”

We seek freedom in the arms of the god of autonomy.  We seek to cast away the sovereignty of our Creator but instead cast ourselves headlong into subjugation to our own devices and the consequences that result.  And yet there is the offer of true freedom remaining.

How blessed are all who take refuge in Him! (Psa 2:12 NAU)

the Lord Jesus Christ,
4 who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, (Gal 1:3-4 NAU)

It was for freedom that Christ set us free (Gal 5:1 NAU)

True blessing.  True happiness is found in the One who gave Himself up for us to deliver us from the evil of this age (even the evil that we have conceived as a result of our quest for independence).  True freedom is found in the Lord Jesus Christ, the truly blessed and happy One, the chosen King, the Son to whom homage is due.  True freedom is found in Him and in Him alone.

As you celebrate this Independence Day, rejoice in the One who died for you to deliver you, not from political, social or moral oppression, but from the oppression of your own lawlessness.  If you haven’t trusted in Him yet, this can be your independence day.  This can be a day of reverent worship and rejoicing over the One who is truly worthy if you cease striving and humble yourself before His rule.  If you have trusted in Him already then independence day should have a fuller meaning for you.  For you it must go beyond the stars and stripes.  For you it will be a time to remember the stripes and shed blood that He bore on the cross for you…and the resulting freedom from sin that you now enjoy as one who takes refuge in Him.

Maranatha!

Relativism

So, I was talking to some coworkers at work today and one of them mentioned that a customer of ours (40 yrs old) is dating a 19 yr old. To which myself and the one coworker responded in amazement…and slight disgust. My initial response (I don’t remember how the conversation went) was that the situation was “wrong” to which the other coworker agreed and the third asked “why?” Now, the why was not a mere question seeking further explanation, it was an outright disagreement. And this person’s defense for disagreeing was that they had two 19 yr old friends who were also dating 35-40 yr olds.

Here is the crux. Their problem with my statement was completely based on the fact that I said that it was “wrong.” It wasn’t necessarily that they had any additional information on the situation nor that they knew the relationship to be sound and built upon a firm foundation of love, trust, or any biblical standard whatsoever (this person is not a believer). It seems as though they were simply rejection the classification of its “wrongness” on the basis of the fact that they had two 19 yr old friends who were doing the same thing. They also didn’t, by the way, have anything to say along the lines of those other two relationships being built upon firm foundations, being healthy and strong etc. So the only reason why they thought that my statement of it being “wrong” was…wrong…was because they had friends who were doing the same.

That is the heart of relativism. That is the heart of post modernism and pragmatism. Whatever works, works. Whatever works for you, works, so do it. It is a foolish mindset at its foundation and is not in actuality how those people live.

People speak in relativistic terms with things that suit them one way or another…or else with things which they desire to have their own preference over. For example, the coworker that I mentioned above would have reasoned that it was okay for a 40 yr old and a 19 yr old to date…and to have children (which also came up because the customer who this is about actually said this about himself – we are not randomly gossiping)…said that it was okay because someone else did it and it works for them. This same person, I’d bet, would not be okay with another murdering simply because someone else did it and it worked for them. None of us with “sense” think that way. Murder is not okay. Thats clear. Why is it clear? Its clear because it is absolutely clear that murdering another is wrong. Why is it wrong? Its wrong because we have the law of God written in our hearts which tells us that it is wrong. Others may not admit to this, they may call it the preservation of the species or something else random like that. But the main reason is because the Absolute Standard has spoken, He has said that murder is wrong, and we all know it. Furthermore, we don’t condone incest for similar reasons. It is wrong. That is an absolute. So much so that those who do murder because they feel like it and those who commit incest because they feel like it are called “psychotic,” “sociopaths,” “abnormal.” We know that it is wrong and label them as such. Some may say that they are “mentally ill” which I won’t get into a debate about right now, but I’ll just say that even such a term as that signifies our identification of their behavior as markedly wrong.

In other words, we recognize absolutes…all people do. If I walked into another persons home and stole all of their stuff, they would be upset…why? Because stealing is wrong. Whether you say its wrong because it is wrong “by law” or you say its wrong because it is inherently wrong is irrelevant for this point. It is wrong. That is an absolute. However when it comes to something that we are emotionally or otherwise vested in, absolutes begin to fade to the back. We start to talk in terms of relativism and pragmatism. This works for me, that works for you…so long as what works for you doesn’t interfere with what works for me we are good. That is the rule of the day. But as soon as what works for you impedes what works for me, there arises conflict.

Where am I going with this? Those who hold to a largely relativistic world-view are almost always inconsistent in their application of it…in fact, and correct me if I’m wrong, I don’t see how you can logically hold to relativism in all aspects of your life without being yourself mentally disturbed.

Those of you who tend to be relativistic in your thinking…are unfortunately fools.

Those of you who recognize that there are absolutes, remember yourselves to be consistent in your application of that fact. God is. He is and therefore so is everything else. And so in all things we must begin with Him. God is, and therefore we must pursue love and relationships in a way that honors Him. God has declared marriage to be good and therefore all relationships must end in marriage. If a relationship is not going to end in marriage, what is the point? It doesn’t picture God’s intended purpose for it. Furthermore, any relationship built upon lust and base desires ought to be abandoned. Because God has designed marriage to be built upon love and truth…sex and pleasure are a part of that, but are not the basis for it…God’s way is commitment first…commitment to Him, to His way and to one another in His way and therein to find your greatest pleasure.

Can a 40 yr old and a 19 yr old be together…yes. Will my 19 yr old daughter be with a 40 yr old man? Not likely. But any relationship which my daughter has will be built upon the Rock of Christ and His relationship to His Church. And it will be so because it must be so, according to God’s Standard…not my standard, not my wants, my experience, my friends experience, but because God said it.