Fall 2018, 40 Days of Prayer, Day 3
Psalm 2:1-3
1 Why are the nations in an uproar
And the peoples devising a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth take their stand
And the rulers take counsel together
Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,
3 “Let us tear their fetters apart
And cast away their cords from us!”
The Rage of Nations
From the first line, the psalmist (David) sets an antagonistic tone. He tells us that the nations have found a common enemy, one so powerful they have to end their normal aggression against each other to make a united assault against a common foe. He claims sovereignty over all the earth and that galls them fiercely. They cannot and will not live under His oppressive regime. Realizing this, the political leaders have met and the usual equivocations and diplomatic double speak have, for once, been set aside. These national leaders, kings and rulers, have together declared war against God.
And it’s not just the ruling class of the nations that are hostile; the citizens, the common people are also aggressively plotting to carry on the war. One gets the impression that the common folk are committed partisans, willing to fight on their own soil, if necessary, to defy their Creator. All the people of the earth have great antipathy toward the Lord and His Anointed. They hate His authority and they will not bow down to Him. In their disdain, people think that by standing together they can stand against Him.
Long before Jesus was born, the teachers of the Law, the rulers of the Jewish people had identified this psalm as messianic. Yet when they witnessed His miracles and heard His words they rejected the One about whom it was written. You may recall that in Acts 4 Peter quoted this passage in response to his arrest following the healing of the lame beggar at the Gate Beautiful. Peter declared that both the Jews and the Gentiles were against the Lord and His Anointed. And so they were. We know what happened to early followers of Christ. The New Testament and church tradition tell us how they were treated. Today we also live among peoples and nations who hate God and His Son and who will not bow down nor even acknowledge Him. We know this because we see it, and if we think back a little way, we can even remember our own full-throated defiance of God.
Fortunately, today the Father is in the business of extending grace to all who will believe in His Anointed. As those who have received this grace, we have two main jobs. First, we are to worship and obey Him. Unfortunately, we often find ourselves siding with our neighbors and our leaders (both cultural and political), quietly denying His authority over us, applauding the things they applaud. As James 3 tells us, brothers and sisters, this should not be so. In Romans 8 Paul reminds us that we are no longer of the flesh which is at enmity with God. We have the great privilege and the great obligation to set our minds on the things of the Spirit. So our first responsibility is to think and speak and live as one who loves God and lives according to the Spirit. Sometimes that is very hard to do simply because we forget to Whom we belong. May we this day, keep the Author and Perfecter of our faith at the forefront or our minds.
The second responsibility involves the very people who are at war with our Sovereign Lord. He told us in John 20 (and other places) that they would not only hate Him but us as well. But we are not to hate them or go to war against them. Instead we are to share the Good News with them so that they too might be saved. This too is hard. People don’t want to hear about Jesus and truthfully, I’m not that thrilled about telling them. I’ve read a little history. But if I take my first responsibility seriously, I will have to take this one seriously as well.
Prayer Focus
Father, You are good and kind and we love You. Thank You for calling us to be Your children, extending grace while we were busy waging war against You. Please gently teach us to be obedient to You, to love the righteous cords that bind our words and our thoughts and our actions. Accept our flawed worship and work in us to conform us to the image of Your Son. Please give us the opportunity and the desire to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. Help us to tell others that they too can have peace with You through Jesus Your Son.
From Charles Wesley’s Sermon, Salvation by Faith, Preached at St. Mary's, Oxford, before the University, on June 18, 1738
II. What is salvation through faith? 1. It is a salvation right now. It is something attainable, yes, actually attained, on earth, by those who are partakers of this faith. For the Apostle said to the believers at Ephesus, and in these words speaks to the believers of all generations, not, “You shall be” (though that is also true), but, "You are saved through faith." 2. You are saved (to comprise all in one word) from sin. This is the salvation which is through faith. This is that great salvation foretold by the angel, before God brought his First-begotten into the world: "You will call his name Jesus; for he will save his people from their sins." And neither here, nor in other parts of holy scripture, is there any limitation or restriction. All his people, or, "all that believe in him," he will save from all their sins; from original and actual, past and present sin, "of the body and of the spirit." Through faith that is in him, they are saved both from the guilt and from the power of it. 3. From the guilt of all past sin: whereas all the world is guilty before God, that if he should "mark what is done that is sin, there is none that could stand;" and "by the law comes" only "the knowledge of sin," but no deliverance from sin, so that, "by" fulfilling "the deeds of the law, no one can be justified in his sight": now, "the righteousness of God, which is by faith in Jesus Christ, is manifested to all that believe." Now, "they are justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ." "God has set him forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of the sins." Now Christ has taken away "the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." He has "blotted out the handwriting that was against us, taking it out of the way, nailing it to his cross." "There is therefore no condemnation now to those who" believe "in Christ Jesus."