What Does Psalm 2:3 Mean?
Psalm 2:33 “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”
Psalm 2:1-3 describes the rebellion of the nations against God. Here, David records what they are saying to one another. We want freedom from and His Christ!
Are World Rulers Literally Saying This?
This is what the rulers are, in effect, saying. They might not say it outright, but this is their purpose in so much of what they do. “Let us break their chains, throw out their cords! Let’s fight for freedom from God and His Christ!”
This is happening because rulers hate God. Jesus says…
John 15:18–1918 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Truth be told, the world hates God and His Messiah.
John 7:77 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil.
The world and its rulers want to remain evil and declare their own autonomy.
The voice of the nations is a voice of rage against God.
Let’s Think About This – Psalm 2:3 Commentary
Ok, so what I want to know is how does this play out on world stage?
The laws that are passed are examples of the nations raging against God’s rule.
- Killing children
- Killing elderly
- Killing … period!
This verse also finds expression in people’s choices.
- Sexual freedom (“I, not God, choose with whom I have sex.”)
- Moral freedom (“I, not God, choose what is right and wrong.”)
- Spiritual freedom (“I, not God, choose what my god is going to be.”)
Because of this, the world is in utter chaos! Families, marriages, schools, and of course governments all suffer because of the choice to rebel against God even though they know what God has told them.
Romans 1:18-32 tells us what people know already.
- Romans 1:18 says that people know God’s wrath (it is revealed from heaven).
- They know God (1:19-20). God showed them knowledge of himself through creation.
- “the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead”
- That’s why I do not believe in atheists!
- 1:32, they know the judgment of God
- “Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death”
- But what goes on in the human heart? Why reject this knowledge? Sin
- They “hold [suppress] the truth in unrighteousness.”
- People reject God’s truth by holding it down, suppressing it with their unrighteousness.
And this comes out governmental actions: delaying justice, condemning the innocent, removing justice for the elderly.
The rebellion of the world will never improve, but if we understand that we’re watching, as on a big screen, the work of God in the history of the world and how He’s in control of the nations who themselves are in the process of forming one world government, economy, religion… if we realize this, this gives us an exciting confidence in the Scripture as we wait for His Son from heaven.
So, in Psalm 2:1-3, the nations are saying, “Let’s rebel against the LORD!” How does the Father respond? Find out in our commentary on Psalm 2:4.
Go Back to Psalm 2 from Psalm 2:3 Commentary