God Laughs at the Nations' Rage

 “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?” – Psalm 2:1

This Psalm views all the rulers of all the nations on earth with both rage and a strange unity in their rage. They rage because they hate God and His Messiah, or Anointed One. Humanity rages and wages war on one another, uniting in a singular cause in their passionate opposition of God. The raging nations of war devotedly seeks to break the cords from God and rule themselves. Ever since human intelligence crafted tools to make their work easier, the depraved mind of humanity sought clever ways to use it in a rage against another human being. What are nations but such a collection of such human beings, and what are rulers but ordinary sinners with a collection of tools to be used in a rage?

Such rage and such warfare is met with a riveting response by the Almighty: God laughs (verse 4).  What a laughable thing for creatures to gather in revolt to our Creator! It is utterly insane to attempt to match human rage with divine wrath, earthly war with the might of the Lord of heavenly hosts.

This Psalm promises that God’s chosen Messiah will be King on His holy hill ruling the nations. All must kiss the Son of God to have God’s wrath turned away, for “blessed are all who take refuge in [the Son]” (verse 12). The Psalmists warns kings and rulers of earth to “serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling” (verse 11).

Christian, today’s headlines are frightening. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine again meets east and west as the nations continue to rage. A people who simply desired to live in freedom from communism now must defend their land from superior firepower. To laugh at Putin’s rage seems wildly inappropriate. Yet, our heavenly Father laughs. Psalm 2 is not making light of momentary but intense afflictions. On the contrary, God’s laughter leads to the Son of God being a man of sorrows acquainted with grief and carrying our burdens. This is how the wrath of God turns away from sinful humanity: having love for the Son of God who is our rightful King, and serving Him with fear and trembling.

My personal reading lately has been I Peter. “In this you rejoice,” wrote Peter, “though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials” (I Peter 1:6). In what do we rejoice? There is a coming Kingdom that does not rage, a coming King who is our everlasting Prince of Peace. “Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory” (I Peter1:8). Our inexpressible joy is looking forward, even when the pain is intense now.

The nations who rage now have a coming Deliverer, Christian. He is coming with the clouds to cease all war on earth (Psalm 46:9). Beloved child of the Lord most high, do not fear the raging nations with trembling. Have a trembling fear of God who laughs at the raging nations. A healthy fear of God dismisses all earthly fears including war. Pray God to come and vanquish His enemies, which He will fully and finally do in the coming of Jesus. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess He is Lord.

Heavenly Father, we confess to be frightened by the raging nations. With great pain do we cry out to You. Our hearts break for Your people both in Ukraine and in Russia. Bless them and bless us with Peter’s extraordinary vision of Your coming imperishable, undefiled, and unfading Kingdom and comfort us in this truth. Provide our hearts with Your peace and joy, o Refuge of our souls, as we wait for it with patience. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

New Year's Nearness to God

“For me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge that I may tell of all Your works.” –Psalm 73:28

The New Year is a time we think about new habits, new ideas, and new ways of improving our lives in the coming year. The great magnitude of blog posts on Bible reading plans alone reflect the craving for deeper spiritual habits. As your pastor, I strongly encourage you to find a good Bible reading plan and stick to it. Find a good rhythm for prayer time and, of course, regular Sunday attendance to be spiritually nourished by God’s ordinary means of grace.

What will make your spiritual habits more enduring and deeply satisfying is nearness to God. Notice the Psalmist is confident in this: it is good to be near God. Good! Literally, it is good to draw near to God. Good means pleasant or enjoyable. And near does not mean God is not present everywhere. Nearness is a trusting intimacy with God. By trusting, I mean by faith in Christ. In Christ, it is pleasant to intimately draw near to God.

To truly appreciate our approach to God in faith in Christ, we need to answer: who is God whom we desire to approach? He is a perfectly holy God and so fearful that even seraphim cover their faces and feet (Isaiah 6:2-3). Moses approached God and trembled with fear (Hebrews 12:21). God commands us to worship Him with fear and rejoice with trembling (Psalm 2:11). The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him (Psalm 147:11). God reveals to us that He is holy, a perfect judge with holy wrath, and He is scary beyond our overwhelmed senses of fear.

We cannot approach our holy God with any blot, any sinfulness, any wrongdoing or we would be judged according to God’s eternally holy law. Therefore, we as sinners are tempted to simply know a lot about God without truly knowing Him. We are tempted to study God without fearfully drawing near through Christ. Again, the Psalmist teaches us, it is good to draw near to God.

Does your study of God and spiritual habits draw your heart to greater affection for God? If not, all of your study of God will be a knowledge that puffs up rather than humbles you to love (I Corinthians 1:8). All of your spiritual habits such as prayer, Bible reading, and even church attendance will be reduced to a cold duty rather than a delightful treasure. You will find yourself sacrificing spiritual habits for worldly things rather than making time and sacrificing worldly things for deeply enjoyable spiritual habits drawing near to the Lord.

Beloved, look to the spiritual habits of drawing near to God as enjoyable, pleasant, good. Why? Because God is good and merciful. In Christ, every blemish of sin is cleansed and in exchange you receive the perfect righteousness of God. This wondrous spiritual truth of being reconciled to God means you can draw near to God and enjoy Him. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you (James 4:8). Delight in God is the fuel which drives us to endure and be satisfied in our spiritual habits. Such intimacy with God will prevent you from falling out of healthy spiritual habits in this New Year.

Heavenly Father, draw us nearer to You and fill our hearts with a high affection for You. Teach us to forsake worldly things in favor of habits of grace to draw near to You, treasuring our God with such delight in our time with You. Bless us by Your needed mercies. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Peace on Earth

“There is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked.” –Isaiah 48:22

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s brilliant poem “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” encapsulates the heartbreaking gravity of a peaceless world of human enmity when he says, “And in despair I bowed my head, "There is no peace on Earth," I said. For hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men.” Longfellow’s wife Frances had passed away the previous year, and he penned this poem in the height of the American Civil War just months after his oldest son Charles was seriously wounded at the Battle of Mine Run. Hearing the cheery bells and carols while surrounded by such human carnage and rage seemed to Longfellow a mockery.

Longfellow’s suffering gives me pause before God who says, “There is no peace for the wicked.” All human experience this side of Genesis 3 is a hopelessly peaceless existence of pain, death, and enmity, enough to cause great despair which cannot be overcome. A restlessness accompanies the human heart in slavery to sin and death. Despair, in the most profoundly ugly way, mingles with the human drive for earthly pleasure and any sense of happiness. The wicked crave and pursue such peace, but the Lord promises, “there is no peace for the wicked.”

Jeremiah’s prophecy makes mention of shepherds claiming “peace, peace,” where there is no peace (Jeremiah 6:14). Humanity pursues a false peace, seeking and searching then giving a listening ear to false shepherds offering any sense of the peace and joy we so deeply crave as if such peace and goodwill can be found in the things God hates. Yet, generation after generation of humanity caves to despair of such mocking cheerfulness in this place of sin and death like wave after wave crashing into a rocky shore.

Yet, Longfellow followed up his despair with the final stanza:

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

The Wrong shall fail,

The Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men."

Such gracious redeeming of such worthless people in such a dark world is a wonder of wonders that our God would be so loving. Isaiah, upon being confronted by the mighty and fearful God, did not claim himself above the wicked people and wicked world around him; rather, he said, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (Isaiah 6:5). You are not above the despairing futility of a hopeless pursuit of peace. You and I are not foreigners to this fallen world. You and I need rescue.

Perhaps Longfellow’s hope of God’s right prevailing was invested in a Union victory. Perhaps we can look to our governing powers and judges for some minor victories of justice. From the carnage of war to street crimes to the modern Herodian slaughter of the innocents at Planned Parenthood, true and everlasting peace is despairingly out of reach. Dear reader, such peace from God on earth and His goodwill are only reserved for those “whom He is pleased” (Luke 2:14).

To be pleased by God requires God’s perfect righteousness. As we enter Advent, we look back to the manger with wonder that God would step His holy feet upon Adam’s cursed ground of thorns only to wear those thorns as a crown in such a violent display on the cross. Our wrong of sin and the embrace of death in our dark world is defeated by the resurrected and soon appearing of the rightful King.

There is plenty to bring despair in this world. Advent reminds us we are not to find peace and joy in the world or the world’s kingdoms. We long for the King’s return to right every wrong. Beloved, your faith means no condemnation. Take comfort, o downcast soul, in your promised eternal worship of God and rejoice. For the King has conquered sin and death to bring peace on earth in His kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. Dear Christian take heart, lift your head to God’s holy mountain of hope and rejoice.

Heavenly Father, our fallen world and abiding sin gives plenty of evidence to despair. Deliver us from evil, Lord. Guide us by Your Word to be a lamp unto our feet on this dark, dangerous, and narrow path. Speak, dear Good Shepherd, that Your sheep may hear and follow as we long for You to right every wrong. Bless Your church with Your mercies of peace and joy. In Jesus’ name. Amen.