Plotting in Vain

Psalm 2:1-2

Sometimes in life, you find yourself working for someone you really don’t get on with. I know that I have had that experience! Perhaps your boss is particularly overbearing or demanding. Maybe you have no respect for the decisions that you boss takes. Maybe you just think your boss is a bit of an idiot and think that you could do better. Unfortunately, there is little that you can do in this situation; unless you organise a coup (which is not something that I would recommend!) you just have to put up with the boss in question, hope he leaves soon, or else move on yourself. Any other action would just be in vain.

In today’s verse, that it exactly the situation that the Psalmist is describing. Instead of a disagreeable boss, however, the figure in authority is none other than God himself. The Psalmist comments that nations and peoples plot to overthrow God, but ultimately they will not have any success. Kings and rulers might try to rid themselves of God’s oversight and plot against the Anointed One, but ultimately their efforts will be in vain. God is omnipresent and all powerful, and trying to eradicate him simply won’t work. In the days of the Psalmist, the authorities took up against the anointed King, but in New Testament times the Anointed One represents Jesus. This passage is quoted in Acts 4 because the apostles believed they found themselves in similar circumstances.

Authorities still think that they know best, and governments increasingly ignore or ride roughshod over the Christian tradition. Ultimately, though, we know that there is nothing that they can do to escape God’s Kingship. We too can try to flee from God. Today, remember that there is nothing you can do and nowhere you can hide to escape God. Thank him that he is all-seeing and all-knowing, yet kind, loving and compassionate. And don’t even think about trying to hide!