Wednesday 4th November

Psalm 2   

1 Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the LORD and against his anointed, saying, 3 ‘Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.’

This psalm is one of those that has a double focus relating to contemporary events yet having spiritual significance for every age. When people rebel against the Lord’s anointed be it David or one of his successors or Jesus the Messiah (which means anointed one) or persecute his people today it is God himself who is being rejected. That’s what we find in Acts 9. When Saul is confronted by the risen Lord Jesus although he was persecuting Christians Jesus asked him “Why do you persecute me?” 
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By and large the world order is hostile to God and we see that even in our own day. According to the psalm such plotting is pointless and rebellion is the road to ruin. Yet, however bleak things appear on the surface if we think God’s cause has suffered and his work has been hampered it’s a little detached for the spiritual reality. Like the author of the psalm Jesus left no room for doubt when he announced “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18). People get the idea, wrongly, that the image there is of a besieged church desperately holding off the advance of the devil. The opposite is in fact the case, and the picture is of the Kingdom of God pressing in against the kingdom of evil and it is not able to withstand the advance. Christ is building his church across the world, pray that he would do so again in the west