Rebels with no cause

Verses one through three -- the nations have rebelled against God:

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.” 

On one level, this psalm applies to King David himself.  The "plots" or schemes mentioned against the Lord and His anointed are from a time in David's reign when some of his "vassal" nations were trying to rebel. We can see an example of this in II Samuel 10, when the Ammonites and Syrians rebelled. I won't post the whole chapter there, but to make a long story short, the ruler of the Ammonites humiliated David's envoys who were simply trying to convey sympathy for the death of the previous king, his dad. The Syrians came to help the Ammonites fight David, but they soon regretted that move! They should have  known better, no? David was God's anointed king for Israel, and God had made promises to him.  So, on the one level, this psalm is about those rebel kings and their attempts to shake loose from David's rule.

But, (and you knew this was coming, right?) on another level, the psalm goes far beyond the earthly trials of King David. The ultimate fulfillment of this psalm is in God's Anointed Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. David was writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and he wrote no only about himself, but in a deeper way about Jesus. Just as the Ammonite and Syrian kings rebelled against King David, so all men have rebelled against King Jesus.

Wondering who started all this? 

“How you have fallen from heaven,
O star of the morning, son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the earth,
You who have weakened the nations!
13 “But you said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God,
And I will sit on the mount of assembly
In the recesses of the north.
14 ‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’ (Isaiah 14:12-14, NASB)

Yup, that ole bad guy, Satan, is the author of the rebellion. He rebelled against God while he was in heaven, and when he fell, he led a portion of the angels with him. Under Satan's authority, these demons now continue to wage war against God and the righteous angels. The world is the battleground for this conflict to take place. Mankind was created in the image of God and placed on this earth to reflect God's image, and to rule over his creation. 

Ahhh, but we all know that something went wrong . . . .

When Adam and Eve fell prey to Satan's temptation, they then disobeyed God, and the human race fell into sin and came under the judgement of holy God. So many difficulties . . . . wouldn't you think that they would be reminded every day of their folly? Tears and pain, briers and brambles (oh, don't get me started on that part of the curse of sin! Lately, we've been trying to reclaim some land and we have fought every inch of the way against thorns and briers!!), toiling and sweating all because they wanted to eat that apple! (Yes, I know there's more to the story. But we digress.)

All people after that time have followed Satan in his rebellion against God.  

After the fall, and in a few years' time, the rebellion took on an organized form. Remember the tower of Babel? Proud men and women came together and proposed to build a tower into heaven to make a name for themselves. 

They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”  (Genesis 11:4, NASB)

The Lord "confused" their languages, or in other words, gave people groups differing languages. This was the beginning of the different nations. The pridefulness of those people at Babel, who wanted to be famous, to make a name for themselves, was diluted like sugar in a glass of warm tea. They were divided among the various nations of the earth. But Satan still works through the pride and ambition of world rulers today; they weaken their own nations and others through conflict. In this way, Satan continues to get them off-track, so that they do not submit to God. The scholars tell us that biblical prophecies show in the end times the nations will come together again under a single world ruler - in defiance of the Lord and His Anointed. Satan will be the main force behind this world ruler, and he shall be known as the antichrist.

Even in His curse upon the serpent, God pointed to the way of redemption that He had planned for fallen mankind:

And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.” (Genesis 3:15)

Believers understand that Messiah, Jesus, would be born of a woman and would be bruised on the heel by Satan in death -- He would be the sin-bearer and redeemer of the fallen race, but He would bruise Satan upon the head in His triumphant victory over sin and death! He would be resurrected from the grave! So, by bringing people from every nation under the lordship of God's Anointed (Jesus), the rebellion of Satan is thwarted.

In His eternal decree, His proclamation, the Father tells the Son:

‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance,
And the very ends of the earth as Your possession. (Psalm 2:8)

Rebellion will be quelled in the future, either by willing submission to the Gospel now, or through forced subjection under the rod of the Messiah when He comes to rule the nations. 

So, where is God while all this rebellion is going on? 

Where is He while all this chest-beating and shouting is going on?

Is He sleeping?

Or has He lost control?
No, and no.

We'll see the answers tomorrow from the psalmist. 

Be sure to join me? (Wink) I just love a cliff-hanger, especially when I KNOW there's a happy ending!