Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their cords from us!
Psalm 2 opens with the nations in uproar. Verse 3 gives the words of the revolt — spoken not by one tyrant but by the whole human race. So what are these "bonds" and "cords"? Who put them there? And what happens to those who throw them off?
These are not chains put on by an enemy. The "their" of the verse points back to the Lord and His Anointed — this is God's own hold on people.
In Psalm 2 the kings and the rulers of the earth take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed. They say, "Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us" — that is, the bonds and cords in which God held and restrained them.
Men do not feel this restraint as an outward force. They feel it inside, in the conscience — and they resent it.
Men do not see God at work restraining evil, yet they feel it in their consciences. Many resent this. They try hard to silence conscience and to shut out every reference to God's word, which they call an intrusion into their private rights! They consider this an effort to bind them by cords when they want to be free to do as they please.
Nations quarrel over a thousand shifting issues. Verse 3 goes underneath all of them to name one cause.
The inspired Psalmist probes beneath the surface. He sees that the real root of it all is the inborn lawlessness of fallen man — the desire to be rid of the restraint which the Lord and His Anointed might impose on them. This lawlessness is the very essence of sin.
The motive is not intellectual. It is practical — men want room for what they already know will not stand inspection.
The psalm shows the nations in an uproar against God and against Christ, trying in vain to throw off divine authority and restraint. They say, "Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us." Men want to banish every public recognition of God so they can pursue desires that, as conscience tells them, will not bear the light of God. In Acts 4:26-27 the Spirit of God applies this Scripture to the rejection of Christ by "the Gentiles, and the people of Israel." Men formed this alliance against God and Christ at the cross, and it is still the principle that governs the world.
Few people today say these words out loud. But the same attitude shows up in how people handle the Bible.
God holds and exercises the consciences of men by His Word. But suppose men refuse to accept the Word as the Word, and claim the right to keep or reject whatever parts suit their moods and whims. What hold has God upon them then? They have in this cast away His cords from them and burst His bonds apart, and they imagine that they are free.
The Psalm looks forward as well as back. Commentators expect the loose drift of today to harden into one deliberate act.
There is to be one last great rising against Jehovah and against His Christ. Its aim is to rid mankind once for all of those bonds and cords. Men feel them to be leftovers from a less enlightened, less scientific age, and so an unbearable check on human progress and glory. A day is coming when almost the whole world will treat the Christian religion as a leftover from a darker age, no longer to be tolerated.
The verse treats God's limits as an insult. Read the other way round, those limits are the reason the world still stands.
God Himself places restrictions upon men, and when God acts in this way men begin to say, "Let us burst Their bonds apart, and cast away Their cords from us." Yet how thankful we should be for the restraining hand of God! In creation and in the moral realm we owe much to the limits God sets in His power and His wisdom.
Heaven shows no alarm. The next verse answers the revolt.
This is how He will fight all man's enmity against Himself and against His Anointed. What divine irony! "Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us!" God answers: "He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision!"
- Cords — the bonds are God's own restraint on men, felt in the conscience, not chains from an enemy.
- Root — that wish to be rid of restraint is the deepest cause of human unrest, and it is the essence of sin.
- Motive — men push God out of public life to chase desires that cannot bear His light.
- Reach — that alliance took shape at the cross, still rules how men handle the Bible, and will end in one final rising.
- Result — the restraint men resent is the mercy that holds the world together, and God answers their revolt with laughter.
He that dwelleth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision.
In Psalm 2 God answers the world's revolt with a sound, not an army. It is laughter from a throne that nothing on earth can shake. The verse raises sharp questions. How can God laugh at rebellion? Who is the One sitting there? And why does the laughter not turn at once into judgment?
The psalm has just shown the nations in uproar and the kings taking counsel. Verse 4 turns from the noise below to the quiet above.
From a world in revolt we pass to the calm of heaven to learn God's thoughts of man's vain efforts. The great men of the earth — its political leaders, its scientists, its philosophers — may join together to throw off all recognition of God. But their efforts do not move Him. The Christ of God "sits in the heavens," and holds man's revolt in derision. Men rage on earth; God laughs in heaven. Human ideas here show us heaven's contempt for man's folly.
Laughter is a response to something absurd. The absurdity is the gap between what the rebels announce and what they can do.
Well might the God of heaven and earth laugh at their stupidity! For they are like little children who gather against their national government and tell the authorities, "We are cancelling every law you have ever passed. We will refuse to obey anything you say." Of course, this would only be laughable. They have no power to carry out their schemes. But it is amazing how long God bears with this evil before judging it outright.
The word behind "the Lord" in this verse is Adonai — a title of lordship, and one commentators connect with Christ exalted as man. Some therefore read the derision of this verse as His.
"He that sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision." That is, Christ Himself shall have them in derision.
That seat explains why the psalm's threat has not yet fallen. The One whom men rejected on earth is waiting, not absent.
Heaven is silent till the appointed time comes. Here we have the exalted position of the rejected Christ, as in Psalm 110. He sits in the heavens. His place is at the right hand of God. He shares the Father's throne. In infinite patience He is waiting, silent about all that wicked men do in dishonouring His Name. But when the final rebellion takes place on earth, then He will laugh at them and hold them in derision.
Commentators differ on when the laughter comes. Some read it as heaven's present answer to man's folly. Others place it at the final rebellion.
God laughing is rare in Scripture, and it is never light-hearted. It points forward to a reversal that will be public.
The Bible rarely pictures God laughing. Three times in the Psalms they do so, and once in Proverbs, and in each case the same thing is in view. If men refuse His mercy, mistreat His people, and defy Him and His Anointed, mocking His authority and His Word, God will judge them in due season. He will not only judge them. He will bring them down in a way that makes them look utterly ridiculous — an object of scorn to every created being. The "laugh" will be on God's side in that day.
Between the laughter and the wrath, God is doing something the rebels never expected.
Futile and wicked effort! The murderous violence of man only fastens tighter the bands and cords he would tear apart. … But this is far from all in the second Psalm. Then He will speak to them in His wrath and terrify them in His fury. This, however, is not yet. God is not now sending judgments to punish their evil and crush their pride. Instead His grace is sending out the gospel — repentance and forgiveness of sins preached in the name of Jesus to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
If God is unshaken, the believer watching a hostile world can be unshaken too.
Eternal confusion will mark all the opposition of men and devils. This gives sweet rest to the heart, in a scene where everything seems so contrary to God and so contrary to faith. We look at the circumstances and influences around us in the world. Our spirits would often sink, if we did not have the settled assurance that "the wrath of man shall praise" the Lord.
- Seated — the nations rage below, but God does not stand up to defend Himself. He sits, and heaven stays calm. That calm shows how little the revolt threatens Him.
- Seated and laughing — the laughter is not cruelty. Rebels cancel God's authority with their words, but they have no power to do it.
- Seated as Christ — commentators name the One on the throne: the rejected Christ, now at God's right hand. He waits in patience for the appointed time.
- Seated while grace runs — the wrath has not come yet. In the meantime God is sending the gospel of forgiveness to all nations.
- Seated until He speaks — the silence will break. He will speak in wrath, and the mockers will become the mocked.