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?
What the Bonds and Cords Are
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.
The Root Beneath All Human Conflict
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.
Why Men Want God Out of Sight
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.
The Same Cry in Modern Dress
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.
Where the Movement Ends
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.
Restraint as Mercy
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.
God's Answer
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!"
Summary
- 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.