Psalm 2: God - The Wrathful Ruler

 "Why do the nations rage
        and the peoples plot in vain?
    The kings of the earth set themselves,
        and the rulers take counsel together,
        against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying,
    “Let us burst their bonds apart
        and cast away their cords from us.”
    He who sits in the heavens laughs;
        the Lord holds them in derision.
    Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
        and terrify them in his fury, saying,
    “As for me, I have set my King
        on Zion, my holy hill.”"
(Psalm 2:1-6 ESV)

The fiscal cliff, national debt; removing God from the pledge and off our money, taking prayer out of schools. Wars between nations, walls and fences at borders. Drug lords and dictators, terrorists, lobbyists, environmentalists. Left-wings, right-wings, conservatives, liberals, Republican, and Democrats. And all the while God is laughing...

What is so funny about all of this? It is the fact that we forget that God is in control. God made his creation, and he rules over it perfectly. While we plot in vain, God laughs because nothing that we do can thwart His plan. Nothing we do changes the fact that He is God, and He is in control. God laughs because we fear that, without our policy, our reform, our tax cuts, the world will stop spinning. We plot in vain to "fix" the world, all the while forgetting the one who created all that we are trying to fix.

And God is furious. He is furious that we would forget Him. He is furious that we would turn to our own plans and be so ignorant that we would think that His is not sufficient. He is furious that we would seek glory for ourselves, instead of glorifying the one who created us.

But God is also gracious, and He is waiting for us to turn back to Him.

   "Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
        be warned, O rulers of the earth.
    Serve the LORD with fear,
        and rejoice with trembling.
    Kiss the Son,
        lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
        for his wrath is quickly kindled.
    Blessed are all who take refuge in him."
(Psalm 2:10-12 ESV)

If we continue to oppose God and His plan, the He is storing up wrath for us. But if we would turn to Him; if we would recognize that He is in control of all things, and give glory to Him, and fear Him and not man; then He will bless us, and we will have nothing to fear. We need not fear rulers, or policies, or cliffs. We need only to fear the One who is in control of all things and serve Him. Because He is currently working His plan and will continue to do so, and nothing we can do can stop it.