Ps 2:1 ANGRY WITH GOD?

ANGRY WITH GOD?

“Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?” Ps 2:1

What a strange question. What are the heathen angry about and what vain thing are people thinking? The Psalmist tells us in the next verses; they are angry about the Lord Jesus. They resent the fact that God has put his Son in charge and they will do anything in their power to overthrow His rule. It angers them that Christ calls them sinners and urges them to repent of their immoral behavior, and of their disobedience to the will of God in thought, word, and deed. They will not tolerate Christ’s claim to be the only way to heaven. And therefore they imagine a vain thing—they put Christ out of their minds by making sin something to be forgotten and not to be repented of. In the place of repentance they substitute a positive self-image; they urge people to feel good about themselves and imagine all negative feelings will go away.

Does the Psalmist really want an answer to the question, “Why do the heathen rage?” More than likely he does not. It is rather a rhetorical statement: “Why, O why, are people angry with God?” We can ask ourselves the same question: Do we rage? Do we become angry because of the restrictions that God’s law places on our lives? The Apostle Paul tells us that that is precisely how our sinful nature will react. He says the law makes sin more sinful, with the result that we imagine a lot of vain things to justify the way we live. It is vain and foolish to imagine that God overlooks our sinful behavior because every one else behaves that way. It is vain and foolish to imagine that God overlooks the little things that are wrong, or that our sin will go away by itself.

There is only one answer to the Psalmist’s question: repentance. Not until the Holy Spirit leads us to confess that we are wrong and that God is right will our anger change to thankfulness. How could we be angry with a heavenly Father that loved us so much that He sacrificed His Son for our sins? It is appreciation for the mercy of God in forgiving our sins that changes our rage to love. With each repentant cry for forgiveness comes a growth in faith and a renewed desire to place His will above our own.