Dancing On An Empty Grave

Why do the nations rage

and the peoples plot in vain?

2  The kings of the earth set themselves,

and the rulers take counsel together,

against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,

3  “Let us burst their bonds apart

and cast away their cords from us.”

 

4  He who sits in the heavens laughs;

the Lord holds them in derision.

5  Then he will speak to them in his wrath,

and terrify them in his fury, saying,

6  “As for me, I have set my King

on Zion, my holy hill.”

 

7  I will tell of the decree:

The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;

today I have begotten you.

8  Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,

and the ends of the earth your possession.

9  You shall break them with a rod of iron

and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

 

10  Now therefore, O kings, be wise;

be warned, O rulers of the earth.

11  Serve the Lord with fear,

and rejoice with trembling.

12  Kiss the Son,

lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,

for his lwrath is quickly kindled.

Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

 -Psalm 2

 

Commentary on verse one: “in vain” by C.H. Spurgeon

Verse 1. “A vain thing.” A medal was struck by Diocletian, which still remains, bearing the inscription, “The name of Christians being extinguished.” And in Spain, two monumental pillars were raised, on which were written:—I. “Diocletian Jovian Maximian Herculeus Caesares Augusti, for having extended the Roman Empire in the east and the west, and for having extinguished the name of Christians, who brought the Republic to ruin.” II. “Diocletian Jovian Maximian Herculeus Caesares Augusti, for having adopted Galerius in the east, for having everywhere abolished the superstition of Christ, for having extended the worship of the gods.” As a modern writer has elegantly observed: “We have here a monument raised by Paganism, over the grave of its vanquished foe. But in this ‘the people imagined a vain thing;’ so far from being deceased, Christianity was on the eve of its final and permanent triumph, and the stone guarded a sepulchre empty as the urn which Electra washed with her tears. Neither in Spain, nor elsewhere, can be pointed out the burial place of Christianity; it is not, for the living have no tomb.'”

 

–This sounds as familiar as today’s media stories and headlines. Mankind’s futile raging against the Lord throughout history is as repetitious as the babblings of a man gone insane. And quite as mindless, also.