Psalm 2:1
everyone's fine as long as there's a plan
Why have the Gentiles raged, and the people devised vain things? (Psalm 2:1 DR)
While all the Psalms have a prophetic import, this one is unambiguously so, being specifically quoted in the New Testament as a direct prophecy. After the healing of the man in the temple the apostles are brought before the high priest to explain themselves. St. Peter boldly preaches that the healing was effected in the name of Jesus Christ, and goes on to make a point that the very men questioning them were the self-same who had Jesus put to death.
Naturally this does not go over well, but they are in bind since the miraculous healing is by this point incontrovertible (cf. Acts 4:14, 22). Because of this they do the equivalent of handing St. Peter and St. John a sternly worded letter, warning them to stop preaching. The apostles return to the church and praise God in the words of this Psalm, noting that the machinations against Jesus and against His church are a direct fulfillment of this Psalm:
Lord, thou art he that didst make heaven and earth, the sea, and all things that are in them. Who, by the Holy Ghost, by the mouth of our father David, thy servant, hast said: “Why did the Gentiles rage, and the people meditate vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the princes assembled together against the Lord and his Christ.” For of a truth there assembled together in this city against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, to do what thy hand and thy counsel decreed to be done. (Acts 4:24-28 DR)
The import of both the Psalm and its fulfillment is found in the opening simple question: “why?” The Psalmist prophetically glimpses the coming Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ, and recognizes in Him the Lord of all who created all things and orders all things according to His will.
In fact, this is the interpretation that the account in Acts gives in that the machinations of those who conspired to put our Lord to death—while they may seem to outward appearances to hinder God’s plan—are in fact the means by which it is fulfilled. Instead of cooperating with God’s grace and submitting themselves to His will, they hardened their hearts and were made unwitting vessels of God’s will. Their rage, as it were, is thus a futile effort, for all their plans and plots and conspiracies are unable to move even an inch outside of what God decrees or permits. Thus the Scripture in Acts characterizes their plots as them doing “what Thy hand and Thy counsel decreed to be done” (Acts 4:28 DR)
This is why the apostles could rejoice in the face of threats, for they perceived the prophetic fulfillment of this Psalm, understanding that what they were facing had been foreseen by God from all eternity. These brief prophetic glimpses past the veil are their source of confidence, for as our Lord had opened the Scriptures to them before His ascension (cf. Luke 24:45), they now read the Scriptures with new eyes and see our Lord within. The Psalmist’s words here are not locked in the amber of historical curiosity, but resound throughout the ages. As they recognize in our Lord the fulfillment of God’s plan from all eternity, they begin to find themselves (as it were) in that same plan as they submit to the will of God and follow in the path of our Lord.
The term “predestination” has the sense of trail-blazing; that is, our Lord creates the path towards the Beatific Vision, and is in truth that Way itself. The world around may rage in its rebellion against God, but the one who places his trust in the Lord will never be confounded, for he finds himself securely within the will of God which cannot be thwarted.
For this animation I wanted something kind of frenetic to capture the notion of blind irrational rage, so naturally I turned to a plugin called I Ate Mushrooms. I’ve used this before but wanted something even crazier, so I found a couple interesting seeds and blended them together, letting the machine learning do the rest.
Enjoy.
Why have the Gentiles raged, and the people devised vain things?
(Psalm 2:1 DR)
View a higher quality version of this gif here: