Psalm 2:10
why we are doomed
And now, O ye kings, understand: receive instruction, you that judge the earth. (Psalm 2:10 DR)
St. James provides the caution that anyone who seeks to be a teacher should beware that they will be under stricter judgment:
Be ye not many masters, my brethren, knowing that you receive the greater judgment. (James 3:1 DR)
This is not to say that one should shrink back from doing so if one has been called to it, but rather should do so with sober-mindedness and without ambition. After all, we generally hold teachers in esteem and defer to their expertise. Because of this such authority comes with great responsibility, especially the more important the instruction is. A good teacher can elevate the minds of his students and form them in virtue, whereas a bad teacher can deceive and lead others astray.
Teaching is not an exclusively academic-oriented task; it is accomplished by any one in a position of authority, for the examples they set and the things they say carry weight and influence those under their authority. In the modern west we like to think we can make neat and tide demarcations between the secular and the sacred, between the spiritual and the political, as if they can be hermetically sealed off from one another. We soothe our consciences with bumper-sticker slogans such as “you can’t legislate morality” and “I’m not voting for a pastor” which are, to be fair, true as far as they go. But they belie a misunderstanding of authority and polity in that the legislation a nation enacts and the examples its leaders set are a means of teaching, and as moderns are primarily legal positivists, most people learn more morality from what the law is than from what God’s Word says or the Church teaches.
And while legal positivism is an error, it stems from a truth that there is a deep integration between the good, the true and the beautiful and the laws a nation develops for itself. For the latter will—to some extent—reflect the way in which it as a culture approaches morality, with the chicken-and-egg like reality that it also influences morality by means of instruction.
This is why the Psalmist shifts to addressing the self-same rulers who set themselves against the Lord and against His Christ. As those who ultimately receive their authority from God (cf. Romans 13:1-5), they have the responsibility to govern justly, reflecting in their judgments and legislation the will of God. And since this authority is very great, the judgment for misusing it will be equally great, as St. James warns. This fear of God should thus temper the ambitions of those who seek authority, recognizing the temptations which abound and the stern judgment which will follow. And since they receive their authority from God, we should also expect of those in authority that they govern uprightly. The decadence spiral of “well, he’s not as bad as the other guy” is perhaps a fitting epitaph for nations which have abandoned God and sought their own comfort and pleasures.
This was a pretty simple animation. I found this nice image of a guy staring up into the sky and cut it out in Photoshop. I then brought it into After Effects and used Trapcode Particular to animate the falling particles. I guess it kind of a has a loose sort of Matrix vibe, which I’m ok with.
Enjoy.
And now, O ye kings, understand: receive instruction, you that judge the earth.
(Psalm 2:10 DR)
View a higher quality version of this gif here: