I was searching for something profound to say as 2024 draws to a close, and maybe I can’t do better than our reading plan! We saw yesterday that Psalm 1 teaches us how to meditate on scripture.

Does Psalm 2 have anything to say about a world where it seems that most leaders of countries, including the US, don’t care about what the God of the Universe might want? It begins:

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.” (Psalm 2.1 – 3, ESV)

God’s reaction is instructive:

He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. (Psalm 2.4, ESV)

God laughs because we have a King, which we remember during this season:

“As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” (Psalm 2.6 – 9, ESV)

A song we sing only at Christmas, but which ought to be sung year around, I think, captures what we should remember in the new year:

He rules the world with truth and grace
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness
And wonders of His love
And wonders of His love
And wonders, wonders of His love. – from Joy to the World, Isaac Watts, 1719

And Psalm 2 ends with a promise:

…Blessed are all who take refuge in him. (Psalm 2.12, ESV)