Psalm two is not a happy song. The Book opens with the satisfaction of the life that avoids impishness, take pleasure in the Law. These features are not incidental – the satisfied or happy is a person who never walks in ungodly council, never takes a stands like a committed sinner, never treats people with scorn. Psalm 1 also paints the ideal person as a fruitful tree who God knows – knows all about. It ends with the threat that the unsatisfied person, that rotten scorner, perishes. Psalm 2 can be expected to be (i) more of the same, which it is not, or (ii) the other extreme, a description of the features of dissatisfaction, or (iii) a combination of the two. He does something else. He shines the spot not on the undividual but the community. He wants to sing about the two together and what they cannot do without with some precision. They cannot put distance between themselves and those in charge, and this has been Israel’s problem from day one. No-one can put distance between oneself and God’s Son-King and not perish.

Lost in translation is the clarity about nations, kingdoms, rulers and the so-called “heathen”. The heathen are the nations – a nation is a goy in Hebrew, and the KJV translation of the plural (goyim) with the word heathen has resulted in the concept that Israel alone is a nation that has God’s approval (and a special one at that) while all the (other) nations are cursed. Christians even use the term heathen to define lost humanity or unchurched people.

The “nations” (goim) is somewhat imprecise and is not synonymous with the PEOPLE(S) if we recall that there were two kingdoms in later Palestine. The jurisdictions or communities in ancient Canaan were understood to be nations – goyim. Israel was destined to be known as a great goy (Deu. 4:6, 7, 8), different from all the others. Yahweh also disperses Israel among the nations (goyim) where she serves idols – the very opposite of what the covenant aimed for. God called Israel to be a holy nation – a goy qadosh, (Exo. 19:6)

The use of heathen has become a smokescreen, a derogatory term, conveniently used to cover up the fact that the nations are goyim, and Israel is a goy, a nation that split into two kingdoms (mamlakah), a term related to the leadership of a king (melek). Nation and kingdoms can be synonymous.

Now therefore let not Hezekiah deceive you, nor persuade you on this manner, neither yet believe him: for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of mine hand, and out of the hand of my fathers: how much less shall your God deliver you out of mine hand?

2 Chr. 32:15

So Psalm 2 turns the spotlight from the individual to the community and leadershp to say you are ridiculous and going nowhere without God’s son. The king, the holy one, set on the hill, like the city cannot be hidden. The message of the second Psalm played out in more than the behaviour of kings and rulers in the 3½ years of Yeshua’s life. The (i) rage is not just behaviour or and event, neither are (ii) the consultation (conspiracy to do murder), (iii) the setting up of the king in Zion, (iv) God’s speaking to us or (v) the begetting of the Son. The first 3 are the facts of life, and the last 2 are eternal – they reside in the glory. The resurrection of the Holy One rings loudly.

Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Ps. 2:10
​Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Ps. 2:11
​Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. Ps. 2:12

The Hebrew word dabar has the same consonants as deber. The first means word; the second means pestilence. I think we can agree that some confusion can arise,

YHWH GAVE a pestilence … 70 thousand persons DIED

Adonai SENT a word … it FELL

While the first – send a pestilence – is obviously an event the second is not.

Sending a message and its falling (or connecting) constitute the way things are.

This is an excellent display of the difference between the two Hebrew tenses: the perfect (condition) and the imperfect (event). There are hundreds of sayings where this essential difference is ignored in translating, teaching and preaching.  The coincidence of D*B*R being opposites, pestilence killing people and word giving life (helping people) brings to light the double edged character of God’s business (dabar, word דבר)

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Hebrews 4:12

How positive can the death of thousands be anywhere? I do not know. The pandemic is “under control” because the homicidal networks see a financial windfall. At least the PRC is doing brisk business. Potus 45 is all profiteer, no prophet. Surrounded by the best minds he walls himself off with delirious ramblings about good jobs and great response to a deadly plague. “Fine” after this will not be business as usual. The reality tv of politics dies in dramatic fashion. The soundbytes and meaningless gestures of the 1% are on fire. Riots and rallies by bigots and religious idiots will be the “order” of the day.

Watch out for a repeat in Europe and North America of the 11th hour lifesaving deal Israel trashed.

“Therefore thus says the Lord, ‘You have not obeyed Me in proclaiming release each man to his brother and each man to his neighbor. Behold, I am proclaiming a release to you,’ declares the Lord, ‘to the sword, to the pestilence and to the famine; and I will make you a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

Jeremiah 34:17

The last thing the world needs now is a host of people who for the first time are seeing the unseen and think they can convince the public that they have discovered sliced bread. The roadmap to the end of this age could not be clearer. The thing to avoid cannot be overstated. The thing to cling to is not subject to change. So it is back to what Yeshua said and did, and particularly, his finished work for the human race.

• Deception darkens every day
• Redemption’s price was paid in full
• Redemption also addresses the transformation of mortal bodies

Security in the last days rests in the glorious gospel that was once-for-all delivered by Yeshua first, then by chosen witnesses.

How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;

Hebrews 2:3

Register me as clinging to the righteousness of faith, the joy of salvation, and the hope of resurrection. Gee whiz technology, decaying empires, and military parades are the stuff that prostitution of the worst type is made. If you can’t bring yourself to say what Yeshua says about the great dropout United (hah) Kingdom and the revived rapist United (whoa!) States let me.

Timber! Timber!