Deacon Susan Erickson

Why do the heathen so furiously rage together
and why do the people imagine a vain thing?
The kings of the earth stand up, and the rulers take counsel together
against the Lord, and against his Anointed.
Let us break their bonds asunder
and cast away their cords from us.
He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh them to scorn
the Lord shall have them in derision.

Dear Siblings in Christ,

When I read these opening verses of Psalm 2, one of the psalms appointed for today, I thought of the title of a little book by L. William Countryman: “How Can Anyone Read the Bible?” Because I suddenly read the verses in quotation marks (“Let us burst their bonds asunder … “) in a very different way from what the Psalmist probably intended.

Commentators tell us that Psalm 2 was written “on occasion of the coronation of a king.” This king of Israel, God’s anointed one, will dominate all the other kings of the earth. So they are suffering under a delusion if they believe they can cast off the cords of heaven and God’s chosen earthly ruler. In other words, it is the “kings of the earth” who say, in essence, “Let’s free ourselves from God and God’s anointed king.”

The New Revised Standard Version translation tries to make this clearer by putting quotation marks around “Let us break their bonds asunder etc.”, and by inserting the word “saying” before those quoted words.

But sitting in my kitchen in the United States, in 2025, I read “their bonds” to refer not to God and God’s anointed earthly king, but rather to “the kings of the earth.” In other words, I read these verses as an exhortation to us to cast off the cords of earthly rulers who think they can plot against God, whom God “has … in derision.” You might say that I read Psalm 2 in a way more aligned with the King James version than the (historically more accurate) NRSV.

Because for me as a Christian reader the “anointed one” is no longer a king of Israel but my King Jesus, God’s “only begotten” one. (“He said to me, ‘You are my son;/today I have begotten you.’” (v. 7))

Tempted by Satan Jesus turned down the offer to make “the ends of the earth your possession.” (v. 8) Yet if rulers acknowledged that Jesus’ kingdom is “not of this world,” they would realize that they are called to “serve the LORD with fear … .” (v. 11)

Many of them manifestly do not, with tragic and enraging consequences. But as a follower of the Anointed and Resurrected One, I can remind myself that I am not bound by earthly rulers, by their plots or delusions. And it is God’s Word, ever fresh even for us modern readers, that helps me “burst their bonds asunder.”

Faithfully,

—Deacon Susan