“…You will rule them with an iron scepter…”

When I was young my mother almost always took me with her when she went grocery shopping.  I remember as a little boy walking in amazement up and down the aisles of the store.  Every container and package was so neatly arranged on the shelves.  Everything was tidy and in order.  All the cereal boxes were together in one aisle.  All the canned vegetables were on another aisle…row after beautiful row of virtually everything you would want for food.  Beautiful!

Something else amazed me, too — the idea of what it would look like if I were to run through the store and knock everything off the shelves.  What a mess that would be!  Broken glass jars, stepped-on boxes, dented cans, ruined produce everywhere on the floor…  Of course, I never acted on such foolish thoughts, but they did come to me fairly often on those trips to the supermarket.

That picture of waste and destruction is what I think of when I read Psalm 2:9, especially the second half:  “you will dash them to pieces like pottery.”  Unbelievers who pick up a Bible and randomly flip it open and read such texts come away with a pretty negative — and incorrect — picture of God.  But the mental picture the language creates is graphic and troubling.  “That’s not the kind of God I want to believe in,” we can hear pagans say.  However, context is so incredibly important whenever anyone studies or reads Scripture, and that is no less true here.  Since this is a short psalm, let’s examine the full context to better understand the picture.

Verses 1-3 set the stage.  The nations are conspiring and plotting vain things that are “against the Lord and against his Anointed One [Christ]” (v. 2).   They describe their life on earth under God in terms of slavery:  “chains…and…fetters” (v. 3).  Clearly they don’t appreciate their ‘bondage’ for which they blame God.  They want out; they want their freedom to do as they please.  But what is God’s purpose for the nations?  Scripture tells us that God desires that “all the families of the nations” worship him (Ps. 22:27), that they know his salvation (Ps. 67:2), that they are his inheritance (Ps. 2:8, 82:8), and that they will see his glory (Isa. 66:18).  And that’s just for starters!  God has much more planned for them.

So what does God do when the nations don’t want any part of his wonderful, incredible plan?  What can he do?  First he laughs at them because of the absolute futility of their disobedience and rebellious thoughts (v. 4).  Then he scares them with his anger (v. 5).  Next, God tells them that in heaven itself he has “installed [his] King”… who is “[his] Son” (vs. 7-8).  It is Christ himself who will execute God’s justice on all those who want no part of his blessings.  It is their choice whom they serve — either the God who made and loves them, or themselves and their own petty, individual, perverted desires.

It is in that context that God says he “rule[s] them with an iron scepter.”  Obviously the iron is meant to show strength and power.  Scripture speaks of iron yokes, iron bars, iron chariots, iron walls, even iron feet!  So when he “dashe[s] them to pieces like pottery,” he is merely giving them exactly what they chose, and exactly what they deserve.  His only delight in this is that he fulfills his righteousness and keeps his word.  He permits neither his sovereign will to be compromised nor his justice to go unsatisfied.  After all, when we are violated, we want justice, and the sooner the better.  Ditto with God, only more intensely.

However, the psalm ends with a bit of a surprise.  If God were only just, if he were an angry deity ready to pounce on all human disobedience, on what basis can he say (vs. 10, 12), “[B]e wise…be warned …Kiss the Son…”?  On the basis that Christ has already tasted God’s wrath for us (Isa. 53:4-5, 10-11; 1 Thes. 1:10b).  Jesus “taste[d] death for everyone” (Heb. 2:9) so that we would not taste the iron scepter.

If you are not Jewish, you are a member of one of those nations mentioned above with a glorious future.  Does your life fit into God’s plan for the nations?  Have you thanked Jesus for previously tasting the iron scepter for you?