Establishing the Kingdom

Embedded Dialogue

There is an idea of surrender in the speech of Psalm 2,  a dialogue in heaven before the earth began, embedded in the lyrical narrative. The real Ruler speaks, "I have established my king" (6). But who speaks  next and says, "I will tell of the decree?"  It is Messiah, the "LORD said unto me: Thou art My son, this day have I begotten thee" (7). Even if this reads right out of  Paradise Lost the begotten Word  signifies a formal installation of divine government in the son. Then the Lord allows: "Ask of Me, and I will give the nations for thine inheritance...the ends of the earth for possession" (8). The rebels want it for themselves, which is to say they have set up a rival, usurping, shadow government. "Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel" (9).  Those kings are admonished to be wise, to "serve the Lord with fear" and "do homage." Otherwise they may "perish." This is not a contract of partial blame.  "Suddenly his wrath is kindled" (12) suggests little warning except that the whole of Psalm 2 is a warning. Who listens to warnings? Give credit for one last effort. He says, "take refuge in Him."

What happens to those people who live in the belly of the beast  and think they are in the kingdom of God, who would fight for their country in patriotism, who cannot think it Babylon? The question is of scale, the timeline is a trend. For instance it took many years of jawboning "irrational exuberance" for the Fed spokesman...to bring down the tech bubble. The financial fall of the west has been rehearsed for years now. What happens to people in the belly of the beast is they begin to believe what is told to them. News shows and commentaries self-fulfill. This has the characteristics of a trend, bigger than the consciousness of an individual. Trends occupy all history, but historians make the trend, not the history. We must however hold out for the opposite case, where events proceed by design while at the same time are counterfeited and co-determined. That is how the nations so furiously rage together. That is how liberty is the tool of tyranny, impossible to reason.

 Psalm 2 is Messianic and relates parallels of the poetry simultaneously with  the individual speaking, the greater person spoken of, the nation itself, David, Messiah, Israel. A number of these Psalms contrast Virgil's Fourth Eclogue which sets up the rival of Messiah in the kingdom Rome/Egypt/Babylon. 

It's a conundrum how 1 becomes 2, how the botanical man of Psalm 1 arrives so quickly to greet his opposite anti-man archetype of Psalm 2.

--It is argued that if you impose a belief on children they will rebel. Arguing the semantics of "impose," government therefore is rebellion's cause, but government has made all of us conform. This contrasts all pre-democratic, traditional experiences where the child was raised to belong to a people, ethos and tribe and be governed by it. In China, Japan, Nigeria traditional respect remained, but in the west, rebels were logically right. They were exercising free speech. And AI. Rebellion was a step toward diversity, a fight for rights, depending on geography.  It's hard on the United States to oppose the Taliban. The Taliban think they are freedom fighters.  Freedom means, overthrow whatever law troubles the exercise of  whatever "rights." This becomes difficult when lawlessness is a "right." The Supreme Court imposes law and the people submit. Government deems people less who don't know what's best for them. It will tell them. Psalm 2 magnifies this to the nth degree, as if we confront  a principle of perpetual human adolescence, that there can be no law unless overthrown. "Why do the nations so furiously rage together, why do the people imagine a vain thing?" It stands unanswered. Cultural affection degrades from Milton to Beckett, from justifying the ways of God to man to Murphy, a dead man sitting in a chair. It did not take long. 

What we should do about our children suggests turning to the police is worse. They may kill the child we wanted to "listen to reason." Many mothers wish they never called 911 when the child threatened. When they threatened police they were taken down. Greater forces than police occur, nature for instance in the  film "Into the Wild" reviewed for this purpose here. Disrespect of that which is greater likewise impacts Cormac McCarthy's, The Road.  The "come let us reason together" part of Psalm 2  is enforced with "thou shall break them with a rod of iron" (9). A father would wish for his children to  "get along," to live in peace and care for one another. If earth is a  family and there is a destiny of "the son" to rule, the future rebellion  will put all the others to shame.  Psalm 2 holds that the nations, kingdoms and rulers, afraid of one another, have more to fear from the Anointed.