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A meditation, on Psalm 2

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Psalm 2 gives interesting context to the political storms of any given day:

HT, Blastus, from Handel’s Messiah, sung by a Korean singer

Psalm 2: The Reign of the LORD’s Anointed

1 Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying,
3 “Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us.”

4 He who sits in the heavens laughs;
the Lord holds them in derision.
5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
and terrify them in his fury, saying,
6 “As for me, I have set my King
on Zion, my holy hill.”

7 I will tell of the decree:
The LORD said to me, “You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.
8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
9 You shall break2 them with a rod of iron
and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
be warned, O rulers of the earth.
11 Serve the LORD with fear,
and rejoice with trembling.
12 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. [ESV]

It will help to put this in context of Isa 52:13 – 53:12:

He Was Pierced for Our Transgressions

Isa 52:13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely;2
he shall be high and lifted up,
and shall be exalted.
14 As many were astonished at you—
his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance,
and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—
15 so shall he sprinkle many nations;
kings shall shut their mouths because of him;
for that which has not been told them they see,
and that which they have not heard they understand.


Isa 53:1 Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?

9 And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand
.


11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,10
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,11
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.

What is our response to Messiah, risen as prophesied 700 years ahead of time, as attested by 500 witnesses and unstoppable, life transforming resurrection power experienced by millions ever since?

This gives us perspective. END

Comments
4th gen civil war in the US. Shrug, sigh.kairosfocus
July 12, 2020
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Kairosfocus, Yeah, it's indeed sad that intellectual discourse is now paralyzed by mindless shouting or the equivalent in writing. A meaningful exchange of knowledge and perspectives of people who disagree is both provocative (in a good way), interesting, and educational for all parties.
I doubt we are dealing with an algorithm . . .
You're probably right, but there are chat/troll/twitter bots capable of seemingly human responses . . . -QQuerius
July 11, 2020
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Q, I doubt we are dealing with an algorithm but for sure we are dealing with the closed, hostile mind. In several countries, we are under lock down that effectively keeps people from regular church services. In that context, a pause to meditate is something that should be refreshing rather than a red flag for an angry bull. That some are on such hair triggers is yet another sign of where our civilisation has gone. Not a good place, and reason for reflection. Which is part of why I pointed out that if one cannot admit blatant facts and well known history, even something as obvious as the force of a suffix, then we have a prudential right to draw sobering conclusions about things that are more abstruse than that. KFkairosfocus
July 11, 2020
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Bravo (golf clap)ET
July 11, 2020
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Kairosfocus, What I don't like is an exchange that follows the form: 1. OP 2. Objection: Wild, unsubstantiated claim which took 10 seconds to write. 3. Defense: Rational response along with references that took a long time to write. 4. Objection: Wild, unsubstantiated claim regarding one of the references, which took another 10 seconds to write. 5. Defense: Patient response defending the reference with other references and quotations, which again takes a lot of time to write. 6. Objection: Ad hominem attack. Another 10 seconds. And so on. There's a distinct possibility that someone simply downloaded a copy of ELIZA, creating a troll version to waste our time. It actually wouldn't be hard to do. How about asking questions to challenge the wild assertion? For example, "On what information did you base your assertion that Billy Graham was a known atheist who used to run naked in the woods wearing antlers?" Then when they respond that this was a well-known fact, put the burden of proof on them. If someone is genuinely interested in the prophecies regarding Messiah in the Tanakh, we can provide a few references for further study and answer honest questions. If someone is unwilling to accept any rational responses, nothing can help them--no logic, no artifact, no ancient writing, no fact, no post, and not even a miracle will tear them away. -QQuerius
July 11, 2020
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O, again, the tactic of tangents continues, here leading to ad hom. Duly noted. As is the failure to address even the most blatant but inconvenient facts. KFkairosfocus
July 11, 2020
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K:
your tactic of successive tangents continues
Whose fault is this? I try to follow your stream of thoughts, but you tend to meander in these essays you present as comments. Picking up a single idea of you will take me on a tangent - after all, that is the straight line - while you wallow away.Orloog
July 10, 2020
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O, your tactic of successive tangents continues; I simply note to the reader that -dom as suffix generally denotes a realm, here that realm that as an ideal . . . though so often failed to be carried through in practice given sordid realities of morally struggling humanity . . . is seen as a zone acknowledging the Lordship of Christ. The sense of common identification is thus obvious. We then simply return focus to the original issue and duly note that you have shown yourself unwilling to acknowledge the most blatant facts and so your onward arguments are of no credibility. I note, all of this song and dance is in reaction to a meditation, telling in itself. KFkairosfocus
July 9, 2020
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K, did it? What about the Donatists in the 4th century? What about the sack of Constantinople in 1204? What about current days mormons? When was the time that Christendom regarded itself as a common domain?Orloog
July 9, 2020
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O, Christendom for centuries regarded itself as a common domain. KFkairosfocus
July 9, 2020
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K,
O, that you are pretending that there was not a realm known as Christendom with Kings who were seriously and not just nominally Christian, speaks volumes.
There is Christendom, but when was there ever a realm known as Christendom? Perhaps for a short time under Constantine - who was a Christian king/emperor for less than a day.Orloog
July 9, 2020
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O, that you are pretending that there was not a realm known as Christendom with Kings who were seriously and not just nominally Christian, speaks volumes. That list includes acknowledged "Saints" such as Louis IX and the only English king called Great, Alfred, founder of the Common Law system. There are many others. What is striking is that your refusal to acknowledge so blatant a fact shows that your credibility is nil on other points. In particular, you have shown just why you cannot find a clear understanding of say Isa 52 - 53. Game over. KFkairosfocus
July 9, 2020
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ET, yup. KFkairosfocus
July 9, 2020
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kairosfocus- you are being trolled by another insipid troll. It's very telling that when one insipid troll gets shown the door another just steps right in to fill the troll gap.ET
July 9, 2020
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K, you introduced the concept of a "genuinely Christian king" in #45:
As you equally know but wish to evade by verbal gymnastics, the list of genuinely Christian kings is long
So, again, when asked for examples, why did you have to include Prince Henry the Navigator? Could you state your best -perhaps - ten pics, preferably from modern times?Orloog
July 9, 2020
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Orloog, all you are managing to do is to show that you are in the grips of the closed, hostile mind. The idea that kings would be moved to respect Isaiah's Suffering Servant . . . what the text strictly speaking predicts . . . apparently sits cross-wise in your gullet. It seems you cannot bring yourself to face the massive fact of 1,000+ years of acknowledged, Christianity influenced civilisation, reflected in declared allegiances and respect shown by literally hundreds to thousands of Royals over the years. Perhaps, too, you will find it utterly incomprehensible that Churchill, leading Britain's lonely fight at bay in the face of Hitler's triumphant legions, who was by his admission not himself a committed Christian, saw that defence as a defence of Christian Civilisation. The conclusion follows immediately: if you cannot bring yourself to acknowledge such a dominant, blatant fact, the rest of your evasions, distractions and dismissals are just as worthless. Save, as inadvertently reflecting the mindset that is thus shown to us all. KF PS: Just for further fun, here is converso, Heine, predicting the likes of what so horrifically played out with Hitler and co, a century ahead of time, in one of the most astonishingly prophetic passages in modern literature:
Christianity — and that is its greatest merit — has somewhat mitigated that brutal German love of war, but it could not destroy it. Should that subduing talisman, the cross, be shattered [--> the Swastika, visually, is a twisted, broken cross . . do not overlook the obvious], the frenzied madness of the ancient warriors, that insane Berserk rage of which Nordic bards have spoken and sung so often, will once more burst into flame [--> an irrational battle- and blood- lust]. … The old stone gods will then rise from long ruins and rub the dust of a thousand years from their eyes, and Thor will leap to life with his giant hammer and smash the Gothic cathedrals. … … Do not smile at my advice — the advice of a dreamer who warns you against Kantians, Fichteans, and philosophers of nature. Do not smile at the visionary who anticipates the same revolution in the realm of the visible as has taken place in the spiritual. Thought precedes action as lightning precedes thunder. German thunder … comes rolling somewhat slowly, but … its crash … will be unlike anything before in the history of the world. … At that uproar the eagles of the air will drop dead [--> cf. air warfare, symbol of the USA], and lions in farthest Africa [--> the lion is a key symbol of Britain, cf. also the North African campaigns] will draw in their tails and slink away. … A play will be performed in Germany which will make the French Revolution look like an innocent idyll. [Religion and Philosophy in Germany, 1831]
Contrast, all too tellingly on the sickening history of the 3rd Reich, Provine:
Naturalistic evolution has clear consequences that Charles Darwin understood perfectly. 1) No gods worth having exist; 2) no life after death exists; 3) no ultimate foundation for ethics exists; 4) no ultimate meaning in life exists; and 5) human free will is nonexistent . . . . The first 4 implications are so obvious to modern naturalistic evolutionists that I will spend little time defending them. Human free will, however, is another matter. Even evolutionists have trouble swallowing that implication. I will argue that humans are locally determined systems that make choices. They have, however, no free will [--> without responsible freedom, mind, reason and morality alike disintegrate into grand delusion, hence self-referential incoherence and self-refutation. But that does not make such fallacies any less effective in the hands of clever manipulators] . . . [1998 Darwin Day Keynote Address, U of Tenn -- and yes, that is significant i/l/o the Scopes Trial, 1925]
kairosfocus
July 8, 2020
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K, King Geo and Queen Bess - you really are chummy with the royals! Are these your best examples of genuine Christian kings? Then why had you to include Henry the Navigator - a slave-trader and not even a king?Orloog
July 8, 2020
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Orloog, the side-steps dance continuesin the context that he I cited Geo III, Rex as at a premier performance of the Messiah (the content of which you doubtless know) he rose to his feet in tribute, which then set a tradition. That in itself has nothing to do with the genuineness of his faith, though for all I know he had a basic Christian awareness and belief, never mind bouts of mental infirmity. (BTW, that also plagued, say one certain Georg Cantor . . . ) What I can say is that it is manifest that there were many like Alfred the Great of the West Saxons or Prince Henry the Navigator, or Louis IX of France, or Victoria or even the current Queen Bess the good. KFkairosfocus
July 8, 2020
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How can I be convinced of something that doesn't exist? All of the Hebrews were convinced a Messiah was coming. It was a prophecy.ET
July 8, 2020
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Orloog:
Well, ET, let me tell you that the Theory of Evolution is a valid scientific theory, explaining the origin of species.
Except for the fact that there isn’t any scientific theory of evolution. You can’t link to it. You can’t tell us who the author or authors were. You cannot say when it was published. You can’t say what it predicts based on its proposed mechanism. You have nothing.
But at least you were told. You just were not convinced. Same with the Hebrews.Orloog
July 8, 2020
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Orloog:
Well, ET, let me tell you that the Theory of Evolution is a valid scientific theory, explaining the origin of species.
Except for the fact that there isn't any scientific theory of evolution. You can't link to it. You can't tell us who the author or authors were. You cannot say when it was published. You can't say what it predicts based on its proposed mechanism. You have nothing.ET
July 8, 2020
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Orloog:
So it is about a popularity contest.
The CALENDAR issue is. Again, TRY to follow along. I see that is difficult for you.ET
July 8, 2020
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K, was George III. one of those genuinely Christian kings?Orloog
July 8, 2020
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O, your verbal gymnastics tell us volumes on the actual balance on merits. Why do the nations rage, indeed. KFkairosfocus
July 8, 2020
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BobRyan: "You are the one who brought up the question of anyone telling the Jews about Rabbi Yeshua being Messiah. I pointed out that it did not matter, since Jews continue to fall under the same laws. " It does not matter that the Jews convert to Christianity? Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui vis ut omnes homines salvi fiant et ad agnitionem veritatis veniant, concede propitius, ut plenitudine gentium in Ecclesiam Tuam intrante omnis Israel salvus fiat. Or what about Christian Zionism....Orloog
July 8, 2020
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O, I repeat, for cause. The want of clarity is not in the text but in you as reader. For context see Ac 8:26 ff. There is very good reason why this passage has been a pivot of Christian understanding of the gospel for 2,000 years. And it is not alone, there are about 300 relevant messianic prophetic texts in what we term the OT. Also, from C1 to now, a great many Jews have in fact accepted the force of this test as pointing to Jesus as Messiah. Just, they constitute a remnant currently. And I am sure you are aware that there is currently a significant growth in Messianic synagogues that inter alia accept the force of this text as it clearly points. It is attempted readings otherwise that are strained and incongruous, e.g. an individual who is unique and readily recognisable after the fact is being sketched, not a collective, and the issue of death as substitute and resurrection is not only plain but is prefigured in the story of Abraham, Isaac and the Ram in the thicket as well as the scapegoat ceremony and indeed the sacrificial system. KF PS: As you equally know but wish to evade by verbal gymnastics, the list of genuinely Christian kings is long indeed. In fact, a whole civilisation was profoundly transformed by the impact of the Christian synthesis of the tri-fold heritage foreshadowed in the languages of the three inadvertently prophetic inscriptions above the head of a certain man led outside a city wall and judicially murdered by connivance and/or power games of corrupt power brokers, Gentile and Jewish alike. (The indictment of the Nimrod-spirit could not be plainer).kairosfocus
July 8, 2020
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Orloog: You are the one who brought up the question of anyone telling the Jews about Rabbi Yeshua being Messiah. I pointed out that it did not matter, since Jews continue to fall under the same laws. You said you were agnostic and did nothing to convince you. I challenged you on science and still wait for the answer. If there is no God, no Intelligent Design responsible for the creation of the universe, where does energy come from?BobRyan
July 8, 2020
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BobRyan, so, your statement addressed the first paragraph of your statement? It was just a monologue? And now you want to derail this thread with a debate on energy? Sorry, here, I'm just interested in prophecies.Orloog
July 8, 2020
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Orloog: The first paragraph of my initial response. Jews and Christians are waiting for the same Messiah and does not matter if the Jews do not believe it has not happened, since they are under a different set of laws than Gentiles. None of the above has any correlation to my challenge to you. If energy cannot be created, where did it come from?BobRyan
July 8, 2020
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BobRyan: "My statement was directed to those who believe the Jews no longer fall under the laws of Moses" When did that question come up in the discussion above?Orloog
July 8, 2020
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