Why do people push back against God?

I’m not just talking about out there in the world. But in here…in us.

We don’t like being told what to do. We don’t like authority over us. We want control. We want freedom on our terms.

Psalm 2 begins with a picture of rebellion.

Nations rage. Peoples plot. Kings take their stand. Rulers gather together. Against whom?

Against the Lord and against His Anointed.

It’s not just political. It’s personal. Humanity doesn’t just drift away from God. We resist Him and rebel. We push back and want to throw off His rule to decide for ourselves what is right.

That hasn’t changed. It started in the Garden of Eden. It’s written about in the Psalms.  You see it today in the world…You also see it in your own heart.

But then the scene in our Psalm shifts.

God is not anxious. He is not pacing, trying to figure out what to do. He sits…and He laughs.

He doesn’t laugh because rebellion is funny, but because it is futile. No amount of resistance will undo what God has already decided.

“I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”

It’s set. Not just to set someone in place, but like glue sets, to firmly fix it. God’s King is not up for election. He is not waiting for approval. He has already been established.

That King is Jesus. Jesus is God’s anointed.

At first, it didn’t look like it. Jesus was rejected, mocked, and crucified. The rulers of His day did exactly what Psalm 2 describes. They took their stand against Him.

But the cross was not an end, it was a throne.

And in the resurrection, God made it clear. Jesus is King forever. Not one option among many. Not one ruler among others.

Jesus is THE King.

This matters, because it means we are not left to figure life out on our own. It also means we don’t get to define truth for ourselves.

And that’s where this Psalm confronts us.

We don’t just need comfort. We need repentance, because we, too, have resisted God’s rule. We’ve wanted His blessings without His commands.

The Good News is that the King God has set in place is not a tyrant.

He is the One who went to the cross for rebels. Jesus doesn’t crush sinners who turn to Him.

• He forgives them.
• He restores them.
• He brings them into His kingdom.

So the question is not whether Jesus is King. He is. The question is whether we will resist Him or trust Him.

Ironically, trusting Him is not losing freedom. It’s finally finding it.

Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father,

You have set Your Son as King over all things. Forgive me for the ways I resist Your rule and try to go my own way. Help me to trust Jesus, my King, who rules with mercy and grace. Teach me to live under His reign with faith and joy.

Amen.

As part of your devotion time, I encourage you to also pray for at least some of the following:

• Your family
• Your local church
• Your pastor
• Some of your fellow church members
• The people on your B.L.E.S.S. list
• Your country and her leaders
• Your community

After praying for these people, you may want to finish your devotion time with the Lord’s Prayer…

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and every. Amen.