By Staff
There is no doubt in this day that the nations are raging and the people plot vanity continually.
The obvious answer to the question is that they do not know God, or if they know Him, they are choosing to reject Him.
The Psalmist continues in verse 2, "The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His Anointed (Jesus Christ)."
There are four choices in life about God.
The first choice is to declare there is no god. The result is you become your own god and attempt to grab all you can in this life because that is all you have.
The second choice is to make up your own god. It is interesting that people and people groups create gods that are very demanding, even to the extreme of requiring human sacrifices to achieve appeasement. These made-up gods and attendant religious systems breed political chaos and oppression of the people. The poorest of the poor in the world are a result of heathen people worshipping pagan deities.
The third choice is to recognize a higher being but reject allegiance and accountability. This choice relates closely to the second choice in that we accept there is a God, but fashion Him as a servant to our desires.
The fourth choice is to accept the Living God of Heaven as the loving, forgiving, self-sacrificing God that He is.
Why do the nations rage? They are rejecting God.
This earth and everything on it is in a fallen state; that is, it reflects the results of sin. The first man Adam, created by God, was given the power of choice. He chose against his Creator and lost the harmony in that relationship.
God's plan is to completely restore His creation to Himself. The relationship of man to God has been restored through the sacrifice of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, being crucified. Jesus Christ had the sin of all people for all time heaped on Him (2 Cor. 5:21).
When Jesus died on the cross, sin was dealt with. There is now a path back to God.
God will eventually restore creation to what it was in the Garden of Eden. Every obstacle to nature achieving the full purpose of God will be removed.
The believer in God can have peace in this chaotic life now through the power of the resurrected Christ.
It is expected that people who do not know God will be consumed in rage and vanity. The course of their life is counter to the plan of God. God does not leave these people to themselves.
The Good News that Jesus Christ has died and rose again to redeem fallen mankind is available to every person. The problem is there are not enough people who have believed the Good News sharing the Good News.
It is possible to be in the ranks of believers and still rage and live in vanity. That is a result of not honoring the Living God and obeying Him.
Why do the nations and people rage and give their lives to vanity? They either do not know the Living God of Heaven, or they have chosen to reject Him as God and ruler of their lives.
There is peace and harmony with God through Jesus Christ regardless of the storms of life.