When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,
“‘Why did the Gentiles rage,
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers were gathered together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed’—
for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
Comment: To go on a side track for a moment – Christmas isn’t far away. The shops are beginning to push the ‘ buy-now’ button. I wonder how Mary and Joseph are coping? Mary will be getting large and a bit uncomfortable and awkward. I wonder what the people in the area are saying behind Joseph and Mary’s backs. Gossip hurts.
But in this passage we see the early church in action. They are praying and using portion of Psalm 2 as they talk to the ‘Sovereign Lord’. Having quoted the relevant bit, and acknowledging Jesus as God’s Anointed, they label those who judged Jesus to death as fitting those who rage against God. There are still others and even today who fit into this situation. We often allocate blame to certain people or groups for Jesus being put to death. There was a time, and maybe it still occurs today, when Christians hated Jews for causing the death of Jesus. But they in this prayer, which continues into tomorrow’s devotion, label it as God’s plan. Did God plan Jesus’ crucifixion? I have to answer ‘yes’ because it was crucial to God’s plan of redemption for sinful man.
Prayer: Help me, in my thinking and living to see you as the Sovereign Lord.
As I read it! 