Ps. 2:3

Ps. 2.3

Diagrammed

Let us  /  tear off  /  their fetters
Let us  /  cast off /  their cords (from us)

Here we find out why the nations have united against the Lord and his anointed. It is not because they want to conquer them. It is not because they want to sell their people into slavery or take their resources. They want deliverance. They want to be freed from their “fetters” and “cords”. (Notice it is not that they want to be freed from “the Lord’s” fetters and cords, but “their” fetters. You don’t “get to God directly”.) In Ezekiel God tells the prophet to bind himself in cords for over three hundred days to represent the time the northern tribes would be taken into exile and subjected to another nation. In Ezekiel, these cords were tied so tight around his body he could barely move. It would seem as if these ‘cords’ are what are being referred to here in regard to how the nations view the Lord and his anointed—they are foreign nations being subjected to the dominion and control of another. Like Israel under Pharaoh, they want their freedom. Like oxen tied to a yoke, they want to be freed from their need to plough another person’s fields.

And yet, we must remember verses 1-2. As we saw there the Psalmist is utterly perplexed by these nations rebellion. All he can do in the face of their rebellion is stand perplexed; “Why?” is all he can ask. They are, in the true sense of the word, absurd to him: without meaning or substance. When verse 3 comes around there is no introduction or preface to their words (it does not say, “And they say, “Let us tear off…”) By immediately moving into their words of rebellion, the Psalm ties these words utterly to verses 1-2. The reader experiences no pause, no distance, and no break between the almost comical description of them in 1-2 and their exclamation in verse 3. Their words simply erupt and intrude upon us. If we have at all been prepared by vs. 1-2 we may almost find something humorous in this.

As already explored, the reader stands far above and away from these ‘forces’, in an act of disbelief. It is, importantly, a distance of superiority and it would not be improper then, as a reader, to picture these voices as coming from the base of a high mountain. While the nations might be yelling these words, the reader, sitting on top of this mountain cannot help but laugh at their arrogance and their inability to see themselves as they truly are.

In this way we can return to the “fetters and cords” and see them as the Psalmist wants us to see them. These nations are not, in reality, seeking liberation and freedom. As of yet, we do not know precisely what they are doing, and, in fact, any act of rebellion against God is true non-sense and therefore incapable of being perceived (hence, the Psalmist so appropriately can only ask the question, “Why…”). What we do know, in light of just these three verses, is that any statement made by the nations will be a statement of absurdity. The reader will not identify or ‘sympathize’ with their perspective because we have been utterly alienated from them. There is no tolerance or “give-and-take” to these perspectives. The nations and kings are completely wrong. We might tentatively, based on the juxtaposition in Psalm 1 between the blessed man and the wicked, chart out the opposite of these nations description and come close to where the Psalmist wants the reader to be.

In that way we would find:

Congregate in commotion     --(becomes)--   Congregate in peace
Murmur murderously            --(becomes)--    Sing praises
Take their stand against the Lord and his anointed           --(becomes)--     Take their stand with the Lord and his anointed

Their words are likewise transformed:

“let us tear off/cast off their fetters and cords”          --(becomes)--        Let us take upon ourselves their fetters and cords

Interestingly, if one reads vs. 10-12 this is almost exactly what is commanded of these nations.