God's Promise to Give Us the Nations Might Not Mean What You Think It Does

Okay, so I had to do another verse out of context post, but this one will be much shorter.  It's also a lot funnier.  It's one that makes me laugh every time I hear it!

So I've heard more than one mission organization use this verse: "Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession" (Psalm 2:8, NKJV).  There's even a song that uses these words in it, "You Said," which says, "You said, 'Ask and I’ll give the nations to you.'  Oh, Lord, that’s the cry of my heart." (The song also says "Pray and I'll hear from heaven and I'll heal your land" which is a verse I dealt with in my last post).  This verse about God giving us the nations sounds cool and we like it.  Unfortunately, once again, it's not saying what a lot of Christians think it's saying.

The first part of Psalm 2 (NASB) is as follows:

"Why are the nations in an uproar
And the peoples devising a vain thing?
The kings of the earth take their stand
And the rulers take counsel together
Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,
'Let us tear their fetters apart
And cast away their cords from us!'

He who sits in the heavens laughs,
The Lord scoffs at them.

Then He will speak to them in His anger
And terrify them in His fury, saying,

'But as for Me, I have installed My King
Upon Zion, My holy mountain.'"

So, the nations in the Psalm are in an uproar and they are taking their stand against the Lord and his anointed.  In the immediate context this is David, the anointed king, but it is also a prophecy of Jesus as Messiah, God's anointed Son (Acts 4:25-26).  The nations want to throw off the Anointed's rule.  God laughs at this because he has determined that his king will be installed in Jerusalem.

The Anointed continues the Psalm:

“I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord:
He said to Me, ‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You. 

‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance,
And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.'"

The Anointed says that God is his father and he is God's son; in other words, they have a relationship that involves an inheritance.  In this case, God says he will give the nations as the Anointed's inheritance.

So then, what will the Anointed do with those nations?

"You shall break them with a rod of iron,
You shall shatter them like earthenware."

Now you see why I laugh when I hear Psalm 2:8 used out of context.  It definitely isn't saying, "Ask of me and I will give you all these nations and they will be evangelized and saved."  It's God saying to the king, "I'm going to give you the nations rebelling against me and you and you are going to decimate them."  So I always think when I hear this in a song or from a mission organization, "So you want to go out and conquer the nations and chop them up into pieces.  Got it." :-D

The Psalm ends:

"Now therefore, O kings, show discernment;
Take warning, O judges of the earth.

Worship the Lord with reverence
And rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son,

that He not become angry, and you perish in the way,
For His wrath may soon be kindled.
How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!"

It's a warning to the leaders of the nations on earth to watch out, because if you go against God and his anointed and don't give him the honor he is due, you are going to perish when his wrath comes on you.  Rather, take refuge in him.  As a prophecy of Jesus, this applies to Jesus' second coming, so it does have an application to current nations, but if mission organizations are going to use it, they need to be emphasizing that rejecting Jesus is going to bring his wrath.

There you go.  Another verse out of context.  Maybe now you'll chuckle the next time you hear it used inappropriately, too!