Psalm 2:3

Psalm 2:3

Let us break their bands asunder, and cast their cords from us.

1. “Let us break their bands asunder…”

a. The breaking of the bands and casting of the cords is the Gentiles raging and the vain things that the Gentile nations are imagining. We must remember that before these Gentile nations can break the bands and cast off the cords of the LORD and His Christ they must have been under them first. There had to be some sort of a relationship between these Gentile nations and the LORD and His Christ.

b. break [5423 * nataq] [Strongs: To tear down, break off, burst, draw away, lift up, pluck away, pluck off, pull out, root out.]

c. bands [4147 * mocerah] [Strongs: chastisement, i.e., a halter, restraint.]

d. The “raging” of the heathen, and the “vain thing” the people are imagining is breaking ties with the Almighty. If words mean anything they want to tear down, pluck off, root out the restraints that God would put on them.

2. “…and cast their cords from us.”

a. cast [7993 * shalak] [Strongs: To throw out, throw down or away, cast away.]

b. cords [5688 * abothah] [Strongs: Something entwinded, i.e., a string, wreath, foliage, band, cord, rope.]

c. In Psalm 2:3, the kings and rulers have stationed, positioned themselves with the sum of their counsel. They want to throw off the bands of restraint, the cords of control that God has in their lives.

1). Job 21:14, 15 “Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.

What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?”

2). Jeremiah 5:5 “I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.” [Compare “the yoke” to Matthew 11:29.]

3). Hosea 11:4 “I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them.”

d. Tehillim: page 67. “Technically speaking [the cord] refers to the bonds used to harness the oxen to the yoke… Hirsch stresses that the yoke of God’s anointed hangs heavily upon the necks of the gentile nations also. The cord of the Messiah is the moral self-discipline which he teaches, thus inhibiting the unbridled desires of mankind and saddling man with duties. These limitations are repugnant to the nations who yearn to free their conscience from any inhibition.”

1). Before the Gentile nations can “break the bands” and “cast the cords” of the LORD and Christ from them, they must have been under them. This happened during the Church Age, the period between the resurrection of Christ and his second coming. Though the Body of Christ failed to fulfill the obedience of the Great Commission, the dominant effect of Christianity upon Western culture is undeniable, particularly the continents of Europe, North and South America. The Apostle Paul in his last message to the Jewish leaders recorded in the Book of Acts warns them that the Jews for the most part would reject the Messiah but the Gentiles would accept Him. Note particularly the last verse.

a). Acts 28:23-28 And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening.

And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not.

  And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers,

Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive:

For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.

d. This study of Psalm 2, in particular verses 1 through 3, reminds me of the recent history of the U.S. Over the last 60 plus years the United States of America has made rejecting Scriptural truth a foundational part of their constitutional process. Numerous U.S. Supreme Court decisions fit this description. Hence we are fulfilling Psalm 2:1-3.