Psalm 2:3

“Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.” Psalm 2:3 KJV

            Our present verse shows us what the raging, heathen nations are vainly imagining in verse 1 and what the kings and rulers of earth are plotting in verse 2. The heathen nations and their kings hate God’s righteous law. They hate Christ because He is God’s anointed King who will uphold and enforce that righteous law (Matt. 12:18 & 20; Rev. 19:15). They view God’s laws as “bands” or “cords”, both of which are obviously negative in connotation.  The Hebrew word translated “bands” here is used in Job 39:5 to describe the halter or yoke placed on a donkey. In Psalm 116:16 it is used to speak of prison bonds. The first half of this verse shows us their rebellious attitude. They want to break free from the “chains” of God’s law. The second half of this verse shows us their arrogance in their rebellion. They act as if it will be a matter of little effort. They think they will simply fling them off and throw them away as Samson did his fetters in Judges 15:14.

This verse serves as a description of the true condition of the unregenerate, human heart and the animosity it feels toward God and His law. In this verse we see, as one commentator put it, “the unwillingness of rebellious nature to submit to the obligations of divine laws, which cross the intents, and lay a restraint on the desires of man.” Man in his fallenness feels that God’s moral law is restricting and imprisoning in nature. He feels that it is unfair and borne out of ill intent on God’s part. He feels that it is essentially bad. He sees it as prison bars keeping him from his freedom. He sees it as a chain or rope tying him down, keeping him from his fun. This rebellious attitude is at the bottom of all our sin. It is the fountain from which the first sin sprang. In the Garden of Eden God instructed our first parents not eat of the one tree, but had allowed them to freely eat of every other. In Genesis 3:5 Satan framed God’s law in such a way as to make it sound restraining and evil toward mankind. “God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods…” Man fell for the lie, became a rebel and unsuccessfully attempted to throw off God’s “yoke”. That very rebellion is now engrained in our nature as individuals descending from Adam. Romans 8:7 tells us that, “the carnal (unsaved) mind is enmity (hatred) against God: for it is not subject (obedient) to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”

God’s laws are not any of these things in reality. In Matthew 11:30 Jesus shows us that our sins are the true yokes of heavy and burdensome bondage. He declares that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. It is so easy and light that in taking it to ourselves we will find rest for our souls. In 1John 5:3 we’re told, “his commandments are not grievous.” The miracle of the new birth is that God so changes our hearts and frees them from the corruption of original sin that our perverse enmity toward God’s law is taken away. We can again see God’s law for what it truly is – good. Spurgeon wrote of our text, “to the graceless neck the yoke (God’s law) is intolerable”, but God’s child can say with the psalmist, “thy judgments are good” (Ps. 119:39) and “make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight. (Ps. 119:35). Sin no longer reigns in the heart of the Christian but it does remain. The Christian will feel in himself that sinful nature which chaffs under God’s law, but it grieves him. He seeks to quell these disorderly passions. He cries out, “Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.” (Ps. 119:36). Dear sinner, run to Christ and let him free you from the curse of sin and condemnation of the law. Let him give you a new heart to love him and His law. Dear Christian, seek to grow in your love for God and His law.

For further study see: (Jer. 5:5; 1Pet. 2:7-8; Rom. 7:5-14)