In Psalm 2, King David, or someone writing from his perspective, seems jolted out of complacency with a shock: the anointed leader is beset by enemies and mocked by them! (1-3)
How does the writer imagine God responding? First, God laughs scornfully at the puny offence (4) and then in fury reaffirms the status of the rightful king (5-6). The Psalmist remembers that not only is he God’s anointed king with power to destroy his enemies, he is also God’s son (7). So the enemies should heed the fair warning: serve God, or risk God’s “quickly kindled” wrath (10-12). David imagined that God’s response to opposition would be to smash them like a piece of pottery (9).
What most interests me is the rethinking of God’s response by the followers of Jesus in the New Testament. In Acts 4, Peter and John were arrested and harassed by the Jewish council (1-22). After they were released from custody and returned to their friends, these Jewish followers of Jesus applied the plight of King David to Jesus, the Lord’s Messiah (23-31). They too are shocked that the rulers have gathered against Jesus, and against Peter and John.
But what do they ask of God in response? That God laugh off the offence? That God quickly turn on the tap of wrath against them? No! They pray “Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus” (29-30).
They pray for three things. First, for the same boldness Peter and John showed with the Council: the boldness to explain to their opponents the reality of who Jesus is and consequently who God really is. Second, they pray for healing. Healing of what? Of who? Nobody had been hurt, so it wasn’t for any physical healing of Peter or John. No, it was for the spiritual healing of their opponents, and for the healing of broken relationships, and broken trust. Third, they pray for “signs and wonders,” that is, surprising or even miraculous events that occur in response to calling on the name of Jesus, in ways that counteract any scepticism.
Under the influence of Jesus, they have realised that God’s hand is not stretched out in quickly-kindled wrath against enemies in the way David imagined. Rather, God’s hand stretches out to embolden the oppressed, to heal the wounded, and to give evidence of God’s generous mercy.