Psalms 2:1 “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?”
Ever since Cain slew his brother Able (Genesis 4:8), the ungodly have raged with vitriol against God and the Children of God. And, “the people” (general population) “imagine a vain thing”; that is, they dream up deceitful opposition against the Lord and His People and His Word and against His Church-Kingdom. It is made clear in Acts 4:25; 13:33; Hebrews 1:5; 5:5, that this Psalm foretells the coming of the Messiah and His Church-Kingdom. The “heathen” were in a full-blown jealous “rage” when they heard that the Messiah-King was born (Matthew 2), and they did everything in their power to kill Him. Their “rage” continued on until they crucified Him (Luke 23:21), and their “rage” continued on as they persecuted and tried to destroy our Lord’s Church-Kingdom, and this bitter “rage” is still present in our day! While there were great multitudes that followed after the Lord and lovingly embraced His Doctrine, there were also great multitudes of “heathen” and their rulers that outright rejected Christ, His Doctrine, and His Church-Kingdom. In this context, a “heathen” is one who rejects and fights against the things of God. The “heathen” are only guided by “vain” things that they “imagine” or dream up to satisfy their lust for power and carnal satisfaction; they have no true sense of morality or integrity. They often use religion as a disguise to cover their heathenistic motives; but, their quest is not to worship, but to satisfy their “vain” lusts. When the Messiah (Christ) came to “set up” His Church-Kingdom (Daniel 2:44), the “heathen” felt threatened because the great multitudes were following Christ and not them. These “heathen” rulers were filled with “rage” because Christ had “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6); that is, “the world” that they had built to satisfy their own “vain” lusts. We should not be surprised that the “heathen” are still raging in our present day. John positively identifies the “heathen” this way, “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.” (I John 2:18). If it was “the last time” in John’s day, then we are still living in “the last time”; thus, the “antichrists” and the “heathen” are still imagining “vain” things and still fighting against Christ and His Church-Kingdom. Those who do not have the Spirit of God working in them, have no moral compass, no sense of compassion, and no desire for integrity. Peter describes them this way, “these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;” (II Peter 2:12)!