Why do the kingdoms (nations) conspire?
Which nations? (the old English used ‘heathens’). Here, ‘the kings of the earth’ are set over and against ‘the Lord and his anointed,’ the Lord who declares in Psalm 2, “I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.”
I must admit that I get some disturbing pangs now when I sing, or try to sing, the songs of Zion. It used to be that whenever we sang “We’re marching to Zion,” my aim was deeper commitment to the advancing Kingdom (kin-dom) community of God. That commitment, thank God, is still growing stronger every day.
But with all that’s happening today, with the reality that for many Zionism does not equate with advancing God’s community for humankind, but rather that it speaks to the extermination of some after the manner of verses 8 and 9:
“I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession
You shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel”
I don’t feel very comfortable even speaking of Zion when I know full well that this mention might grieve many righteous persons who have no antisemitic intent.
Biblical language is challenging yes. And the traditional language of Western Christianity sometimes hits me hard. As I write, I think of the hymn “When Mothers of Salem” (their children brought to Jesus).
In one stanza of that hymn, we used to sing “and soon may the heathen of every tribe and nation fulfil thy blessed word and cast their idols all away.”
It’s been some years since I inserted the word “people” where the hymnist had “heathen.” That’s what I sing. I know that “heathen” was the taken-for-granted reference to such as African peoples. They were mostly the ones understood to be worshipping idols when the line was penned in Christendom. And today, a plethora of idols abound in Europe whence the writers came. Some of their age-old idols have emerged from undercover and are showing their faces, even taunting and competing with the many modern ones that Europeans have created.
And Africa is today, the centre of world Christianity.
And just maybe, the message of ubuntu (see featured image) where the individual’s welfare is inseparable from that of the collective, is the way we all need to learn to go.
Why do the nations conspire to claim entitlement to God’s favour (understood solely in terms of material and social prosperity) instead of seeking to advance the community of God among humankind?
O God, may we find the happiness promised to those who take refuge in you.