ELEISON COMMENTS DCCCVIII (January 7, 2023) : NATIONS, BEWARE !
The Old Testament collection of 150 Psalms have, like the rest of the Bible, Almighty God as their primary Author, while the various human beings that He inspired to compose them, notably King David, are merely the Psalms’ instrumental author. For the horrors of trench warfare in World War I, Great Britain sent each of its soldiers to war with a copy of the New Testament and the Psalms in their pocket. For the threatening horrors of World War III, readers of these “Comments” will be wise to make themselves quite familiar with God’s own manual of prayer – the Psalms. They are not at all out of date.
Here for instance is Psalm 2 which goes straight to the point of World War III – the nations had better pay attention to Almighty God and His only-begotten Son, the Messiah, Our Lord Jesus Christ, because God exists, He mocks their foolish efforts to defy Him and to drive His Son out of His world, and the nations will pay for it if they do not soon come to their senses. The Psalm has four parts, headlined below.
I The nations plot in vain against God and Jesus Christ
1 Why do the nations conspire, and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and his anointed, saying, 3 “Let us burst their bonds asunder, and cast their cords from us.” From 1717 onwards, Freemasonry was created by enemies of God, essentially to destroy the Catholic Church. With its slogan of “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”, it so successfully infected men’s minds with godless humanism that in 2023 few modern men can still even imagine that turning their backs on God is their huge problem. They will have to learn by suffering.
II All such plotting is doomed to failure, and to punishment
4 He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord has them in derision. 5 Then He will speak to them in His wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, 6 “I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.” Modern man, having no idea of God, has no idea of how ridiculous before God is all his posturing and warmongering. But modern man had better watch out, because if he goes on angering God, WWIII will be devastating. God’s solution is the “holy hill” of “Zion”, i.e. Jerusalem of the Old Testament, standing here for the “holy hill” of the New Testament, i.e. the Catholic Church.
III The divine Decree, by which Jesus Christ is King of kings, and Lord of all nations
7 I will tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to me, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you. 8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. 9 You shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” The divine Father begets from eternity the divine Son, and once the divine Son is incarnate in human history, then He has only to ask, and the Father will give Him “all power on Heaven and earth” (Mt. XXVIII, 18). Such power, that if men’s sins make it necessary, not only the Ukraine but all the world’s nations could be smashed to pieces.
IV Practical conclusion: nations, behave; blessed are the godly
10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. 11 Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice unto Him with trembling. 12 Embrace discipline, lest he be angry, and you perish from the just way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. 13 Blessed are all who take refuge in him. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Modern man’s scorn of God can have terrible consequences. But souls that rightly fear God have, even in 2023, nothing else to fear.
Kyrie eleison
O little flock, says God, be not afraid, For by Himself your littleness was made.