Why Do the Heathen Rage
One of my readers writes and says she has had a bad day, overwhelmed. Another recommends reading Psalm 2.
I reprint it here by way of passing along a word of balm.
Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying,
Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.
Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.
Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.
If only my atheist friends — I used to have more, but their friendship dwindles as time goes on, and the logic of their ideas moves them toward the inevitable binary choice between Christ and Antichrist — could read Psalms with the same objective eye used to read, let us say, the hymns to Jove or praised paid to Odin, they would recognize both the philosophical depth and the poetic merit of the work, and rejoice in the psalmists’ art.
Atheism not only cuts one off from heaven, but, as time goes on, step by step, the logic of godlessness will cut one off from everything issuing from heaven and dependent on it, such as the concept of the universality of justice, the objectivity of reason, the brotherhood of man, the dignity of humanity, the worth of human life, the sacredness of liberty, the meaning of joy.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
