Dan's Thoughts

Vision #20 - August 31, 2006

Why do the heathen rage?”

That’s how the second Psalm begins, with this strange question.

Evidently, the heathen have been raging ever since the time of David and they are raging still. So the Psalm tells us nothing new. However, it does ask us to reflect on why they rage.

Daniel (of Lion’s Den fame) knew what it was like to listen to raging heathen. And what had he done that so infuriated them? Well, “They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent.” In other words, Daniel’s pure and upright life contrasted too much with the corruption of the Persian officials. When he entered the picture, they didn’t just give up their wickedness and cry out, “Oh, how wonderful! Daniel is here. Now we can learn from him how to live good lives!” No, they raged.

The Persian officials deceived the king into making a decree to get rid of Daniel. When Daniel heard this, what did he do? Set up a vigilante group? Mount a television campaign? Print up a poster or plan a protest march around the palace? No. He did none of these things. He got down on his knees and prayed, just as he had every other day of his life. When you start raging at ragers it feeds the evil that controls them. Daniel decided to starve the evil. That’s why he prayed.

Daniel knew where the real power of the earth is located. He knew how to by-pass the emperor of Persia. He knew how to appeal directly to the high court of Heaven, where kings have no advantage over powerless people.

Another reason the heathen rage is that the prayers of saints like Daniel are hammers that beat down the bastions of darkness. Every day, all over the world and down through time, the saints pray – “Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven.” The world’s judges, kings and celebrities; the famous, powerful, and influential; the men and women who control financial empires and huge fortunes; all the people who appear to be in control – they never notice that day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, the saints keep praying. The demons however, do notice. And they tremble. That’s why they stir up their human puppets to rage against the Lord and His Christ (and sometimes against nice people like you and me!).

From our point of view, Daniel really got in danger when he found himself in a lion’s den. >From God’s point of view though, Daniel had always been in a lion’s den. For the saints, the entire world is full of lions. It is the ferocious nature of evil to boil and froth. It can get scary sometimes until you get faith like Daniel’s. Then you can sleep through the night as the Lion’s scratch and roar.

The second Psalm ends by telling us that while the heathen are raging, God decides to laugh. He finds their noise amusing. So he just goes ahead with His plans to enthrone Messiah upon His holy Hill. Then he tells us, “ask of me and I will give you the nations as your heritage and the ends of the earth as your possession.” The heathen can rage all they want; the final outcome is already settled. We need to just keep working and not get too worried about all the raging.

Oh, the saints get bruised and battered. Nonetheless, the game moves on to its inevitable conclusion. The victory is already planned. An angel has already been appointed to put one foot on land and the other on sea. He’ll declare that time is no more. He’ll shout, “the game’s over; the winner takes all. The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of the Lord and His Christ!”

No wonder the heathen rage; they are not on the winning side. So don’t pay them any attention. Just keep looking at the scoreboard and remember, “blessed are all those who put their trust in Him!

Dan