Have you ever been in on a completely pointless discussion, or a pointless activity? I’m sure if I thought about it I might come up with a personal example, however, I decided to Google it and see what I came up with.
Top of the list was pre-peeled bananas in plastic wrappers, followed closely by the goldfish walker, or perhaps even the treadmill bicycle or my favourite “The most annoying box in the world.” (I have give the link to the page below.)
The interesting part of the exercise was the realisation that someone somewhere thought it was a good idea. Why? Now, I will be honest and say these things aren’t quite in the same league as the nations raging and planning a pointless thing. I can view these with a certain wry amusement, or laugh at the better ones, but the difference here is that in someway, the person who invented each item thought they were doing something good, something that might be useful.
That’s very different from the attitude of the Nations in Psalm 2. Certainly the word used in verse 2, riq, indicates a completely futile activity, one that brings about no positive result. It is easy to laugh at the inventions on the web page I found, but even though they are high up in the “why bother” category, they aren’t quite the same as those things being plotted by the nations. The difference is that when we read the opening of Psalm 2 there is a very real undercurrent of rebellion in what is being plotted.
We can be certain here that what is being spoken of in counsel, planned, is contemplated in vain because it goes against the essential purpose of God’s Plan, that purpose which is an essential part of the history in which we live and take part. All of us have a key role in the narrative that God put in place at the beginning of time.
If we look to Ephesians 3:11 we read that the point and purpose of God’s plan in history, is to declare the Gospel of Jesus Christ, so that we who believe may enter God’s presence with boldness and confidence!
It seems obvious to say that if the leaders are not being lead by the Lord, then they are not capable of leading in the way the Lord attended. Their is false leadership, not founded in service, but rather looking to personal satisfaction and aggrandisement. Whatever it is that they say or do, leaches down into their policies and practices. We end up with pressure to conform to the ways of this world, rather than the ways of the Lord.
That is so much a mirror on our current society, the pressures on us to embrace those ideologies that want to be accepted as part of a new orthodoxy, regardless of how toxic it is, an orthodoxy that has no room or tolerance for any other.
At the end of verse 2 we have subconsciously taken sides. As we did in Psalm 1, we either stepped into the camp of the blessed man, or we took up arms with the wicked. There was no in-between, no fence to sit on. It’s the same here. We either side with the nations against the almighty creator God, or we throw our bundle in with the raging nations.
It doesn’t seem much of a choice does it? It’s a real no brainier. And yet, that’s the choice people make! They are prepared to accept that life has no intrinsic meaning, that at the heart of who and what they are and what they do is a large “nothing.”
And yet, in our hearts we know that there is a God, and He does indeed give clear and real meaning to each of us who looks to Him in Faith and Belief. If we allow Him to define us then nothing becomes a Something.
Let me conclude by quoting the Psalmist: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
I life up my eyes to heaven and ask for a clean heart, and a renewed and steadfast spirit. For with these in place, how can I see anything You have done or are doing as pointless?
Amen.
https://www.indy100.com/article/the-12-most-pointless-things-ever-invented--Z1Sd9fYMbl
Top of the list was pre-peeled bananas in plastic wrappers, followed closely by the goldfish walker, or perhaps even the treadmill bicycle or my favourite “The most annoying box in the world.” (I have give the link to the page below.)
The interesting part of the exercise was the realisation that someone somewhere thought it was a good idea. Why? Now, I will be honest and say these things aren’t quite in the same league as the nations raging and planning a pointless thing. I can view these with a certain wry amusement, or laugh at the better ones, but the difference here is that in someway, the person who invented each item thought they were doing something good, something that might be useful.
That’s very different from the attitude of the Nations in Psalm 2. Certainly the word used in verse 2, riq, indicates a completely futile activity, one that brings about no positive result. It is easy to laugh at the inventions on the web page I found, but even though they are high up in the “why bother” category, they aren’t quite the same as those things being plotted by the nations. The difference is that when we read the opening of Psalm 2 there is a very real undercurrent of rebellion in what is being plotted.
We can be certain here that what is being spoken of in counsel, planned, is contemplated in vain because it goes against the essential purpose of God’s Plan, that purpose which is an essential part of the history in which we live and take part. All of us have a key role in the narrative that God put in place at the beginning of time.
If we look to Ephesians 3:11 we read that the point and purpose of God’s plan in history, is to declare the Gospel of Jesus Christ, so that we who believe may enter God’s presence with boldness and confidence!
It seems obvious to say that if the leaders are not being lead by the Lord, then they are not capable of leading in the way the Lord attended. Their is false leadership, not founded in service, but rather looking to personal satisfaction and aggrandisement. Whatever it is that they say or do, leaches down into their policies and practices. We end up with pressure to conform to the ways of this world, rather than the ways of the Lord.
That is so much a mirror on our current society, the pressures on us to embrace those ideologies that want to be accepted as part of a new orthodoxy, regardless of how toxic it is, an orthodoxy that has no room or tolerance for any other.
At the end of verse 2 we have subconsciously taken sides. As we did in Psalm 1, we either stepped into the camp of the blessed man, or we took up arms with the wicked. There was no in-between, no fence to sit on. It’s the same here. We either side with the nations against the almighty creator God, or we throw our bundle in with the raging nations.
It doesn’t seem much of a choice does it? It’s a real no brainier. And yet, that’s the choice people make! They are prepared to accept that life has no intrinsic meaning, that at the heart of who and what they are and what they do is a large “nothing.”
And yet, in our hearts we know that there is a God, and He does indeed give clear and real meaning to each of us who looks to Him in Faith and Belief. If we allow Him to define us then nothing becomes a Something.
Let me conclude by quoting the Psalmist: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
I life up my eyes to heaven and ask for a clean heart, and a renewed and steadfast spirit. For with these in place, how can I see anything You have done or are doing as pointless?
Amen.
https://www.indy100.com/article/the-12-most-pointless-things-ever-invented--Z1Sd9fYMbl