Psalm 33:10-11 - April 5, 2009

Ps 33:10-11 The LORD foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. 11 But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations." NIV

Who rules the nations of the earth? Is it earthly kings, presidents, dictators and prime ministers? The scriptures declare in Ps 2:1-4 “Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One. 3 "Let us break their chains," they say, "and throw off their fetters." 4 The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.” Every nation has a choice to embrace the Lord and His ways or to stand in conspiracy against Him. It is the Lord who determines kings and queens and turns them as he chooses. Dan 2:21 says of the Lord, “He sets up kings and deposes them.”
Governments seek to control the hearts of men, dictating to them what is acceptable and what is forbidden. They oppose the word of the Lord, seeking to make acceptable what He calls forbidden and forbid those things that God endorses.
For a season of time in many cases it may even appear that man is victorious in his opposition to God and yet over the course of human history kingdoms come and go, the bones of rulers rot in their graves and yet the word of the Lord stands sure and his purposes remain from generation to generation.
Man in his finiteness is limited in his ability to think and act by the fact that his days on this earth are numbered and the length of his days are in the hands of the Lord. God is so above the realm of time and space, life and death that his plans span the generations of man. Isa 40:15 “Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales.” Imagine with me the military power of the United States, or perhaps the economic might of China or the European Union. In contrast to the grandeur of God each of these is but a drop in a bucket or dust on the floor and it is only the vanity of man that inspires him to consider that in some way he is equal to or greater than the living God.
In these times of shaking as economies tremble, governments topple, populations revolt, and nations collide in conflict the Lord, the Almighty God sits enthroned as ruler over all of the affairs of men. At the end of the age we will see him glorified and his kingdom reign and it will be manifest to all that Jesus Christ is Lord. As Paul wrote in Phil 2:10-11, “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”