Having seen that God laughs at the nations because they accomplish His will even in their setting themselves against Him, it remains to notice that this is not the only thing that He does. Having laughed at them, He does something else: Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure (v.4). While their rebellion has been futile as far as frustrating the purposes of God, it has nevertheless been sinful, and as such, provokes wrath. This allows to see the truth of 3.1 of the Westminster Confession of Faith: God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely, and unchangeable ordain whatsoever comes to pass: yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established. The nations complete God’s will –and yet they earn His wrath; it must be, then, that they are culpable for their choices. Thus Peter can say not only that Christ was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, but also ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain (Acts 2:23). The fact that it was according to God’s determinate counsel did not prevent the hands that performed it from being wicked. Futility -inability- is not the same as innocence or righteousness; and thus the wicked are not only frustrated in their endeavours to oppose the purpose of God, they are also castigated for their rebellion to His revealed will. There is comfort here for the Christian; ‘the kingdom shall be the Lord’s’, whatever the heathen may say about it; and wickedness will be not only frustrated, but judged. It also of course, exposes the absolute folly of the wicked; they do not accomplish what they set out to do, for that is impossible; and for their pains in evil, they receive sore displeasure. God be thanked that corruption is defeated, and defeated on all fronts; it does not succeed in its aims, and it does not go unrequited for its evil.
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