Passage Search

"Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their yoke from us" [Psalm 2:3]. Although it admits of another acceptation, yet is it more fitly understood as in the person of those who are said to "meditate vain things." So that "let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their yoke from us," may be, let us do our endeavour, that the Christian religion do not bind us, nor be imposed upon us.

Next he sets forth the purpose of those who plot; hence he says: "Let us break their bonds," etc. This is properly said, for the dominion of the king is called a yoke. In 3 Kings 12, it is said to Rehoboam that he should lighten the yoke that Solomon had imposed on them. For just as oxen are joined by a yoke for work, so men are joined for the dominion of the kingdom. But the yoke cannot be removed unless the bonds are loosened. The bonds in a kingdom are those by which the royal power is secured in the kingdom, such as soldiers, fortresses, and arms. First, therefore, it is necessary to dissolve these, and then to remove the yoke. Spiritually, in Christ the yoke is the law of charity: Mt. 11: "My yoke is sweet," etc. The bonds are the virtues: hope, faith, charity: Eph. 4: "Eager to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Sir. 6: "Her bonds are a healing binding." That the conscience of man should not be under the yoke of the law of Christ cannot happen unless these bonds are first broken: which those do who say to God, "Depart from us; we do not want the knowledge of your ways," etc. (Job 21). Jer. 2: "Of old you broke your yoke, you burst your bonds, and you said, 'I will not serve.'" Or this is said in the person of David, from Christ to his servants: the Gloss says, as if they plot thus, but "O my servants, let us break," etc.; but this does not fit the intended meaning.