One can see the Lord in Heaven, shaking His head “Good grief!” over this people He chose.
There actually seems to be a good reason for choosing such stubborn souls. If God can save and prosper them, then nobody else should have any excuse to despair. If you won’t let the Lord help you, it’s been demonstrated by example, not just by theory, that it’s your own fault and you chose to put your own self beyond help.
But to see it play out is angst-raising. Communism is a good example of an attempt to garner salvation through “the arm of flesh.” And Psalm 2 chuckles ruefully about how stupid that kind of thing is.
Psalm 2 and me. Should have read the Psalms first and saved myself a lot of grief.
You are right, on all counts.