2
📚Why do the nations rage,and the peoples plot
a vain thing?
2:1 This is the first of the psalms that are prophecies or contain prophecies concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Some other very important ones are 16,22,40,45,69,72,89,110. This one is quoted several times in the New Testament. Verses 1 and 2 are found in Acts 4:25-26, and v 7 is quoted in Acts 13:33 and Heb 1:5; and 5:5. Verse 9 is referred to in Rev 2:27; 12:5; 19:15.⚜
2 📚The kings of the earth
set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel
together,
against the LORD and against
his Anointed, saying,
2:2 The question of v 1 is answered here. The people are stirred up by their leaders. Together they are revealing their enmity against the LORD (Jehovah), the one true God of the universe, and against His Anointed One (compare John 3:19-20; 15:18-19; Rom 1:30; 8:7). In Old Testament days kings, prophets, and priests were anointed (Ex 28:41; 1 Sam 15:1; 16:12; 1 Kings 19:16).
In the New Testament the Lord Jesus is the Anointed One. He is King, Prophet, and Priest – all three (note at Matt 1:1). In this psalm only His kingship is in view. The opposition and plots of the rulers referred to in this verse had to do specifically with the time of Christ’s crucifixion (Acts 4:25-26), but in general the verse applies to all peoples who in any era set themselves against the Lord Jesus.⚜
3 📚“Let us break their chains apart
and throw off their cords
from us”.
2:3 This is what man’s sinful, rebellious heart is like. Fallen men do not want God and His Anointed One to reign over them (1 Sam 8:6-8; Luke 19:14; John 19:15-16). They want to do as they please. They regard God’s precious Word and God’s commands as cords which would bind them in slavery. In this way they show their great ignorance as well as their great wickedness. What they believe to be bondage is glorious freedom, and what they take for freedom is sin’s dreadful bondage. Those in this verse are representatives of the whole world of fallen men who are in rebellion against the true God and do all they can to shake off His control. This is proved by their attitude toward the Lord Jesus who is God’s Anointed One.⚜
4 📚He who sits in the heavens
will laugh.
The Lord will deride them.
5 📚Then he will speak to them
in his wrath,
and terrify 📖 them in his fiery
displeasure:
2:4-5 God laughs, not in amusement, but in contempt at the vain attempts of puny men to oppose His plans. (See Ps 37:12-13; Prov 1:25-26.) This laughter of God is joined with His terrible anger against the wickedness of men. His anger will come to the full on all those who fight against Him and His Anointed One – Ps 7:11-13; John 3:36; Rom 1:18; 2:5, 8; 2 Thess 1:6-10; Rev 6:16-17; 19:15.⚜
6 📚“Yet I have set my king
on my holy hill of Zion”.
7 📚“I will declare the decree:
the LORD has said to me,
‘You are my Son;
this day I have begotten you.
2:7 In vs 7-9 the Anointed King Himself speaks. God has decreed certain things that no opposition of men can ever change. Verse 7 does not refer to the birth of the Lord Jesus in Bethlehem, or to some event in eternity past before the world was made. The apostle Paul quoted these words in connection with Christ’s resurrection (Acts 13:32-33). It was then that Jesus was proved to be the Son of God (Rom 1:4), and it was then that Christ was raised to the throne of God the Father (Heb 1:3; Phil 2:9-11). Jesus is the Firstborn from the dead (Rev 1:5), the first of a new kind of human being – resurrection man. It was a new beginning in human history – a Man begotten from the dead, to be the progenitor of many such (Eph 2:1-5).⚜
8 📚Ask of me, and I will give you
the nations as your
inheritance,
and the uttermost parts of the earth
as your possession.
2:8 The earth and all that is in it by right belongs to the Lord Jesus, but at the present time He has not fully entered into His inheritance. The hour will come when all peoples and all kingdoms will be put openly in His control (Rev 11:15-18). See note on Isa 2:1-4.⚜
9 📚You will break them
with a rod of iron;
you will dash them in pieces 📖
like a potter’s vessel.’ ”
10 📚Now therefore be wise,
O you kings.
Be instructed, you judges
of the earth.
11 📚Serve the LORD with fear,
and rejoice with trembling.
2:10-11 Since Christ is the King of kings true wisdom can be only in submission and service to Him. Fear, reverence, and joy are all essential elements in genuine spiritual experience with God. Notes on “fear” at Ps 34:11-14; 111:10; 128:1; Prov 1:7.⚜
12 📚Kiss the Son, lest he be angry,
and you perish from
the way,
when his wrath is kindled
but a little.
Blessed are all those who
put their trust in him.
2:12 Here the Anointed One of v 2, the king of v 6, is called the Son, that is, the Son of God. A son shares the nature of his father. The Jews of Jesus’ day knew that when He said He was the Son of God He was saying that He shares God’s nature, that He was claiming to be God (John 10:33-38). Kissing a ruler was an ancient way of showing recognition of his authority (1 Sam 10:1). It was also an act of homage toward objects of worship (1 Kings 19:18; Job 31:27; Hos 13:2).
To kiss the Son means to give up all rebellion against Him, to receive Him as King, to worship Him as Lord. Those who will not do this are in grave danger. His anger is exceedingly great. But His grace is even greater toward all those who repent and turn to Him. The Hebrew word translated “put their trust in” also means “to take refuge in”. Faith in Christ is the only way to peace and reconciliation with God, safety, and salvation (John 3:16, 36; 5:24; Rom 5:1, 9, 10).⚜