Psalm 2

Psalms 2:1

“Why do the Heathen rage,.... Or "the nations"; which some understand of the Jews, who are so called, Gen 17:5; because of their various tribes; and of their rage against the Messiah there have been many instances; as when they gnashed upon him with their teeth, and at several times took up stones to stone him, and cried out in a most furious and wrathful manner, crucify him, crucify him, Luk 4:28; though it is best to interpret it of the Gentiles, as the apostles seem to do in Act 4:”

Psalms 2:1

We have, in these first three verses, a description of the hatred of human nature against the Christ of God. No better comment is needed upon it than the apostolic song in Acts 4:27, 28: "For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done."

Psalms 2:2

“Against his anointed - על משיחיה al Meshichiah, “Against his Messiah.” - Chaldee. But as this signifies the anointed person, it may refer first to David, as it does secondly to Christ.”

Psalms 2:2

“The kings - Herod, and Pilate and others with or after them. Earth - So called in way of contempt and to shew their madness in opposing the God of heaven. Set - The word denotes the combination of their counsels and forces.”

Psalms 2:3

“Let us break their bands asunder - The bands of Yahweh and of his Anointed. They who are engaged in this combination or conspiracy regard Yahweh and his Anointed as one, and as having one object - to set up a dominion over the world. Hence, they take counsel against both; and, with the same purpose and design, endeavor to cast off the authority of each. The word “bands” here refers to the restraints imposed by their authority.”

Psalms 2:3

“Let us break, etc. This is a prosopopoeia, in which the prophet introduces his-enemies as speaking; and he employs this figure the better to express their ungodly and traitorous design.”

Psalms 2:3

“Christ has bands and cords for us; those that will be saved by him must be ruled by him; but they are cords of a man, agreeable to right reason, and bands of love, conducive to our true interest: and yet against those the quarrel is. Why do men oppose religion but because they are impatient of its restraints and obligations?”

Psalms 2:4

“He that sitteth in the heavens - Whose kingdom ruleth over all, and is above all might and power, human and diabolical. Shall laugh. Words spoken after the manner of men; shall utterly contemn their puny efforts; shall beat down their pride, assuage their malice, and confound their devices.”

Psalms 2:4

“God laughs at them as a company of fools. He has them, and all their attempts, in derision, and therefore the virgin, the daughter of Zion, has despised them, Isa. xxxvii. Sinners' follies are the just sport of God's infinite wisdom and power; and those attempts of the kingdom of Satan which in our eyes are formidable in his are despicable.”

Psalms 2:5

“These are words of destruction that are pronounced in anger. Moreover, the evils that God had said he was going to inflict, he promises that he will withdraw if the listeners will become penitent. God in his anger spoke through Jonah to the Ninevites, and since they repented in ash and sackcloth, they endured nothing of those things about which they had heard. Actually, God knew beforehand when he sent Jonah that they were going to repent if he sent Jonah for their deliverance. Right now he also is speaking deliverance to those sinners who are in his wrath.”

Psalms 2:5

“Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath,.... Or, "and he shall speak to them"; so Noldius: that is, the Lord that sits in the heavens, and laughs, and has the Heathen, the people, the kings and rulers in derision, shall not only silently despise their furious and concerted opposition to him and his Messiah, but shall at last speak out unto them, not in his word, but in his providences; and not in love, as to his own people, when he chastises them, but in great wrath, inflicting severe and just punishment.”

Psalms 2:5

“After he has laughed he shall speak; he needs not smite; the breath of his lips is enough. At the moment when their power is at its height, and their fury most violent, then shall his Word go forth against them. And what is it that he says?—it is a very galling sentence— "Yet, " says he, "despite your malice, despite your tumultuous gatherings, despite the wisdom of your counsels, despite the craft of your lawgivers, 'yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion'." Is not that a grand exclamation!”

Psalms 2:6

“The first four verses are spoken by a prophet or an angel wondering why human rashness had risen up against the Son of God. From the fifth verse, though, the Lord himself responds, exhorting the Gentiles and all the people from the Jews who are going to believe in him, so that they may loosen the binding chains and cast off the heavy burden of the law that their own ancestors were unable to carry, so they may follow him whose yoke is easy, and burden light.”

Psalms 2:6

“I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion - Here the Gospel shall be first preached; here the kingdom of Christ shall be founded; and from hence shall the doctrine of the Lord go out into all the earth.”

Psalms 2:6

“Zion strictly taken, was an hill on the north part of Jerusalem, where there was a strong fort, called the city of David, but in a more large sense it is put for the city of Jerusalem, for the temple of Jerusalem, built upon the hill of Moriah, which was either a part of mount Sion, or adjoining to it; for the church of the Jews, and for the Christian church.”

Psalms 2:7

“The word today indicates the present time in which he was made in the flesh—he who nevertheless in his own nature was the Lord of everything. John testifies to this, that he came among his own, calling the world his own. Having been called into a kingdom in accordance with his accustomed glory, he said, "I have been made king by him," that is, by God the Father. Furthermore, he fulfilled this by being made the Son in his humanity even if then he was the Son in his own nature.”

Psalms 2:7

“I will declare the decree,.... These are the words of Jehovah's Anointed and King, exercising his kingly office, according to the decree and commandment of the Father: for these words refer not to the following, concerning the generation of the Son, which does not depend on the decree and arbitrary will of God, but is from his nature; but these words relate to what go before.”

Psalms 2:7

“This Psalm wears something of a dramatic form, for now another person is introduced as speaking. We have looked into the council-chamber of the wicked, and to the throne of God, and now we behold the Anointed declaring his rights of sovereignty, and warning the traitors of their doom. God has laughed at the counsel and ravings of the wicked, and now Christ the Anointed himself comes forward, as the Risen Redeemer, "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." Romans 1:4.”

Psalms 2:7

“The decree - The will and appointment of God concerning this. My son - Which tho' it may in some sort be said to, or of David, yet much more properly belongs to Christ, who is commonly known by this title both in the Old and New Testament, and to whom this title is expressly appropriated by the holy ghost, who is the best interpreter of his own words, Acts xiii, 33 Heb. i, 5.”

Psalms 2:7

“Christ is said to be the first-begotten and first-born from the dead, Rev. i. Immediately after his resurrection he entered upon the administration of his mediatorial kingdom; it was then that he said, All power is given unto me, and to that especially he had an eye when he taught his disciples to pray, Thy kingdom come.”

Psalms 2:8

It may perhaps be a dogma of some kind that no one receives a divine gift who does not request it. The Father, indeed, through the psalm, urges the Savior to ask that it may be given to him, as the Son teaches us when he says, "The Lord said to me, You are my son; ask from me, and I will give you the Gentiles as your inheritance and the ends of the earth as your possession." And the Savior says, "Ask and it will be given to you … for everyone who asks receives."

Psalms 2:8

"Ask of me." It was a custom among great kings, to give to favoured ones whatever they might ask. (See Esther 5:6; Matthew 14:7.) So Jesus hath but to ask and have. Here he declares that his very enemies are his inheritance. To their face he declares this decree, and "Lo! here, " cries the Anointed One, as he holds aloft in that once pierced hand the sceptre of his power, "He hath given me this, not only the right to be a king, but the power to conquer." Yes!

Psalms 2:8

“The hopes of the rebels are thus overthrown, and not only so; the kingdom they opposed is destined to be coextensive with the earth. heathen--or, "nations" (Ps 2:1). and the uttermost parts of the earth-- (Ps 22:27); denotes universality.”

Psalms 2:9

“Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron,.... Not his inheritance and possession among the Gentiles, the chosen ones given him by the Father; these he delights in, takes care of, protects, and preserves: but the stubborn and rebellious ones among the Heathen, and in each of the parts of the world, who will not have him to reign over them; who treat his person with contempt, reject his government, disobey his Gospel, and despise his commands; towards these Christ will use severity, and will exert his power and break them in pieces.”

Psalms 2:9

“His enemies shall be subject to His terrible power (Job 4:9; 2Th 2:8), as His people to His grace (Ps 110:2, 3). rod of iron--denotes severity (Re 2:27). a potter's vessel--when shivered cannot be mended, which will describe utter destruction.”

Psalms 2:9

“This was in part fulfilled, when the Jews who persisted in unbelief, were destroyed by the Roman power: And in the destruction of the Pagan power, when the Christian religion came to be established. But it will not be compleatly fulfilled, 'till all opposing power and principality be put down.”

Psalms 2:10

“Be wise - O ye kings - An exhortation of the Gospel to the rulers of all kingdoms, nations, and states, to whom it may be sent. All these should listen to its maxims, be governed by its precepts, and rule their subjects according to its dictates. Be instructed, ye judges - Rather, Be ye reformed - cast away all your idolatrous maxims; and receive the Gospel as the law, or the basis of the law, of the land.”

Psalms 2:10

“Those that give law and judgment to others must receive law from Christ, and it will be their wisdom to do so. What is said to them is said to all, and is required of every one of us, only it is directed to kings and judges because of the influence which their example will have upon their inferiors, and because they were men of rank and power that opposed the setting up of Christ's kingdom,”

Psalms 2:11

“Serve the Lord with fear - With reverence, and with deep apprehensions of the consequences of not serving and obeying him. That is, serve him in not opposing, but in promoting his purpose of establishing a kingdom under the Messiah, with the deep apprehension that if you do not do it, he will arise and crush you in his wrath. And rejoice - Prof. Alexander renders this “shout,” and supposes that it refers to the customary recognition of a present sovereign.”

Psalms 2:11

“Fear - With an awful sense of his great and glorious majesty. Rejoice - Do not esteem his yoke your dishonour and grievance; but rejoice in this inestimable grace and benefit. Trembling - This is added to warn them of taking heed that they do not turn this grace of God into wantonness.”

Psalms 2:11

“Our salvation must be wrought out with fear and trembling, Phil. ii. We ought to rejoice in the setting up of the kingdom of Christ, but to rejoice with trembling, with a holy awe of him, a holy fear for ourselves, lest we come short, and a tender concern for the many precious souls to whom his gospel and kingdom are a savour of death unto death.”

Psalms 2:12

“Kiss the Son,.... The Son of God, spoken of in Psa 2:7; the word used is so rendered in Pro 31:2; and comes from another which signifies to "choose", and to "purify", or "to be pure"; hence some render it "the elect" or "chosen One", or "the pure One" (k); and both agree with Christ, who is God's elect, chosen to be the Redeemer and Saviour of his people, and who is pure free from sin, original and actual.”

Psalms 2:12

“Kiss the Son, lest he be angry - It is remarkable that the word son (בר bar, a Chaldee word) is not found in any of the versions except the Syriac, nor indeed any thing equivalent to it.”

Psalms 2:12

“Kiss - In token of your subjection and adoration; whereof this was a sign among the eastern nations. The son - The son of God. Ye perish - Be taken out of the way by death or destruction.”

Psalms 2:12

“Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. We have here the practical application of this gospel doctrine concerning the kingdom of the Messiah, by way of exhortation to the kings and judges of the earth. They hear that it is in vain to oppose Christ's government; let them therefore be so wise for themselves as to submit to it.”