Acts 2:30

"God promised with an oath." He did not say "promised," but "promised with an oath," indicating by this the immutability of the promise. "To set on the throne." Throne is used in place of Kingdom in many places of Divine Scripture; for example: "Thy throne, …

Peter shows manifestly from this Psalm that the kingdom of Christ is not earthly, but heavenly.

Therefore being a prophet,.... Who could foretell things to come, as he did many things concerning the sufferings and death of Christ, and the circumstances attending it, concerning his resurrection, ascension, and session at the right hand of God. So the title of his "Psalms", in the Syriac version, runs thus; the "Book of the Psalms of David, King and Prophet": and in the Arabic version, "the First Book of the Psalms of David the Prophet, King of the Children of Israel".

According to the flesh, he would raise up Christ - This whole clause is wanting in ACD, one of the Syriac, the Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian, and Vulgate; and is variously entered in others. Griesbach rejects it from the text, and Professor White says of the words, “certissime delenda,” they should doubtless be expunged. This is a gloss, says Schoettgen, that has crept into the text, which I prove thus: 1. The Syriac and Vulgate, the most ancient of the versions, have not these words. 2. The passage is consistent enough and intelligible without them.

The Psalm is then affirmed to have had its only proper fulfilment in JESUS, of whose resurrection and ascension they were witnesses, while the glorious effusion of the Spirit by the hand of the ascended One, setting an infallible seal upon all, was even then witnessed by the thousands who stood listening to Him.

Therefore - As David was dead and buried, it was clear that he could not have referred to himself in this remarkable declaration. It followed that he must have had reference to some other one. Being a prophet - One who foretold future events. That David was inspired is clear, 2Sa 23:2. Many of the prophecies relating to the Messiah are found in the Psalms of David: Psa 22:1, compare Mat 27:46; Luk 24:44 - Psa 22:18, compare Mat 27:35 - Psa 69:21, compare Mat 27:34, Mat 27:48 - Psa 69:25, compare Act 1:20. And knowing - Knowing by what God had said to him respecting his posterity. Had sworn with an oath - The places which speak of God as having sworn to David are found in Psa 89:3-4, “I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, Thy seed will I establish,” etc.; and Psa 132:11, “The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David, he will not turn from it, Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon my throne”; Psa 89:35-36. The promise to which reference is made in all these places is in 2Sa 7:11-16. Of the fruit of his loins - Of his descendants. See 2Sa 7:12; Gen 35:11; Gen 46:26; 1Ki 8:19, etc. According to the flesh - That is, so far as the human nature of the Messiah was concerned, he would be descended from David. Expressions like these are very remarkable. If the Messiah was only a man, they would be unmeaning. They are never used in relation to a mere man; and they imply that the speaker or writer supposed that there pertained to the Messiah a nature which was not according to the flesh. See Rom 1:3-4. He would raise up Christ - That is, the Messiah. To raise up seed, or descendants, is to give them to him. The promises made to David in all these places had immediate reference to Solomon and to his descendants. But it is clear that the New Testament writers understood them as referring also to the Messiah. […]