Psalms 2:1 - Meaning and Application

Here we see a great struggle over the kingdom of Christ. Heaven and hell are in conflict, and the battlefield is this earth, where Satan has long held an unlawful rule. He has been called the prince of the power of the air and the god of this world, because he has spread his influence so widely.

Satan knows very well that as the Messiah’s kingdom grows, his own kingdom loses ground. So although Christ’s kingdom will certainly be established, it will not be set up without resistance. Psalm 2 shows the strong opposition that would rise against the Messiah and his kingdom, against his holy religion, and against everything that belongs to it (Psalm 2:1-3).

One might expect such a blessing to be welcomed everywhere. One might think every knee would bow at once to the Messiah, and every crown and scepter on earth would be laid at his feet. Instead, the opposite happens. Never were the ideas of any philosophers, even foolish ones, or the power of any ruler, even cruel ones, opposed with such violence as the teaching and rule of Christ. That is a sign that his kingdom came from heaven, because this opposition clearly came from hell.

We are told who rose up as his enemies and became tools of the devil in this fight. Princes and common people, court and country, often have different interests, but here they are united against Christ. It is not only the powerful, but also the crowd, the nations, the people, many communities together. Though people usually like freedom, they resisted the freedom Christ came to bring. Yet it is not only the crowd. The mighty also rise against him, even though his kingdom is not of this world and does not threaten their true good. In fact, if they wished, it could strengthen them.

This shows the old hostility between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, and it shows how deep and wide human corruption is. It also shows how dangerous the enemies of the church are, since they are many and strong. The unbelieving Jews are here called the nations, because they had fallen so far from the faith and holiness of their ancestors. They stirred up the Gentiles to persecute Christians. As the Philistines and their rulers, and Saul with his court, opposed David’s rise to the throne, so Herod and Pilate, along with Jews and Gentiles, did everything they could against Christ and his work among people (Acts 4:27).

The opposition is against the Lord and against his anointed, that is, against true religion in general and the Christian religion in particular. Everyone who is an enemy of Christ is also an enemy of God himself, whatever excuse they give. “They have hated me and my Father” (John 15:24). Christ is called the Lord’s anointed, or Messiah, or Christ, pointing to David’s anointing as king. He is fully authorized and fully fitted to be the church’s head and king, yet some are against him. Indeed, they are against him for that very reason, because they resist God’s authority, resent Christ’s exaltation, and hate holiness.

Their opposition is described in several ways. First, it is bitter and hateful. They rage and fret, and they grind their teeth in anger because Christ’s kingdom is being set up. It makes them deeply uneasy and fills them with anger, so that they can take no pleasure in themselves. This was seen in many places, such as Luke 13:14, John 11:47, Acts 5:17, Acts 5:33, and Acts 19:28. Idolaters raged when their folly was exposed, and the chief priests and Pharisees raged when their glory faded and their stolen power was shaken. Those who do evil rage at the light.

Second, it is planned and strategic opposition. They imagine evil plans and think up ways to crush the rising work of Christ’s kingdom. They are very sure their schemes will succeed. They think they can push religion down and carry the day.

Third, it is stubborn and determined opposition. They set themselves against Christ, with faces like flint and hearts like stone. They stand in defiance of reason, conscience, and the warnings of the Lord. They are proud and daring, like the builders of Babel, and they mean to go on whatever happens.

Fourth, it is united and organized opposition. They take counsel together to encourage one another in this fight. They agree without dissent that they will press on with this wicked war against the Messiah as hard as they can. Councils are called, secret plots are formed, and every effort is made to stop Christ’s kingdom from being established (Psalm 83:5).

We are also told what makes them angry and what they are trying to achieve (Psalm 2:3): “Let us break their bands apart.” They do not want to be under any rule. They are children of Belial, people who cannot bear the yoke, especially the yoke of the Lord and his anointed. They may be willing to accept religious ideas that support their own power and comfort. If the Lord and his anointed will make them rich and great in the world, they will welcome them. But if Christ will restrain sinful desires, reform hearts and lives, and bring people under the rule of a pure and heavenly religion, then they say, “We will not have this man rule over us” (Luke 19:14).

Christ has bands and cords for us. Those who will be saved by him must also be ruled by him. Yet his cords are the cords of a man, fitting to right reason, and his bands are bands of love, because they lead to our true good. Even so, people fight against them. Why do men oppose religion except because they hate its restraints and duties? They want to break the bands of conscience and the cords of God’s commands, which call them to turn away from sin and bind themselves to every duty. They refuse to receive those cords, and they throw them away as far as they can.

They are also reasoned with about this (Psalm 2:1). Why do they do it? They can give no good reason for opposing such a just, holy, and kind rule. It does not clash with civil authority or bring in dangerous ideas that harm kings or nations. On the contrary, if it were received everywhere, it would bring something like heaven to earth. Nor can they hope for success in fighting against such a powerful kingdom, one they are completely unable to defeat.

It is a useless thing. After they have done their worst, Christ will still have a church in the world, and that church will be glorious and victorious. It is built on a rock, and the gates of hell will not overcome it. The moon shines in brightness, even when dogs bark at it.

The psalm then shows the great victory won over all this threatening opposition. If heaven and earth are the two sides in the fight, it is easy to see who will win. The people of the earth and the kings of the earth are the ones who rise up, and because they belong to the earth, they are earthy. But the one they oppose is the one who sits in the heavens (Psalms 2:4). He is in heaven, where he can see all of them and all their plans. He also has power to overcome them and all their efforts. He sits there calmly, out of reach of all their weak threats and attacks. There he sits as Judge over all human affairs, fully sure that all his own plans will succeed, no matter the opposition (Psalms 29:10). The perfect peace of the eternal mind can comfort us when our own minds are troubled. We are shaken on land and at sea, but he sits in the heavens. He has prepared his throne for judgment.

So the efforts of Christ’s enemies are easily made into a joke. God laughs at them as a group of fools. He holds them, and all they try to do, in scorn, and in that way the virgin, the daughter of Zion, has looked down on them (Isaiah 37:22). The foolishness of sinners is the proper joke of God’s endless wisdom and power. And the plans of Satan’s kingdom, which look so frightening to us, are nothing in God’s eyes. At times God is said to wake up, rise, and stir himself to defeat his enemies. Here, he is said to sit still and defeat them. Even the strongest works of God’s power bring him no trouble and do not disturb his eternal rest.

They are also rightly punished (Psalms 2:5). Though God despises them as powerless, he does not ignore them. He is rightly angry with them because they are bold and godless, and he will make the most daring sinners know it and tremble before him. Their sin provokes him. He is angry, deeply displeased. We cannot expect God to be at peace with us or pleased with us except through the anointed one, the Messiah. So if we insult and reject him, we sin against the only cure and lose the blessing of his coming between us and God. His anger will also trouble them. If he only speaks to them in his wrath, even the breath of his mouth will mean ruin, slaughter, and destruction for them (Isaiah 11:4; 2 Thessalonians 2:8). He speaks, and it happens. He speaks in wrath, and sinners are undone. As a word made us, so a word can unmake us again. Who can measure the power of his anger? The enemies rage, but they cannot trouble God. God sits still, and yet he troubles them, striking them with terror and bringing them to panic. His setting up his Son’s kingdom in spite of them is the greatest trouble they can suffer. They were a burden to Christ’s faithful people, but the day is coming when that burden will be repaid to them.

They are also certainly defeated, and all their plans are overturned (Psalms 2:6): “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.” David was raised to the throne and made master of Zion’s stronghold, despite the unrest in his kingdom, and especially despite the insult he received from Zion’s garrison, who mocked him with their blind and lame, their disabled soldiers (2 Samuel 5:6). The Lord Jesus is exalted to the right hand of the Father. He has all power in heaven and on earth, and he is head over all things for the church, despite the tireless efforts of his enemies to block his rise.

Jesus Christ is a King. The Father, who is the source of power, has given him the dignity and authority of a sovereign ruler in both providence, God’s care and rule over the world, and grace, his saving rule in believers’ lives. God is pleased to call him his King because he appointed him and trusted him with the whole work of ruling and judging. He is his King because he is dear to the Father, and because the Father is well pleased with him. Christ did not take this honor for himself, but was called to it, and the one who called him also owns him: “I have set my king.” He received his commission from the Father.

Since he was called to this honor, he was also firmly established in it. High places are slippery places, we say, but Christ, once raised up, is fixed there: “I have set him, I have settled him.” He is set on Zion, the holy hill of God, which points to the gospel church. That hill was holy because the temple stood there, and because of the temple the whole mountain was called holy. Christ’s throne is set up in his church, meaning in the hearts of all believers and in the communities they form. The teaching of Christ’s gospel is said to go out from Zion (Isaiah 2:3; Micah 4:2), so Zion is spoken of as the headquarters of this great ruler, this royal seat of the prince in whom the children of men will be glad.

We should sing these words with holy joy, triumphing over all the enemies of Christ’s kingdom, and not doubting that they will all soon be made his footstool. We should also rejoice in Jesus Christ as the great one entrusted with power. And we should pray with firm trust in this promise, “Father in heaven, let your kingdom come; let your Son’s kingdom come.”