Psalms 2:7 - Meaning and Application

We have already heard what the kings of the earth say against Christ’s kingdom, and how the One who sits in heaven answers them. Now let us hear what the Messiah himself says in defense of his rule. What he says cannot be overruled by any power on earth.

First, the Messiah’s kingdom rests on a decree, an eternal decision of God the Father. It was not a sudden plan or an experiment. It came from God’s wise purpose and settled will before the world began, and nothing can change it. Some understand this as a command, others as a covenant, that is, a sacred agreement between the Father and the Son about the redemption of human beings. This is like the covenant God made with David and his family (Psalm 89:3).

The Lord Jesus often pointed to this decree as the rule for everything he did. “This is the will of him who sent me” (John 6:40). “I have received this command from my Father” (John 10:18; John 14:31). His whole mission rested on what the Father had appointed him to do.

Second, this decree is made known far enough for all who are called to submit to this King. It also leaves without excuse those who refuse to let him rule over them. The decree was once hidden, something the Father said to the Son before his works began. But it has now been declared by the faithful witness who was in the Father’s presence from eternity and came into the world to make him known (John 1:18).

The source of all being is surely the source of all authority. So the Messiah receives his right to rule from Jehovah, by whose word all things were made and are governed. Christ gives a twofold claim to his kingdom.

First, he has a title by birthright: “You are my Son; today I have begotten you” (Psalm 2:7). The apostle uses this verse to show that Christ has a name greater than the angels (Hebrews 1:5). He is God’s Son, not by adoption, but as the only begotten Son of the Father (John 1:14). The Father wants this announced to the world as the reason Christ is made King on Zion’s holy hill. That means he is fully entitled to rule and fully fit for that great work.

Because he is the Son of God, he has the same nature as the Father. He has all the fullness of God, with endless wisdom, power, and holiness. The highest rule in the church is far too great for any mere creature. Only the one who is one with the Father can carry it out, the one who was with him from eternity and knew all his counsels (Proverbs 8:30). He is also the beloved Son in whom the Father is well pleased. Because the Father loves the Son, he has given all things into his hand (John 3:35; John 5:20).

As Son, he is heir of all things. Since the Father made the worlds through him, it follows that he also governs them, for he is eternal Wisdom and the eternal Word. If God says to him, “You are my Son,” then it is only right for each of us to say to him, “You are my Lord, my King.”

To make this sonship even clearer, the verse adds, “today I have begotten you.” This points both to his eternal generation, his eternal Sonship, and to the proof of it in his resurrection from the dead. The apostle applies it to Christ’s resurrection as well (Acts 13:33). God raised Jesus from the dead, and in that way declared him to be his Son with power (Romans 1:4). He is the firstborn from the dead, the first to rise into that new life (Revelation 1:5; Colossians 1:18).

Right after his resurrection, Christ entered the rule of his mediatorial kingdom, that is, the kingdom he exercises as the one who stands between God and people to bring them together. Then he said, “All authority has been given to me.” He had this rule in mind especially when he taught his disciples to pray, “Your kingdom come.”

Second, Christ has a title by agreement, based on covenant promise (Psalm 2:8, 9). In short, the agreement is this: the Son must take the office of intercessor, one who pleads for others, and on that condition he will receive the honor and power of a universal King. See Isaiah 53:12. “He shall be a priest upon his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both” (Zechariah 6:13).

The Son must ask. This shows that he willingly took a lower place than the Father by taking human nature. As God, he was equal with the Father in power and glory, and had nothing to ask for. It also shows the satisfaction he made, meaning the full payment made for sin, which gave his intercession its force. He paid the price on which this great claim rests (John 17:4, 5). When the Son asks for the nations as his inheritance, he seeks not only his own honor, but their good in him. So he still intercedes for them, always lives to do so, and is therefore able to save completely.

The Father will grant him more than half the kingdom, indeed the kingdom itself. Here it is promised, first, that his rule will be universal. “He will have the nations for his inheritance,” not the Jews only, to whom the church had long been limited, but also the Gentiles, that is, the non-Jewish nations. Those in the farthest parts of the earth, including our own nation, will be his possession, and he will have many willing and loyal subjects among them. Baptized Christians belong to the Lord Jesus. They are for him a name and a praise. The Father gives them to him when his Spirit and grace move them to submit to the yoke of the Lord Jesus.

This is partly fulfilled already. A large part of the Gentile world received the gospel when it was first preached, and Christ’s throne was set up where Satan’s seat had long been. But it will be fulfilled even more fully when the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ (Revelation 11:15). Who will live to see God do this?

Second, his rule will be victorious. “You will break them with a rod of iron” (Psalm 2:9), meaning those who oppose his kingdom. This was partly fulfilled when the Jewish nation, those who stayed in unbelief and hostility to Christ’s gospel, was destroyed by the Roman power. That power is shown in Daniel 2:40 as iron feet, and here as a rod of iron.

This promise had another fulfillment when the power of the pagan nations was broken and the Christian faith was established. Yet it will not be fully completed until every opposing rule, authority, and power is finally brought down (1 Corinthians 15:24; Psalm 110:5-6).

Notice how powerful Christ is, and how weak his enemies are before him. He has a rod of iron to crush those who refuse to submit to his gentle rule. Before him, they are like a clay pot, suddenly and completely shattered, beyond repair (Revelation 2:27). “You shall do it” means, “You will be allowed to do it.” Nations will fall rather than the gospel church fail to be built and established. “I have loved you, therefore I will give people in exchange for you” (Isaiah 43:4). It also means, “You will have the power to do it. No one will be able to stand against you, and you will carry it through effectively.” Those who will not bow will break.

As we sing this psalm and pray it back to God, we should honor Christ as the eternal Son of God and our rightful Lord. We should also take comfort in this promise and bring it before God in prayer, asking that the kingdom of Christ be enlarged, established, and victorious over all opposition.