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The LORD's Anointed

The NT refers to this Psalm more than to any other with the possible exception of Psalm 110. It is quoted directly in a number of places and there are further allusions to it as well. This simple fact should make us sit up and take note. We should be asking the question: What is so special about this Psalm?

 Here are a couple of reasons why the psalm is such an important one:

1.       The opposition that is described in the opening verses of the Psalm has not gone away. We are still meeting with the same kind of opposition and the answer that the psalmist brings is directly relevant to us today.

2.       The psalm focuses upon the LORD's chosen King. However the description contained in the psalm does not fit the historical reality of any king in the OT era. The NT understands what is written in the psalm as finding its fulfilment not in each and every descendent of King David but uniquely in King David's Greater Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

We'll turn shortly to consider the psalm together but before we turn to it in detail let's make sure we have its structure clear in our minds.

The Psalm contains just 12 verses and these can be grouped into four easily identifiable stanzas which are each made up of three verses.

As the psalmist contemplates what is going on in his world he is amazed at the reaction of an unbelieving world.

He begins his psalm with a question. It is not however a question that really expects an answer. Rather it is a way of expressing his incredulity concerning the way folk are behaving. The kind of action that provokes this amazement is not limited to one particular category within society or to one particular part of the world. There seems to be a world-wide, all-embracing plot against the LORD and against His anointed.

So the psalmist cries out "Why?" or "To what purpose?" are they all acting like this?

The behaviour that concerns him is no calm, rational response but wildly emotional and turbulent. He looks out on his world and as he contemplates the nations he questions:

v.1 "Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?

He knows His God – the LORD is the LORD and He reigns sovereignly over the world He has made. Why then do the nations act in such futile ways? How can they possibly imagine that they can overthrow Him and thwart His purposes? Don't they realize how pointless and ineffective their actions will be?

And yet these nations persist in their ways – the people discuss together and come up with their schemes and plans. This is how we'll do it, they argue, as they seek to convince themselves that they will thereby be able to free themselves from His rule and reign.

This type of behaviour is nothing new of course. Ever since Adam and Eve caved in to the lies and deceptions promulgated by Satan mankind has not wanted God to be God. There is a natural bent in all of us that does not want to submit to Him but to decide for ourselves what is right and what is wrong. How easy it is given such a bias to seek to portray the LORD and His ways in as negative light as possible. His goodness is called into question; His good laws are treated as though they were restrictive hindrances to living a full life. His rule is described as bondage and all they want is to be free.

This type of behaviour may have characterized human history but it cannot be relegated to a long distant past.

In the NT the apostles were conscious of just the same type of irrationality. They knew Jesus to be the Messiah. They knew that He had voluntarily given His life as a sacrifice for sin. They knew that He had been fully vindicated by the Father and had not seen the corruption of the grave but had been raised to newness of life in the resurrection. They had commissioned to preach this wonderfully good news to needy men and women whose best interests would only be served by listening to and by responding to this message. And yet they met fierce opposition! How irrational such opposition was?

But the apostles didn't throw up their hands in horror and give up. No, they went to prayer with the opening words of this psalm on their lips as they prayed for the LORD to take note of what was happening again. Then they prayed for boldness to continue. They asked God to manifest His power. And He shook the place where they were meeting as He filled them again with the Holy Spirit. The very next thing we read is of the continuing triumph of the gospel.

We too encounter this sort of behaviour in our own day Is our reaction to be any different from the believers of the past? Surely not! We are not to be intimidated by the attitude of the movers and shakers of our day. Our attitude is to be the same as the psalmist's: he wondered what on earth the rebellious thought they would achieve – we should ourselves not be any doubt about this either – all attempts to dethrone the LORD will inevitably fail!

So when we hear TV personalities ranting and raving against the Bible and against our LORD we're not to be surprised by it all and we're certainly not to be panicked by it all. How old-hat it is all this bluster and strutting! But you know the LORD is still on His throne and still working out His good pleasure. When Dawkins hits the headlines with another tirade we're not for a moment to imagine we're on the verge of the collapse of the Christian faith as we know it. When the government passes legislation that shows not even passing respect for the good laws and principles He has given us in His word then we simply must remind ourselves that all efforts to cast Him over and to reject Him will never prove anything other than vain – it is all ultimately bound to fail even though the whole of mankind might appear to be united in its opposition to Him!

Is our LORD worried by the negative reaction of the nations? Do you imagine that He is desperately wringing His hands wondering just how He is going to turn things around? Not a bit of it!

v.4 "He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision."

The Psalmist shows our LORD to be laughing at the utterly laughable attempts of mere humans to push Him off His throne. He is not one bit concerned that things are getting out of control. When things looked so bleak as His Son was being handed over by an unholy alliance of wicked men He was still so much on the throne that their unholy attempts at rebellion merely served to put His plan fully into execution!

Listen to how the apostles continued in their prayer meeting in Acts 4:

Acts 4:27-29 "for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness,"

Now of course this is not the only Scripture that speaks about our God and we are certainly not to misinterpret it as teaching that our LORD is sitting in heaven cruelly mocking the inhabitants of the world He has made but He does mock their puny attempts at rebellion.

But other Scriptures teach us that He looks with compassion and pleads with sinners to turn from their wicked ways and be saved. Our LORD is also willing to reveal Himself as a God who weeps over recalcitrant sinners:

Is.16:9 "Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah; I drench you with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh; for over your summer fruit and your harvest the shout has ceased."

He is however never, never phased by human plotting – He is well-able to confound the wisdom of the so-called wise!

Then the Psalmist suddenly would have us listen to what the LORD has to say:

vv.5-6 "Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”

What are all man's puny efforts coming to? The LORD Himself has acted. Sin is the problem and sin provokes wrath and He speaks out about it. And in particular He speaks out about what He has done to deal with sin.

This is what you want do is it? Well, listen to me – this is what I have done! My King is established.

All it takes is for the LORD to speak and the proud and the rebellious are brought low in terror. Conviction of sin and righteousness and judgment can be brought home to a man or a woman in an instant with a simple word from God. And the word that the LORD loves to speak is the WORD made flesh His Son Jesus Christ.

The LORD had earlier made a promise to King David that the LORD would treat David's successors as His own sons: We read this in 2Samuel.

2Sam.7:12-14 "When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son."

So the idea of Kings being treated by God as His sons is an OT idea. However Psalm 2 speaks in terms that were never fulfilled by OT kings – no OT king was ever given the promise of the nations of the world being his for the asking.

The answer to what would otherwise be a conundrum is to be found in the NT where the words are picked up and applied in the fullest possible sense to the Lord Jesus Christ.

The promise of the Davidic king being treated as a Son not just of David but of the LORD Himself is fulfilled as Jesus is raised from the dead as we see clearly from the way in which the verse 7 is quoted in the NT:

Acts 13:32-33 "And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm,  ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you.’"

The writer to the Hebrews quotes the verse twice: (ch.1) firstly to indicate that Jesus is far more exalted than the angels and secondly to underline that Jesus did not seize the ministries He has but that the honours were bestowed upon Him (ch.5) just as the previous verse in Ps.2:6 has affirmed!

Writing to the Romans Paul probably alludes to this same verse as he states concerning Christ:

Rom.1:1-4 "Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,"

The divine promises made to David concerning his offspring were fulfilled not in the lesser measure that was understood of his OT descendants but in the fullest possible sense of complete divine Sonship in Jesus Christ – his greater Son!

The honours bestowed upon this Son were immense:

vv.8-9 "Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel."

What do we find as we turn to the pages of the NT. Jesus began sending out His disciples during His earthly ministry to preach to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. But greater things were yet to come!

With His resurrection He declared to His disciples that all authority had now been given to Him. His first exercise of that authority was to send His apostles on a world-wide mission to declare everywhere the good news of the gospel.

Are you a Christian today? It is because Jesus asked the Father for you!! Is there any hope for the gospel to prosper in these islands of ours? Yes, if Jesus asks for them – the Father will not say "No" to His Son!

Absolute power is now in His hands. He can use the rod of iron to shatter the resistance of the hardest most obstinate sinner just as easily as you can break a clay pot with an iron bar. This statement too is picked up in the NT and used three times in the Book of Revelation. Once it applied to faithful Christians who receive delegated authority from Jesus (Rev.2:27) but otherwise it is applied to Christ Himself:

Rev.19:15-16 " From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords."

Kings and rulers have been plotting and taking counsel together now they are graciously invited to reflect some more. Up till now their attempts to throw off God have been laughable in the inefficacy. However futile and laughable the attempt might have been it was nevertheless a culpable attempt.

v.10 "Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth."

They need to realize just what it is they have done, against whom they sinned. Sin, all sin, will be punished but yet there is hope even for those who have committed such high-handed sin and the invitation is given out!

vv.11-12"Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him."

Word about this balancing what is said elsewhere about the LORD being slow to anger. His patience is great but must by no means be interpreted as meaning that the matter is anything other than urgent.

Warnings are accompanied with promises of blessing! No matter who takes refuge in the LORD will be blessed indeed!!

Amen.