Psalm 02
PSALM TWOThe first psalm dealt with the personal, intimate relationship between a man and God. The second psalm describes the masses of the world. It paints an international picture of the relationship between the world and its Creator. The psalm is prophetic in character and very relevant to our present time. What the psalmist said forty centuries ago, about the time in which he lived, could have been said of all the previous years since the fall of man into sin, and it applies without any restrictions to the world in the twentieth century. And, after I am dead, if not before, it will be fulfilled at the battle of Armageddon.
The psalm asks the most important question that can be asked: "Why?" and it is God who asks it. What motivates mankind? Why do they act as they do? The purpose for asking the question is to bring man to reflection. For this reason Jesus stopped Saul of Tarsus in his tracks on his way to Damascus with the personal question: "Why?" The answer Paul had to give changed his life.20 Every time God asks the question, it is for the same purpose. It is because, in Peter's words: "[God] is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."21 The psalm can, therefore, be interpreted as a peace proposal and an offer of grace.
The "why" question is not answered in the psalm; or, at least, not in a direct way. The answer is to be sought in the direction of death. Death makes all human activity meaningless; that is why man rebels. We shall see that God's answer to this meaninglessness is in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Adam Clarke's Commentary, suggests that David probably wrote this psalm in connection with the capture of the city of Jerusalem.22 Looking at this historical background through modern eyes gives the psalm a strange character. We know, in recent history, several examples of people who have conquered other nations in order to protect themselves, and that gives us an uncomfortable feeling when we read what David did with the original inhabitants of Jerusalem. It seems that David denied the Jebusites the right to defend themselves and their city. In twentieth century terms that seems to be an attitude of political irresponsibility. It is, therefore, important not to lose sight of the historical context of David's day. Israel's conquest of Canaan was part of a divine mandate. The extermination of the Jebusites, however horrible this may sound to us, was just as much "an act of God" as the Great Flood of Noah's days. David knew that he had received the messianic call to forcefully subject nations to his rule. The Jebusites had never been exterminated. We find them living among the Jews as citizens with equal rights. Proof of this is found in the report of the plague that threatened Jerusalem. We read then that the angel of the Lord was standing at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.23 Later we read that "Solomon began to build the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the place provided by David."24 So, the point in question was not extermination but the recognition of David's reign over these people. It is very difficult for us to judge the situation of David's days objectively and justly from our distance in time. We should especially pay attention to David's vision that is demonstrated in this psalm. What he says goes far beyond the conditions of his own time. He is conscious of the fact that his acts in space and time have eternal value. He sees the relatively unimportant capture of Jerusalem as an image of Armageddon. The hill of Zion, which is his home, becomes a shadow of God's holy mountain. David demonstrates his own greatness in his vision, and it is because of it that we now possess this pure piece of poetry. David shows us herein that poetry can be the purest form of communicating reality.
What could be said of David's time is valid in a much greater measure of our own time. Nobody reigns anymore by the grace of God. Those who say they do, do so only in name and without any authority. Those in power at present base their government upon the policy of a certain political party and in some instances upon a majority vote. It is naive to the highest degree to identify democracy with religion. Most governments maintain a basis of neutrality toward religion and some are openly atheistic. The majority of power in the world is absolutism in one form or another. The situation was even more complicated in the age of the early church, where the powers that were acted in the Name of God to sabotage the work of the Holy Spirit. This prompted Jesus to say: "They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God."25
As we mentioned above, the psalm begins with the questions, "Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?" which it never answers. The KJV renders it with: "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?" "The nations" is a polite translation of the Hebrew word choyem, or heathen. The intent is the people who are without God; those that cannot or will not hear the Gospel. The word "rage" indicates a deep unrest, or rebellion. The idea is revolt against God of people groups, not of individuals only. These are the people who reject God's revelation. Since this revelation had been entrusted to the people of Israel, it was Israel's task to make the revelation known. In a sense, this is the background of this psalm and of the conquest of the city of Jerusalem, which is done in this context.
More is at stake, however; it is the lack of the knowledge of God. The subject of this psalm is the rejection of God's revelation and of the fellowship with Him that follows that revelation. In his rejection, man cuts himself off from the source of life; consequently, death stares him in the face. This is the reason for the tumult. Man cannot deal with the consequences of his own acts. Breaking off the bond with God means self destruction. A man can reject God, but he cannot detach himself from those innate qualities which urge him to find fulfillment in life. Death makes vanity of it all. It is against this that man rebels most of all, often without understanding what he does. The question is, against whom does man rebel?
Another point that is seldom understood is that man can choose between only two possibilities. It is not a choice among God, Satan, or ourselves. If we choose against God, we choose for Satan. Many people do not realize that there is no middle way. Yet most people think they only choose for themselves.
The word "conspire" in Hebrew is ragash, which Strong defines as "to be tumultuous"; the KJV renders it with "rage." Rage is the result of a lack of self-control. Sometimes it is triggered by certain facts. The classic example is Jesus' anger at the grave of Lazarus. John pictured Jesus "weeping, [and] deeply moved in spirit."26 The KJV says: "he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled." And TLB paraphrases it correctly with "moved with indignation." More often than not, however, rage or anger is triggered by certain circumstances but not directly toward those circumstances. Some people fall into a rage, not because they are angry with someone else, but with life in general, or with themselves because they are afraid of life. In this sense we could interpret the "rage" of the nations. Man shakes his fist at God because He created him and against himself because he doesn't know what to do with life. The result is a lack of peace in the heart of man which the psalmist describes as "conspire" or "rage." There is also a loss of rationality. The "plotting in vain" means an unhealthy occupation with things that don't lead anywhere, that have no contents or goal. Vanity, in the orthodox sense of the word, and death are identical. Everything that is not geared toward the living God lacks contents and value. When reading the memoirs of Henry Kissinger about his years in the White House, one would get the impression that the result of all his activity was the creation of a better world that was just around the corner.27 We may quote King Solomon, who said: "I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind."28
This "vanity" is expressed in vs. 1 of this psalm in the conspiracy of the kings against God and Christ. This mass revolt will lead to the final battle of Armageddon.29 That will be the Antichrist's final attempt to take over the power to rule the world. Each period in world history has its own manifestations of rebellion. The early church saw the prophecy of this psalm fulfilled in the crucifixion and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. We read that during the first recorded prayer meeting of the church they lifted their voices to Heaven and said: "Sovereign Lord, you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: 'Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.' Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen."30 The rebelling kings of that time were Herod and Pontius Pilate. Incidentally, this quotation of the psalm proves that the psalm was written by David.
Here also, we find this inexplicable phenomenon that human rebellion reinforces God's hand. This principle becomes even clearer in the book of Revelation, where the opening of the seven seals of God's scroll allows Satan to take the initiative.
The chains and fetters, mentioned in vs. 3, represent the law of God. Man who rebels against God feels himself always restrained by laws and customs which govern his behavior. It seems strange, but, obviously, when man rebels against God and God's restrictions for his life, he never finds inner freedom. One would think that freedom is the goal of all revolution. What rebelling man tries to achieve, without knowing that he does this, is to detach himself from God's image within him and yet remain man; such a detachment is impossible. The revolution starts by exchanging the word law by regulation or taboo; as if our moral behavior would have nothing to do with our humanness. Breaking the chains and throwing off the fetters suggests a moral revolution in which moral absolutes are replaced with situational ethics. "If it feels good, do it!" This is an effort to attach our lifeline to the waves in order to keep ourselves from drowning.
In contrast to this, we find Paul's freedom from the law. Man who rebels against God does not even understand himself why he reacts against the law of God. It is the rebellion of a man's heart against himself, against his sinful nature, which bothers him. For those who have put down their weapons, the law of God becomes the expression of God's character and, at the same time, the ideal standard for their own lives. That is why a Christian accepts the law of God, not as a fetter, but as the element in which he lives. Real liberty is the working of the Holy Spirit in us who fully meets the righteous requirements of the law in us. Paul expresses this in the epistle to the Romans where he says: "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit."31
This conspiracy of the nation is, of course, no real threat to God. But, when we analyze vs. 4 and 5 we should not lose sight of God's love and deep compassion for mankind. What God mocks in man is not his inert dignity and immortality but the misconceptions man has about himself and about God. If a man thinks that his efforts to dislodge God would have any results, he has to be put in his place. God's scoffing serves the purpose of keeping things in the right perspective. We should never forget that the One we are dealing with is the Almighty God who sits on the throne of Heaven and from whose presence the earth and the universe flee.32 A man who shakes his fist in God's face has lost sight of all proportions. Ever since man fell into sin, this kind of short sightedness has been a typical attitude. Eve had visions of grandeur when she looked at the forbidden fruit. "The woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom."33 But all she really saw was a fruit. The builders of the tour of Babel who kept their eyes on the top of the tower which would reach heaven, did, in reality, see no farther than the border of their village. Their vision was limited by their fear to become the pioneers of the world.34 It is this kind of shortsightedness that God mocks in man. He sees through the inflated image we have of our own importance.
Many revolutions are started out of fear of the unknown. In Psalm One we said that the circle of scoffers considered themselves better than the others. Well, God is higher and better than any creature; He doesn't even have to try, and there is no point in trying to compete with Him. The situation would be ridiculous.
The rebellion is not against the Person of God alone, but "against the LORD and against his Anointed One," that is against the Christ. Jesus Christ represents all of mankind before God. That is what fallen man rebels against. He is a descendant of Adam and he follows in Adam's footsteps. Paul speaks about this dilemma in an unparalleled way in his epistle to the Romans. He writes: "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned-- for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come."35 Those verses are, probably, the best commentary on this psalm. Many people have more of a problem in accepting Jesus as their fellowman, than as the third Person of the Trinity. Acknowledging that Jesus died in our behalf and in our stead and that this means forgiveness for us and regeneration entails conceding a defeat of ourselves which is hard for us to acknowledge. Rejection of God's reconciliation in Christ is the essence of the rebellion. Man resists death, but he also resists life.
The rejection of the Messiah, the King of Zion, is the reason that God reveals His wrath to man. As long as God speaks, there is hope. The Word of God is able to deliver man from death. When God speaks no longer, hope is gone. This was the case in the life of king Saul, and for Pilate and Herod. The generation that no longer hears the voice of God is lost. For man who wants to be saved, the Word of God means salvation, even if the Word reveals God's wrath. Being shocked into reality by the wrath of God is good for the soul. God's speaking will make the final judgment heavier for man who is not interested in salvation.
In the vs. 7-9 the Messiah is speaking. He testifies to the Word of the Lord about Himself. Jesus refers here to Himself as Man. The NIV reads: "He said to me, 'You are my Son; today I have become your Father.' " In the RSV we read: "You are my son, today I have begotten you." God does not beget God. The essence of divinity is, after all, His eternal and independent existence. Jesus was begotten by the Father as Man. From Paul's quotation of this psalm we understand that "You are my son, today I have begotten you," refers to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Speaking to the Jews at the Synagogue of Antioch in Pisidia, Paul said: "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, 'Thou art my Son, today I have begotten thee.'"36 "Begotten" in this context means "raised from the dead."
Over against man's rebellion God places the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This should have ended man's rebellion against death which robs life of its meaning. God has opened a door of escape from meaninglessness which death had brought about. But the open door does not bring rebellion to an end. Man continues to resist, not only death, but also life. Rebellious man prefers to die rather than to receive life out of the hand of God. This does not, of course, take away anything from the glory of God's offer.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the most important event that ever happened in the universe. In his sermon to the Athenians at the Areopagus, Paul indicates that Jesus' resurrection is proof that God made Him judge of the world. We quote: "For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."37 But the philosophers Athens resisted also.
It is easy to understand why man would oppose death, but resistance against life is a deeper problem and demands an explanation that is not visible at the surface. It all harks back to the time when Satan was tempted by his pride to challenge God's right to omnipotence. It is the same spirit that led man to his disobedience. But disobedient man will not have the last word. Jesus will inherit the world at the end time. At a later date David wrote about the mandate the Father would give to the Son: "The LORD says to my Lord: 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.' The LORD will extend your mighty scepter from Zion; you will rule in the midst of your enemies. Your troops will be willing on your day of battle. Arrayed in holy majesty, from the womb of the dawn you will receive the dew of your youth. … The Lord is at your right hand; he will crush kings on the day of his wrath. He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead and crushing the rulers of the whole earth."38 And the apostle Paul says: "For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet."39
God's offer to His Son: "Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession," corresponds with the mandate, given in Ps. 110: "You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek."40 About this the writer to the Hebrew says: "Because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them." So the phrase: "Ask of Me" pertains to our salvation, but the stress in the psalm is put upon the rejection of the revolutionary.
The mandate God gave to Adam to reign over His creation is fulfilled here in Jesus Christ. It is His task to bring back under God's rule everything that had been dragged down when Lucifer fell into sin.
What we read in vs. 9: "You will rule them with an iron scepter; you will dash them to pieces like pottery," and in Ps. 110, "crushing the rulers of the whole earth," does not speak about men who are dashed to pieces but about demonic powers that resist the authority of God. Here also, the "struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."41 As far as man is concerned, Jesus' dashing and crushing means liberation. Here the real chains are broken and the actual fetters are thrown off. Only man, who rejects God's liberation, shares in the fate of those who will be dashed to pieces and crushed. For us, who belong to Jesus Christ, His intercession for us will save us completely.
The last three verses of this psalm contain a warning and an invitation to the rulers of this world. The warning is, ultimately, the purpose for the writing of this psalm. God does not want "anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."42 In the light of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God says: "Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth." The tragedy of this world is that kings are dumb and judges of mankind themselves do not submit to the law. What hope is then left?
The word "rejoice" in vs. 11 seems out of place, but the acknowledgment of God's absolute authority over our lives ought to be cause joy. Joy and trembling are no opposites in the presence of God. This trembling is not related to panic. It is merely the reaction of our bodies to the revelation of God's character. The body may tremble while the soul rejoices. To serve the Lord is, of course, an act of the will. It is the opposite of the breaking of chains and tearing off of imaginary fetters of vs. 3. A combination of obedience, awe, and joy is the hallmark of a true Christian.
"Kiss the son!" The kiss is the true expression of love and respect. Even in cultures where kissing is not a mode of intimacy, a kiss is accepted as the highest form of appreciation and respect.
There is an interesting comment on the wrath of the Son in the book of Revelation: "Hide us… from the wrath of the Lamb!"43 This psalm does not speak about the kind of psychopathic fear of Him, who is the symbol of meekness and non-violence. Yet, the situation is the same, and we are speaking about the same person. The fact that "His wrath can flare up in a moment" is the impression the Lord of Love makes upon those who resist His authority. The panic of man is caused by the sin within, not by the Son.
Serving the Lord may begin with fear, but it should not be based upon fear alone. The apostle John comments on this by saying: 'There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love."44 A man serves God because of love. Fear of the wrath of the Lamb is the result of a bad conscience. It is a sign of self-condemnation.
"Blessed are all who take refuge in him." This describes precisely the relationship we have in faith with God. The Hebrew word used is chacah, which means "to flee for protection" or "to confide in." The KJV translates the verse with: "Blessed are all they that put their trust in him." As Christians, we put ourselves under God's protection. Woe to the man who tries to protect himself! We need to be protected from ourselves, even more than from the devil! He who wants to protect himself is no safer than the person who is protected by a wolf. To put oneself under God's protection is the most reasonable decision a man can make. It means recognition of the real source of danger and the real source of security. Blessing is the man who is in his right mind!
"Blessed are all who take refuge in him," nobody excepted.