The kings of the earth were there, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ.
The council had just ordered the believers to stop speaking in the name of Jesus. They answered with prayer, taking up words David wrote long before about rulers who band together against God and His Anointed.
Under threat, the gathered believers did not first describe their danger. They named God as Maker of everything, then turned to what He had already said.
Their words are a remarkable outpouring to God. They prove how wrong those are who think there can be no agreement in prayer without a set form written out beforehand... They acknowledge His glory in creation, but turn at once to His prophetic word through David at the start of Psalm 2. They apply it directly to the unnatural alliance Jerusalem had just seen: Gentiles with Jews, Herod with Pontius Pilate, against Jesus the Messiah.
The kings and rulers of the psalm were real men the disciples could name. They were not natural allies.
Pilate and Herod had been enemies, yet they could bury their hatred and be at one in rejecting the Son of God. The Jews usually spoke of the Gentiles with contempt as "the uncircumcised," yet they could join with them in heaping insult and shame on Christ... Satan is well able to bring about unity to accomplish his dreadful purposes.
One event in history fits the opening lines of the psalm.
Since the Psalm was written, its opening words can apply to no event except the one these men had just witnessed. They speak with precision of that strange union and daring guilt, where Jew and Gentile with their rulers set themselves against the Lord and His Anointed as never before or since.
The phrase does not mean men standing in one room. The Gospels place them in different rooms, and that shapes how we read the word.
Scripture says they were gathered "together." Yet Scripture also shows, as every reader of the Gospels knows, that they met in quite different places. The chief priests and scribes led Christ to their own council — to Annas first and then to Caiaphas. The whole crowd of them led Him to Pilate at the Praetorium. Pilate then sent Him on to Herod. In the end Pilate had Him whipped in his own place, before the cross.
The refusal ran deeper than turning down a Saviour.
God sent His Son into this world as the Anointed One, the rightful ruler, and the world has cast Him out. Can this be a matter of indifference to God? On the contrary, it is a matter of deepest importance. God sees the world as a place guilty of rejecting His Son as its rightful Lord, and He expects the believer to see it the same way... The guilt pressed home on the Jews as a people was not that of refusing a Saviour, which was their own individual loss. It was the guilt of rejecting God's Anointed, which brought condemnation on their nation.
The disciples were not praying in despair. They saw a plot that looked like a success, and called it a defeat.
The disciples see in it a conspiracy directed by Satan. In it evil seemed to have its way without check, even to the crucifying of the Lord of glory. Yet they are clear that the enemy with all his hosts gained nothing but defeat. The others never thought of this when they held their council and condemned Jesus to the death of the cross. But Him who is higher than the highest gathered them, to do whatever His hand and His counsel had decided beforehand.
The psalm found a real fulfilment at the cross. It did not find its whole fulfilment there.
The rejection of Jesus at His first coming fulfilled these words, at least in principle. That showed most of all in the resistance offered in Jerusalem to the Holy Spirit. As the Spirit of grace, He first brought His testimony there to the men who had betrayed and murdered that Jesus... The passage has clearly received a partial fulfilment in those events. But later testimonies of the same Spirit make it quite plain that a fulfilment of these words, still more awful and decisive, has yet to take effect.
- Conspiracy. Herod and Pilate, Jew and Gentile despised each other. They united against God's Anointed.
- Counsel. God Himself gathered them, to carry out what His hand and counsel had decided beforehand.
- Collapse. The conspiracy looked like victory. It was total defeat, and the enemy gained nothing.
- Charge. The world's guilt is more than refusing a Saviour. It has cast out God's rightful ruler.
- Coming. The cross fulfilled these words in part; a fuller and more decisive fulfilment is still ahead.
For in truth against thy holy servant Jesus, whom thou hadst anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with [the] nations, and peoples of Israel, have been gathered together in this city
The council has just released the believers with orders to stop speaking about Jesus. They answer with prayer. In that prayer they name exactly who had stood against their Master, and why it happened.
Jesus is called God's "holy servant" here. The Greek word behind that title can be read two ways:
In Acts 4:27, 30 the word is pais, which is translated 'servant' as often as 'child,' the word signifying both. In these verses it would be much better to translate 'your holy servant Jesus.' David is also called 'servant' in Acts 4:25.
The title also shows how far the apostles' preaching had gone by this point.
The Messiah was rejected on earth. The Jews went furthest in urging the deepest shame and disgrace for Him who was born King of the Jews... But, as Peter preached, God raised Him up and made the very Jesus whom His people crucified both Lord and Christ. No apostle went beyond this until now. In Acts 3:13 and Acts 4:27 it is still the Messianic title of "servant" (not "Son").
The prayer quotes David first. It then matches his words, line by line, to what the city had just watched happen.
They acknowledge His glory in creation, but turn at once to His prophetic word through David in the beginning of Psalm 2. They apply this plainly to the unnatural alliance Jerusalem had just seen: Gentiles with Jews, Herod with Pontius Pilate, against Jesus the Messiah.
Kelly presses further. This is not a general rule about opposition, but a prophecy with one owner.
Since David wrote the Psalm, its opening words fit no event except the one just before them. They speak with precision of that strange union and daring guilt. There Jew and Gentile, with their rulers, lined up against Jehovah and His Anointed as never before or since. There are great principles in Scripture, but also exclusively personal prophecies.
The prayer names four parties. Two of them were enemies; the other two despised each other by habit.
How solemn! Pilate and Herod had been enemies. Yet they could bury their hatred and agree together in rejecting the Son of God. The Jews usually spoke of the Gentiles with contempt as "the uncircumcised." Yet they could join with them in heaping insult and disgrace on Christ... Satan is well able to bring about unity for the accomplishment of his dreadful purposes.
Bellett puts it as a standing rule, not just a past event.
The world has power to combine very different elements when an unworldly Christ stands out as a common enemy. Herod and Pilate were made friends together. A society may hold the secular and the religious, even the unbeliever and the superstitious. But let an unworldly Christ appear, and they will all challenge Him as their common enemy.
Some press the phrase to mean meeting in a single location. Kelly shows from the trial itself that it cannot carry that weight.
It is very certain that this gathering "together" of Herod and Pilate, of the Gentiles and of Israel, does not say, or support the idea, that they were all assembled "in one place"... Yet Scripture clearly shows, as every reader of the Gospels knows, that they met in quite different places. The chief priests and scribes led Christ to their own council — to Annas first and then to Caiaphas. The whole crowd of them led Him to Pilate and the Praetorium. Then Pilate sent Him on to Herod.
The verse begins with human plotting. It does not end there.
The disciples see in it a conspiracy directed by Satan. In it evil seemed to have its way unchecked, even to the crucifying of the Lord of glory. Yet they are clear that the enemy and all his hosts have really gained nothing but defeat. The others did not think so at all when they held their council and sentenced Jesus to the death of the cross. But He who is higher than the highest gathered them.
This is what makes the verse steadying when everything looks dark.
Take the worst act the world has ever seen — the crucifixion of Christ... If we may read the hand and foreordination of God in this act, then we may read it in all acts whatever. In this way alone, no darkness is left without relief.
- Gathered against — Herod, Pilate, Gentiles and Israel shared nothing but their opposition to Christ. Rejecting Him turned enemies into friends.
- Gathered apart — "together" does not mean one place. The trial ran from Annas to Caiaphas to Pilate to Herod, yet Scripture calls it one gathering.
- Gathered by God — One higher than the plotters was gathering them, and they never guessed it.
- Named as Servant — the Greek word can mean "servant" or "child", and here "servant" fits best; at this stage Peter still preaches the Messianic title, not "Son".
- Turned into prayer — under threat, the disciples read Psalm 2 back to its Author and applied it to their own city.