And *I* have anointed my king upon Zion, the hill of my holiness.
God answers a world in revolt with one sentence. It is not an argument but an announcement: the throne is already given. Three questions follow. Who is this King? Why Zion? And how can God call a thing done that no one can yet see?
Verses 1–3 describe nations and rulers plotting to throw off God's authority. This verse is the reply, and its force is that the plotting changes nothing.
The rage, the plotting, and the plans that kings and rulers make all come to nothing, and God's counsel stands. His purposes are not delayed one hour, and He sets His King exactly as intended on Zion, His holy hill... The rulers and the kings will depart in judgment. The shouting and the uproar will die away. And Jehovah will anoint His King, just as the decree said.
The word "set" really means "anointed," and man's opposition to God cannot defeat His purpose. How puny man is — all his efforts to dethrone God will come to nothing. The rightful king of Israel will reign in Zion.
The word "my" is deliberate. It sets God's choice against the king the people chose for themselves.
Jehovah loves to say "My King." He is the true David, the man after God's own heart, whom He chose to feed His people. Saul was the opposite. Saul was the people's own choice, made when they had rejected Jehovah as their king. God has a king in store, and He will show Him at the right time. He will take everything out of the usurper's hand and give it to the One whose right it is.
Zion was not a neutral address. God chose this hill at the lowest point in Israel's history.
No mountain in the Old Testament stood in such formal contrast with Sinai as Zion. Sinai was the unforgettable scene where the nation was put under responsibility to the law. Zion was where Jehovah stepped in with grace for His king, at a time when everything lay in ruins. People and priests alike were wicked. The Philistines had taken the ark. Ichabod was confessed. Israel's king and his sons were killed. And the Jebusite was not only in the centre and stronghold of Jerusalem but defiant and insulting. Then it was that Jehovah, as He chose David, so also chose the mount Zion which He loved. And there He will set His king, on Zion, His holy hill.
So what does that hill hold? Another writer lists it plainly.
"You have come to Mount Zion." What do you get there? What is said of Mount Zion is that it is the hill of grace. It is where God finds His rest. It says, God will dwell there forevermore. He loves it. Blessing is there; there God commands blessing, life forevermore. It is the hill on which He places His king. And why do you think He has set His king there? It is for blessing. If God raises up a king, it is for blessing, not for the destruction of man... No doubt the rebellious must suffer judgment, but God's thought in a kingdom is salvation.
Zion is one hill, but the psalm does not stop there. It goes on to give this King the nations, and it describes a rule unlike the gospel that goes out now.
Two things are set forth here. First, God anoints the Son as King on Zion, His holy hill. Then He gives Him the nations as His inheritance. Zion is His throne; the nations, His inheritance. Second, His way of dealing with the nations is the opposite of the gospel — "You shall break them with a rod of iron." In the gospel, the rod of Christ is a rod of goodness and love. It is everything that is sweetest and strongest in His love. It is not a rod of iron.
Commentators read the past tense as certainty, not as something already visible. The world rejected this King, and His throne is still ahead.
In Psalm 2 you find Christ spoken of as come to this world, and rejected... In that character as King in Zion, and Son of God, as born into this world, He was utterly rejected; yet God will set Him on His holy hill in Zion.
Why then can God speak of it as finished?
God's counsels will prevail so surely that He can speak of them as already done — "I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill." Divine power carries out divine counsels.
- As for me. God speaks for Himself: kings plot, and His counsel is not delayed one hour.
- Set. The word means "anointed" — the King men reject is the King God commissions.
- My. God's own choice, the true David, over against the king people choose for themselves.
- Zion. The hill of grace, chosen when everything else had collapsed, where God sets a king for blessing.
- Done. Spoken in the past tense because divine power always accomplishes divine counsels.
I will declare the decree Jehovah hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; *I* this day have begotten thee.
The kings of the earth plot against the LORD and against His Anointed, and God answers by setting His King on Zion. Now the King speaks for Himself, and the words He repeats raise the psalm's deepest question: who is this King, and when was He begotten?
One writer asks why this King can stand against all opposition, and ties the answer to the courage of the first believers who prayed this psalm back to God:
Why is it that the King in Zion can stand against all the hatred and opposition of the enemy? Think of the day of His rejection. His followers were only a few weak Jews. Yet soon after Pentecost they could take up this second psalm and quote it back to God. They used it as an argument for why He should give them all boldness to speak the Word without fear. It was because that King in Zion was His Son. "I will declare the decree," says the Son; and then He declares it. "You are My Son," God had said to Him; "today I have begotten You." He is in His kingly place as Son of God, and who dares stand against the Son of God and succeed?
One writer reads the Son title as belonging to Christ come into the world as Israel's promised King:
The New Testament quotes Psalm 2:7 for Christ as Son of God in this world. It is not His eternal Sonship, as some early Christian writers thought. It is not His resurrection either, which others taught by misreading Acts 13:33. His birth in time as Messiah is the point: "You are My Son: today I have begotten You."
The same writer notes that this changes nothing about what He always was:
Becoming man in no way lowered His Sonship. He is Son of God eternally. He was still, and no less, Son of God when born of the virgin, just as He is Son of God in resurrection and forever in glory.
The verse has two clauses, and writers read them as covering two different spans:
In the next sentence we pass from eternity to time. "Day" is a measure of time, not of eternity: "today I have begotten You." Now we undoubtedly have the incarnation of the Son. It is the Old Testament description that matches the New Testament ones. "The Word became flesh." The "Son born of a woman." "That holy child who will be born of you will be called the Son of God."
Another writer calls the first of the two expressions timeless:
There are two important expressions in this verse. One is a timeless expression, "You are my Son" — what the Messiah is to God who is His Father. We can carry this expression back into eternity. It expresses the divine intimacy and pleasure resting in the Father's heart towards this blessed Man.
Commentators differ over whether "today" points to the birth of Christ or to His resurrection. One writer traces where the New Testament takes up the psalm's Son title, and where it does not:
Here Messiah speaks, and we learn more about Him. He is not only King but Son. This is one of the Scriptures quoted in Hebrews 1 to establish the deity of Christ. Some have thought this verse refers to resurrection because of the way Acts 13:33 uses the passage, but this is a mistake. Look at Acts 13 carefully and you will see that it deals with resurrection in verse 34, not 33. The word "again" should be left out.
The decree does not stop at a name. It hands the King the nations, and calls the kings of the earth to submit:
The decree of God is that His Son shall be anointed — that is, declared King over all the earth — and He invites the kings of the earth to submit to Him. He says to them, "I am about to speak in my wrath. I give the inheritance of the nations to Christ. He will bruise you with a rod of iron; He will break you in pieces. Now then, submit yourselves to Him, to my Son, King in Zion." These kings follow their own ways. Yet God has decreed His reign surely and beyond recall, and He will bring it to pass despite the kings of the earth.
- Decree — the King does not argue with the world's plotting. He publishes a decree. His right rests on God's word, not on man's consent.
- Son — the decree names Him: the King in Zion is God's Son, and that is why no opposition can stand against Him.
- Today — "today" is a time word. Most writers here read it of His birth in time as Messiah. Others tie it to resurrection through Acts 13:33.
- Unchanged — becoming man never lessened His Sonship. He is Son eternally, Son born of the virgin, Son in resurrection and in glory.
- Inheritance — the same decree grants Him the nations. God warns the kings to submit before the rod of iron falls.
Ask of me, and I will give thee nations for an inheritance, and for thy possession the ends of the earth
Verse 7 gave the decree: "You are my Son; today I have begotten you." Verse 8 carries it on. Jehovah now invites His King to ask. His answer to a world in revolt is a grant of the whole earth to the One that world rejected. So when does the Son claim it, and how?
Verse 6 has already set God's King on Zion. This verse tells how far His rule reaches.
This sets out two things. First, God anoints the Son as King upon Zion, His holy hill, and gives Him the nations for His inheritance: Zion is His throne; the nations, His inheritance. The decree of God is that His Son shall be anointed, that is, declared King over all the earth.
The grant runs past the borders of one nation. It reaches the ends of the earth. And His rejection has delayed the day He takes it:
When He asks, He will receive more than Judea. He will receive the nations for His inheritance and the ends of the earth for His possession. But judgment marks this, and He carries it out in public. He breaks them with a rod of iron and dashes them to pieces like a potter's vessel. Unbelieving Jews and lawless Gentiles rejected Him, and that has postponed it.
The word "ask" matters. Power and glory could have come to Him another way, without asking. He would not take them that way.
He could truly think of everything there — the beauty of nature, the power of rule — as one day subject to Himself. But even that drew Him for one reason only: to bring all things under His Father's authority. And He would remember — He never could forget for a moment — that it was to be the Father's gift to Him: "Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession." His Father would then put them in His hands, in His time and way. He will not seize them ahead of time, and He will not accept a lie, whatever show of power and glory it carries.
The gift waits on the asking. So the timing of that asking decides everything. Right now Christ asks for something else.
Christ does not as yet ask of God the world for His own; His requests now only apply to the church. When He claims the earth, it is for judgment; but there are warnings for the kings of the earth. The question there is not whether people recognise the Son as the Saviour, but as the King who has a right to own the earth. Christ has not only the right to gather souls for heaven, but also to receive the earth as His own.
When the believers in Acts 4 quoted it against the rulers who had crucified Jesus, they quoted only the opening lines.
Christ has not yet carried out the judgment of verse 9. That is no proof that He will not; it is the solemn assurance that He will. Those who apply this Psalm to the uprising against the Messiah stop short there. They say nothing of His asking Jehovah for the nations as His inheritance and the ends of the earth as His possession. Christ is busy now with His heavenly relations and offices. He will ask for the earth when He is about to come and execute judgment on the living and the dead.
How the nations come into His hand is not how souls come to Him now. Verse 9 gives the method, and it is nothing like the gospel.
To break the nations with a rod of iron is quite another thing from the gospel. He has the nations, not as His bride, but as His inheritance. Jesus has received power from His Father, not only to secure the church, but also to break the nations. And the church shall be with Jesus. Jesus has not yet asked for the inheritance. He is praying that His own may be kept. He is the sovereign High Priest, not of the world, but of the church.
What the Son receives, He passes on. He promises authority over the nations to the one who overcomes. That promise rests on this grant.
The Lord encourages the overcomer by announcing that He is coming again. Then He Himself shall reign over the nations in public, and He says, "As I also have received from My Father." The Crucified shall reign, and that by His Father's just decree. So He will give, along with Himself then, to the overcomer, "authority over the nations."
- Decree — God answers a rebelling world by decree. Zion is the Son's throne, and the nations are His inheritance.
- Gift — the kingdoms come to Christ as the Father's gift, in the Father's time. He will not take them early or by a lie.
- Delay — He has not yet asked. His requests now are for His own, and He claims the earth later.
- Reach — the grant covers not one land but the ends of the earth, and He takes it by judgment, not by the gospel.
- Sharing — He receives this authority from His Father, and He promises to share it with those who overcome.
Thou shalt break them with a sceptre of iron, as a potter's vessel thou shalt dash them in pieces.
God has just promised the Son the nations. This verse tells Him how He will take them — not by persuasion, but by force that shatters. Two questions follow. When does this happen? And how does an iron rod fit the same Christ the gospel presents today in grace?
Verse 8 names the inheritance. Verse 9 names the method. Commentators draw a sharp line between that method and the message going out now.
His way of dealing with the nations is completely opposed to the gospel: "You shall break them with a rod of iron." In the gospel, the rod of Christ is a rod of goodness and love. It is everything most sweet and most powerful in His love. It is not a rod of iron.
Grace comes first and the rod afterwards, because the Son has not yet asked.
"Ask of Me," Jehovah says, and He has not asked — He is still sitting in patience... His long-suffering is now salvation. When it is over, and delay would be, not blessing, not long-suffering, but weakness, it is with the rod of iron that He takes the ends of the earth for His possession — not, as people imagine, with the gospel. Isaiah 26 shows that grace has been tried and found ineffective. The gospel has gone out for centuries and has not converted the mass of mankind.
Some read the iron rod as a picture of Christ's influence spreading quietly through hearts today. One writer rejects that reading, because of who these nations are.
"You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel," Psalm 2:9. We do not think that this is the gentle influence of His Spirit in the hearts of His people... These nations are not Zion at all, and this display of power is quite a different thing, still to come.
The verse holds two images. Iron speaks of a rule that will not bend.
The firm, unyielding rod of iron points to the stern and unbending rule He will exercise over the rebellious nations... Their determined will must be broken and their power shattered to pieces.
The clay supplies the other half. What the rod strikes is not strong; it is brittle.
This common pottery of the East is very fragile, and Scripture often refers to it for that reason. The Lord Jesus will subdue all His enemies: will dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
The rod and the love of Christ are not in conflict.
That ruling, though with a rod of iron, is really shepherding... Where He rules with a rod of iron, that is still a shepherd's care and love. Love, if need be, can strike. The rod of iron is for preservation no less than for destruction; in fact, preservation is the end in view. It is to destroy those who destroy the earth, and to make even the earth a place where peace will flourish as the result of righteousness.
Christ does not keep this authority to Himself.
It is striking that the psalm grants authority over the nations to Christ alone (Ps. 2), but the same unlimited authority and dominion awaits the conqueror who presses on to the end. The overcomers will share the public place and portion of the Son.
The verse is not a bare threat. The psalm follows it with an appeal.
He will rule them with a rod of iron and break them in pieces like a potter's vessel — breaking with power nothing can resist, ruling in judgment all who rise up against His throne without reverence and without strength. But this judgment has not been carried out yet. The psalm itself invites the kings and judges to submit and humbly own the Son.
That appeal is not vague. God states the terms Himself.
The decree of God is that His Son shall be anointed — that is, declared King over all the earth — and He invites the kings of the earth to submit to Him. He says to them: "I give the heritage of the nations to Christ. He will bruise you with a rod of iron; He will break you in pieces. Now then submit yourselves to Him, to My Son, King in Zion."
- Inheritance — verse 8 gives the Son the nations. Verse 9 tells how He takes them: by breaking, not by persuading.
- Delay — the rod waits because the Son has not yet asked. The present pause is deliberate patience, and that patience is salvation.
- Instrument — iron will not bend, and clay will not hold. One image shows a rule that never gives way. The other shows resistance that shatters at a blow.
- Shepherd — ruling with the iron rod is still shepherding. Love can strike, and preservation is the goal.
- Invitation — the psalm answers its own verse. It calls the kings to submit and own the Son before the rod falls.