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.