To whom does Psalm 2:7 refer with the words, "You are my son, today I have begotten you"?

Psalm 2:7 is quoted then for Christ as Son of God in this world. It is neither His eternal Sonship, as some of the earlier Christian writers conceived, nor His resurrection, as the misapprehension of Acts 13:33 was used to teach. His birth in time as Messiah is the point, 'Thou art My Son: this day have I begotten Thee.'

Psalm 2: 7 is quoted then for Christ as Son of God in this world. It is neither His eternal Sonship, as some of the earlier Christian writers conceived, nor His resurrection , as the misapprehension of Acts 13: 33 was used to teach. His birth in time as Messiah is the point, 'Thou art My Son: this day have I begotten Thee.'

The first scripture quoted is from Psalm 2:7: "My Son art thou: I this day have begotten thee." Never was such a word addressed to an angel. It applies only to Christ. But how? The apostle John loves to expatiate on His eternal Sonship. Again, elsewhere in the epistles of Paul He is often shown as Son of God in resurrection (Rom. 1:4, Rom. 8:29; Col. 1:18), as of course also when He returns from heaven (1 Thess. 1:10). How is He regarded here? As Son of God born in time: so we see Him in Luke 1:32 and yet more definitely in verse 35. The assumption of flesh in no way lowered His Sonship: Son of God eternally, He was still and no less Son of God when born of the Virgin, as He is in resurrection and evermore in glory; He only, and in virtue of divine right acknowledged of God, and to Jesus solely by the word magnified above all Jehovah's name.

Next, Messiah speaks; and here we learn more concerning Him. He is not only King but Son. "I will declare the decree: Jehovah hath said unto me, Thou art my son; this day have I begotten thee" (ver. 7). This is one of the scriptures quoted by the Spirit in Heb. 1. to establish the deity of Christ. As born in time He is proclaimed Son (compare Luke 1:35). Some have thought this to refer to resurrection because of the way in which the passage is used in Acts 13:33, but this is a mistake. If Acts 13. be examined carefully, it will be seen that resurrection is dealt with in ver. 34 not 33. The word "again" should be omitted. "Raised up" in this place has the same significance as in Acts 3:22-26; Rom. 9:17. Indeed we use the term in this way frequently in every day conversation.

But let us examine the psalm itself. In verse 2 there is a concerted movement of the authorities against the Lord and against His Christ. Doubtless this federation will be a second time fulfilled in a fast-approaching day; but in Acts 4:25 this combination is definitely applied in the inspired Scriptures to the rejection of the "holy servant Jesus," by Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the nations, and peoples of Israel. There was therefore a first and partial fulfilment, to say the least, when Christ was rejected and crucified. The sixth verse shows that notwithstanding all this apparent resistance to God's purpose, He goes quietly and resistlessly forward with His plans; for His purposes are to be fulfilled in resurrection and the king is anointed on Zion in full accordance with the holiness of God. But in verses 7 to 9 the Messiah Himself (and I think it is clear that it is from His position as the once rejected but now raised One) declares the decree, and quotes the Lord as saying to Him, "Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee," etc. I do not think you can apply that to the question of the eternal Sonship of Christ, though He is the eternal Son, and Christianity stands or falls by that truth; nor do I think that the incarnation and birth in Bethlehem are in view there, though He who was born there is the eternal Son, and is called the "Son of the Highest," to whom the throne of David shall be given (Luke 1:32), and the "Son of God" (ver. 35). But the context of the passage demands that we view it as dating from the moment when all that man had done against Christ was quietly reversed. In resurrection, God salutes the risen Man, and says, "Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of Me," etc., etc. Did He say to Christ in the days of His lowly humiliation, and before His death," Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel?" Yet this is all part of what Jehovah said to Him, which was introduced by the greeting "Thou art My Son." It is consistent with what Christ is and will do in resurrection, but we cannot, I think, connect that process of judgment with Christ in the days of His flesh.

The quotations begin by that from Psalm 2. God, it is written, has never said to any of the angels, "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." It is this character of Sonship, proper to the Messiah, which, as a real relationship, distinguishes Him. He was from eternity the Son of the Father; but it is not precisely in this point of view that He is here considered. The name expresses the same relationship, but it is to the Messiah born on earth that this title is here applied. For Psalm 2, as establishing Him as King in Zion, announces the decree which proclaims His title. "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee," is His relationship in time, with God. It depends, I doubt not, on His glorious nature; but this position for man was acquired by the miraculous birth of Jesus here below, and demonstrated as true and determined in its true import by His resurrection. In Psalm 2 the testimony borne to this relationship is in connection with His kingship in Zion, but it declares the personal glories of the King acknowledged of God. By virtue of the rights connected with this title, all kings are summoned to submit themselves to Him. This Psalm then is speaking of the government of the world, when God establishes the Messiah as King of Zion, and not of the gospel. But in the passage quoted (Heb. 1:5), it is the relationship of glory in which He subsists with God, the foundation of His rights, which is set forth, and not the royal rights themselves.

The first is deeply interesting for it shows that even as a Man born in time He is the Son of God. These words from Psalm 2 anticipate the virgin birth, and their fulfilment is announced in Luke 1:35. We may say they give us God's utterance to Christ at His incarnation.

"For to which of the angels said He ever, Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee?" As born in time, the Messiah is addressed as Son of God. He may be rejected by "the kings of the earth … and the rulers" (see Psalm 2), but He is acknowledged by Jehovah as His Son.

Secondly. We pass in the next sentence from eternity to time, for "day" is a measure of time, not of eternity: "this day have I begotten Thee." Now we undoubtedly have the incarnation of the Son. It is the Old Testament description corresponding with the New Testament ones "The Word became flesh"; the "Son made of a woman"; "that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."

Thus the Lord's human birth fitly answers to what He was in Deity. In that He was, as John spake of Him, the only-begotten Son, with no "brethren," whereas in human nature it is "among many brethren" that He is "First-born." (Rom. 8:29.) The one title as distinctly excludes any share with others, as the second implies it. Of course it is of His human generation alone that it could be said, "Today have I begotten Thee"; and thus He is Son of David also, and King in Zion.