The kings of earth are ever setting themselves in array against God and His Anointed King,
but in the day when He comes those who will not bend will be broken.
Infinitely wise is he who yields his life to Jesus now and dreadful is the folly of those who continue in enmity to Him.
Psalm 1
1 Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.
6 Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
7 I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.
8 Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
10 Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.
11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.
Psalm 1 – J. Vernon McGee
Psalm 2 – God’s Son upon His Throne
This is one of the sublimest of the Psalms, and can find its fulfillment only in our Lord. See Acts 4:25; 13:33; Hebrews 1:5; 5:5; Revelation 2:27. The mold in which the psalm is cast is highly dramatic.
The determined hate of the peoples, Psalm 2:1-3
Rage conveys the idea of gesticulations and cries of frenzy. For Psalm 2:2, see Luke 23:12-13; Acts 4:25-26.
The divine tranquillity, Psalm 2:4-6
The scene shifts to heaven. In spite of all, the eternal purpose moves on. Have I set. “God anointed Jesus”, Acts 10:38.
The manifesto of Messiah, Psalm 2:7-9
Before time began He was the only begotten Son of God, John 17:5. But His sonship was declared at His resurrection, Acts 13:30-37. The world is His, to be won by the Cross and intercession.
Overtures of peace, Psalm 2:12
Kiss, I Samuel 10:1. This psalm closes as the first began, “Blessed”! —Through the Bible Day by Day
Psalm 2:7—This day have I begotten Thee.
The Holy Ghost tells us that this was addressed by the Father to the Son in his Resurrection (see Acts 8:33). It was from the grave that our Lord stepped up to his mediatorial throne, whence all the hatred of his foes has had no power to dislodge Him, and never shall have. Death is a birth unto the true life. Jesus was the Firstborn from the dead; we too are to be born out of the darkness of the grave into the Life Immortal.
“There is a beyond, and he who has once caught a glimpse of it is like a man who has gazed at the sun. Wherever he looks, he sees everywhere the image of the sun. Speak to him of finite things, and he will tell you that the finite is impossible and meaningless without the infinite. Speak to him of death, and he will call it birth; speak to him of time, and he will call it the mere shadow of eternity.”
But is it not wonderful that He has begotten us also unto a living hope by the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead to an incorruptible inheritance? We are the sons of the resurrection. In Jesus we are already on resurrection-ground. Our sun shall no more go down, nor our moon withdraw herself. For us, at least, God hath destroyed “the vail that is spread over all nations” (Isaiah 25:7).
Do not wonder, then, at the hate of men. They will rage, and imagine vain things; they will take counsel together. It cannot be otherwise.
Than mayest expect, then, to be bruised by thy brethren, and hated by the world. But at such times Christ will come to thee, and give thee fresh accessions of his resurrection life, carrying thee into the hidden house of his abiding, and confirming the weak knees and the heart that faints. —Our Daily Homily