Whereas Psalm 1 blesses the Lord’s generic, faithful follower (Footnote 1), Psalm 2 blesses an identified person–God’s Son the King. Because God guards the path of the righteous (1:6) and rejects those who reject him (1:1, 4-6), the reader must rightfully infer that the King, who receives God’s greatest blessing, is righteous and adheres very closely to God’s way. What does Psalm 2 tell us about this King?
- Verse 2: He is called God’s “Anointed One (Messiah),” and is named alongside God the LORD (Israel’s God, who is named Yahweh. See Genesis 2:4 and Exodus 3:15). Takeaway: Messiah is introduced in Psalm 2, at the very front of the Psalter.
- Verse 3a: The Messiah is fully on God’s team. (When the Pharisees accused Jesus of serving Beelzebul, the prince of demons, they were gravely mistaken. See Matthew 12:23-28.)
- Verses 1-3: The nations of the world take a united stand against God and his Anointed. The world perceives Messiah as its enemy (Messiah is translated “Christ” in the Septuagint (LXX), which is the Greek version of the Old Testament.) The Septuagint asks its readers to pause and think about this awhile. (See 1 John 2:15.)
- Verse 3: Even in the act of rebelling against the Lord and his Anointed, the kings of the world implicitly and vocally acknowledge that God is their ruler. “They say, ‘Let’s tear off the shackles they’ve put on us! Let’s free ourselves from their ropes!'” (Psalm 2:3 NET) Takeaway: What God gives as blessing–the rule of his Anointed One, his Messiah–the world perceives as bondage. Whose perspective is distorted? God’s? or the world’s? Before replying, consider the biblical portrait of Messiah given in the Gospel accounts–the life, words, actions, and crucifixion of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom the gospel writers, and Pilot the Roman governor, identify as Israel’s king. (John 19:19-22.)
- Verse 5: God himself, in direct speech, endorses his King by proclaiming that he personally installed him on Zion, his holy hill.
- Verses 7-9: The King in direct speech repeats God’s decree.
- Verse 7: The King reports that God announced his relationship with his King. The King is God’s Son, and God is the King’s Father.
- Verse 8: God encourages the King to request of him all the nations of earth as his inheritance, and he will do it.
- Verse 9: The King’s rule over the nations will be absolute, powerful, and punitive.
- Verses 10-12: The King permits repentance. The narrator of this dramatic, possibly choral, psalm encourages the worldly kings of the earth to stop their current course of rebellion and wisely to consider. They still have opportunity to serve the LORD God and to kiss the Son (verse 12). Judgment is not now, but future. His wrath is not yet realized and can be averted. Takeaway: The Son will bless all (even former enemies) who take refuge in him. (See Romans 5:10.)
Conclusion and Summary
While Psalm 1 speaks blessing upon God’s loyal followers and judgment upon his enemies, Psalm 2 speaks judgment upon his enemies and blessing upon all, including former enemies, who hide themselves in him. The tone is absolute, as it states the facts of life. There is no room for discussion, nor protest, nor exceptions. God speaks boldly and clearly as though to say, This is the way it is, folks. You can take it or leave it, and I God encourage you to take my offer of peace and blessing through my King the Son. While Psalm 1 appears to be generic (Footnote 1), Psalm 2 is specific.
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1 Even though God’s blessing is to a class of people who are righteous, Scripture teaches that among the human race, “None is righteous, no not one,” (Romans 3:10; Psalm 14:1-3; 53:1-3). Therefore, the only righteous one remaining is God himself, and as concerns humanity, God the Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus became human for the very reason that he would become the righteous human sacrifice to pay the penalty for all people. Such is God’s love and his determination to bring his fallen people back to himself. In Christ God created a way where there had been no way. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6.)
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