The Book of Psalms

Word Study

"rage," Hebrew ragshu (רָגְשׁוּ), to be in tumult, throng noisily. The psalm opens with a scene of worldwide rebellion: "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?" The nations are in tumult, kings and rulers band together, and their target is God Himself and "his anointed," His Messiah. Their cry is the cry of every rebel heart: "Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us", we will not be ruled; we will throw off the authority of God and His King.

"imagine," yehgu (יֶהְגּוּ), to mutter, plot. The word pictures the low, busy muttering of men laying plans together, and the astonishing question, "why?", exposes the folly of it: to rebel against the Almighty is to "imagine a vain thing," an empty, doomed enterprise. The world's rebellion against God and His Christ is as old as Eden and as current as today, and it is always, in the end, vain.

"anointed," meshicho (מְשִׁיחוֹ), His Messiah, His Christ. The word meshicho, "his anointed," is the very word "Messiah" (in Greek, "Christ"). While it applied first to the anointed king of Israel, the New Testament tells us plainly that this psalm speaks of Jesus. When the early church faced persecution, they prayed this exact passage, applying it to Christ: "for of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together" (Acts 4:27). The rage of the nations reached its climax at the cross, where the rulers of this world united against the Lord's Anointed.

Explanation

Psalm 1 and Psalm 2 are a matched pair, the double doorway of the Psalter, and one Hebrew word pins them together. In Psalm 1 the blessed man meditates (hagah) on the law of the LORD day and night; here the nations "imagine" (hagah, the very same verb) a vain thing. One meditation bears fruit like a tree by the water; the other is empty air. And the rebels' own words give them away: they call God's rule "bands" and "cords," the language of chains, as though to be governed by their Maker were slavery. It is the oldest misreading of all, first heard in Eden, that the authority of God is a cage rather than a Father's love. The tragedy of rebellion is that it flees the one rule under which it would have been free.

Gospel Focus

"Against the LORD, and against his anointed", the rage of the nations against God's Anointed found its focus at the cross of Jesus Christ, and its answer in His resurrection. The apostles saw the crucifixion as the direct fulfillment of this psalm: "the kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus... were gathered together, For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done" (Acts 4:26-28). Here is the wonder of the Gospel: the very rebellion that crucified Christ was overruled by God to accomplish salvation. Man's worst act became God's greatest work. The nations imagined they could cast off God's cords by killing His Son, but the cross they meant for destruction became the throne from which He draws all men to Himself. And the rebellion continues: the world still rages against Christ's claim to rule, still cries "we will not have this man to reign over us" (Luke 19:14). But it is a vain thing. The Anointed they rejected is risen and reigning, and every knee shall bow to Him. The Gospel calls the rebels to lay down their arms, to stop imagining the vain thing of life without God, and to submit joyfully to the King who died to save them. To be reconciled to the Anointed One is to find that His "bands" and "cords" are not chains of tyranny but cords of love, drawing us home.

Word Study

"set," Hebrew nasakhti (נָסַכְתִּי), to install, consecrate, pour out (as an anointing). Against all the raging of the nations stands God's calm, sovereign "Yet": "Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion." The verb is not one of mere appointment but of installation and consecration, of an anointing poured out; the enthronement is God's own act and God's own doing.

"my king," malki (מַלְכִּי). No matter how the world rebels, God has already installed His King; the matter is settled in heaven. The King the nations rejected, God has enthroned and declared His Son.

"Son," beni (בְּנִי). Then the King speaks, declaring the divine decree: "the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee." These words, first spoken of the Davidic king, are declared by the New Testament to find their true and full meaning in Jesus Christ. At Jesus' baptism and transfiguration the Father's voice echoed this psalm: "This is my beloved Son" (Matthew 3:17; 17:5). From the Oneness of the one true God, the "Son" here is God's own self-disclosure, the LORD's Anointed set on Zion; and the New Testament confesses that this Son is Jesus, in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily.

"this day have I begotten thee," hayyom yelidtikha (הַיּוֹם יְלִדְתִּיךָ). The apostles applied "this day have I begotten thee" specifically to the resurrection: "God hath fulfilled the same unto us... in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee" (Acts 13:33). Hebrews cites it to show Christ's supremacy over the angels (Hebrews 1:5) and His appointment as High Priest (Hebrews 5:5). The "day" of His begetting, in this sense, is the day of His resurrection and enthronement, when God publicly declared and vindicated the Son as the reigning King.

Explanation

The psalm is built as a drama in four voices. First the nations speak their rebellion (vv1-3); then God answers from heaven, laughing at the uproar and installing His King (vv4-6); then the King Himself speaks, reciting the decree (vv7-9); and finally the psalmist turns to warn the kings (vv10-12). Verse 6 is the hinge, the sovereign "Yet" with which God interrupts the noise of the world. And the decree the King recites, "this day have I begotten thee," is coronation language: in the ancient world a king was said to become God's son on the day he took his throne. That is why the apostles read the "day" not as a point in past eternity but as the day of resurrection and enthronement (Acts 13:33), the day God seated His Anointed at His right hand and proclaimed Him to the world.

Gospel Focus

"Thou art my Son", this decree is God's answer to the world's rebellion, and it is the heart of the Gospel: the rejected Christ is the enthroned King. The nations killed the Lord's Anointed, but God raised Him and set Him on the throne, "this day have I begotten thee" fulfilled in the resurrection (Acts 13:33). Jesus, having "by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Hebrews 1:3), the very Son of whom the Father said, "Thou art my Son." In the Apostolic faith, this is no second god beside the Father, but the one true God, the LORD, manifest in flesh as the Son, His own Anointed set upon Zion, "God was manifest in the flesh" (1 Timothy 3:16). The King on Zion is the LORD Jesus, in whom "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9). And His reign is God's answer to every rebel: the cross did not defeat Him but crowned Him, and He now reigns until all enemies are made His footstool (1 Corinthians 15:25). This is unshakable comfort for the believer in a raging world: our King is already enthroned, His victory already won, His kingdom already established, and no rebellion of nations or powers can unseat Him. The Son whom God has set on His holy hill will reign for ever, and all who are His reign with Him. Bow to the enthroned Son, Jesus Christ, and share in the kingdom that cannot be shaken.

Word Study

"kiss," Hebrew nashqu (נַשְּׁקוּ), to kiss, the gesture of homage and submission to a king. The psalm ends with an urgent appeal to the raging kings and to every reader: "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way." To "kiss the Son" is to render homage, to submit to His rule, to bow before the King God has enthroned. The warning is sober: to persist in rebellion is to face His wrath and perish.

"the Son," bar (בַר), an Aramaic form for son. The very Son whose wrath rebels must fear is the refuge in whom all who trust are blessed. Here the two ways of Psalm 1 reappear: the way that perishes and the way of blessing, now focused on one's response to the Son. To reject Him is to perish; to trust in Him is to be blessed.

"put their trust," chosei vo (חוֹסֵי בוֹ), take refuge in him. The psalm does not end in threat but in invitation and blessing: "Blessed are all they that put their trust in him." Note the beautiful movement: the psalm that opened with the terror of a world at war with God closes with the sweetest of promises to all who take refuge in His Son. The King who could destroy rebels instead invites them to find safety in Him. "Blessed are all they that put their trust in him", this is the same blessedness with which the Psalter opened, and it is found by casting ourselves in trust upon the enthroned Son.

Explanation

The two gateway psalms are sealed with a single word. Psalm 1 opens, "Blessed is the man"; Psalm 2 closes, "Blessed are all they that put their trust in him." The whole doorway of the Psalter stands between two beatitudes, framing the same choice from two sides, the blessed man who turns away from the counsel of the ungodly, and the blessed people who turn toward the Son for refuge. And "kiss the Son" is the oldest gesture of homage there is, the kiss a subject gave his king, as Samuel kissed Saul at his anointing (1 Samuel 10:1). The psalm asks for that kiss not as a grudging surrender but as the very doorway into blessing: the homage of a subject becomes the refuge of a child.

Gospel Focus

"Kiss the Son... Blessed are all they that put their trust in him", the whole Gospel appeal is here: submit to Christ the King, and find in Him not condemnation but blessing. The Son who was crucified in weakness is risen in power, and the same Jesus who invites, "Come unto me... and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28), warns that "he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3:36). To "kiss the Son" is to bow the knee to Jesus, to receive Him as Lord and Saviour, to take refuge in Him from the wrath our rebellion deserves. And the promise is breathtaking: "blessed are all they that put their trust in him." Not some, but all; not the deserving, but all who trust. The King has borne the wrath Himself at the cross, so that all who flee to Him find refuge instead of ruin. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1); "whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed" (Romans 10:11). So the psalm that began with a world raging against God ends with an open door for every rebel to come home. Do not perish from the way in stubborn rebellion; kiss the Son, put your trust in Jesus, and enter the blessedness of all who take refuge in Him. The enthroned King is also the crucified Saviour, and His invitation stands: bow to Him, trust in Him, and be blessed for ever.