“Who least said by the mouth of thy servant David, Why have the nations raged haughtily, and the peoples meditated vain things?” “Who hast made” and “who hast said” bring before us the God of creation and the Author of revelation. The living, personal God, the Maker of heaven and earth―not the God of the pantheist―is the God who inspired holy men of old to communicate His truth, and embody in the prophetic Word His counsel regarding the Person, kingdom, and government of the Messiah; and David, we are here told, was the Lord’s instrument to foretell the hostile confederacy of nations, peoples, kings, and rulers that should combine against His Christ. There had been and still is a hostile gathering of men against the Lord and against His Christ; bat now a friendly gathering of His followers confronts them and boldly stands up for Him. This is the work of God’s Holy Spirit.
Verses 26-28― “The kings of the earth were there, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord, and against His Christ,” &c. The horse, in its intractable condition—spirited, and refusing to be managed by the rider—is the source of the figure “raging,” which is here applied to “the nations,” and which refers to the Romans; and “the peoples” (“the plural, in allusion to the twelve tribes”) designates the Jews. Indeed, we have in the prayer itself an explanation of the matter given us in these words: “For in truth, against Thy Holy Servant Jesus, whom Thou hadst anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the nations and peoples of Israel, have been gathered together in this city, to do whatever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined before should come to pass.” This must refer to their opposition to Christ, which led to His crucifixion, and which He will punish when “He comes in His kingdom. And this universal hostility must have appeared to the community the more to be dreaded the more they looked upon a world thus opposed, not as an unorganized mass of individuals, but saw is the front of the hostile array those who were set to be heads of nations and lands—the princes and potentates of the earth.”
It is remarkable how entirely they forget themselves in this prayer, and are absorbed with Christ and His great interests. “The apostles were so the roughly engrossed with the Person of Christ and His affairs, their own individual concerns were thrown into the background, and it was so exclusively Christ’s cause which appeared to then intrinsically important, that they saw even in their own sufferings nothing but persecutions directed against Christ Their prayer, therefore, concerned itself only about Him; and their desires looked exclusively to this, that they might be enabled to glorify Him.”
This, shows the work of the Spirit of God, for it is His office to glorify Christ: “He shall glorify Me, for He shall take of Mine and show it unto you.” Ant the spiritual sense―the spirit of wisdom that was in them by the Holy Ghost―showed itself in the appropriate way it which they fixed upon the text with which the Second Psalm opens to form the basis of their appeal in prayer to God with regard to the rulers of their nation, for no quotation could have beer round that could have, described so vividly the awful situation’ and the utter impotency of the world to overthrow God’s purpose concerning His Son. It rarely teaches us that true spirituality will show itself in the Divine skill with which we can weave Holy Scripture into the body of our prayers; and also that Christ will be uppermost, and self nowhere.
Then the folly of the opposition diner O Christ and His cause is seen in this, that in all that transpired they were but carrying out the Divine counsel. “The hostility of the world is so little able to overthrow God’s plan, that it is compelled to become the means of accomplishing it.”
The confederacy which is here described was formed, as we have already said, when Jesus was crucified; and He will punish it when He returns in His kingdom (see Luke 19). It is still, in principle, existent―being the course of his world, already judged, but spared through Divine long-suffering. It will be fully developed in all its forms of evil in “the last days” ―those days which the Psalms so generally belong to. It acts on the old desire and lie of the serpent (Gen. 3:55For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. (Genesis 3:5)). It would dethrone God. For the present, however, He hat sits in the heavens laughs at it all; as was expressed by the angel rolling away the stone, and sitting on it, while he put the sentence of death into the hearts of its keepers (Matt. 28). What was all that but the Lord telling the confederacy which had crucified Jesus that He bad them all in derision? In like spirit the Lord Jesus, from the heavens, challenged Saul, the persecuting zealot, in Acts 9:33And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: (Acts 9:3).
But there is much more than then this present laughter; for the decree of God touching the Christ, is the great counter scheme, and will of course prevail. And while, for the present, the judgment of Revelation 19:15; 12:5,15And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. (Revelation 19:15)
5And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. (Revelation 12:5) is nor fulfilled, nor the establishment of Christ’s earthly triumph and royalty in Zion, when the heathen shall be given Him for an in heritance, the government of God turns suffering to spiritual blessing, and restrains the wrath of enemies, and under our Father’s hand we learn patience.
The psalm tells of triumph over all opposition by unsparing judgment, and kings are called to submit before the coming judgment of the earth. Those who object that Psalms 2 cannot be Messianic, because it is not applicable to the Christian conceptions of the Messiah, do not take into account that the kingdom of Messiah is spoken of in this and other Psalms, and that, it is in abeyance because of the rejection of Christ, and that we have Him now as Saviour and Head of His body the Church, who, after this period of the world’s hostility and rejection is ended, will come as Executor a wrath and vengeance, and judge the world in righteousness. He is Saviour and Judge. He is God’s King; but being rejected, the kingdom is postponed, and heavenly glory opens, which is now the home we look for after we have passed the time of our sojourning here in fear, and not the earthly Center of Zion with God’s King reigning there.
This is in abeyance, and our place is to be in the midst of this hostile world, looking for our Lord to come and take us out of it to Himself; but while He tarries in the heavens we are to be outside this hostile confederacy, suffering persecution for His name, and committing the keeping of our souls to God as to a faithful Creator, casting all our care upon Him. This is what the Christian community, now do.
The Christian community now see by means of this prophetic lamp the hand of God and the accomplishment of His counsel in all the sad history of the rejection and crucifixion of Jesus; and from this they take courage in the present emergency when menaced by “the chief priests and elders of the people,” and forbidden to preach and teach at all in the name of Jesus. Creation, Revelation, and Providence all confirm their faith in God and His Christ, and give them a spiritual conviction that, with God on their side, they need not fear what all the powers of the world can do against them. They have only to have perfect faith in Him, and He will take the whole matter so entirely into His own hands, that, like Jehoshaphat’s army of old, they will have nothing left them to do but ta gather the spoils of a God-given victory (2 Chron. 20:2626And on the fourth day they assembled themselves in the valley of Berachah; for there they blessed the Lord: therefore the name of the same place was called, The valley of Berachah, unto this day. (2 Chronicles 20:26)). Then comes the brief petitory part of their prayer.