In this Psalm the Lord God, in sovereign right, stands to judge the powers and governments of the world, those Gentile powers to whom He had entrusted the sword during Israel’s rejection. He calls them to render account of their stewardship. He reminds them of what their commission had been, convicts them of unfaithfulness to it, and then pronounces the sentence. Upon this His people take comfort, and call on Him to take to Him His great power and to reign; for this judgment is to be followed by His possession of all nations; and we know that the knowledge of the Lord will be spread by His judgments. (See Isa. 26:9; Rev. 15:4.)
How blessed it is to see Christ’s faithfulness to His stewardship in contrast with the unfaithfulness here rebuked. The kingdom, therefore, is not taken from Him, but He delivers it up. (See 1 Cor. 15:24.) This proves His faithfulness.
But we may add on this Psalm, that it helps us to see the contrast between the past and the present dispensation. Then it was that God constituted earthly gods, or judges, representatives of His power and government, among His own people, as we see in Exodus 22:28. But now it is the Son sent forth from heaven, full of grace and truth; not again the representative of judgment in the world, but the minister of grace to the world. A judge or earthly god was the expression of the time then—the Son of the Father, full of grace to sinners, is the expression of the time now. (See John 10:32-38.) But judges or earthly gods are still owned as of God (Rom. 13:1). This Psalm assumes that, for it exhibits their trial and removal, when the Lord takes the kingdom in the latter day. But they do not form the character of this dispensation. Grace to sinners does that.