Psalm 2

Why would the nations hate the Messiah King of Israel? Why would the rulers of the earth set themselves against God and against His Christ? The One who comes to die and rise again, winning a resurrection kingdom for all who believe, also comes to reign, and that reign is a threat to every lesser authority that will not bow the knee to Him.

These verses were fulfilled when Herod and Pilate together with Gentiles and Jews plotted against Jesus Christ culminating in His death on the cross. See Acts 4:24-28. The record of Psalm 2, one thousand years prior to these events, should convince us that the cross did not catch the Almighty by surprise. The hatred of enemies was only a secondary cause of the unjust murder of Jesus of Nazareth. All of the events of the suffering of the Son of God were according to the plan of God.

Even though there can be no doubt that this Psalm was fulfilled in the cross of Christ, this was not the first fulfillment of Psalm2, nor would it be the last. The hatred of the nations and their kings for God, and the predestinating plan of the Lord in the suffering of His people, was expressed throughout the history of Israel and has continued to be a theme in the history of the church. Yet Psalm 2 reminds us that the Lord has His perfect purposes in the sufferings of Christ and His church, and that the Christ who died for our salvation reigns over all.

This reign of the Lord's annointed, the King of Israel, over all the nations of the earth is not welcomed by anyone who believes himself to be the highest authority in his corner of the world. The queen of Sheba was very impressed with Solomon's wisdom and givernance, but she did not give her nation to the great man. Others have honored the kings of Israel far less than she did. They did not always bring gifts. They considered the claim of the God of Israel to be the Ruler of heaven and earth an imposition. If a god wants to say such a thing in his own temple, thats just religion, but if he dares to act like the King of kings, that is an unwelcome advance. It will not be met with applause. “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”

What is the reaction of the Lord God Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth? What is the response of the eternal Son who reigns with Father on high? He laughs. The insurrection of petty rulers against the great I AM is funny. Our rebellion against His worship and His love has its own ironic humor, but it also grieves the Holy Spirit by whom we were sealed for the day of final redemption.

God is not unreasonable or unstable in His passions. He is not like men in that way. He is not frightened when we shake our fist at the heavens. He does not fly off in a rage, and then later pick up that anger management book and review a previous chapter. His emotions are settled. That does not mean that they lack intensity.

God may laugh at the foolishness of kings who think that they can stop Him. (Think of how funny it is to set a guard of soldiers at the tomb of Jesus. What will they do to stop the resurrection?) But laughter is not His only reaction, and this laughter of the Almighty is not the kind that we want to hear. He has words for rebels. He speaks to these kings of the world in His wrath.

The words that He relates are like a sentence of death to those who persist in their rebellion, but to those who have come to love the final King of Israel, the great Son of God, the words of Psalm 2 have become a message of life: “I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”

To make Jesus the king of Israel in the Jerusalem that is below would have been too small a victory. As God later announced through the prophet Isaiah, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” The Zion of Psalm 2 is in heaven where God reigns over all.

To establish Jesus as the great resurrection King with all authority in heaven and earth was not an idea of the New Testament church. That decision was made long before Psalm 2 was written. It was a decree of God, and though it was announced in various places in the Old Testament, it was especially made known in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. See Acts 13:33.

Jesus is the eternal Son of God, but His resurrection was like a new birth, the firstfruits of an entire resurrection age. Other kings were called God's sons, as were mighty angels, but they were all telling a story that demanded a greater Son. The resurrected and ascended Christ is that Son.

You must worship the Son. He is coming again to judge the living and the dead. We cannot fight against Almighty God and expect to win. Look at the sufferings of the Lord's Anointed for your sake, and receive the victory that He won for you at such a dreadful cost.

The wrath of God was coming against us. It would have broken us like a rod of iron. We would have been dashed in pieces as easily as a potter would throw a rejected vessel against a wall. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush His beloved Anointed in our place.

Kiss the Son and serve Him. He embraced you in His death, and atoned for your sins. He is Lord. When you finally hear the laughter of God, let it be laughter of love, and not His holy anger. “Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.”