Author: David, the “servant” of God, on the basis of Acts 4:25. This Psalm doubtless sprang from David’s personal experiences when, after seven years of rule, he established his throne in Jerusalem (V. 6). Soon afterward, he was set upon by the Gentile (especially Arab) nations round about, “taking counsel together” to wreck his kingdom (2 Sam. chpts. 8; 10). (Note for modern application the connection with Psa. 83 and the Arab confederacy.)
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The second Psalm, like the first, is untitled and without subscription. It has always been closely associated with the first, since the subject continues from the one to the other. The concluding thought of Psa. 1, the judgment seat of Christ, leads inevitably to the next major event in the Divine schedule: the judgment of the nations (“goyim,” translated “heathen” in V. 1).
At the time of judgment the nations gather themselves and rage against Christ, the divinely-ordained king. Their earthbound counsels of war make no difference, however, in the counsels of heaven; the subjugation of the nations and the glorification of Yahweh’s Name in His only-begotten Son (V. 6-9) move inexorably forward. The warfare between the seed of woman and the seed of the serpent comes to a one-sided conclusion.
The first two Psalms read together are a fitting introduction to the Book as a whole. There is an impressive series of comparisons and contrasts between the two, which we note as follows:
Psalm 1
V. 1: Opens with “Blessed” (“yasher”).
V. Concerns Christ — the one righteous man.
V, 4-6; Judgment upon ungodly individuals.
V, 6: Closes with “The way of the ungodly shall perish.”
V. 2. In God’s Law doth he meditate
V. 1: The seat of the scornful . . .
V. 5: The ungodly shall not stand . . .
Psalm 2
V. 12: Closes with “Blessed” (“yasher”).
V. 12: Concerns all they that trust in Christ–the righteous multitude.
V. 1,2,5,9: Judgment upon ungodly kings and nations.
V, 12: Closes with “Lest the way (of the ungodly) perish.”
V, 1: In rebellion do they imagine (same word—”meditate”Q.
V, 4: He that sitteth in the heavens . . .
V, 12: Kiss the Son (implying a bowing down)
Verse 1
“Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?”
“Heathen” — “Goyim,” the standard Hebrew word for Gentiles.
“Rage” — “Tumultuously assemble (margin). Both the secret counsels and the open insurrection of the workers of iniquity are mentioned in Psa. 64:2, as well as here.
“Imagine” — Precisely the same word as “meditate” of Psa. 1:2. What a vast difference in possible subjects for meditation!
“A vain thing” — The world today speaks much of “meditation,” and deluded thousands gather together in public and private to learn the secrets of “inner consciousness,” transcendental meditation,” “the third eye,” etc., etc. How foolish it all must seem even to worldly sophisticates! But “vain things” have always been imagined since the world began, and the “immortal soulist” walks hand in hand with the avowed atheist and “the kings of the earth.” Their battle cry is the same:
“Let us break the bands of God asunder” (V. 3).
“We have no king but Caesar” (John 19:15).
“Who is lord over us?” (Psa. 12:4). “There is no God” (Psa. 14:1).
What can be more vain than the attempt to talk away the existence of God, or to pretend He does not hear or see us! But human folly, grounded in human vanity and pride, will persist in charting its own destructive course until Christ comes, and even after.
Verse 2
“The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying. . .”
These first two verses are cited by Peter and John when they had been released by the priestly council (Acts 4:25, 26)—so that we have Scriptural warrant for a preliminary application to the first coming of Christ, while a wider fulfillment awaits us at his second coming. In Acts 4:27 is their straight-forward interpretation:
| Acts 4:27 | Psalm 2 |
| “For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus . . .” |
V. 7.: “Thou art My Son. . .I have begotten thee. . .” |
| “Whom thou has anointed. . .” | V. 2,6: Anointed as a (prospective) |
| “Both Herod . . . | king upon Mt. Zion. |
| Pontius Pilate . . . | V. 2: Rulers (Jewish “princess” or |
| the Gentiles . . . | “dignitaries”) |
| the people of Israel . . . | V, 2: kings of the earth (Roman?) |
| were gathered together.” | V. 1: heathen (“Goyim”) |
| V. 1: People (Jews?) |
At the trial of Christ, Jewish and Gentile leaders conspired together to put an end to this troublemaker, with his uncomfortable challenging words.
“And the same day Pilate and Herod were made friends together: for before they were at enmity between themselves” (Luke 23:12).
The Jewish leaders (religious and secular through slanders and threats, incited the common people to demand the atrocity of crucifixion. They perceived it as needful that “one man should die . . . that (their domination over) the whole nation perish not” (John 11:51,53).
And the Roman governor involved the common Gentiles in the execution when he instructed the Roman soldiers to carry it out.
Notice that on the occasion of Christ’s death:
(1) Jews become Gentiles:
Rulers: “We have no king but but Caesar” (John 10:15),
People: “They cried out, ‘Crucify him!” (Mark 15:13);
while (2) Gentiles become Jews:
Ruler: “Pilate wrote a title. . .” (John 19:19).
People: “Truly this was the Son of God” (Matt. 27:54).
“Take counsel together”—As though by appointment. Similar phrases occur often in the gospel accounts (Matt. 12:14; 22:15; 27:1,7; 28:12; Mark 15:1; Luke 20:20; John 11:47; 18:14). God calls men to come and reason together with Him, so that their sins may be washed away (Isa. 1:18). But men choose to take counsel among themselves, making their appointments with death.
“Against the Lord”—Though they appear to be taking counsel against a man only, in reality they are taking counsel against God Almighty, Who hears their plans (2 Kings 6:12) and laughs at their nearsightedness (See notes on V. 4).
“Against His Anointed” — The Messiah, the Anointed One, translated as “Christ” in Acts 4:26. The word is actually rendered as “Messiah” in the well-known prophecy of Dan. 9:25,26.
David was the Anointed, or “Messiah,” set by God over the house of Judah (2 Sam. 2:4) and then all Israel. We are justified, then, in reading David’s experiences into these Psalms. But even the most conservative expositor sees at each step how far short of the mark David’s life comes in fulfilling these prophecies.
A survey of some “Messiah” verses in the Psalms:
- 18:50—Yahweh gives great deliverance to His king; sheweth mercy to his Messiah, to David, and to his seed for evermore (the “Messiah” to come; Christ the true Messiah now appearing).
- 20:6—”Now know I that the Lord saveth His Messiah.” This Psalm is widely recognized as a coronation hymn.
- 28:8—Yahweh is the strength of salvation of His Messiah. Notice how salvation is always associated with Yahweh’s Anointed.
- 84:9—”Look upon the face of thine Anointed” (Messiah). This Psalm ends, as Psa. 1, begins: “Blessed is the man . . .
- 89:38—”Thou hast cast off . . . been wroth with thy Messiah.” David foresees the removal of the crown and the end (temporarily) of his royal line. But the earlier portion of this psalm (Vv. 26-37) pictures the rule of the Messiah, David’s seed, in words reminiscent of 2 Sam. 7:12-14.
- 132: 10,17—David speaks of God’s Anointed again in terms of the Davidic covenant. This psalm pictures the ark of the covenant coming to Zion! (Compare Psa. 2:6).
“Saying” — The word is in italics and thus not in the original. The actions of the ungodly in taking counsel together are as if to say . . (though the words are not framed). Compare also Psa. 14:1 —”The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.”
Verse 3
” Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.”
“Bands” — Perhaps this is a reference to the “frontlets” of Deut. 6:6-8—the words of God bound upon the hand and between the eyes.
“Cords” — Or “yokes” — The false prophet Hananiah broke the symbolic yoke of Jeremiah, declaring that thus would he break the yoke of the king of Babylon (Jer. 28:11) — which God had placed upon him — within two years. But he himself was broken in death only two months later (Jer. 28.17).
Christ invites us to take his easy yoke upon us (Matt. 11:28,29). And Jeremiah speaks of the benefits to even the youthful of bearing the yoke (Lam. 3:27). How long will it be before man learns the lesson that to be God’s servant is the only freedom, and to break His yoke is the shortest and surest course to the final slavery of death.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One