King on Zion

Psalm 2 can be viewed as the second part of a two-part introduction to the Psalms. It dramatizes the contrasts of the blessed and the wicked and gives us focal points to them. Divided into four stanzas, the psalm that Paul quotes in Acts 13 has four scenes.

In the first scene we see the nations and peoples of the world plotting and scheming under the guidance of kings and rulers. These rulers set themselves “against the Lord and against His anointed saying, ‘Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.’” This gives a focus of intention to the actions of the wicked described in Psalm 1: they are rebelling against God.

Why do the nations rage

and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth set themselves,

and the rulers take counsel together,

against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying,

“Let us burst their bonds apart

and cast away their cords from us.” (1-3)

In the second scene, we are transported to the throne room where, for His part, God laughs at the rebellious nations derisively because He has already set up His King on Zion His holy hill.

He who sits in the heavens laughs;

the Lord holds them in derision.

Then he will speak to them in his wrath,

and terrify them in his fury, saying,

“As for me, I have set my King

on Zion, my holy hill.” (4-6)

It is His Anointed One, and in the third scene we hear God’s Anointed King speak. Interestingly He speaks up to tell us what God told Him. This is so like Jesus to draw the attention away from Himself and focus it on His Father. “I will tell of the decree: the Lord said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you.’”

This is the focus that Paul brings to Christ in Acts 13:33, that the Psalms prophesied that He is God’s Son and further that He would be raised from the dead (Psalm 16.10). But Psalm 2 goes on to talk about the inheritance that Jesus one day will claim from His Father. God tells His Son: “Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

I will tell of the decree:

The LORD said to me, “You are my Son;

today I have begotten you.

Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,

and the ends of the earth your possession.

You shall break them with a rod of iron

and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” (7-9)

The weight of this impending judgment cannot have been lost of the Jewish audience to whom Paul is speaking (and who would have known this psalm), and it is reinforced by Paul’s quote from Habakkuk 1: 5 in Acts 13:41:

“‘Look, you scoffers,

be astounded and perish;

for I am doing a work in your days,

a work that you will not believe,

even if one tells it to you.’”

And so Psalm 2 ends with a warning from the psalmist. The final scene is like an epilogue to a play when the narrator comes out and tells the audience what to do with what they have just witnessed:

Now therefore, O kings, be wise;

be warned, O rulers of the earth.

Serve the LORD with fear,

and rejoice with trembling.

Kiss the Son,

lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,

for his wrath is quickly kindled.

Blessed are all who take refuge in him. (10-12)

This is a side of Jesus, the judge, that we do not often talk about. The wrath of God poured out on sinners was poured out instead on his Anointed, who is now a refuge for all who recognize that they deserve judgment and need a savior.