Ps. 2:8

Ps. 2.8

Diag.

Just ask me (and I will):   grant nations  /  as your inheritance
                                      The ends of the earth  /  as your possession

The first two words (“Just ask…”) strike the reader as the antithesis of almost everything preceding.
1)       The arrogant men’s words showed no supplication, no request. Theirs were words of declaration established and emerging from within their own stupidity/arrogance. And the confrontation that met them in the Enthroned One’s voice met this declaration as one of his own. There is a battle being waged here that is expressed in the claims being proffered:
a.       Arrogant men: that the yoke of the Lord and his anointed will be thrown off.
b.       Enthroned one: that He has (permanently) established his anointed.
                                                               i.      We see then that these are two claims, both of iron, being pitted against each other. Of course, the reader knows which one is ‘true iron’, but until now there has been nothing but confrontation. In addition, the Psalmist, as we have already seen, has expressed this ‘confrontation’ in his own puzzlement at the wicked: they are nothing but a complete and absurd mystery to him. Again, his (and our) position is one of superiority, of an alienation that lifts the reader up to the mountain while watching these arrogant men from a great distance.
2)       But here, everything changes. Now, God actually implores; God opens up his realm of heavenly power and, in a sense, asks the anointed to join Him on His thrown. “Just ask….” Dialogue, intimacy (almost a playfulness) emerge from these words and breathe an entirely different spirit into the Psalm. Between these two, the Enthroned One and his ‘enthroned’ son, we are invited into a communion. This must have been what it was like for Moses; and this feeling on the part of the reader must have been what it was like to see Moses descending the mountain. They (and we) knew that here, in this man, was someone to whom God addresses in an intimate way. Here is someone who has not only opened up God’s heart of desire, but one who God has asked that he open his heart.
a.       The distance the reader has felt up until now, a distance that emerged not simply between the arrogant men and himself (a distance we spoke as being vertical) but also the distance that has been established by God’s laughter and shout (if anything, certainly the reader has himself been lowered), that distance has in these few words, closed. And they have closed in the command of Lord to his anointed to “Just ask…”. Dialogue, genuine conversation, emerges for the first time. One senses here that the Enthroned One and his anointed are partners in some way, that the anointed has some type of claim on the Enthroned One (in the same way that Abraham and Moses and others do). Now, the balance of the Psalm is established, and it is established in the anointed one who will bring balance to the world.
b.       Just as absolute as God was in his address to the nations is he in his readiness to respond to the request of the anointed. I picture something like a tree planted in heaven whose fruit empowers those who eat it to enact justice on earth. And God is saying to his anointed, “Come, eat the fruit and be my messenger/anointed/son on earth to enact My justice.”
c.       This sense of God mediating his justice and of that being His choice way of communicating his justice/presence is seen here in this profound way: we see an intimacy to God’s giving of himself and an intimacy that could not be seen were the Lord to simply enact it apart (and unmediated) from his anointed. I would wager that if this aspect of God’s communication is lost sight of one would inevitably tend to abstract notions of God’s sovereignty in such a way that it will appear as a sheer assertion on His part, toward His creation. It will appear simply as a “truth”. However, when we truly see that God mediates, and wants to mediate Himself, within His creation, we see this intimate dynamic at work….”Just ask…” This entire dynamic is God’s sovereignty. And, in fact, in the context of this Psalm, overhearing this conversation between the Lord and His anointed is arguably a more profound seeing of God’s sovereignty that the booming voice addressed to the nations.
d.       The words are perfectly placed. The reader has never been more ready to hear words like this than their following the words addressed to the nations. The contrast is essential. Its felt change is part of the meaning of seeing what it means that God hands over his power to his anointed.
3)       “I will Grant nations as your inheritance/ ends of earth as your possession”: In their context these phrases continue the great reversal felt by the reader. Now, the nations of verse 1 (“Why do the nations…”) are no longer a question to the reader; they are not an absurdity or enigma. They are not a source of superior disdain. They are being brought into the reign of the anointed. They are now coming back into focus. They are, in a real sense, no longer in darkness but, if the anointed requests it, coming into the light. One senses in these verses a rising sun whose light is steadily expanding, to cover the earth.
a.       “As your inheritance”: and this emergence is not simply for the anointed’s lifetime. It will extend and become something he passes on to his posterity, thereby achieving a type of solidity that the Enthroned One enjoys upon his throne. They will be bound to the anointed and his children.
b.       “ends of the earth”: just as the promise of the Davidic kingship was an international kingdom so too does the entire earth now come into focus. All of the rebellion, murderous murmuring and congregating against the just rule of the anointed and the Enthroned One is coming to an end. The entire face of the earth is/can be established in peace.