Ps 2

Why do nations / congregate in commotion

                And why do warriors / murmur murderously

Why do earthly kings / take their stand

                And why do princes / join together as one

                Against Yhwh / and his anointed?

The first psalm opened with the blessed man avoiding the community of the wicked in every stage, but rather of turning his attention to Yhwh’s Torah.

Here, the psalmist begins again with the community of the wicked—but now the purpose of their gathering is to unite “against Yhwh and his anointed.” In the first psalm, no reason for the gathering was explored; the purpose, rather, was on the blessed man and his avoidance of them. Here, we are given an inside view. Here, we are taken inside the gathering. Notably, it is not the ‘blessed man’ that they are fomenting against, but “Yhwh and his anointed”. There is a particular man they are seeking to destroy, not the potentially everyman of Torah meditation. This man has a particular mission as well as a particular relationship with Yhwh—one that is not accessible to everyone.

Along these same lines, in the first psalm the congregation is of the ‘everyman’ wicked person—the “wicked”, the “sinful” and the “scoffers.” Here, they are not individuals, but groups. And they are not generalized, but particular groups of people—“nations”, “warriors”, “kings” and “princes”. These are the rulers, those in power. Their particular identity is matched by the particular identity of the one they have come to overthrow—Yhwh and his anointed. They, together, stand as the rightful and true power and ruler of people.

“Earthly kings”—there are several layers of meaning to this. On the one hand, it is derogative in that these kings ultimately have no power because they are only “earthly”. Their power does not come from heaven and is not divinely sanctioned. More deeply still, though, is how this is understood in this psalm. The first mention of “the anointed” is not of him, alone, but as with Yhwh. As we will see later, Yhwh and his anointed are marked by their communion and communication with each other. When that intimacy between them is grasped, and understood as central to the psalm, the fact that the kings are described as “earthly” means they have no dialogue partner, no commerce with the divine. They are utterly marked by their communion only with other earthly men. For the world of Scripture and the psalms, this is the most terrible indictment on a ruler because he now has no divine backing whatsoever and so, accordingly, him and his people stand utterly vulnerable to heaven’s terrible and always-infinitely-greater power. This is ultimately the source of Yhwh’s laughter, which we will see below.

Let us tear off / their fetters

                And let us cast off / their cords from us

These are the only words from the wicked. They acknowledge Yhwh and his anointed’s authority over them, but want to be freed from it. They want to ‘tear and cast off’ the fetters and cords that bind them. Later, Yhwh will tell the anointed that he has only to ask and he will enable him to “break” and “pulverize” them. And so, while we see on the one hand the nations wanting to ‘break free’ we see on the other Yhwh granted the anointed the power to ‘break’ the nations. Their attempt to break free from the anointed will only result in their being broken. They believe they have the power to dis-align themselves with the anointed. They think they have the power of freedom within their control.  It is one of the key themes of this psalm—that those who are only ‘of earth’ are unable to comprehend the extent of their power and that their every action is always-already encompassed within Yhwh’s sovereign control, which he provides to his anointed. Meaning—that even in their rebellion they will be subject to Yhwh’s and his anointed’s authority and control.

This is the direct cause of Yhwh’s laughter, that follows, and why their words are not simply subject to judgment but mockery.

The Enthroned One laughs / in heaven

                Yhwh mocks them.

To Yhwh, the earthy kings’ stupidity is ridiculous. It is key to understand that Yhwh’s laughter is described as “in heaven”.

Here, in contrast to the earthly kings we have a vision of the “Enthroned One … in heaven.” This is the true king, the true ruler of absolute authority and power. His authority is not limited to a nation, a territory or a people. He is the one who controls “the nations”, who “fetters” and put “cords” on all earthly kings, warriors and princes.

So, even though the nations have “joined together as one” and become united, their unity is a false one. It is almost identical to the unity of those who constructed the tower of babel. From an earthly perspective, their unity is, like the Tower, a thing of dread and an expression of tremendous power. However, from the perspective of Yhwh and “the Enthroned One”, their unity, like the Tower, is inconsequential and utterly fragile and weak. 

Mocking laughter—one envisions this laughter coming, as it were, from behind the veil that separates heaven and earth. And it is not a laughter coming from humor but from mockery. It would, therefore, be utterly terrifying to those who have united themselves against Yhwh and his anointed. It is a pregnant laughter, a laughter that is impregnated with anger and fury.

Then he addresses them/ in his anger

                And in his wrath / he terrifies them

Yhwh now gives birth his anger and wrath. And it is an anger and wrath that terrifies nations, kings, warriors and princes. As united as they were in their rebellion are they now unified in their terror.

I have installed / my king

                Upon Zion  /my holy mountain

These are the only words in the psalm directly spoken by Yhwh that are not mediated to us by his anointed. It is instructive in this regard that they are spoken directly to the nations/kings/warriors/princes. A common theme running throughout the psalms is that the ‘face of Yhwh’ turned toward Israel’s enemies is one of anger, while his face turned toward Israel is one of overwhelming kindness and blessing. The Temple

Yhwh “terrifies” the world by these words—that he has installed “my king” upon Zion “my holy mountain.” Here is Adam-on-the-holy-mountain, the messiah-of-God. Here is he located, the one whom Yhwh has installed and established. Here is the true, and only, earthly king because here is the only earthly king that heaven has established. Here, and only here, does earthly power find its divine power and strength. The same voice that laughed, is the same voice that now stands behind and installed his king.

Heaven and Zion (the Throne and the throne)—If Yhwh is envisioned as the “Enthroned One in heaven”, then his installing of his king “on Zion”, represents the pinnacle of power on earth. It mimics, or participates within, the divine and heavenly throne room. Just as Yhwh, when seen on his throne is “holy, holy, holy”, so too now is Zion the “once holy” place on earth. This is no mere idol metaphor. Zion is the place of holiness, the center of the world and forms the gravitational pull of all earthly power.

It is the most potent gathering—the one man chosen to be king is installed in the one place that is chosen to be Yhwh’s special resting place. In a very real sense, it is here, where the messiah and Zion meet, that Adam and his Garden are both seen in their splendor and power. One without the other is incomplete. Together, they are much more than the sum of their parts. They both realize each other—the messiah realizing Zion’s potential and Zion realizing the messiah’s potential.

I will tell / of Yhwh’s decree

                He said to me /  You are my son

                Today / I have begotten you

The psalm now shifts from the voice of Yhwh to the voice of the anointed. This immediate pairing of the two is important on several levels.

First, the messiah only speaks the words of Yhwh, of his “decree”. He does not speak his own words.

Second, the words form Yhwh alone are addressed to the nations, as we saw above. And, as such, they are words of terror, given to them in an attempt to not accidental. Yhwh speaks to the nations, and he speaks to them about his anointed. Here, however, through the Messiah, Yhwh speaks to his people. The voice of Yhwh-and-the-anointed, is the merciful and blessing-voice of Yhwh. This dynamic cannot be overstated—that to perceive the voice of Yhwh as he wills good for his people, is to hear the voice of Yhwh spoken through his messiah. The messiah does not ‘get in the way’ of Yhwh’s voice (in fact, in this psalm, Yhwh’s “voice alone” is an expression of his anger). It is the other way around—the messiah, in a way, amplifies, or fulfills, Yhwh’s own voice-of-goodness-and-blessing.

Third, the messiah is Yhwh’s objective. Just as Zion is the object of Yhwh’s geographical love, so the messiah is the objection of Yhwh’s human love. Yhwh-and-the-messiah express more of Yhwh then Yhwh alone because the messiah is Yhwh’s ‘goal’. He is the ‘fruit’ of Yhwh’s planting, the abundance of his planting; he is Yhwh’s blessing. As we will see below, this messiah-of-Yhwh is to mediate Yhwh’s blessing-authority on earth, and he will do so by bringing out order to the chaos of the nations. He will Yhwh’s gardener within his fields.

**if Yhwh personally addresses the nations in wrath, then, when he turns to the messiah, he makes him the instrument of that wrath, the “rod of iron”.  The messiah will, then, be the angry face of Yhwh to nations. His anger, however, is not an end in and of itself, but an anger that is born from the desire to bring about order and blessing. In other words, the nations, the kings, the warriors and the princes stand in the way of Yhwh’s blessing. They thwart the Creator’s intent for his creation. The messiah is to straighten what is crooked. If we look back to Psalm 1, we saw how there was an event that was going to lift the ‘blessed everyman who loves Torah’ to a position of strength. An event was going to turn the world upside down by turning it right-side up—lifting up the lowly and casting down the high. Here, in Psalm 2, we see how that event is one that is carried out through the messiah. This is confirmed later in the psalm where it says the ‘sons’ anger will cause them to “perish in the path”. The last portion of Psalm 1 says “For Yhwh knows the way of the righteous but the way of the wicked shall perish.” The use of the two words “way” and “perish” identifies the son’s anger as the vehicle of Yhwh’s judgment in Psalm 1. **

“You are my son, today I have begotten you.” Yhwh is not here adopting the messiah. Rather, he is covenanting himself to him, making them family and, specifically, father and son. This act of covenant is not metaphorical but an act of ‘begetting’, as if Yhwh were a mother giving birth to the messiah. Here is where the psalm finds its center—the messiah has now been made into a divine son through Yhwh’s act of covenant. He is no longer ‘merely human’. The covenant has opened up a space within Yhwh, a space so intimate that it is described as the messiah’s being born-by-Yhwh, such that he is no longer a human son but a god-son. This is covenant power, the elevation of the messiah into the heavenly realm. As we will see, this space opened up within Yhwh opens up the ability for the messiah and Yhwh to speak to each other like a father and son. And this dialogue will show us an aspect of Yhwh’s heart that otherwise would remain hidden. The covenant therefore is a theophany—a revealing of Yhwh. Through the son we see the father.

Just ask me

                And I will grant nations / as your inheritance

                And as your possession / the ends of the earth

The space the covenant opens permits something that otherwise we might not imagine possible—it allows the king to “ask Yhwh” for the world. It opens up the realm of petition. More importantly, however, is the fact that this realm of petition is first mentioned by Yhwh—once he has begotten his son his first words to him are “just ask me…”. Just as Yhwh is the one ‘begets’ the messiah and initiates the covenant, so too is he the one, within the covenant, to initiate the intimacy of their relationship. His first words are not a request for the messiah to give him something but, instead, and astonishingly, but a request-for-a-request. Yhwh wants to give. And, even more marvelously, what he wants to give is not something small—he wants to give the messiah the nations and the ends of the earth. The Creator wants to give the messiah his creation, the Cosmos.

Here we see the image of the Enthroned One in the enthroned king-messiah. Yhwh is not granting the nations and the ends of the earth to ‘everyman’. He is granting them to this son because this son has been installed as Yhwh’s regent and king, as his image. As we will see below, the grant of creation to the king is for the purpose of the messiah’s bringing order to it. That is the particular prerogative of the king—to order and protect the realm given to him. This is Adamic mission. Here, that ‘realm’ is all of the nations and creation itself.

In other words this is not simply a gift that does not require a response. The Enthroned One grants to his messiah the entire world so that he will bring order to it, just as his father does in the heavenly realm. The gift doesn’t end in him.  Through him, the will of heaven will be on earth. We might say, this is a gift with a mission.

You shall break them / with an iron rod

                Like a potter’s vessel / you shall pulverize them

It is perhaps curious that the grant of the nations and the ends of the earth is for the purpose of “breaking them with an iron rod” and “pulverizing them like a potter’s vessel.”

However, this verse must be understood within the context of the entire psalm. We will recall that the nations also wanted to “break” their fetters and cords. We saw there that the destroyers were going to be destroyed. By matching their act of destruction with Yhwh’s utter destruction, we are to understand that if they nations persist in their rebellion then they will be engulfed in destruction.

Also, the following verse puts a stop to any idea that Yhwh’s intent is their destruction. Instead, he wants them to submit to his messiah. He wants them serve Yhwh and kiss the son. He does not want his anger and wrath to flare up such that the son would wield the rod of iron against hem and make them “perish in the path”. The Creator wants his creation maintained. He wants life.

So now / O kings / think carefully

                Be admonished / o earthly rulers

The psalm now shifts speakers, the one who opened the psalm and expressed puzzlement at the nation’s attempts to break free from Yhwh and his anointed. Notice how the tone is somewhat similar, though. This is clearly the same “character” who began the psalm. After the revelation has been made to the nations of Yhwh’s installing his messiah on Zion, and after it has been revealed to them that they have been granted to the messiah, now they must ponder these things, the psalmist says. In other words, before you attempt to break free from the messiah and consign yourself to destruction, think about what has been revealed to you. What has been revealed, then, was given in order to effect a conversion, a change. It was to extend them mercy so that they would realign themselves with Yhwh and his anointed and, in this way, with creation itself—because all of creation has been given over to the messiah such that to rebel against the messiah and Yhwh is to rebel against creation itself.

**that rebellion against Yhwh and the messiah is a rebellion against creation. If the nations believed Yhwh to be a local deity, or a deity that did not have all of creation under his sovereign control, then an act of rebellion against him would not be one against creation itself. However, Yhwh is the creator. He has nations and the ‘ends of the earth’ under his sovereign control and, more importantly, he owns them such that he can give them to his son/messiah. The revelation to the nations is not simply that Yhwh is really strong and has granted that strength to his son—it is revealing to the nations the nature of Yhwh’s authority. He is more than ‘really strong’. He is the Creator who owns creation. For this reason, any act of rebellion is a rebellion against the Creator and, thus, his creation. By granting creation to his messiah/son, moreover, he is investing that messiah with all of that authority such that a rebellion against the son/messiah is also a rebellion against Creation. It is key, therefore, that the grant to messiah/son is as expansive as it is, because he grants all of creation to him without remainder,  because otherwise a rebellion against the messiah and Yhwh would not, ultimately, coincide. But, because Yhwh has, in a way, given all of himself to his son, then to “see the son is to see the father” and to attack the son is attack the father.***

**in light of Psalm 1, we now see a few things. Psalm 1 provides that Torah is the source of blessing for everyman; it is that which makes the blessed man fruitful. Psalm 2 now shows us that the whole of creation has been entrusted to the messiah (the Davidic son). If all of creation is undergirded and given power through Torah, then all of creation is given protection and security by being granted to the messiah. The messiah is not what makes the world fruitful; the messiah is what protects the fruitfulness of the world. Sinai and Zion, Torah and David. Temple and King—Adam-in-the-Garden.

For the wicked, to rebel against Torah, led to their perishing. For the nations, to rebel against the messiah, leads to their destruction. The covenant with creation is to be paired with the covenant to Adam-and-then-David. ***

Serve Yhwh with fear

                And rejoice with trembling

Kiss the son / lest he be angry

                And you perish in the path

For his anger flares up quickly

Happy are all / who seek refuge in him.

Now that the rashness of nations has been given a reason to pause, the psalmist fills that space with a call to the nations to obey Yhwh by submitting to his son as his vassals. The impetus for their conversion to the son, as we have seen, has been an expression of the fearful authority of Yhwh in rebuking them and displaying the authority and power given to his son. He has attempted, through this dramatic form of anger, to reorient them away from rebellion and towards service and obedience. This face of Yhwh is clearly not intended to turn them away but to bring them close, to bring them within the ambit of his son so they can experience blessing and refuge.

But if, after Yhwh reveals to them the true nature of himself and his son, they continue in their rebellion and refuse vassalage then the son has been given the rod of iron to destroy and obliterate them. This anger, this second anger, is not the anger of mercy as it was before. It is the anger of the gardener toward the disease or vermin ruining his crops and, for the safety of the crop, must be destroyed.

It is important to understand the logic of this—to refuse the son is to refuse Yhwh because Yhwh has begotten him and granted to him—and him alone—all of creation. Because Yhwh and his son represent all of authority, without remainder, then refusal of their authority, after it has been shown to them, has no place for mercy any longer. There is no ‘place’ from which mercy can be drawn at this point because everything has been made clear to them and yet they still persist. It is, in a word, utterly demonic in its rebellion. No longer is there a possible way of understanding their rebellion as consisting in a misperception of Yhwh and his son, of thinking of them as lesser beings who do not inhabit the entire scope of being and sovereignty. It is precisely because they have that perception that Yhwh grants them a merciful anger in an attempt to convert them. But no longer. This is, in a sense, an unforgivable offense. Again, there is no space from which mercy can spring.

But, for those who do convert to the son, for those kings who present their nations as vassals to him, then, the sphere of Yhwh’s covenant blessing opens up—and now, the entire cosmos, in him, becomes ‘happy’ and ‘blessed’. This is amazing when read in the context of Psalm 1—there, the Torah, which is given to Israel is the source of supernatural blessing. In Torah is the Israelite made into himself because he is brought outside himself and into Yhwh’s sphere. Here, in Psalm 2, the nations are given that same access but now it is not through Torah but the messiah/son. Psalm 1 is Sinai—Psalm 2 is Zion. And the ‘dividing wall’ between the two psalms is brought down in Jesus Christ, the eternal son of God.

The close connection again between Yhwh and his son—service to Yhwh includes kissing the son, both of them rooted in the knowledge that one should fear a failure to acknowledge and obey them.