The Messiah’s Triumph and Kingdom
Coronation of the Lord’s Anointed
The Reign of the Lord’s Anointed
Armageddon Campaign
Bridal Conflict Prophesied
Nations Rage Against God
• Jewish Messianic King rules by intercession; David’s clearest revelation of the end times (TOD)
2:1 Why do the nations rage,
And the people plot a vain thing?
• Why? A rhetorical question that implies “How dare they!” (NIV)
• Surprise at their folly and indignation at their rebellion
• The hatred of human nature against the Christ of God; mighty opposition (TOD)
• Nations – Gentiles (NAS)
• People – races of men (JFB)
• They are marked in their heart by their imagination; it is the most spiteful and malicious opposition; it is a deliberate and
politic opposition; it is resolute and obstinate (MH)
• The seat of the war is this earth (MH)
• Rage – noise – tumult – pride – restive – as horses that neigh and rush into battle; an outward agitation (TOD)
• Past tense – the commotion has already begun, while the future in the next clause expresses its continuance (TOD)
• Where there is much rage there is generally some folly (TOD)
• Vain – no true ground and something they could not do (TOD)
• In the ancient Near East the coronation of a new king was often the occasion for the revolt of peoples and kings who had
been subject to the crown. (NIV)
Acts 4:23-31 (….For a truth against they holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the
people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done ….); Psalm 4:6 (Many
are saying, “Who will show us any good?” Lift up the light of Thy countenance upon us, O Lord!); 83:2-5 (For, behold, Thine enemies make an
uproar; and those who hate Thee have exalted themselves. They make shrewd plans against Thy people, and conspire together against Thy
treasured ones. They have said, “Come, and let us wipe them out as a nation; that the name of Israel be remembered no ore.” For they have
conspired together with one mind; against Thee do they make a covenant); Psalm 21:11 (Though they intended evil against Thee, and
devised a plot, they will not succeed)
2:2 The kings of the earth set themselves,
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,
• The commotion is not caused by the people only, but their leaders foment the rebellion (TOD)
• Set themselves – in defiance of reason. (MH)
• Set themselves – take a stand (JFB)
• It is a combined and confederate opposition. (MH)
• The many had done their part, and now the mighty show themselves (TOD)
• It was not temporary rage, but deep-seated hate, for they set themselves resolutely to withstand the Prince of Peace
(TOD)
• They go about their warfare craftily, not with foolish haste, but deliberately. They use all the skill which art can give.
(MH)
• Take counsel – sit together; denoting their deliberation (JFB)
• His Anointed – Messiah (NAS)
• Anointed – Messiah – Anointed One – Christ (NIV)
• Anointed as Prophet, Priest, and King – referring to the Messiah (JFB)
• To rebel against the Lord’s Anointed is also to rebel against the One who anointed Him (NIV)
• The newly anointed king is here pictured as ruler over an empire (NIV)
• They took counsel to kill Him . They had the devil’s mind which is not satisfied but with death. (TOD)
Matthew 12:14 (Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him); 26:3, 4, 59-66; 27:1, 2; Mark 3:6; 11:18;
John 1:41; Psalm 48:4-6 (For, lo, the kings assembled themselves, they passed by together. They saw it, then they were amazed; they were
terrified, they fled in alarm. Panic seized them there, anguish, as of a woman in childbirth); Psalm 74:18 (Remember this, O Lord, that the
enemy has reviled; and a foolish people has spurned Thy name), 23 (Do not forget the voice of Thine adversaries, the uproar of those who
rise against Thee which ascends continually)
2:3 “Let us break Their bonds in pieces
And cast away Their cords from us.”
• Sinners have their wits about them (TOD)
• The rebellious purposes of men are more distinctly announced by this representation of their avowal in words, as
well as actions (JFB)
• Let us be free to commit all manner of abominations. Let us be our own gods. Let us rid ourselves of all restraint
(TOD)
• Cords – bands – denotes the restraints of government (JFB)
• The terrible conflicts of the last days will illustrate both the world’s love of sin and Jehovah’s power to give the kingdom
to His only Begotten (TOD)
• To a graceless neck the yoke of Christ is intolerable, but to the saved sinner it is easy and light. (TOD)
Luke 19:14 (But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We will not have this man to reign over us’); Jeremiah 5:5 (“I will go
to the great and will speak to them, for they know the way of the Lord, and the ordinance of their God”. But they too, with one accord, have broken the
yoke and burst the bonds)
2:4 He who sits in the heavens shall laugh;
The Lord shall hold them in derision.
• Mark the quiet dignity of the Omnipotent One and the contempt which He pours upon the princes and their raging people.
He has not taken the trouble to rise up and do battle with them – he despises them, He knows how absurd, how irrational,
how futile are their attempts against Him – He therefore laughs at them (TOD)
• Sits – is enthroned (NAS)
• His laugh is a sign of the thing being established (MH)
Psalm 37:13 (The Lord laughs at him, for He sees that his day is coming); Psalm 59:8 (But Thou, O Lord, dost laugh at them; Thou dost scoff
at all the nations)
2:5 Then He shall speak to them in His wrath,
And distress them in His deep displeasure:
• After He laughs, He shall speak; He needs not smite; the breath of His lips is enough (TOD)
• Speak – roar/shout (TOD)
• For God to speak is for Him to act, for what he resolves He will do (JFB)
• Distress – vex – agitate – terrify (JFB)
Psalm 21:8, 9 (Your hand will find out all your enemies; Your right hand will find out those who hate you. You will make them as a fiery oven in the
time of your anger; the Lord will swallow them up in His wrath, and fire will devour them); 76:7 (Thou, even Thou, art to be feared; and who may stand
in Thy presence when once Thou art angry?); Psalm 78:49, 50 (He sent upon them His burning anger, fury, and indignation, and trouble, a
band of destroying angels. He leveled a path for His anger; He did not spare their soul from death, but gave over their life to the plague)
2:6 “Yet I have set My King
On My holy hill of Zion.”
• Yet – He has already done that which the enemy seeks to prevent. Jehovah’s will is done, and man’s will frets and
raves in vain. (TOD)
• Set – installed – consecrated (NAS)
• Set – anointed, or firmly placed, with allusion in the Hebrew to ‘casting an image in a mold’ (JFB)
• My King – appointed by Me and for Me (JFB)
• Any attack on the King was an assault on God’s promise (NCBC)
• The purpose here declared, in its execution, involves their overthrow (JFB)
• Whatever be the plots of hell and earth to the contrary, He reigns by His Father’s ordination (TOD)
• Jesus Christ is a threefold King. First, His enemies’ King; secondly, His saints’ King; thirdly, His Father’s King (TOD)
• The Father is pleased to call Him ‘His’ King – He is appointed by the Father and entrusted by the Father with the sole
administration of government and judgment (TOD)
• Christ took not this honor to Himself, but was called to it. Being called to this honor, He was confirmed in it. He was ‘set’
– the Father settled Him (MH)
• Daniel 7 – part one of God’s plan: give His kingdom to His Son (MB)
• Zion – distant view (TOD)
• Hill of Zion – selected by David as the abode of the ark and the seat of God’s visible residence (JFB)
Psalm 45:6 (Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of uprightness is the scepter of thy kingdom); Psalm 48:1, 2 (Great is the Lord,
and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, His holy mountain. Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion in the far
north, the city of the great King)
Jesus Intercedes for His Inheritance
• Decrees – intercession: (MB)
1. I Am God’s Son
2. Begotten of the Father
3. Ask of Me – I will ask
4. Break with rod of iron (speaking judgment)
5. Dash them to pieces
2:7 “I will declare the decree:
The Lord has said to Me,
‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.
• The Anointed declares His rights of sovereignty and warning the traitors of their doom (TOD)
• The kingdom of the Messiah is founded upon a decree, an eternal decree, of God the Father. It was not a sudden
resolve, it was not the trial of an experiment, but the result of the counsels of the divine wisdom. (MH)
• The King thus constituted declares the fundamental law of His kingdom, in the avowal of His Sonship, a relation
involving His universal dominion (JFB)
• There is a declaration of that decree, as far as is necessary for the satisfaction of all those who are called and
commanded to yield themselves subjects to this king, and to leave those inexcusable who will not have him to reign over
them.
(MH)
• In the ancient Near East the relationship between a great king and one of his subject kings, who ruled by his authority
and owed him allegiance, was expressed not only by the words “lord” and “servant” but also by “father” and “son”. The
Davidic king was the Lord’s “servant” and his “son” (NIV)
Matthew 3:17 (And suddenly a voice came from heaven saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased); Mark 1:1, 11; Luke 3:22;
John 1:18; Acts 13:33; Hebrews 1:5; 5:5; Romans 1:4 (declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the
resurrection from the dead)
2:8 Ask of Me, and I will give
The nations for Your inheritance,
And the ends of the earth for Your possession.
• Jesus uses intercession to take possession of each nation of the earth (TOD)
• Nations – Gentiles (NAS)
• Christ makes a twofold title to His kingdom: a title by inheritance and a title by agreement (MH)
• The agreement is, in short, this: the Son must undertake the office of an intercessor, and upon that condition, He shall
have the honor and power of a universal monarch. (MH)
• Inheritance – domain – as the promised land was the Lord’s ‘inheritance’ (NIV)
Psalm 21:1, 2 (O Lord, in Thy strength the king will be glad, and in Thy salvation how greatly he will rejoice! Thou hast given him his heart’s desire,
and Thou hast not withheld the request of his lips); Psalm 22:27 (All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the
families of the nations will worship before Thee); Psalm 65:2 (O Thou who dost hear prayer, To Thee all men come); 67:7 (God blesses us,
that all the ends of the earth may fear Him); Exodus 15:17 (You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of your inheritance – the
place, O Lord, you made for your dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, your hands established)
2:9 You shall break them with a rod of iron;
You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.’”
• Break – rule (NAS)
• Rod of iron – scepter, staff (NAS)
• Rod of iron – denotes severity (JFB)
• Rod – scepter – seems to be the battle-mace rather than the shepherd’s staff (Z)
• The future rule of the royal Son would be absolute. There would be no rebellion (NCBC)
• Potters vessels – earthenware (NAS)
• Potters vessels are not to be restored if dashed in pieces (TOD)
Psalm 89:23 (I will beat down his foes before his face, and plague those who hate him); 110:5, 6; Revelation 2:26, 27, 37; 12:5; 19:15 (Now out of
His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads
the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God); Psalm 28:5; 52:5; 72:4
David Exhorts The Redeemed Through The Conflict
2:10 Now therefore, be wise, O kings;
Be instructed, you judges of the earth.
• It is always wise to be instructed (TOD)
• He has power to destroy but shows that He has no pleasure in their destruction and puts them in a way to make
themselves happy (MH)
• Judges – leaders (NAS)
• Judges – rulers generally who have been leaders in rebellion (JFB)
Proverbs 8:15 (By me kings reign, and rulers decree justice); 27:11 (Be wise, my son, and make my heart glad, that I may reply to him who
reproaches me); Psalm 32:8 (I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you)
2:11 Serve the Lord with fear,
And rejoice with trembling.
• Serve – worship (NAS)
• There must ever be a holy fear mixed with the Christian’s joy – it is a sacred compound. Fear without joy is torment; and
joy without holy fear would be presumption (TOD)
• To reverence God and to stand in awe of Him. This is our great duty. (MH)
Psalm 5:7 (But as for me, by Thine abundant lovingkindness I will enter Thy house, at Thy holy temple I will bow in reverence for Thee);
Psalm 119:119, 120 (Thou hast removed all the wicked of the earth like dross; therefore I love Thy testimonies. My flesh trembles for fear of Thee,
and I am afraid of Thy judgments)
2:12 Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,
And you perish in the way,
When His wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.
• Kiss the Son – embrace discipline; receive instruction (TOD)
• Kiss – do homage purely; lay hold of instruction (NAS)
• Kiss – a sign of love among equals (TOD)
• Kiss – full surrender and submission to the King (LB)
• Kiss the Son with affection and sincere love. Enter into a covenant of friendship with Him, and let Him be very dear and
precious to you; love Him above all, love Him in sincerity, love Him much (MH)
• With a kiss of allegiance and loyalty, submit to His government, take His yoke upon you. (MH)
• Kindled – quickly, suddenly, easily (NAS)
Revelation 6:16, 17 (…For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?); Psalm 5:11 (But let all those rejoice who put their
trust in You….); 34:22 (The Lord redeems the soul of His servants, and none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned)