We live in a world that is worrisomely agitated, causing significant emotional unrest in the hearts of great portions of this globe’s population. It is caused by widespread racial unrest, universal economic hardships, transnational tensions, open warfare, the threat of invasion across established borders, and the fear of escalation to the use of nuclear weapons. While most people are not heading to a shelter in the mountains to try to get away from it all, many are seeking some mode of escape from the fears deep in their hearts that seem to be rising exponentially each month.
Add to all that the current (2024) volatility in the political landscape of the American presidential race. The depth of divisions between people because of the policies promoted by each candidate have greatly intensified fears of what could happen in our land if the opposing candidate were to win the White House, further dividing regions, communities, and even families. And we can be sure that there will be even greater fear and anxiety the morning after the voting, regardless of which candidate wins.
None of this is entirely new, though it may be taking different forms. Conflict and danger has always been a part of human life, from the home to the nation, since the fall. It began with the conflict in the Garden of Eden, and was tragically evident in the jealous hostility that broke out between Cain and Abel that resulted in the first recorded case of fratricide in the Bible. Such has been the fallout from Adam’s first act of defiance of God, which has been passed on to every member of the human race, according to Romans 5:12-21.
As Christians, we are not immune to these pressures, but are we at their mercy? Will we respond with the same kind of deep-seated uneasiness as our unbelieving friends? Are we condemned to live with the same kind of daily uncertainty and restlessness as they? Has the Lord made anything available to us that will re-orient our souls in a more hopeful and less fearful direction? Are there promises and principles in God’s Word that have divine power to change our attitudes and emotions and expectations?
The answer is a resounding, “Yes!” Because we are human, we will have those common human weaknesses that respond initially at first thought with fear. But then we have something that we can apply that soothes and calms our troubled hearts. It will sometimes require strenuous spiritual effort to put it to work, but it’s there. We read in 2 Peter 1:3 that God has already given us everything we need for life and godliness. And Peter wrote those words during the years of intense persecution of Christians under Roman Emperor Nero.
And the people around us who are outside of Christ should be able to see that there is a difference, and should want to know what that is. We can do better than just point them to the Lord in some vague way. We should show them what we have found for our hearts in specific Scripture passages. We can do better than just show them that the Bible says we should not be afraid (which it does, by one count 365 times!). We can take them, especially, to one Psalm after another that is addressed to the quaking human heart, beginning with one they already know: Psalm 23. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” And help them to understand why. “For Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.”
It’s not just a matter of our individual security that could worry us. In the current environment of deep and hostile political divisions before our national presidential elections, and with so many governmental and military leaders here and abroad taking such a defiant stance against the Lord and His standards (consider abortion as just one example!), one of the best sources of Biblical assurance is found in Psalm 2. Here David has asked a rhetorical, but very relevant question. “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.’”
When we listen to the news, we see exactly that happening. But did it cause David to quake in fear of them? No, he penned lyrics to celebrate the might of the Lord who rules over all, and is not threatened in the least by their ridiculously vain plots. David wrote that the Lord laughs at their puny dreams of mounting a coup against heaven’s armies, before roaring at them (in Hebrew literally with flared nostrils!) as He destroys them. And the Psalm ends with a warning and invitation to turn to the Lord’s Messiah, the Lord Jesus, and kiss His royal ring in humble obeisance before it’s too late.
To embrace this message while the chaos continues all around us will require that we step back and look at the bigger picture, and particularly the picture of what will eventually happen. We may not even see it in our lifetime, but we live for an eternal kingdom whose ultimate victory has already been won at Calvary and the open tomb and the Savior’s ascension. A day is immovably set on God’s calendar on which the Son of God will come with the sound of a trumpet and the voice of an archangel. On that day, not only will the dead in Christ be raised, but all His enemies will for once, and for all time, be vanquished. That is the day Paul wrote about in Philippians 2, when “every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.” And we will reign with Him forever!
Psalm 2 assures us that such a day is coming. So rather than allowing our emotional state as Christians to be shaped by the secular press with its vivid descriptions of the increasing chaos in our world and its dire warnings of things to come, we should marinate our hearts in a Psalm like this each day as we rise, and each night as we retire, to make sure we are thinking about things as they really are, rather than as the secular world wrongly imagines them to be.
We not only have the privilege of reading and meditating on that Psalm in our Bibles. We also have an increasing number of Psalters available for us in our churches and in our homes. In these, every Psalm is there for us to sing, including Psalm 2. In the past, most hymnals only included two metrical Psalms, numbers 23 (“The Lord’s My Shepherd”) and 100 (“All People That On Earth Do Dwell”). Now, more and more hymnals are including more Psalms. And even if your church and home has hymnals, you should consider adding a Psalter so that you can sing ALL of the songs the Lord has given to us by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Since all Psalters (and there are many now to choose from!) will include Psalm 2, I have chosen one setting as a favorite of mine. As you use this hymn study, you will be able to apply its message to whichever metrical setting you prefer. The one I have chosen will be found in “Psalms of Grace” and was written by David Reiger, Minister of Music at First Baptist Church San Jacinto, California. He grew up in a Christian home in Denver, Colorado. He has been active as a musician since he was five years old, and has been for the past five years putting Psalm texts to familiar hymn tunes so that they might be more widely incorporated into Christian worship. He and his wife Darlene have four children. “Psalms of Grace” includes a number of his compositions, and is a companion to “Hymns of Grace,” both published by collaborative efforts from John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church and The Master’s Seminary.
Though the Psalm may have been sung at the coronations of David’s successors, in Acts 4:24-26, the New Testament ascribes authorship of Psalm 2 to King David himself. How fitting that the Old Testament king who is clearly the best “type” of King Jesus is the one through whom the Holy Spirit chose to bring us this Psalm about the royal, eternally begotten, victorious heavenly sovereign. And how wonderful that the Holy Spirit has given us this Psalm to sing of the royal Messiahship of the King of kings. The Hebrew verses fall very naturally, and in many English Bibles even visibly, into four stanzas of three verses each, 1-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12. This hymn study commentary will follow the structure of Regier’s setting in five stanzas.
To study the biblical text, there are many, many excellent Psalm commentaries available to help. One recent addition (2024) to these resources is a four volume set authored by Christopher Ash entitled “The Psalms; A Christ-Centered Commentary,” published by Crossway. He highlights what should be immediately obvious to the reader and/or singer. That is that the Psalm is not about any earthly king (or president). It is about Jesus Christ! Ash points out the logical and theological flow from Psalm 1 to Psalm 2. Jesus is that blessed man who did not walk in the counsel of the ungodly nor stand in the way of sinners nor sit in the seat of scoffers, but who delighted in the law of the Lord! Then in Psalm 2 we see how He was appointed to that royal role by the Father and who, as Messiah, will rescue of His people and subdue all His enemies. In fact, Psalm 2 is the only Old Testament scripture in which the three titles “Son of God,” “Messiah,” and “God’s King” appear together.
Stanza 1 describes the dangerous world in which we live, in contrast to the calm certainties of Psalm 1. Here we find a dramatic and defiant uproar that summarizes human history. And yet at the very beginning, we find words that calm our fears, because their rebellious agitation will be in vain, since it is bound to fail. Still, it can be difficult to live in such frightening times, as believers too often have had to do. The camera closes in on the ringleaders, whether or not they are kings who are the influencers, who seek to intimidate and subdue others to their will, whether through political, military, or economic force, or even by hostile face to face confrontation. We have seen their goal of controlling minds and attitudes in a culture also through literature, blogs, movies, or newsfeeds. What they fail to realize is that they have actually chosen to stand in defiance of the God of the universe and His anointed Son. It is not just that they refuse to bow the knee to this divine sovereign. They repeatedly (and vainly) try to cast off the chains and bonds of God’s revealed will, thinking that by doing so, they will be free to do whatever they choose.
Why do the nations rage? The people plot in vain?
The kings and rulers of this age against God’s holy name?
They in their mortal reign, oppose the Holy One;
“We cast asunder all these chains, our bonds shall be undone!”
Stanza 2 describes the Lord’s response to these foolish rebels. The camera moves from their earth-bound riot up to the throne room of heaven where the Lord sits on His throne and laughs at their ridiculous pretensions. But that image shifts swiftly from laughter to wrath, a wrath that should cause human subjects to cower in visceral terror. The Hebrew literally says that God responds with flared nostrils in His rage! But it’s more than anger; it’s a powerful declaration from the one whose word is infinitely powerful to do what He has declared. He pronounces that He has set his Anointed to be King on Zion’s holy hill. Although that hill in Israel is little more than a ridge above two valleys, it is a type of the city of God which is destined to become queen of the nations, as one has described her. This Anointed King will have the authority and the power to utterly destroy all who defy His legitimate reign.
Declares the LORD His scorn, He from His heaven laughs;
As anger flashes hot to warn and terrify in wrath;
“Yet I have, as for Me, according to My will
Set My Anointed, King to be, on Zion’s holy hill.”
Stanza 3 describes what the Lord will say to His Anointed One in His “ordination” and job assignment. This divine decree announces that God the Father has proclaimed for all the universe to know that He has placed His divine seal of approval and signet ring of authority on His Son. No matter what kind or how many earthly kings oppose Him, Jesus has been made the second Adam and is destined to rule over all heaven and earth. Some are puzzled by the language that seems to suggest that Jesus was not the only begotten of the Father from creation, but only from “this day.” This would be the old heresy of “adoptionism,” and is clearly not the case, as we read in the prologue to John’s Gospel that Jesus is from all time into eternity past. No, since there is no time in eternity, it is always “today” in God’s presence, and therefore this is actually a proof of Jesus’ eternal existence and deity. But we would add that the New Testament suggests that this declaration in Psalm 2 finds its complete fulfilment in Jesus’ ascension and coronation following His resurrection as He was declared or constituted Son of God in power.
Now God’s Anointed One, shall tell of this decree.
He said, “Today, Thou art My Son, I have begotten Thee!”
To Thee as Thy domain, as Thou has ask’d of Me;
The ends of earth, for Thee to reign, so Thine estate shall be.
Stanza 4 describes what it means that Jesus was appointed to reign as heir to God’s vineyard (Mark 12:6-7). This will come about through the worldwide preaching of the gospel of the cross initially, and then by the earthshaking events at the Parousia, at Jesus’ promised second coming. At that time, He will shake the nations, rending an iron rod, dashing into pieces all who have defied Him as in the shattering in pieces of a potter’s clay vessel. This final culminating destructive judgment is not one which can be resisted, regardless of how much force could be mustered by puny kings and rulers of the earth. It is not just the individual rulers that will be shattered. It is all their kingdoms: military, educational, political, literary, judicial, economical. None will be able to stand against the will of God’s Son. And so this stanza in the Psalter actually includes part of the final stanza in the Hebrew text. It is a somber warning, coupled with an invitation to bow before the King, throwing off the crown of rebellion, proclaiming Jesus’ worth before it is too late.
Rule Thou the lands abroad, the nations shalt Thou shake,
As earthenware with iron rod, Their kingdoms shalt Thou break.
O king, throw off thy crown, be warned, O judge of earth;
Before the LORD, bow trembling down, and there proclaim His worth.
Stanza 5 describes the remainder of the Hebrew final stanza of verses 10-12. In it, we sing the words of the Father, whose wrath is temporarily held at bay until the time will have ended and the opportunity for repentance has passed. Those kings and their followers in their heady rebellion have acted in foolishness, but here is one last chance to be wise. It is not only the Father whose wrath is hanging over them; it will also be the wrath of the Son, the Lamb who is also a Lion. The Hebrew text, reflected in Psalter stanza 4, is that they (and we) should bow, not with a shallow cheering, untampered by awed reverence, which is not true worship. But with deep sorrow at having raised fists against the Lord, at the same time with “joyful trembling.” What a powerful, seemingly oxymoronic phrase. The appropriate response must be to kiss the Son, rather like humans kissing the ring of a monarch. If rebels will do that, they will have God’s blessing, the same word with which Psalm 1 began. Once again, God’s most stern words end with God’s most gracious heart.
Give homage to the Son, lest He give anger sway,
Lest thou be in His wrath undone, and perish in the way.
The blessed, drawing near, whom He declares His own,
Adore His name in holy fear in refuge at His throne.
Words © 2017davidregiermusic.com
What a great biblical reminder to us as we go through a period of terrible, challenging political times in the midst of such fiery rhetoric before a national election, and with so much at stake in the days ahead. But though many will wring their hands in fear of the future the day after all the votes will have been counted, Christians’ future will remain just as secure … and certain … and glorious. And it’s because of what we sing in Psalm 2.
The tune suggested in the “Psalms of Grace” psalter is ELVEY, usually known as DIADEMATA, a very familiar one since almost everyone sings this with the text “Crown Him with Many Crowns.” It was written by George Job Elvey (1816-1893). As a young boy, Elvey was a chorister in Canterbury Cathedral. Living and studying with his brother Stephen, he was educated at Oxford and at the Royal Academy of Music. At age nineteen Elvey became organist and master of the boys’ choir at St. George Chapel, Windsor, where he remained until his retirement in 1882. He was frequently called upon to provide music for royal ceremonies such as Princess Louise’s wedding in 1871 (after which he was knighted). Elvey also composed other hymn tunes, anthems, oratorios, and service music.
Here is something different from our normal pattern. It is a link to the words of Psalm 2 from Handel’s oratorio, “Messiah.” Notice the musical representation of the raging of the nations and kings in the rapidly repeated pattern of 16th notes in the accompaniment, as well as in the solo line of the bass singer.