The Kingdom of Heaven
What’s the first Scripture passage that calls Jesus “Christ” and “God’s Son” after which speaks about his kingdom?
You would possibly guess that such a passage happens in Matthew since it’s the first e-book of the New Testomony and is kind of involved concerning the kingdom of heaven. Otherwise you would possibly suspect that it is a trick query and guess that it’s present in Mark or Romans.
All these books, nonetheless, come far too late.
The reply is Psalm 2. Psalm 2 is usually seen together with Psalm 1 as a part of an introduction to your entire Psalter. Psalm 1 speaks concerning the righteous man whose thoughts is occupied with God’s phrase and who’s blessed by the God in whom he delights. Psalm 2 all of the sudden zooms outward, revealing that the story of righteousness and of God’s coping with his personal will not be solely private but in addition international. There are kings and nations, thrones and scepters. We rapidly discover that the road in Psalm 1 that divides between the righteous and the depraved runs by means of all of human historical past. In Psalm 1 the division relies on how one responds to God’s phrase, however in Psalm 2 the dividing line is grounded in how one responds to God’s Son—that’s, his Phrase.
Psalm 2:7 occurs to be the primary passage of Scripture that Hebrews cites that speaks of Jesus. It begins the creator’s technique of seeing the Scriptures as containing a dialog between the Father and the Son, and it’ll ease us into studying the Psalms each as phrases about Jesus and because the phrases of Jesus.
Of all of the psalms cited in Hebrews, Psalm 2 is probably the simplest to learn on this manner or no less than one of the simple. God and his anointed one rule. The system of the world rebels towards God. God’s Son is exalted. Salvation and judgment hold within the stability and are decided by whether or not one submits to this Son of God. On this aspect of the Gospels, it’s exhausting to not learn Psalm 2 as about Jesus.
Songs of the Son examines 9 psalms highlighted in Hebrews to disclose the preincarnate glory of Christ within the Outdated Testomony.
Studying Psalm 2
Psalm 2 is a tune of contrasting speech. The depraved nations collect collectively and communicate in conspiracy towards God and his anointed (Ps. 2:1–3). God speaks to the Son (Ps. 2:4–6), and the Son declares the Father’s phrases (Ps. 2:7–9). Then ultimately the narrator (nonetheless the Son?) speaks to the depraved rulers of the primary a number of verses, proclaiming the necessity for both joyful repentance or fearsome destruction (Ps. 2:10–12). Every three-verse stanza develops this drama of world rebel and repentance.
The Speech of the Depraved (Ps. 2:1–3)
Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in useless?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel collectively,
towards the Lord and towards his Anointed, saying,
“Allow us to burst their bonds aside
and solid away their cords from us.” (Ps. 2:1–3)
The psalmist units the stage by elevating a rhetorical query: “Why do the nations rage?” (Ps. 2:1). The nations are bothered that the world is dominated by God, not them.
That is, after all, a world model of what’s true in each human coronary heart. To be a sinner is to need to rule your life as an alternative of to undergo God’s guidelines. To be a sinner who occurs to be a king is to need to rule the world as an alternative of to undergo God’s rule. The psalm imagines the nations gathered at an amazing summit, conspiring collectively to overthrow the Lord.
The psalmist, nonetheless, provides one wrinkle to this international frenzy. They scheme not solely towards the Lord but in addition “towards his Anointed” (Ps. 2:2). This isn’t simply any anointed determine, no mere priest or prophet. It’s the Anointed of the Lord. In fact, the Hebrew phrase right here is mashiach, “Messiah.” Or when you had been studying alongside in your Greek translation just like the creator of Hebrews was, the title would stand out to you much more clearly: they’re set towards the Lord and towards his christos, his “Christ.”
This units up the strain that Hebrews will resolve and gives a key for when and the way Hebrews reads Psalms Christologically: Does the textual content of the psalm itself create a rigidity that the psalm, and even the entire Outdated Testomony, can’t resolve? In that case, it might be resolved within the particular person and lifetime of Jesus. Who’s the Anointed of the Lord towards whom all depraved nations rage? If it’s not David, there’s a son of David to whom we are able to look.
The Speech of the Father and Son (Ps. 2:4–9)
He who sits within the heavens laughs;
the Lord holds them in derision.
Then he’ll communicate to them in his wrath,
and terrify them in his fury, saying,
“As for me, I’ve set my King
on Zion, my holy hill.”I’ll inform of the decree:
The Lord stated to me, “You’re my Son;
at this time I’ve begotten you.
Ask of me, and I’ll make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron
and sprint them in items like a potter’s vessel.” (Ps. 2:4–9)
Within the face of the gathered would possibly of all humanity arrayed towards God in rebel, God laughs. Human delight is in the end pitiful. No system we assemble in rebel towards God can final; all can be undone by a single phrase from the Lord. He laughs not as a result of human sin on a grand scale is humorous however as a result of it’s futile.
God’s answer for human wickedness is a human king. The overthrow of each depraved kingdom, each evil system, each energy that turns towards God, is achieved by the King that God establishes. Once more, the psalm compels us to ask, Who may this be? What human king may probably carry an finish to all unjust human energy? It can’t be David, for even when he dominated, he didn’t order all issues as God commanded.
Into this rigidity, God’s Anointed, God’s King, speaks.
I’ll inform of the decree:
The Lord stated to me, “You’re my Son;
at this time I’ve begotten you.” (Ps. 2:7)
Though our image of this Anointed one will not be but clear, it has nonetheless moved extra into focus. He introduces himself not by title however by title. The Lord decreed that this Anointed one, this Christ, can be God’s Son. Discover the shift in particular person, the Anointed himself is talking to us (“The Lord stated to me”). Earlier than he tells us what he’ll do, he tells us who he’s.
If we restrict ourselves to the Psalter, and even to the entire Outdated Testomony, we’re confronted with an inescapable query: Who can this one be? Who speaks in Psalm 2? Who’s God’s Son, God’s King, God’s Christ?
The Speech of the Psalmist (Ps. 2:10–12)
Now subsequently, O kings, be sensible;
be warned, O rulers of the earth.
Serve the Lord with concern,
and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son, lest he be offended,
and also you perish in the way in which,
for his wrath is rapidly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him. (Ps. 2:10–12)
The psalmist doesn’t reply the query of who this Son is. As a substitute, he prepares his manner. He sketches for us the function that this Anointed one should fill.
He’s fierce in his judgments; he’s free in his items.
The Son is a terrifying pressure to evildoers. In him the facility of God to rule and punish is on show. In him all depraved schemes are undone, and unrighteousness involves destroy. And but, the psalm doesn’t envision a shrinking obeisance nor finish with gloating derision at those that bend the knee. No, whereas the Son is fearsome, in his service is pleasure, and in his shadow is blessedness. Repentance will not be disgrace, and the Son doesn’t maintain towards anybody their want to return to him. He’s fierce in his judgments; he’s free in his items. The psalm ends with a name and a promise. The decision is to repent, to kiss the Son, to undergo him and love him. The promise is blessedness beneath his care.
Studying Hebrews
For to which of the angels did God ever say,
“You’re my Son,
at this time I’ve begotten you”? (Heb. 1:5a)
The creator to the Hebrews noticed in Psalm 2:7 the right place to begin for his description of Jesus’s superiority to the angels. After declaring that God’s new and ultimate revelation has are available his Son (Heb.1:2), the creator desires to show simply how particular this Son of God is. To try this, he states a easy truth: no angel was ever referred to as the son of God. Typically within the Outdated Testomony the angels are collectively referred to as “the sons of God” within the plural (e.g., Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7; probably additionally Gen. 6:2, 4; Deut. 32:8), however by no means is one singled out with this title. The creator displays on this and infers that the singular Son, Jesus, is superior to the angels by advantage of his sonship. Jesus is Son in a manner that the angels should not. He’s the one Son, whilst there are various sons of God.
The truth that the creator of Hebrews makes use of Psalm 2:7 to ascertain this argument tells us that he was studying Psalm 2 as we simply did above. The Outdated Testomony doesn’t point out an individual who can match the function, however the New Testomony does. Jesus is the larger King, so Jesus have to be the one whom God calls Son in Psalm 2:7.
I anticipate that you’ve got already reached this identical conclusion. In fact Jesus is the larger David, the one larger than Solomon (Matt. 12:42; Luke 11:31). However there may be an extra implication which may be much less apparent. If Jesus is the Son of Psalm 2:7, then he’s additionally the speaker of Psalm 2:7–9:
I’ll inform of the decree:
The Lord stated to me, “You’re my Son” (Ps. 2:7)
Psalm 2 will not be solely about Jesus but in addition comprises his phrases.
This implies, on the very least, that once we learn the Psalms typically Jesus instantly speaks to us—not solely within the sense that he impressed them but in addition that the psalmist speaks within the particular person of Christ. This will likely present an interpretive key for Psalm passages we discover tough. Christ the King whose enemies are sin and dying will conquer and trample his foes. Christ the absolutely righteous one can plead his righteousness earlier than God. Christ the sufferer can name down judgment. This doesn’t separate us from the Psalms. In any case, Christ’s persons are his physique, so he can communicate for us too. Nevertheless it does give us a theological useful resource for understanding difficulties. Notably, in Psalm 2, when the textual content itself confronts us with tensions it can’t reply, the speech of Jesus within the psalm resolves all points.
Studying Psalm 2 Once more
After we learn Psalm 2 once more, after studying Hebrews, what new insights do we discover?
First, the fashion of the nations, their disordered rebel towards God, is a rebel towards Christ—not towards the Lord’s anointed in a normal sense however particularly towards Jesus. Any human system constructed on human energy and never on obedience to God is against Jesus. Thus, it should ultimately oppose God’s instructions and phrase. It can additionally oppose Christ and his individuals. Within the Gospels, Christ predicts persecution for his individuals (Matt. 5:11–12; Mark 4:17; Luke 11:49; John 15:20), and Paul assures that every one who search to dwell godly lives can be persecuted (2 Tim. 3:12). Psalm 2 predicts the identical. It should ultimately occur as a result of the one factor that unites the powers of this world is opposition to the Lord and to his Christ.
Second, Jesus overcomes all such rebel, both by successful over his opponents by means of merciful conversion or by shepherding the nations and shattering the proud together with his rod of iron. Jesus suffered. Jesus’s individuals endure. However Jesus doesn’t lose. He’s God’s answer to all opposition, to the wickedness that runs rampant on this planet. His kingdom has already been established by God, and it’ll embody all of the nations of the earth.
Third, Jesus speaks what the Father spoke to him. We discover in Psalm 2:7–9 the sample explicitly set out in John 12:49: “For I’ve not spoken alone authority, however the Father who despatched me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to talk.” In his work inside creation, the Son brings the message of the Father. He says the phrases his Father despatched him to say. Or as Hebrews 1:2 says, “In these final days [God] has spoken to us by his Son.” The Son is the revelation of the Father. To see the Son is to see the Father (John 14:7–9). That is what Scripture means when it calls Jesus the Phrase of God (John 1:1) or the radiance of God’s glory (Heb. 1:3). That is particularly clear within the New Testomony, however it’s not new. In Psalm 2, hiding in plain sight, the identical sample is revealed. God the Son’s actions in revelation and redemption observe the identical sample all through salvation historical past, even earlier than the incarnation, as a result of they mirror who the Son is.
This text is tailored from Songs of the Son: Studying the Psalms with the Writer of Hebrews by Daniel Stevens.
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