Psalm 2:4-6. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure. Yet have I set My King upon My holy hill of Zion.
This article follows Henry’s comments on the first three verses of Psalm 2 in the January issue. We follow it up with this further edited extract from his Commentary.
2. The mighty conquest gained over all this threatening opposition.
If heaven and earth are the combatants, it is easy to foretell which will be the conqueror. Those that make this mighty struggle are the people of the earth and the kings of the earth – who being of the earth are earthy – but He whom they contend with is One that sits in the heavens (v 4). He is in heaven, from where He can watch them all and all their projects, and such is His power that He can overcome them all and all their attempts. He sits there out of the reach of all their impotent menaces and attempts. There He sits as Judge in all the affairs of the children of men, perfectly secure in the full accomplishment of His own purposes, in spite of all opposition. The perfect repose of the Eternal Mind may be our comfort under all the disturbances of our mind. We are tossed on earth and on the sea, but He sits in the heavens, where He has prepared His throne for the judgement.
1. The attempts of Christ’s enemies are easily ridiculed.
God laughs at them as a company of fools. He has them, and all their attempts, in derision; therefore the virgin, the daughter of Zion, has despised them (Is 37:22). Sinners’ follies are the just sport of God’s infinite wisdom and power, and these attempts of the kingdom of Satan which are formidable in our eyes are despised in His. Sometimes God is said to awake and arise and stir up Himself, to vanquish His enemies; here He is said to sit still and conquer them, for the utmost operations of God’s omnipotence create no difficulty at all, nor the least disturbance to His eternal rest.
2. They are justly punished (v 5).
God despises them as powerless, yet He does not therefore wink at them, but is justly displeased with them as impious. He will make the most daring sinners to know that He is displeased, and to tremble before Him.
(1.) Their sin is a provocation to Him. He is angry; He is sore displeased. We cannot expect that God will be reconciled to us or well pleased in us, but in and through the Anointed. Therefore, if we affront and reject Him, we sin against that remedy and forsake the benefit of His interposition between us and God.
(2.) His anger will be a vexation to them. So if He will only speak to them in His wrath, even the breath of His mouth will be their confusion, slaughter and consumption (2 Th 2:8). He speaks, and it is done; He speaks in wrath, and sinners are undone. As He made us by a word, so He can unmake as again. Who knows the power of His anger? God’s enemies rage, but cannot vex Him. God sits still and yet vexes them, puts them into consternation and brings them to their wits’ end. His setting up this kingdom of His Son, in spite of them, is the greatest possible vexation to them; they were vexatious to Christ’s good subjects, but the day is coming when vexation shall be recompensed to them.
3. They are certainly defeated and all their counsels turned headlong: “Yet have I set My King upon My holy hill of Zion” (v 6).
David was advanced to the throne and became master of the stronghold of Zion, notwithstanding the disturbance given him by the malcontents in his kingdom, and particularly the affronts he received from the garrison of Zion, who taunted him with their blind and their lame, their maimed soldiers (2 Sam 5:6). The Lord Jesus is exalted to the right hand of the Father, has all power both in heaven and in earth, and is Head over all things to the Church, notwithstanding the restless endeavours of His enemies to hinder His advancement.
(1.) Jesus Christ is a King, and is invested by Him who is the fountain of power, with the dignity and authority of a sovereign prince in the kingdom both of providence and grace.
(2.) God is pleased to call Him His King, because He is appointed by Him, and entrusted for Him with the sole administration of government and judgement. He is His King, for He is dear to the Father and one in whom He is well pleased.
(3.) Christ did not take this honour to Himself but was called to it; the Father called Him: I have set Him; Christ received His commandment, His commission, from the Father.
(4.) Being called to this honour, He was confirmed in it. High places (we say) are slippery places. But Christ, being raised to this honour, is fixed in it: “I have set” Him; I have settled Him.
(5.) He is set upon Zion, the hill of God’s holiness, a type of the gospel Church, for on that hill the temple was built, and for its sake the whole mount was called holy. Christ’s throne is set up in His Church (Is 2:3), and therefore it is spoken of as the headquarters of this General, the royal seat of this Prince, in whom the children of men shall be joyful.
We are to sing these verses with a holy exultation, triumphing over all the enemies of Christ’s kingdom – not doubting but that all of them will quickly be made His footstool. We are to be triumphing in Jesus Christ as the great Trustee of power; and we are to pray, with a firm belief of the assurance given here: “Thy kingdom come”; let Thy Son’s kingdom come.