In this mini-series, pastor-scholar Todd Chipman walks us through 5 psalms for Holy Week. Each post is based on his Scripture Storyline: An Invitation to Biblical Theology (Fontes, 2020).
The authors of the New Testament employed the story of Psalm 2 to explain the events of Holy Week. The language of power, dominion, opposition, and fellowship with God in Psalm 2 provided the early church a framework for understanding Jesus’ death, resurrection, and rule.
In Psalm 2, the psalmist portrayed Israel’s King as God’s representative on earth. God anointed the King and addressed the King as His Son (Ps 2:2, 7). But the leaders of the nations did not submit to Israel’s King and instead revolted against Him (Ps 2:1-3). From His position on Mount Zion, God’s anointed King ruled with might over those who opposed Him (Ps 2:6-9). The psalmist wrote that the Lord looked down from heaven to observe the drama taking place on earth—and He laughed (Ps 2:4-5). In vain the leaders of the earth took their stand against the Lord and His Son ruling as King (Ps 2:2). Only by bowing to Israel’s King might the nations be spared from God’s wrath executed through His Son seated on Israel’s throne (Ps 2:5, 10-12).
The Plot against God’s King
Psalm 2 began with the drama already in full flower. The psalmist questioned why the nations opposed God’s Anointed One—though such a course of action would not succeed. In Acts 4:25-26, the Jerusalem church understood that though it was futile for the leaders of the earth to oppose God’s Son as He ruled from Zion, the leaders of Israel’s enemies nonetheless did oppose Him. After Peter and John healed the lame man in Solomon’s portico in Acts 3, the Jewish leadership arrested them and warned them to no longer speak in the name of Jesus. When Peter and John were released, they joined with the church and prayed Ps 2:1-2.
The Jerusalem church knew that Herod, Pontius Pilate, and even Gentiles gathered against Jesus in real, tangible opposition. But the cohort of leaders who conspired against Jesus failed in their plan to abolish God’s redemptive work in His Son. The Jewish leadership and Pilate were carrying out God’s predetermined plan to establish Jesus as the Victor over those who opposed Him. When the Jerusalem church felt threatened by the Jewish leadership, the church beseeched God to deliver them just as God delivered Jesus in raising Him from the dead (Acts 2:27-31).
Authenticating the Son
Luke wrote that during Paul’s sermon in Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13:17-41), the apostle saw in Ps 2:7 a basis for understanding Jesus’ resurrection. Paul surveyed Israel’s history from the time of the exodus until David’s reign. From David’s line came Jesus, the One God sent to be the Savior of Israel. But the Jewish leadership opposed Jesus and put Him to death just as the prophets had predicted. Paul saw in Ps 2:7 a way of explaining that when God raised Jesus from the dead, He confirmed that Jesus was His Son and that the promises of Scripture were fulfilled in Jesus. “We ourselves proclaim to you the good news of the promise that was made to our forefathers,” Paul stated. “God has fulfilled this to us their children by raising up Jesus, as it is written in the second Psalm: ‘You are My Son; today I have become Your Father’” (Acts 13:32-33). Since the resurrection demonstrated that God sent Jesus to suffer God’s wrath and to justify sinners, Paul proclaimed that in Jesus forgiveness was available to all (Acts 13:38-39).
Ruling with Blood
The psalmist proclaimed that Israel’s King would rule His enemies with an iron scepter (Ps 2:9). In the Revelation, Ps 2:9 described Jesus’ royal authority. In Revelation 2-3, John recorded Jesus’ messages to the seven churches. Jesus encouraged the church in Thyatira by quoting Ps 2:9, promising that those who endured in their confession of faith would reign with Him (Rev 2:27). In Rev 12:5, John wrote that the woman he saw in his vision would give birth to a son who would rule the nations with an iron scepter.
In Hebrews 1-2, the author compared Jesus to angels and argued that God’s revelatory work in Jesus surpassed God’s revelation through angels. Jesus was active in creation and exactly represented God in human flesh (Heb 1:1-3a). Jesus accomplished forgiveness of sins and took His seat at God’s right hand (Heb 1:3b). Though the author concluded that Jesus accomplished what God had set for Him to do and thus became higher in stature than the angels (Heb 1:4), the author nonetheless cited Ps 2:7 in Heb 1:5 to accentuate his point writing, “For to which of the angels did He ever say, ‘You are My Son; today I have become Your Father” (Heb 1:5). In the author of Hebrews’ logic, Ps 2:7 was God’s word to Jesus seated at His right hand.
The author of Hebrews also saw in Ps 2:7 God’s word confirming Jesus’ priestly authority. In Heb 5:1-4, the author noted that that priests in the old covenant dealt mercifully with the people because the priests themselves also had sins for which they had to offer sacrifices. Serving as a priest was an honorable mediatorial task as the priest stood between God and man and lived to tell about it. No man took the priestly office for himself but had to be called by God to stand before God on behalf of sinners. Jesus too, the author of Hebrews wrote, did not of Himself become a high priest who would lay down His life for the sins of the people (Heb 2:17-18; 4:14-16). Instead, in accord with Ps 2:7, God anointed Jesus saying, “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father” (Heb 5:5). Jesus’ priestly ministry described subsequently in Heb 7:26-28; 9:11-22; and 13:20-21 portrayed Jesus’ authority as mediator of the new covenant, seated at God’s right hand with blood yet visible for God to see.
