(PART 2)

Having shown in our last paper that the Lord Jesus is the One who is before us in the first psalm, we would now meditate upon Him as presented in Psalm 2.

HIS OFFICIAL GLORY

If in Psalm 1, Christ is unveiled in His moral Glory in Holy Humanity, in this precious prophetical psalm He is presented in His Official Glory. The Lord is here The Anointed (v.2) The King (v.6) The Son of God (v.7) The Universal Ruler (v.8) and The Coming Judge (v.12).

What a glorious Person is the Lord Jesus in humiliation and in exaltation. One of the basic laws of interpretation is to distinguish things that differ if the Scriptures are to be understood intelligently. The importance therefore of understanding the titles given to the Lord cannot be stated too clearly. The Lord Jesus is never spoken of as King in relation to the Church, yet how often some uninstructed Christians speak of Him as the "Great King of the Church". He is King and as such will be manifested in due time to reign over Israel, and in that day the saints of this age will share His reign. He is the Head of the Church, our Lord and coming Bridegroom and the Great High Priest over the House of God.

THE LORD'S ANNOINTED

It was as King of the Jews (Matt. 2:2, Matt. 21:5) and as the anointed that He was offered to Israel when He was on earth. Alas they rejected Him and were joined with the heathen in slaying Him. The opening verses of this psalm speak of this and were quoted by the early church in prayer (Acts 4:25, 26) as now being fulfilled in the treatment given to God's Holy Servant, Jesus, whom He had anointed (Acts 4:27).

The question is asked in verse 1, "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?" Kings, rulers, Jew and Gentile set themselves and took counsel together against the Lord and His Son. What an alliance of evil! Israel said "Away with Him." King Herod and his enemy, Governor Pilate, were made friends in their common refusal of His claims. Together Jew and Gentile have Him in derision. They set Him at nought, crowned His blessed kingly brow with cruel thorns, spat into His face and plucked the hairs from His cheeks. All were agreed to break the bands of His rule (v.3). They finally nailed Him alive upon the tree of shame, surely a "vain thing" to do. Thus the Lord's anointed was rejected as He is still by the world with its rulers and peoples.

The exercised child of God turns from all this rebellion and enmity to side with a rejected Christ and bear reproach for His name (Heb. 13:13). The world is unchanged in its deep seated animosity to Christ, as all who condemn its ways by siding with the Lord's Anointed have found. May the spirit of Amasai mark us, who in a day of conflicting loyalties, made his soul thrilling confession to a rejected David. "Thine are we David, and on thy side, thou son of Jesse" (2 Chron. 12:18).

GOD'S KING (v.6)

Man's futile efforts to prevent the Glorious reign of Christ are next described. "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision." The Lord Jesus has been raised up in mighty power (v.7) and God's purposes are ripening fast when He will be set as earth's Imperial King upon His holy hill in Zion. This is not His present throne in Heaven but His coming earthly throne, the throne of His father David. The uttermost parts of the earth will know His righteous rule. All who have refused Him in this gospel age, who were left at His coming into the air for His church, and who have lived right through the seven years of the rule of lawlessness headed up in the man of sin, will be purged out of His kingdom and cast into everlasting destruction (2 Thess. 1). What a solemn possibility that some of those who are today sitting under the gospel in our halls, may in a little over seven years be in eternal fire, should our Lord come, as well He may some of these days. Events are moving with almost alarming rapidity. As we write, dark skies of gloom and threats of war abound.

"We can almost hear His footfall
On the threshold of the door
And my heart, my heart is longing,
To be with Him evermore"

If any unsaved should read these lines heed the gracious words of v.12 "Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled in a little while". Thank God you are still in time but tomorrow may be too late. Turn and receive Christ by faith now by owning your lost and helpless estate, in danger of going down forever under God's wrath to eternal pain and remorse. Believe that this blessed One died for the ungodly (Rom. 5:6) and be able to say, "He gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:20).

May we, who love His appearing, be kept apart from all the evils of the times, waiting the revelation of God's Son from heaven. Blessed are all that take refuge in Him (v.12 R.V.).