EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS (2)

Verse 6.—“Yet have I set my King,” etc.—Jesus Christ is a threefold King. First, his enemies’ King; secondly, his saints’ King; thirdly, his Father’s King.

First. Christ is his enemies’ King, that is, he is King over his enemies. Christ is a King above all kings. What are all the mighty men, the great, the honourable men of the earth to Jesus Christ? They are but like a little bubble in the water; for if all the nations, in comparison to God, be but as the drop of the bucket, or the dust of the balance, as the prophet speaks in Isaiah xl. 15, how little then must be the kings of the earth! Nay, beloved, Christ Jesus is not only higher than kings, but he is higher than the angels; yea, he is the head of angels; and, therefore, all the angels in heaven are commanded to worship him. Col. ii. 12 Heb. i. 6.... He is King over all kingdoms, over all nations, over all governments, over all powers, over all people Dan. vii. 14.... The very heathen are given to Christ, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession. Psalm ii. 8.

Secondly. Jesus Christ is his saints’ King. He is King of the bad, and of the good; but as for the wicked, he rules over them by his power and might; but the saints, he rules in them by his Spirit and graces. Oh! this is Christ’s spiritual kingdom, and here he rules in the hearts of his people, here he rules over their consciences, over their wills, over their affections, over their judgments and understandings, and nobody hath anything to do here but Christ. Christ is not only the King of nations, but the King of saints; the one he rules over, the other he rules in.

Thirdly. Jesus Christ is his Father’s King too, and so his Father calls him: “I have set my King upon my holy hill of Zion.” Well may he be our King, when he is God’s King. But you may say, how is Christ the Father’s King? Because he rules for his Father. There is a twofold kingdom of God committed to Jesus Christ; first, a spiritual kingdom, by which he rules in the hearts of his people, and so is King of saints; and, secondly, a providential kingdom, by which he rules the affairs of this world, and so he is King of nations.—Condensed from William Dyer’s Christ’s Famous Titles, 1665.

Verse 6.—“Zion.” The name “Zion” signifies a “distant view” (speculam.) And the church is called “a distant view” (specula), not only because it views God and heavenly things by faith (that is, afar off), being wise unto the things that are above, not unto those that are on the earth: but also, because there are within her true viewers, or seers, and watchmen in the spirit, whose office it is to take charge of the people under them, and to watch against the snares of enemies and sins; and such are called in the Greek bishops (ἐπίσκοποι), that is, spyers or seers; and you may for the same reason give them, from the Hebrew, the appellation of Zionians of Zioners.—Martin Luther.

Verse 7.—The dispute concerning the eternal filiation of our Lord betrays more of presumptuous curiosity than of reverent faith. It is an attempt to explain where it is far better to adore. We could give rival expositions of this verse, but we forbear. The controversy is one of the most unprofitable which ever engaged the pens of theologians.—C. H. S.

Verse 8.—“Ask of me.” The priesthood doth not appear to be settled upon Christ by any other expression than this, “Ask of me.” The Psalm speaks of his investiture in his kingly office; the apostle refers this to his priesthood, his commission, for both took date at the same time; both bestowed, both confirmed by the same authority. The office of asking is grounded upon the same authority as the honour of king. Ruling belonged to his royal office, asking to his priestly. After his resurrection, the Father gives him a power and command of asking.—Stephen Charnock.

Verse 8.—As the limner looks on the person whose picture he would take, and draws his lines to answer him with the nearest similitude that he can, so God looks on Christ as the archetype to which he will conform the saint, in suffering, in grace, in glory; yet so that Christ hath the pre-eminence in all. Every saint must suffer, because Christ suffered: Christ must not have a delicate body under a crucified head; yet never any suffered, or could, what he endured. Christ is holy, and therefore so shall every saint be, but in an inferior degree; an image cut in clay cannot be so exact as that engraved on gold. Now, our conformity to Christ appears, that as the promises made to him were performed upon his prayers to his Father, his promises made to his saints are given to them in the same way of prayer: “Ask of me,” saith God to his Son, “and I shall give thee.” And the apostle tells us, “Ye have not, because ye ask not.” God hath promised support to Christ in all his conflicts. Isaiah xlii. 1. “Behold my servant, whom I uphold;” yet he prayed “with strong cries and tears,” when his feet stood within the shadow of death. A seed is promised to him, and victory over his enemies, yet for both these he prays. Christ towards us acts as a king, but towards his Father as a priest. All he speaks to God is by prayer and intercession. So the saints, the promise makes them kings over their lusts, conquerors over their enemies; but it makes them priests towards God, by prayer humbly to sue out those great things given in the promise.—William Gurnall, 1617-1679.

Verse 8.—It will be observed in our Bible that two words of verse eight are in italics, intimating that they are not translations of the Hebrew, but additions made for the purpose of elucidating the meaning. Now if the “thee” and the “for” are left out, the verse will read thus, “Ask of me, and I shall give the heathen, thine inheritance, and thy possession, the uttermost parts of the earth.” And this reading is decidedly preferable to the other. It implies that by some previous arrangement on the part of God, he had already assigned an inheritance of the heathen, and the possession of the earth, to the person of whom he says, “Thou art my Son.” And when God says, “I will give,” etc., he reveals to his Anointed, not so much in what the inheritance consisted, and what was the extent of possession destined for him, as the promise of his readiness to bestow it. The heathen were already “the inheritance,” and the ends of the earth “the possession,” which God had purposed to give to his Anointed. Now he says to him, “Ask of me,” and he promises to fulfil his purpose. This is the idea involved in the words of the text, and the importance of it will become more apparent, when we consider its application to the spiritual David, to the true Son of God, “whom he hath appointed the heir of all things.”

Verse 9.—The “rod” has a variety of meanings in Scripture. It might be of different materials, as it was employed for different purposes. At an early period, a wooden rod came into use as one of the insignia of royalty, under the name of sceptre. By degrees the sceptre grew in importance, and was regarded as characteristic of an empire, or of the reign of some particular king. A golden sceptre denoted wealth and pomp. The right, or straight sceptre of which we read in Psalm xlv. 6, is expressive of the justice and uprightness, the truth and equity, which shall distinguish Messiah’s reign, after his kingdom on earth has been established. But when it is said in Rev. xix. 15, that he, “whose name is called the Word of God,” will smite the nations, and “rule them with a rod of iron,” if the rod signifies “his sceptre,” then the “iron” of which it is made must be designed to express the severity of the judgments which this omnipotent “King of kings” will inflict on all who resist his authority. But to me it appears doubtful whether the “rod of iron” symbolizes the royal sceptre of the Son of God at his second advent. It is mentioned in connection with “a sharp sword,” which leads me to prefer the opinion that it also ought to be regarded as a weapon of war; at all events, the “rod of iron” mentioned in the Psalm we are endeavouring to explain, is evidently not the emblem of sovereign power, although represented as in the hands of a king, but an instrument of correction and punishment. In this sense the word “rod” is often used.... When the correcting rod, which usually was a wand or cane, is represented, as in the second Psalm, to be of “iron” it only indicates how weighty, how severe, how effectual the threatened chastisement will be—it will not merely bruise, but it will break. “Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron.”

Now it is just such a complete breaking as would not readily be effected excepting by an iron rod, that is more fully expressed in the following clause of the verse, “Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” The completeness of the destruction, however, depends on two things. Even an iron rod if gently used, or used against a hard and firm substance, might cause little injury; but, in the case before us, it is supposed to be applied with great force, “Thou shalt dash them;” and it is applied to what will prove as brittle and frangible as “a potter’s vessel”—“Thou shalt dash them in pieces.” ... Here, as in other respects, we must feel that the predictions and promises of this Psalm were but very partially fulfilled in the history of the literal David. Their real accomplishment, their awful completion, abides the day when the spiritual David shall come in glory and in majesty as Zion’s King, with a rod of iron to dash in pieces the great antichristian confederacy of kings and peoples, and to take possession of his long-promised and dearly-purchased inheritance. And the signs of the times seem to indicate that the coming of the Lord draws nigh.—David Pitcairn.

Verse 10.—“Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings,” etc. As Jesus is King of kings and Judge of judges, so the gospel is the teacher of the greatest and wisest. If any are so great as to spurn its admonitions, God will make little of them; and if they are so wise as to despise its teachings, their fancied wisdom shall make fools of them. The gospel takes a high tone before the rulers of the earth, and they who preach it should, like Knox and Melville, magnify their office by bold rebukes and manly utterances even in the royal presence. A clerical sycophant is only fit to be a scullion in the devil’s kitchen.—C. H. S.

Verse 11.—“Serve the Lord with fear.” This fear of God qualifies our joy. If you abstract fear from joy, joy will become light and wanton; and if you abstract joy from fear, fear then will become slavish.—William Bates, D.D., 1625-1699.

Verse 11.—“Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.” There are two kinds of serving and rejoicing in God. First, a serving in security, and a rejoicing in the Lord without fear; these are peculiar to hypocrites, who are secure, who please themselves, and who appear to themselves to be not unuseful servants, and to have great merit on their side, concerning whom it is said (Psalm x. 5), “Thy judgments are far above out of his sight;” and also afterwards (Psalm xxxvi. 1), “There is no fear of God before his eyes.” These do righteousness without judgment at all times; and permit not Christ to be the Judge to be feared by all, in whose sight no man living is justified. Secondly, a serving with fear and a rejoicing with trembling; these are peculiar to the righteous who do righteousness at all times, and always rightly attemper both; never being without judgments, on the one hand, by which they are terrified and brought to despair of themselves and of all their own works; nor without that righteousness, on the other, on which they rest, and in which they rejoice in the mercy of God. It is the work of the whole lives of these characters to accuse themselves in all things, and in all things to justify and praise God. And thus they fulfil that word of Proverbs, “Blessed is the man that feareth alway” (xxviii. 14); and also that of Philip. iv. 4, “Rejoice in the Lord alway.” Thus, between the upper and nether mill-stone (Deut. xxiv. 6), they are broken in pieces and humbled, and the husks thus being bruised off, they come forth the all-pure wheat of Christ.—Martin Luther.