John Gill Commentary Psalms 2

Why do the Heathen rage
Or "the nations"; which some understand of the Jews, who are so called, (Genesis 17:5) (Ezekiel 2:3) ; because of their various tribes; and of their rage against the Messiah there have been many instances; as when they gnashed upon him with their teeth, and at several times took up stones to stone him, and cried out in a most furious and wrathful manner, crucify him, crucify him, (Luke 4:28Luke 4:29) (John 8:59) (10:31) (John 19:6John 19:15) ; though it is best to interpret it of the Gentiles, as the apostles seem to do in (Acts 4:27) .

The Hebrew word translated "rage" is by one Jewish writer ^F26 explained by (wrbx) , "associate" or "meet together"; and which is often the sense of the word in the Syriac and Chaldee languages, in which it is more used; and another ^F1 says, that it is expressive of "gathering together, and of a multitude"; it intends a tumultuous gathering together, as is that of a mob, with great confusion and noise ^F2 ;

and so the Gentiles, the Roman soldiers, gathered together, even multitudes of them, and came out with Judas at the head of them, with swords and staves, to apprehend Christ and bring him to the chief priests and elders, (Matthew 26:47) ; these assembled together in Pilate's hall, when Christ was condemned to be crucified, and insulted him in a most rude and shocking manner, (Matthew 26:2) (Matthew 27:22Matthew 27:23Matthew 27:26) ;

and many are the instances of the Gentiles rising in mobs, and appearing in riotous assemblies, making tumults and uproars against the apostles to oppose them, and the spread of the Gospel by them; to which they were sometimes instigated by the unbelieving Jews, and sometimes by their own worldly interest; see (Acts 13:50) (Acts 14:5Acts 14:19) (Acts 17:5Acts 17:6) (19:23-32) ,

to which may be added, as instances of this tumult and rage, the violent persecutions both of the Pagan emperors and of the Papists, which last are called Gentiles as well as the other; for this respects the kingdom of Christ, or the Gospel dispensations, from the beginning to the end;

and the people imagine a vain thing ?
by "the people" are meant the people of Israel, who were once God's peculiar people, and who were distinguished by him with peculiar favours above all others, and in whom this prophecy has been remarkably fulfilled; they imagine it and meditated a vain thing when they thought the Messiah would be a temporal King, and set up a kingdom, on earth in great worldly splendour and glory, and rejected Jesus, the true Messiah, because he did not answer to these their carnal imaginations;

they meditated a vain thing when they sought to take away the good name and reputation of Christ, by fixing opprobrious names and injurious charges upon him, for Wisdom has been justified of her children, (Matthew 11:19) (Luke 7:35) ; and so they did when they meditated his death, with those vain hopes that he should die and his name perish, and should lie down in the grave and never rise more, (Psalms 41:5Psalms 41:6Psalms 41:8) ; for he not only rose from the dead, but his name was more famous after his death than before;

they imagined a vain thing when they took so much precaution to prevent the disciples stealing his body out of the sepulchre, and giving out that he was risen from the dead, and more especially when he was risen, to hire the soldiers to tell a lie in order to stifle and discredit the report of it;

they meditated vain things when they attempted to oppose the apostles, and hinder the preaching of the Gospel by them, which they often did, as the Acts of the Apostles testify; and it was after one of these attempts that the apostles, in their address to God, made use of this very passage of Scripture, (Acts 4:2Acts 4:3Acts 4:17Acts 4:18Acts 4:24Acts 4:25) ;

and they still meditate a vain thing in that they imagine Jesus of Nazareth is not the Messiah, and that the Messiah is not yet come; and in that they are expecting and looking for him.

Now the Psalmist, or the Holy Ghost by him, asks "why" all this? what should move the Gentiles and the Jews to so much rage, tumult, and opposition against an holy and innocent person, and who went about doing good as he did? what end they could have in it, or serve by it? and how they could expect to succeed? what would all their rage and not, and vain imagination, signify? it is strongly suggested hereby that it would all be in vain and to no purpose, as well as what follows.

FOOTNOTES:

• F26: Aben Ezra in loc.
• F1: R. Sol. Ben Melech in Ioc.
• F2: (wvgr) "congregrant se turmatim", Vatablus; "eum tumultu", Munster, Tigurine version.

The kings of the earth set themselves
Rose and stood up in great wrath and fury, and presented themselves in a hostile manner, and opposed the Messiah: as Herod the great, king of Judea, who very early bestirred himself, and sought to take away the life of Jesus in his infancy; and Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee, who is called a king, (Mark 6:14); who with his men of war mocked him, and set him at nought; and Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judea, who represented the Roman emperor, and condemned him to death, (Matthew 27:26).

And all the kings of the earth ever since, who ever persecuted Christ in his members, and have set themselves with all their might to hinder the spread of his Gospel and the enlargement of his interest;

and the rulers take counsel together ;
as did the Jewish sanhedrim, the great court of judicature among the Jews, the members of which were the rulers of the people, who frequently met together and consulted to take away the life of Christ: though it may also include all other governors and magistrates who have entered into schemes

against the Lord, and against his Anointed ,
or Messiah, Christ: by "the Lord", or Jehovah, which is the great, the glorious, and incommunicable name of God, and is expressive of his eternal being and self-existence, and of his being the fountain of essence to all creatures, is meant God the Father; since he is distinguished from his Son, the Messiah, his anointed One, as Messiah and Christ signify; and who is so called, because he is anointed by God with the Holy Ghost, without measure, to the office of the Mediator, Prophet, Priest, and King; from whom the saints receive the anointing, which teaches all things, and every grace of the Spirit in measure; and who, after his name, are called Christians.

This name of the promised Redeemer was well known among the Jews, (John 1:41) (4:25); and which they took from this passage, and from some others;

[saying] ,
as follows:

Let us break their bands asunder
These are not the words of the apostles, nor of the saints in Gospel times, encouraging one another, notwithstanding the rage and opposition of Jews and Gentiles against their Master and his interest, to break asunder the bands of wickedness, the idolatrous customs and practices of the Heathens, and to throw off the insupportable yoke of bondage, of Jewish traditions and ceremonies, see (Isaiah 58:6); but of the Heathen, the people, and kings of the earth, and rulers who, with one voice, say this and what follows,

and cast away their cords from us; with relation to the Lord and his Anointed, whose laws, ordinances, and truths, they call "bands" and "cords"; so Arama interprets them of the law, and the commandments; or a "yoke", as the Vulgate Latin, Septuagint, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions render the last word; and the phrases in general express their irreverence of God and the Messiah, their rejection Christ and his religion; their non-subjection to him, and their refusal to have him to rule over them; and their disesteem and contempt of his Gospel, and of the ordinances of it, and of the laws and rules of his government in his churches: and also they show the wrong notion that carnal men have of these things that whereas Christ's yoke is easy, and his burden light, (Matthew 11:30); his Gospel and the truths of it make men free from the slavery of sin and Satan, and from a spirit of bondage, (Romans 8:15); and true Gospel liberty consists in an observance of his commands and ordinances; yet they look upon these things as bands and cords, as fetters and shackles, as so many restraints upon their liberty, which are not to be bore:

when, on the other hand, they promise themselves liberty in a disengagement from them, and in the enjoyment of their own lusts and sinful pleasures; whereas thereby they are brought into bondage, and become the servants of corruption. Some render it "cast away from him" ^F3; either from Christ, or everyone from himself.

FOOTNOTES:

• F3: (wnmm) "a nobis, sive ab illo", Nebiensis.

He that sits in the heavens shall laugh At the rage and tumult of the Heathen; at the vain imaginations of the people; at the opposition of the kings of the earth; at the mad counsel of the rulers, against him and his Messiah; and at their proposal to one another to throw off the yoke and government of them both.

This is a periphrasis of God, "who dwells in the heavens", and sits there enthroned; though he is not included and comprehended in them, but is everywhere; and his being there is mentioned in opposition to the kings of the earth, and the people in it; and to show the vast distance there is between them, and how they are as nothing to him, (Isaiah 40:1Isaiah 40:5Isaiah 40:17Isaiah 40:22) (Job 4:18) ; and how vain and fruitless their attempts must be against him and his Messiah: and his sitting there still and quiet, serene and undisturbed, is opposed to the running to and fro, and the tumultuous and riotous assembling of the Heathen.

Laughing is ascribed unto him, according to the language of men, as the Jewish writers speak ^F4, by an anthropopathy; in the same sense as he is said to repent and grieve, (Genesis 6:6) ; and expresses his security from all their attempts, (Job 5:22) (41:29) ; and the contempt he has them in, and the certain punishment of them, and the aggravation of it; who will not only then laugh at them himself, but expose them to the laughter and scorn of others, (Proverbs 1:26) ;

the Lord shall have them in derision ;
which is a repetition of the same thing in other words; and is made partly to show the certainty of their disappointment and ruin, and partly to explain who is meant by him that sits in the heavens. The Targum calls him, "the Word of the Lord"; and Alshech interprets it of the Shechinah.

FOOTNOTES:

• F4: Kimchi, Aben Ezra, & R. Sol. Ben Melech in loc.

Then shall he speak to them in his wrath
Or, "and he shall speak to them"; so Noldius: that is, the Lord that sits in the heavens, and laughs, and has the Heathen, the people, the kings and rulers in derision, shall not only silently despise their furious and concerted opposition to him and his Messiah, but shall at last speak out to them, not in his word, but in his providences; and not in love, as to his own people, when he chastises them, but in great wrath, inflicting severe and just punishment. It seems to refer to the destruction of Jerusalem, after the crucifixion, sufferings, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ; and after the pouring out of the Spirit, and when the Gospel, to their great mortification, had got ground, and made large advances in the Gentile world;

and vex them in his sore displeasure ;
or "in the heat of his anger" {e}: see (Deuteronomy 29:24) , where the Holy Ghost speaks of the same people, and of the same ruin and destruction of them at the same time, as here: and as the carrying the Jews captive into Babylon is called their vexation, (Isaiah 9:1) ; much more may their destruction by the Romans; then it was they howled for vexation of spirit, (Isaiah 65:14) ; the wrath of God came upon them to the uttermost; they were filled with trouble and confusion, with terror and consternation, as the word ^F6 used signifies;

they were vexed to see themselves straitened and pent in on every side by the Roman armies, oppressed with famine and internal divisions, rapine and murder; to see their temple profaned and burnt, their city plundered and destroyed, and themselves taken and carried captive: and what most of all vexed them was that their attempts against Jesus of Nazareth, the true Messiah, were fruitless; and that, notwithstanding all their opposition to him, his name was famous, his interest increased, his kingdom was enlarged, through the spread of his Gospel among the Gentiles; and what Jehovah in (Psalms 2:6) says, though it is to the comfort of his people, was to their terror and vexation.

FOOTNOTES:

• F6: (wmlhby) "conturbabit", V. L. Vatablus, Gejerus; so Musculus; Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "terrebit", Pagninus, Montanus; so Cocceius, Michaelis; see Ainsworth.