New Testament use of the Second Psalm
We have already considered the Psalmist's remarkable testimony to the Sonship of Jehovah's Anointed One, recorded in the words of the Son Himself: "I will declare the decree: Jehovah hath said unto Me, Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee." First, Jehovah makes the unqualified acknowledgment ("Thou art My Son") of a relationship in the Deity before the foundation of the world. Then, Jehovah says next, "This day have I begotten Thee." In this clause He specifies an epoch or point of time, "this day," in which the Son's birth takes place.
Jehovah's King, therefore, was Jehovah's Son before He was begotten in time, and appeared among men to establish Zion's long-promised kingdom of righteousness and peace. This Anointed One came into the house and lineage of David by no ordinary procedure. And while He was truly the Son of David because Mary, of David's royal line, was "found with child of the Holy Ghost," He was with equal truth David's Lord (Adonai) because He was Jehovah's Son from all eternity. As born into the world, He was that Son; while before that birth He was the Son, a fact which could be true of no creature, and of none beside Himself.
The truth of the eternal Sonship bestows an exalted and incomparable character upon the Messiahship of the Lord Jesus, and the fact of His personal glory as Son of Jehovah aggravated Israel's sin of rejecting Him beyond description. The Messiah sent to them was not only Jehovah's Servant, Whose exceptional dignity and excellence Isaiah depicts, but Jehovah's Son, as David by the Spirit testified in this Second Psalm. Jehovah sent Him as Servant to collect the fruit of the vineyard, but as His Son to receive the reverence of the husbandmen, saying, "They will reverence My Son" (Matt. 21: 37). But in wicked unbelief, the nation despised the Sent One as Servant and crucified Him as Son.
Parabolically, was not the Sent One the Son of the Lord of the vineyard before He was despatched on His errand? Was He not in the parable presented as the Son abiding in reserve till other lesser means had been tried with the husbandmen, and had failed? Most truly so; He came to them, not as a Son newly become such and provided for the occasion, but in His own inherent personal right. This the husbandmen knew, for they said, "This is the heir; come, let us kill Him." And their crime against the Son, not the murder of the Lord's servants from Abel to Zacharias, was the specific cause of the wrath of God, that fell upon them to the uttermost (Matt. 21: 33-41; Matt. 23: 34-36).
We will now look at the citations of Psalm 2: 7, found in the New Testament, and, by marking the connection in which they are quoted, seek to discover the special significance of the prophetic words as they are there brought forward. The passage is once quoted by Paul in a spoken discourse to Jews in the synagogue at Antioch (Acts 13: 33) and twice in his Epistle to Hebrew confessors of Christ (Heb. 1: 5; Heb. 5: 5). In all three cases we shall find that the purpose of the quotation is to establish the Sonship of the Messiah on the basis and authority of the divine utterance recorded in the Second Psalm. The One Whom God sent, not only came to exercise His mediatorial functions as the Begotten-One of Jehovah, but was Son in His own personal right before that day of His incarnation. Oh, how great the sin to refuse such a One as He!
(1) God's promises are fulfilled in the Son Paul announced to the congregation of Jews in the synagogue at Antioch that God had brought to Israel, of the seed of David, a Saviour Jesus (Acts 13: 23). He showed that though the nation rejected and slew Him, God had raised Him from the dead, and that now there was forgiveness, and also justification for all those who believe.
But a brief examination of the structure of his discourse shows that the apostle's appeal to the audience rested upon the fact that Jesus is the Son of God, which truth was from the first the special feature of Paul's ministry (Acts 9: 20), in distinction from Peter's preaching, setting forth the crucified Nazarene glorified in heaven.
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The Structure of Paul's Address
After alluding to the Jewish national history from the land of Egypt to the reign of David, the apostle declared that the raising up of Jesus was the actual fulfilment of God's promise of a Saviour for them. He referred to three main historical facts concerning Christ: —
(1) His forerunner (Acts 13: 24, 25);
(2) His advent and His crucifixion at Jerusalem (Acts 13: 27-29)
(3) His resurrection (Acts 13: 30, 31).
In connection with their rejection of the "Saviour Jesus," Paul mentioned two of its moral features. By denying and slaying Him, they (a) were guilty of the sin of ignorance (ver. 27) and (b) had fulfilled the scripture in condemning Him (vers. 27, 29). The same two features are found in Peter's charge against the Jews in Jerusalem (Acts 3: 17, 18).
The Quotation of Old Testament Scripture
Having thus briefly stated what was true historically, the apostle in verses 32-37 applied to two out of these three facts the light of the Spirit's witness in the Old Testament. Passing over (i) the prophecies of old, relating to the Baptist as the forerunner of the Saviour, he adduced the written witness of the divine oracles to the personal glory of Jesus Whom God had raised up. (2) In Him, said the apostle, was the fulfilment of the promise: "as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee" (ver. 33).
Then the apostle applied further scripture to the third historical point also (3) — to His resurrection (vers. 34-37). The raising of Jesus from the dead no more to return to corruption was foreshadowed in Isa. 55: 3; Ps. 89: 1, 19; Ps. 16: 10. This prophecy, Paul said, could not refer to David, and is therefore fulfilled in his Seed. Mark now, in the light of this preceding context, the force of Paul's exhortation which follows: "Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins . . ." (Acts 13: 38).
The index-finger of the inspired speaker was pointing to "this Man." Paul was setting forth One to Whom, as he showed, both recent history and ancient prophecy had witnessed. It was recent history that Jesus was born in the city of David, was hanged on a tree outside Jerusalem, and was laid in the sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea. This was the apostle's brief description of the "raising up" of the One in Whom the promises of God were Yea and Amen, and of His reception by those to whom He came.
But what had the Psalmist said concerning the Messianic King? David recorded an echo of His personal glory out of the timeless past. Before all worlds Jehovah had saluted the Coming One. Jehovah did not say to Him, "Thou art My King," or "Thou art My Anointed," and thus, because of the majesty of the Giver, magnify the mediatorial office given Him, but Jehovah said to Him, "Thou art My Son," dwelling only upon His personal relation in the Deity. We learn from the doctrine of the Incarnation as it is foreshadowed in this verse of the Psalm that the Person gives unique dignity to the office. When the Son becomes the Servant, how that service is magnified! Let us consider this word of prophecy a little further.
The Application of the Second Psalm
The apostle, by this quotation, established the identity of "this Man," Whom he was announcing, with Jehovah's Son, foretold by the Spirit. The One Whom God "raised up" to fulfil His promise had been personally indicated in this prophecy. The Jesus of the Gospels is the Son of the Second Psalm. Jesus, "of the seed of David according to the flesh," was the Son of Jehovah in His own proper, personal, and underived nature, to Whom Jehovah said, "Thou art My Son."
It will be observed that the second member of Psalm 2: 7, "this day have I begotten Thee," also bears with illuminating effect upon the fulfilment of the promise made to the people of Israel. As the first part intimated Who would fulfil the promise (the "Son"), so the second shows the manner of its fulfilment (His incarnation). The fulfilment of the promise is plainly declared to be in His "raising up." The apostle's words are, God has "raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus" (ver. 23) , and "God hath fulfilled the same . . . in that He raised up Jesus" (Acts 13: 33, R.V. the adverb "again," is to be omitted). This "raising up," or bringing into the world, satisfied the prediction, "This day have I begotten Thee." By His incarnation, He Who was the Eternal Son was in due time "born King of the Jews" (Matt. 2: 2).
The context of Acts 13, then, in which this quotation appears, when duly weighed, makes it clear at what time the predicted "begetting" of the Psalm took place. Paul's audience were instructed that it took place at that point of time when Jehovah's Son appeared in the line of promise. From David onwards, the Messianic seed was preserved and continued in unbroken succession until Jesus was born in Bethlehem, as the genealogies in Matt. 1 and Luke 3 show. By that birth, Jehovah introduced His Son into the royal line of promise, and the written word, which had long been awaiting fulfilment, became true in fact: "This day have I begotten Thee."
"Raising up" and Resurrection
Some confusion in the interpretation of this verse (Acts 13: 33) and of the one following has arisen through the unwarranted assumption that "raising up" signifies resurrection, when it is a rendering of the Greek verb, anisteemi. On this ground, it is argued that because this verb occurs in the two verses (33, 34) , the resurrection of the Lord must be referred to in each case.
But this inference will not bear examination. In the latter verse (Acts 13: 34) , it is so, because its meaning is restricted by the qualifying phrase, "from the dead." When we read, "He raised Him from the dead," the resurrection of Christ is certainly stated. But the general meaning of the Greek verb is that of setting a person, or causing him to stand, in a certain position or office. And the verb is employed in this general sense in verse 33: the Lord Jesus was set in the position of the Fulfiller of the promise: "God . . . hath raised up Jesus" (the R.V. omits "again").
The same verb is used in this general sense in Acts 3: 22 also, "A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you" and again in Acts 3: 26, "To you first God, having raised up His Servant, has sent Him . . ." These two passages do not refer to the resurrection of Christ, neither is there anything in their contextual subject to restrict its meaning to that event, as there is in Acts 2: 24, 30, 32, where undoubtedly Peter's subject is the resurrection of the Lord.
But in verse 34 of this chapter, the phrase, "from the dead," confines the application of "raising up" to the particular act of resurrection. In like manner, it may be observed that a different verb, egeiro, is used with and without a qualifying clause in verses 22 and 30. In the former case, the significance is the general one, "He raised up unto them David." But in the latter the reference is to the resurrection of Christ which is shown by adding the modifying clause, "God raised Him from the dead."
The resurrection, then, was God's answering act to the guilt of the Jews, who slew the Fulfiller of His promise. He by the resurrection of the Lord Jesus secured to them "the sure mercies of David," so that it is to the raised One, Who is "no more to return to corruption," that the apostle applies the further scriptures quoted from Isaiah and Psalm 16. In the Holy One raised up from the dead the confirmation of the promises was made objectively. And "through this Man" was preached the good news of the forgiveness of sins, and of justification from all things for all that believe.
What a mighty demonstration the apostle gave! The truth of the Sonship of Jehovah's Anointed is the sure foundation on which the whole fabric of God's grace and God's government is reared. And it was to this One that Paul's testimony was rendered at Antioch of Pisidia in the deafened ears of unconverted Jews. Moreover, seeing his hearers still refused to believe on the Son of God, the apostle turned the gospel invitation to the Gentiles (Acts 13: 46), according to the saying of Jehovah to His Servant, Who is His Son (Isa. 42: 6; Acts 13: 47).
(2) The more excellent name of son
In the beginning of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the quotation from Psalm 2 is introduced by the Holy Spirit to establish the personal glory of God's Spokesman Who has appeared in these days. The Epistle presents to the believing Hebrews a goodly array of witnesses from their scriptures concerning Christ and His work. Standing at the head of that noble line of unimpeachable testimony is Jehovah's own utterance to Him: "Thou art My Son this day have I begotten Thee" (Heb. 1: 5).
By these words quoted from the holy oracles in the opening statement of the Epistle, it is proved that God has last of all, "spoken to us [in the person of the] Son" (vers. 1, 2). One had now appeared Who inherits the "more excellent name" of Son. Others among His predecessors had borne the title of prophet or priest or king. Angels, too, had been intermediaries of divine communications, and that One, more distinguished than them all, "the Angel of Jehovah," had at times spoken to men in the past. But now, God has spoken to us in the Son.