Session and Preparation; Psalm 2

What we have been seeing is that the New Testament doctrines related to the ascension and session of Christ pulls together the four messianic psalms: Psalm 2, Psalm 89, Psalm 132, Psalm 110 plus Daniel 7.

We have seen that the terms Son of God and Son of Man, which are titles for Jesus Christ are interconnected in this doctrine and they are related to the term son of David and the title King of kings and Lord of lords. Under the title Son of Man there is an emphasis on Jesus as being genuine humanity. Son of God: he is begotten of God, Psalm 2. He is the son of David, Psalm 89, which is a reflection or meditation on the Davidic covenant. And then the title King of kings and Lord of lords is applied to Him at the end of the Tribulation at the second coming, which gives a broader people than son of David. Son of David is His royal title related to His position ruling and reigning over Israel. King of kings and Lord of lords is His title of His ruling and reigning over all nations, tribes and people.

We will see that the Davidic covenant is the foundation for understanding all of the above, and a key element in understanding what is happening today is the background of the Melchizedekian priesthood from Genesis chapter 14 and its fulfilment in Christ. All of this is more than the fact that at the right hand of God the Father Jesus is currently involved in interceding for believers. It is more than the fact that He is just awaiting the time when He will come to judge. There is something happening during this time that He is doing in the life of each individual believer and there is an importance and significance to this that is rarely ever brought out.

We have looked at Daniel chapter seven which is one of the most important passages in the Old Testament related to future events. The symbolism in Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 relate to the kingdoms of men. The image in Daniel two envisages the kingdoms of man as man looks at them. They represent the same kingdoms represented in Daniel seven but from man’s viewpoint. Man looks at these kingdoms as great and glorious and valuable, but in Daniel seven they are presented as beasts. The beats was the lion with the wings of an eagle and that represented the kingdom of Babylon. The second beast was the lopsided bear which represented the Medo-Persian empire. The fourth kingdom was the kingdom of Greece, the four-headed leopard. The fifth kingdom was a unique beast, and awesome and awful beast with ten horns. That represented first the Roman empire and its revival in the future. This looks at these kingdoms from God’s perspective that man is not normal, he is depraved, he is a sinner, he is fallen, therefore the kingdoms that he produces are distorted. They are never going to be what they ought to be and what they could be because of the depravity of the human heart. There is no perfect political system. The best that man can get from various systems only works for a while before the depravity of the human heart begins to manifest itself and the system falls apart. There is no perfect economic system because of the same problem. The problem that the Bible reveals as we move through Genesis to the end of the Old Testament is that you cannot have a perfect kingdom because the people are flawed and the leadership is flawed, and because everyone that is involved is a sinner and everyone operates on arrogance the whole system begins to become corrupted. What is necessary is a perfect leader, and that is foundational.

In Daniel 7 we have come up with some conclusions. Daniel 7:13 ^NASB “I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. [14]And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and {men of every} language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.” Daniel is looking and he sees two people: the Ancient of Days and the Son of Man—God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Son of Man becomes a title for Jesus Christ in the Gospels. He is like a Son of Man, indicating that the leader of this new kingdom that will replace the other four is a man, He is a true human. Because Jesus Christ was born perfect He was not corrupted by sin. Therefore all human kingdoms are represented as beastly in contrast to the true humanity of Jesus Christ who represents true humanity.

Observations from this passage

1) The purpose is that ultimately every nation might serve Him in this kingdom. So what we see is that the nature of the future Millennial kingdom is no longer restricted to a Jewish orientation. It has that but it expands. It is not only going to be centred in Jerusalem because, as we will see, the leader is on the throne of David on Mount Zion, the centre point of all worship during the Millennial kingdom is the Millennial temple that will be constructed after the second coming of Christ, but the Jewish conception of the kingdom up to this point is primarily Jewish, but we see here that there is an expansion that is going to include all people. When Jewish scholars read this all the implications were not evident to them, but it is clearly there in the passage. Daniel 7:18 ^NASB “But the saints of the Highest One will receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, for all ages to come.”

2) The kingdom is forever. That implies that the ultimate ruler of this kingdom must Himself be eternal. No one who is simply a human, a man, can qualify to have eternal life.

3) The term “saints” in Daniel 7:18 is the Hebrew word qaddish, and it is a broad term. Some people always want to make the term refer to the same group of people. The term comes from the Hebrew root qadosh which means to be sanctified, and it refers to sanctified ones. We have to carefully understand the context to know it is talking about. In the Old Testament when it is talking about the saints it is talking about believers which in most contexts is a reference to Jews. But when we get into the church age and it used the term saints it using it to refer to church age believers who are neither Jew nor Gentile, because Jewishness, that racial factor, is no longer present in the church age. Because Jews have been temporarily set aside, he will restore the plan, but He is calling out a new people for Himself, the church. Then, to make matters even more confusing, when we get into Revelation and it talks about the saints, it is talking about the Tribulation saints. It is just talking about those who are saved. In Daniel 7 the word can clearly have two implications, but it is a broad enough word and an ambiguous enough word so that we really have to be careful about what it is saying. It is clear from Daniel 7 that the saints of the highest one are going to be persecuted by that leader of the revived Roman empire. In that verse the saints refers to Tribulation saints. But in verse 18 when it says the saints of the highest one will receive the kingdom that has to have a broader reference than simply Tribulation saints. We know that when Jesus Christ returns to rule the kingdom he will come with a body of believers, His bride, the church age believers. He will establish the kingdom for the Jews and this includes the surviving Tribulation saints. This is why the term “saint” is not a term for any particular group. This is not saying that the church is found in this passage but simply that this is a broad enough and ambiguous enough term that when there is the development of history into the Tribulation this word would, of course, include church age believers.

4) We noted that in verse 14 we have the phrase “the kingdom was given.” At a point in time in the4 future the kingdom is going to be given to the Lord Jesus Christ. That indicates that a time frame exists before that moment when he does not have dominion, a glory or a kingdom. It means that there is a period of time that will exist in history before Jesus Christ is given that kingdom. That means that if that is in the future that there is no kingdom now. There is a point in time when He is given the kingdom and that doesn’t come, according to Daniel 7, until right before He returns to establish the kingdom. So we are not in that Millennial kingdom now. We are in the period known as the mystery form of the kingdom which is revealed by Jesus after His rejection by the Pharisees in Matthew 12 in the parables of Matthew 13.

5) The passage teaches that the establishment of the kingdom is yet future and will be accomplished through a truly human founder and leader who will be this world-wide leader. But it is not someone who is just a man, it is someone who is a combination of deity and humanity, the God-Man. The fact of that is suggested in both Psalm 2 and Psalm 110.

Psalm 2:1 ^NASB “Why are the nations in an uproar And the peoples devising a vain thing?” David is the author of Psalm 2. The verse is quoted in Acts in Stephen’s speech where he attributes this to David. He is looking forward to a future event, it is a prophetic psalm. [2] “The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying.” Once again we see two personages here: the LORD and His anointed [mashiach: Messiah]. They are being opposed by the kingdoms of the earth. All of the human race is in antagonism to God and His Messiah. The orientation of mankind: [3] “Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!” Man resists the authority of God. He wants to do everything he can to remove God from public discourse. So we have the recognition that the human heart is opposed to God and wants to remove divine authority from his life. He does not want God to speak to how he lives.

Psalm 2:4 ^NASB “He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them.” Hod has a great sens eof humour and when man shakes his fist at God, God’s response is just to chuckle at the insubordination of man and how useless it is. [5] “Then He will speak to them in His anger And terrify them in His fury, saying, [6] ‘But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain’.” So as the nations rage against God in the future, and this is ultimately going to take place at the Battle of Armageddon, the Lord Jesus Christ will literally and physically return to the earth at Mount Zion, and he will be installed and inaugurated as the King at that time. The orientation time wise is in the future. The word for “installed” is the qal perfect of the Hebrew word nasak, which means to set, to install, to inaugurate a leader. That is the first person speaking. Then the Lord’s anointed begins to speak in verse 7: “I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: ….” So it is a conversation and this is the response of God the Son. “… He [God the Father] said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You’.” The verb here could be taken either as a qal stem or hiphil. The hiphil is causative or declarative. It is normally taken by most as a normal qal, just a simple statement, but if it is taken as a hiphil what it means is, “Today I declare that you are my begotten one.” It is an emphasis on His deity. He is not begotten at that point, he is declared before all the nations to be the eternal Son of God. It is a declaration of His deity and His right to rule. [8] God the Father is speaking again to God the Son: “‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the {very} ends of the earth as Your possession. [9] You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware’.” This is some time in the future. The Father is saying to the Son: “I am installing you on Mount Zion, ask of me now, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance.” So at this future point in time Jesus going to ask the Father for the nations as His inheritance. Has that happened yet? No, it hasn’t. He doesn’t ask for it until a future time. That means there is no kingdom now.

So we see that He is divine, he is eternal, and in order to get the eternal King He can’t be a truly human king. This takes us back to the Davidic covenant, 2 Samuel 7:12ff, when God the Father promises to David an eternal kingdom. 2 Samuel 7:13 ^NASB “He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” So the throne that is mentioned in Psalm 2 goes back to the Davidic covenant throne. To have an eternal throne means one of two things. You have an eternal line of succession or it culminates in one who has eternal life who has eternal life and will never die, and that is the solution. The Davidic covenant, then, is fulfilled on one who Himself is eternal. [16] “Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.” So when we put 2 Samuel together with Psalm 2 we realize that the King who comes, who is given the dominion and the power, must be more than simply a man’ he must be a combination of humanity and deity.

The next thing we learn from Psalm 2: “You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.” That imagery of breaking them with a rod of iron is then picked up in Revelation 2:26, 27: ^NASB “He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, TO HIM I WILL GIVE AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS; AND HE SHALL RULE THEM WITH A ROD OF IRON, AS THE VESSELS OF THE POTTER ARE BROKEN TO PIECES, as I also have received {authority} from My Father.”

An overcomer is not a believer, an overcomer is a believer who advances to maturity. What we see here is that the successful believer who advances to spiritual maturity is the one who will rule and reign with Christ in this rod of iron rule in the Millennial kingdom.

What is happening today is that Jesus Christ during the session is waiting for a people, to be prepared who will be those who will rule with Him during this Millennial kingdom. It is not the Jews that are ruling with Him because Psalm 2 is applied not to Jews but to church age believers. So one way we are being prepared to rule and reign with Him is through our spiritual gift. By using that gift we mature, and that maturity prepares us to rule with Christ during the Millennial kingdom.