\\INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 2\\

\*This psalm is the second in order, and so it is
called in \\#Ac 13:33\\; which shows that the book
of Psalms was in the same form in the apostles' days
as now, and as it ever had been; and though it is
without a title, yet certain it is that it is a psalm of
David, since the twelve apostles of Christ with one
voice ascribe it to him, in which no doubt they
the generally received sense of the Jewish
\\#Ac 4:24,25\\; and the Messiah is the subject of
and that it is a prophecy concerning: high, his person,
office, and kingdom, appears from the express mention
of the Lord's Anointed, or Messiah, in
his being set as King over Zion, notwithstanding the
opposition made against him; from the person spoken
of being called the Son of God, and that in such sense
as angels and men are not, and therefore cannot belong
to any creature; and from his having so large an inheritance,
and such power over the Heathen; and from
the reverence, service, and obedience due to him from
the kings and judges of the earth; and  from the trust
and confidence which is to be put in him, which
ought not to be placed but in a divine Person; and
more especially this appears from several passages
cited out of it in the New Testament, and applied to
the Messiah, \\#Ac 4:25-27 13:33 Heb 1:5 5:5\\,
to which may be added, that the ancient
Jewish doctors interpreted this psalm of the Messiah {s};
and some of the modern ones own that it may be understood
either of David or of the Messiah, and that some
things are clearer of the Messiah than of David {t}; and
some particular passages in it are applied to him both
by ancient and later writers among the Jews, as
\\#Ps 2:1, 2\\, %Why do the Heathen rage%, &c. {u};
\\#Ps 2:6\\, %I have set%, &c. {w}; \\#Ps 2:7\\,
%I will declare the decree%, &c.{x}, and \\#Ps 2:8\\,
%Ask of me%, &c. {y}; and we may very safely interpret the whole of him.

\*Ver. 1. \\Why do the Heathen rage\\, &c.] Or %the nations%;
which some understand of the Jews, who are so called,
\\#Ge 17:5 Eze 2:2\\; because of their several 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, \\#Lu 4:28,29
Joh 8:59 10:31 19:6,15\\; though it is
best to interpret it of the Gentiles, as the apostles
seem to do in \\#Ac 4:27\\. The Hebrew word translated
%rage% is by one Jewish writer {z} 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 {a} 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 {b}; 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, \\#Mt 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,
\\#Mt 26:2,22,23\\; 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 \\#Ac
13:50 14:5,19 17:5,6 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, ad 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, \\#Mt 11:19 Lu 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, \\#Ps 41:5,6,8\\; 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, \\#Ac 4:2,3,17,18,24,25\\;
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.

\*Ver. 2. \\The kings of the earth set themselves\\, &c.]
Rose and stood up in great wrath and fury, and
presented themselves in an 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, \\#Mr 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; 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 teacheth 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,
\\#Joh 1:41 4:25\\; and which they took from this
passage, and from some others;
\*\\[saying]\\, as follows:

{s} Jarchi in loc.
{t} Kimchi in v. 12. & Aben Ezra in v. 6. 12.
{u} T. Bab. Avodah Zarah, fol. 3. 2. Pirke Eliezer, c. 19.
{w} R. Saadiah Gaon in Dan. vii. 13.
{x} Yalkut Simeoni, par. 2. fol. 90. 2. Zohar in Numb. fol. 82. 2.
Maimon in Misn Sanhedrin, c.11. 1. & Abarbinel Mashmiah
Jeshuah, fol. 37. 4. &. 38. 1.
{y} T. Bab. Succah, fol. 52. 1. & Bereshit Rabba, s. 44. fol. 38. 4.
{z} Aben Ezra in loc.
{a} R. Sol. Ben Melech in Ioc.
{b} \^wvgr\^ %congregrant se turmatim%, Vatablus; %eum tumultu%,
Munster, Tigurine version.