Jesus as the Psalm 2 Royal Son of God

Psalm 1 and Psalm 2. We read each on their own and then we read them side by side and saw how they spark off each other and connect us to the story of the whole Bible. Today, we're going to zoom in on Psalm 2 and look at how Psalm 2 is extensively quoted in the New Testament.

“Now, remember Psalm 2 is the poem about the anointed king who God calls his son,”

who will inherit the whole world and how rebel kings of the land are called to serve this king.

In the first time, Psalm 2 is quoted in the New Testament is during Jesus' baptism,

when the sky rips open and God's voice from heaven says, "You are my son." He's hearing a phrase from the heavenly voice quoting the first few words of Psalm 2 and Jesus immediately after this goes out into the wilderness, passes the test that Israel and humanity failed, and then starts announcing the arrival of God's kingdom. So this voice is saying something of the Son, almost as it were of like it's go time. Go Son, go get him. Later in the Gospels,

right before Jesus heads out to Jerusalem to be killed, he ascends a mountain with three of his disciples and suddenly his face and clothes begin shining revealing who he really is. And we hear the voice of the Father from heaven again declaring, "This is my son, whom I love, listen to him." Jesus' status as the son is not happening in this moment. Rather, this moment on the mountain and the baptism then are little flash openings

into the true identity of Jesus, going farther back than any of our brains can imagine. Into the eternal identity of God. We'll look at how Paul, quote Psalm 2,

“"to talk about the resurrection of Jesus." So what does this mean?”

The resurrection is linked to the words you are my son today. I've begun you.

And finally in the revelation, we'll see how Jesus tells the church and Thietira that his

Psalm 2 royal identity is not for him alone, but that he shares that status of sons with those who are his. Jesus is the risen Lord of heaven and earth. He's the son of God. And what he says here is, "If you guys hang in there and actually lives like who you are, I will give to you what is true with me." Today, Tim Mackie and I will explore how the new testament, quote Psalm 2, "and applies it to Jesus." Who then applies it to us.

Thanks for joining us. Here we go.

“Hey, Tim. Hello, John Collins. We're going to do one last conversation in this little”

many series on Psalm 1 and 2. Yes, yes, we are. So we read Psalm 1 just by itself and enjoyed it.

Yep. We read Psalm 2 by itself. We enjoyed it. Had a great time. Okay, time. Psalm 1 and 2, then we read together as if they were talking to each other. As if they were two sides of one big reflective idea. Yes, right. And that was like, whoa, just sparking with all these cool new things. Yes, I hope it wasn't too repetitive, but it's very helpful for me to remind myself whenever I'm reading at one place in the Bible. Any passage in the Bible has many layers of

meaning depending on an expanding like circle of context. Every passage is like one little tile you know, in a larger mosaic or one puzzle piece in the bigger puzzle. And you can just examine that puzzle piece by itself. In fact, that's really great. That's one thing you can meditate on. But then it's about expanding the circles of context and then reading the little piece you're meditating on in relationship to what comes before and after it or maybe what's connected to it

in terms of literary design or connected to it on other scrolls through hyperlinks. And every one of those layers of meaning is a part of what a biblical text means. Okay, so you're saying that the Psalm scroll, for example, is 150 individual poems, right? And you could think of each poem is like a tile in a mosaic, a mosaic being an image that is really only clear to you when you back away and you see 300 tiles all arranged in a pattern. And when you're zoomed in you're like

there's some blue ones next to each other, there's some red ones. She backed up to get perspective a new image. Yeah, then you like a circle of, you know, a face or something. And so as the Psalm scroll was compiled and the scribes of prophets and these Psalms were arranged, but also given their final editorial sleep. Yeah, literary design shape that it was done with all of the

all these scrolls are connected together. And the Psalm scroll sits alongside the Torah and the prophets in a really strategic place in the Hebrew Bible connected to Joshua being a Torah reader.

“Yeah, we looked at how the ending of Malachi has all these important hyperlinks to Psalm 1 and 2.”

Yeah. Remember what was happening in Malachi? Malachi is about the day of the Lord that's going to bring a purifying act of justice to sift out the righteous and the wicked and purify creation to make up new. Okay? So, you know, when you're looking at Malachi tying

into the vocabulary of Psalm 1 or 2 or Joshua, you don't always know. And I'm not sure it's always

important to know which one came first or second. And sometimes you can make a case or think about hypothesis. You know, this came first and is quoting from that passage. But what's just as important is then the effect of now these two different parts of Joshua 1 and Psalm 1 pinging off each other. And the electricity flows both ways. I'm just supposed to now read the book of Joshua and light of the Psalms and read the Psalms and light of Joshua. And so we've backed out a lot to

the whole Hebrew Bible and let's back out one more step. Yeah. And look at how new testament literature was reflecting. Yep. And especially Psalm 2, especially Psalm 2. So yeah, Jesus with the apostles for them the scriptures are ancient. Yeah. And they see in them layers of meaning

“that if you're only looking at the one little poem by itself, you're kind of like what? How they get that?”

So this will be a principle that we'll see is that whenever Jesus and the apostles are quoting

from their scriptures, they're never just connecting to one passage. They're connecting to a

network of passages and they use the language from the passage in the network that has like the lowest hanging fruit. Most often. Hmm. Okay. I think I understand. I mean, I think a lot of people have this experience where they see the New Testament quoting the Old Testament and you go and look it up. Mm-hmm. You're going on, huh? Yeah. You're often like, wait, hold on. How did they get that? How did yeah? Yeah. The point they're making doesn't seem to be one exactly is there. What's

“going on? And you're saying it's because they're thinking about a whole network of texts. Yeah.”

A whole hyperlinked network of texts. Hey, okay. And so we got to learn to think like them. Yeah. You know, the biblical authors, Jesus and the apostles know the scriptures so well.

They're never just wanting to draw our attention to the one thing they're using words from

when they're quoting. They want to draw to our attention a whole network of linked passages and the way that Psalm 2 gets quoted and used in the New Testament is just an excellent specimen of this technique. Yeah. And once you get used to it, you're like, oh, I get it. But if you don't know what they're doing or what to look for, it can feel like random. So Psalm 2 just gives us a great example. I thought of there's so many cool examples that I would just want it to make a whole episode.

You're in this little series on it. Great. So the way that Psalm 2 fits into the huge mosaic of the whole Christian Bible, all the new testament. Let's dive in, pun intended because we're going to start with the baptism of Jesus. Okay. Let's dive in. [Music] So we've looked at baptism of Jesus a lot of times. Yeah, it doesn't. Yeah. Yeah. It's always worth

a little more meditation though. Okay. So Jesus in Mark, Matthew and Luke in the early parts of all three of their presentations of Jesus have the moment where Jesus goes to the Jordan River to get baptized by John, the Immersor. And he goes into the waters. He comes up out of the waters and we are told in all three gospels that the heavens opened. Mark actually tells us the heavens

in the bird-like form of a dove. And then there's a voice from heaven. And the voice says,

three things, three elements to what the voice says. You are my son, the beloved one, with you, I am well pleased. And in that phrase, you are my son is coming right from Psalm 2 for 7. Okay. So real quick, let's just upload what Psalm 2 for 7. Right. So remember, in the flow of Psalm 2, begin with the nations raging. Yep. And then they have a little tantrum speech, which the tantrum speech is. Well the kings are rebellion against Yahweh and His Messiah. Uh-huh.

And they say, let's tear off their chains and throw off their feathers. They're bonds or whatever.

Yeah. Let's live how we want to live, which is in like a violent open rebellion against

“God. We want to take power as we want to take power. That's right. Yep. That's what kings do. And they”

stand up to make that little speech. Okay. The next stance of Psalm 2 in the poem is Yahweh sitting. Yahweh sits down, meaning He's enthroned, right, up in the skies. Yeah. He's not biting His fingernails. God's not stressed out. He's like, I've already set an emotional plan to deal with those kings. And that is a pointing a king on Mount Zion, my holy hill. Hmm. So that's the opening of the poem. What the kings stand and say. And then what Yahweh sits down and says. Okay.

So that's part one of the poem. Yep. Part two is then that king just starts speaking up and saying,

hey, dear reader, let me tell you all a decree that Yahweh made about me. Yeah. He said to me, and now here we are. You are my son. Today I have bird you. Yeah. So there's three speeches. Yes. The nations, they have their little tantrum speech. Yahweh has his announcement speech of like, I got a plan and it's a king. Hmm. The true king. And then the king gets a speech. Yeah. And the king's speech is where we're going to focus in on. Yeah. And it's the king saying that his identity

is a being God's son. Being the son of God. By God. Yeah. On that day, that enthroned midday. Yeah. And so the son all of a sudden pipes up speaking to us the reader. But then the son is reporting a path conversation. Right. Okay. The Yahweh had with him. Yeah. So this is a conversation in the past in terms of it's full narrative. All right. Then after the son finishes his speech, he goes on and he says, God told me to ask for the nations as my inheritance.

“So that's what I'm going to get. Then some two ended with the poet”

then coming out of the little story and then addressing the kings personally and saying, hey, kings, given the situation. Yeah. Better be wise and humble yourselves and give your allegiance to the king. Yeah. To the son. Kiss the son. Kiss the son. Yep. All right. That's some two. That's some two. So what does it mean that this king is a son? Yeah. So one layer of meaning, just reading some two by itself, son of God was a typical royal title in the rhetoric of kings in ancient

Near East. When they're claiming that they're role as king is divinely appointed. In fact, they're very identity is bound up with unity with the gods, the offspring of the gods. This would be a typical thing for an ancient king to say. I am the son of God. Yeah. Yeah. And it was said many times. Many times by Egyptian or Mesopotamian kings long before the Israelite people ever existed. Yeah. In ancient Egypt long tradition of this. Yeah. So the Israelite kingship emerged in a time period where

“son of God was the thing you could say. So it's at least a title for a king. Is it more than that?”

Is that all the digits or is there more layers of meaning? And that has to do with how son of God fits in as a team to study through the whole Hebrew Bible, which we don't have time for. We don't have time to do that. So, but we are going to talk about this phrase, son of God, as it relates to Jesus. Mm-hmm. Yeah. We are. Give me the punch line. Yeah. I mean, essentially humans are presented as sons of God in their really chapters of Genesis. They're called the image of God, but just as

a child's an image of their parents. So humans are an image of God. Therefore humans are also

God or sons of God. Totally. Exactly. Yeah. So humanity ends up kind of making a mess of their

“vocation as the image/sons of God. And so what God does is choose one family out of the nations.”

People of Israel. He makes a covenant with them and calls them my first born son. It's what God

calls the people of Israel in Exodus 4. Then the people don't do a good job of being royal priests and God's covenant partners. So God chooses one family out of the people of Israel. And that's the line of David. Mm-hmm. And to the line of David in 2nd Samuel 7, "Ooh, which will come into play in some later examples that we'll see." So in Samuel 7 is where God says, "Hey, I'm going to raise up your seed after you, David,

after you die." And that king will build a house for my name and he'll reign forever and ever,

and I will be a father to that one and he will be my son." Okay. So everybody keeps failing.

Humanity is real. The line of David fails miserably at being a son of God. In terms of being a faithful reflection and representative of God in the world. So this is what leads to the crisis of the Hebrew Bible is no. It's really human or son of David ever fully is what God called any of those sons to be. And so in the prophets you get an anticipation of a future David who's described in ways that makes it hard to tell if this king is Yahweh or a human son of Yahweh.

Okay. That's in a nutshell where the Hebrew Bible tees up this moment right here at the Baptist. So we get to Jesus and Jesus called God's son and we start wrestling with the identity of Jesus.

It's just just a human who now can finally claim this identity of being the image of God,

the way all humans are meant to be. Right. Or is Jesus something more? Something more?

“Yeah. And that's what the New Testament authors are trying to communicate. Okay. That's right.”

So that's something more is not only indicated by using of Psalm 2. Right. That's something more say in Mark's gospel is Jesus is identified with the Lord who is coming on the great day of Yahweh interestingly from the end of Malachi. The end of Malachi gets quoted by Mark. The Lord is coming prepare the way of the Lord. He's coming in the wilderness and then Mark says and Jesus came. What does Yahweh look like when he comes? Yeah. Yeah. Mark's already made the claim that Jesus is the Yahweh

coming on the day of Yahweh in the paragraph right before the baptism. Then he rolls up and Jesus hears this that you are my son and on one level it means a human king who's been appointed

“by God who shares the most intimate connection with God. That's what it means in its ancient”

Near Eastern. Yeah. And the king who's going to set the world right. King who's going to set the world right. Exactly. However, given that Mark just said this guy, Jesus is Yahweh come to us as a human when we hear these words, you are my son at sort of like, well, and also you are my son, what you're supposed to know is the next line today. I've burst you and that this is a quote of the son telling us about a conversation he and his divine father had a long time ago, like in the past.

So when the voice says, you are my son, is this bestowing a brand new identity on Jesus? Or is this calling to mind something that was why set long ago in the past? So the today, what's the today? Oh, right. Yes. Yes. Exactly. Okay. Let's go back to Psalm 2 and just we're reading Psalm 2. Yeah. We're backing up in time. Okay. So birthing. If I'm saying to you today, I'm giving birth to you. We're working in the language of metaphor. Okay. Clearly. So divine birthing

of a royal son on one level is ancient in Near Eastern style rhetoric to talk about a king's enthronement or appointment. Okay. So a basic level of meaning Psalm 2 could be imagined as a king from the line of David telling us about the day that Yahweh appointed him as the king of Israel. All right. That's a basic level of meaning. However, when I get to Psalm 2 in the Hebrew Bible, I already have

Psalm scroll was put together after the exile and after the miserable failure of the kings from

“the line of David. Yeah. So what king is this about? Yeah. Because this Psalm and this promise”

of God of a coming king, it still needs to be fulfilled because God won't go back on his words. So that's the expanded meaning of Psalm 2 that's being drawn on here by the gospel authors. And what does it mean for then Jesus to hear these words? Hmm. Yeah. So what he's hearing are words that presumably he himself uttered in the past through David, the prophet. Right. Okay. So let's zoom

into Jesus at the baptism. Okay. He's hearing a phrase from that heavenly voice, quoting the first

few words of Psalm 2. Right. It's like quoting the first few lines of a melody. Yeah. You got to finish it out. Right. You are my son. Oh yeah. Today I've become you. Yeah. Those words aren't quoted from the heavenly voice, but there's it's the next words of Psalm 2. So what does it mean for Jesus to hear these words uttered from the Father in heaven? Hmm. Like what would it mean for him to hear? You are my son today. I've burst you. Yeah. This could be an announcement of something happening

in the present. Right. That's bestowing upon Jesus. Something that hasn't been before. Right. That's a possible reading. Mm-hmm. But I just heard a quotation right before the story that said Jesus is Yahweh coming on the day of the Lord as a human that identified Him. So already I'm kind of like, hmm. All right. Well, there's a lot more to this guy. So what Mark's doing is presenting

“in classic Jewish meditation literature style, a puzzle in front of us that you have to read,”

keep reading through the gospel to discern the ultimate identity of the Son. But it could be that Jesus is getting appointed as the Son in this moment so that Psalm 2 becomes sort of like a predictive

prophecy. One day they'll come a king of which God will say this. Yeah. And now here's what's happening.

But it doesn't seem to be the way the rest of the New Testament authors think about their native Jesus. Right. Do you look at the prologue of John's gospel? Mm-hmm. For example, you see them going, there's this Son existed before this moment and is united with God in a way that is just fundamentally different. Mm-hmm. The fact this Jesus is what the Trinitarian theologians will later try to tease out as being God and but distinct from God. Yeah, being as the eternal Son.

So let's go forward then to the next story in Matthew Mark and Luke that you saw him to that really is sort of like the answering or closing the loop that was left open in the baptism. And that is the mountain of Jesus' transfiguration. Okay. So we're looking at Mark chapter nine, Matthew 17 or Luke chapter nine, there's where this story is found. And Jesus is up on a high mountain. He's with James Peter and John.

Famously Moses and Elijah appear next to him. And Jesus starts glowing. His face is glowing, his clothes are glowing. Mark even adds a little detail that his clothes are more white than any laundry person could ever wash and set a close. Anyway, it's pretty cool. And the cloud forms and the voice says, this is my Son the beloved one and then depends on which gospel you're eating. There's three different versions of what the voice says. So in Mark's

version it's this is my son the beloved one. Listen to him and Matthew it's this is my son the beloved one. With whom I'm well pleased that's from the baptism. Listen to him. Luke has this is my son my chosen one. Listen to him. This is so great man. I love this. Love the Bible.

“Yeah, you delight in this. I think a lot of people come to this and go,”

okay, what was actually said from the heavens? Oh, right. Yeah, this is confusing.

so why are we getting three versions? Yeah, three takes. And you're like, yeah, that's great.

It's even better. It's like multi stereo. It's explained. Well, the gospel author's value doesn't seem to be giving us video camera footage. Yeah, security footage. They want to relay an event to us and weave into the stories through little tweaks, the meaning and import of the story.

“And that's what these little differences represent. This is this is important. I think this is”

the super important because to change a word of what God said from the heavens to Jesus. Let's say it was, this is my son, the beloved and Luke goes, yeah, but now change that. Yeah, that's

what? Yeah, but he's changing it by, I'm changing to the chosen one. Yeah, change the beloved one to

the chosen one. But that's not what God said. But it is what God said. It's what God said to the servant in the book of Isaiah. Okay. So the phrase, you are my loved one. I love you. And I have chosen you. You are my chosen one is all a repeated kind of switching titles back and forth for the servant of God and Isaiah 40 to 55. So what's more important to Luke than what were the exact sounds that were heard out of the heavens that day? Right. What's the meaning and part of that meaning is connecting

Jesus to the servant and Isaiah? The figure of the servant. That Jesus was hearing from the father that he is the son and that's connected to all these ideas in the Hebrew book. Yeah, it's what I was

saying earlier, whenever they're quoting from the scriptures, they're never just quoting from

one. They're always quoting from in that work. And here, the same voice out of God's mouth can get hyperlinked to a different network of texts based on which gospel author you're reading. So there are all things that God said about the servant. Matthew's version keeps the phrase spoken of the baptism with whom I'm well pleased. That's also what God says to the servant in Isaiah 42. So both Luke and Matthew are linking the son of Psalm 2 to the servant of Isaiah

but by networking it to different phrases. Not interesting. Yeah. So there was something about that moment. Jesus went up on a mountain. The disciples experienced something. Yeah. Jesus transformed. There was this kind of prophetic wild experience that the disciples had. And Moses and Elijah were talking to Jesus that looks like he's on fire. Yeah. And as they went away from that and they needed to explain to people like what happened. Yeah. They are like,

well, yeah. We heard a voice from heaven. Yeah. And they want to make sure that the voice from heaven is connected to what the voice said at the baptism. That's very clear that they want to put those two moments together. And then Luke and Matthew introduced little tweaks to make sure that we don't miss that the Son of Psalm 2 is who Jesus is. And that all of those are the same figure

“as the suffering-exalted servant of that section of Isaiah. The precise wording is less important to”

them than the meaning of what the voice said. That's the speed bump. Yeah. You want to back up the car and roll over the speed bump more slowly. You want to feel every. That's good, John. That's good. Yeah. But that's not the only one that's feeling this too because you used to bother me too. Yeah. A voice from heaven. God's voice from heaven. And now it's something that day. We don't actually have word for word exactly what was announced. What we have is a number of the

disciples reflecting back and thinking about not exactly what was said, but the meaning of what was said. Yeah. And to do that, they start quoting from Scripture, which may or may not have been

“the Scripture God was quoting from heaven. I mean, what are we a voice from heaven?”

Right. Did they hear a voice from heaven? I think so. Okay. Definitely. All right. Yeah. But what I'm saying is any encounter we recorded the being who is the eternal infinite source of all reality. Any encounter I have with that being is going to be

and getting new insights out of it for the rest of my life. There's a wonderful moment in

“Psalm 62 that I think captures this in two poetic lines. And I've showed just before over the years.”

Psalm 62, verse 11, "One thing God has spoken. Two things I have heard." Yeah. That's super fascinating. The voice of God could be so dense. So it's rich. Yeah. Maybe rich. I think of like a rich meal. Yeah. Really complex, rich, like the note's inner dish and a cup of coffee, some fancy cup of coffee. Like what are you hearing? Yeah. You could actually be hearing two things I want. It's a wild thing about. Yeah. Okay.

But this is basic to how the biblical authors think about divine speech is that the precise wording is important. But it's less important than the meaning and the ideas that the words are meant to convey. And then a hyperlinked collection of scriptural texts where we hear God's voice. You can hear God's voice and have your mind go to different texts within the collection. Yeah. But you're still hearing God's voice. When they encounter God's voice, they were hearing

Isaiah and they were hearing Psalm one and they were hearing all these things and it was all kind of mixed together. When you actually have to write down, what was the voice? Yeah. You're like, oh well. Okay. I guess I was hearing this and I was hearing this. Yeah. This is the King from Live David. This is the suffering-exalted servant of Isaiah. Listen to him. Yeah. Comes right from Deuteronomy. Oh, quote, like the opium paste. Deuteronomy 1815 where Moses says, listen, when I die,

God is going to raise up a prophet like me from among you. Listen to him. When God does that, listen to him. So Jesus is being identified as the son of David, the servant of Isaiah, and as the new Moses, pretty good by Moses. The voice of God is saying all these things. Once, I wanted to somehow the disciples experiencing that. Yeah. Okay. One thing God has told me,

“many, many, many things. That's weird. Okay. So the key thing is this closes the loop on”

that open question from the baptism. Okay. So is Jesus being appointed as the son at the moment of his baptism, meaning he didn't have that identity before? Yeah. And this line comes along right up this repeat of Psalm 2 where changes it from you or my son to this is my son. All three gospels have. This is my son. And Jesus is not being like adopted or appointed. Yeah. Yeah. He's standing in the middle of Moses and Elijah as the one on fire. And that itself is a narrative

claim too. Yeah. I love how you brought this up a couple times for me. And each time I feel like I come to it. It's a fresh hour, which is this is Jesus being depicted as the radiance of Yahweh on the mountain. The one that Moses met and Elijah. When Moses went up on the mountain and somehow experienced God's glory. Yeah. What did he see? And this is the story of what he saw. Yeah. So wild. Yeah. So wild. You could, yeah, even get more because what he had Moses asked for

was let me see your face. And God said, "My back will do otherwise you'll frog." But then here's Moses, seeing the face of the Lord in the person of Jesus. And it's Jesus. Yeah. So I mean,

“are we meant to think that this is the moment? Is this like some time bending portal moment?”

Where Moses is getting the answer to that request. But either way, it's clear Jesus is in a slot

of Yahweh. So there's the invisible Yahweh in above that can never be seen. No man can see me

and live. God said to Moses, "But then there's a visible form of Yahweh." And that visible Yahweh became human in the person of Jesus. And Jesus as status as the sun is not happening in this moment. It's not being bestowed on Him. Right. Rather, this moment on the mountain and the baptism then are little flash openings into the true identity of Jesus going farther back than any of our brains can imagine like into the eternal identity of God.

Yeah. The eternal sun. The eternal sun. I was hugely helped by the work of a scholar of

New Testament, Second Temple Judaism, Matthew Bates, has an excellent book. This is called the

apostles making claims about who Jesus is using the language of scriptural texts like when we're

“doing. Yeah. And here's what he notices in the patterns of the use of Psalm 2 in the New Testament.”

This will go for the other passages we're going to look at. He says, "For the earliest Christians, Psalm 2/7 was consistently regarded not merely as direct speech made from the father to the sun." Yes, that. But as a speech that was originally spoken by the sun, remember? Because Psalm 2 says, "Hey, dear reader, let me tell you a decree that Yahweh made about me." He said, "Uh-huh." So back to Matthew Bates. So this is a speech originally spoken by the sun, but reporting words

the father spoke to him at an earlier time. They believed as Jesus in the apostles that David under the inspiring influence of the spirit that David was capable of taking on a different persona when speaking as a prophet, so that the words are not David's alone. Rather, they are the words of the pre-existent Messiah reporting in earlier conversation

“between himself and his father. Yeah. That's what Jesus in the apostles saw when they read Psalm 2.”

You're saying there's this identity of the father's son that goes into the eternal past. Just is. That just is. It's the Yahweh. It was, isn't it? It's to come. And when the father and the sun communicate to each other, the phrase that just saturates it is, you are my son. Today, I have birds. Today I have birds, you. And it's this kind of intimate, like communal way of the father's son connecting. Yeah. It's using a metaphor of human experience of a parent having birds to child.

But actually, look at this, to father, saying this of the sun is actually cast in also a maternal role of a bird thing, right? Yeah. So it kind of breaks right or biological sex categories anyway. Sure. And that this bird thing is the metaphor of human experience to invite us into the infinite mystery of the Christian claim about God revealed in Jesus in these moments right here that God for a Christian refers to a communion of eternal love between the one God having more than one

within that one God. And there you go. Okay. I'm not going to try and improve on the metaphorical

“language of father, son and bird thing. Yeah. That's what I was going to reflect on as when Jesus hears”

this at the baptism or hears this at the mountain, the transfiguration. These are very familiar words. Oh, yeah. That have been spoken between him and the father. Yeah. I mean, when you use the past tense, that words that have been spoken. Yeah. That's us. We're looking back in time. But it's

also true today. Yeah. I've birthed you. Like it's this always is the eternal present. Yeah.

Okay. The sun is always today. Yeah. Coming from the father and being bird. Okay. And it will always be the case. Yeah. This is the moment in each of these three gospels back to the baptism where Jesus immediately after this goes out into the wilderness passes the test that Israel and humanity failed. And then starts announcing the arrival of God's kingdom. So this voice is saying something of the sun almost as it were of like, it's go time. Yeah. Here's who you are. Yeah. Let's you have

already around this. Always will be this. Yeah. Now it's time. Go, son. Go get him. And then the

mountain of transfiguration is the pivot in mass, you mark and Luke of when Jesus sets his face to go to Jerusalem. So both are as it were. Commissioning moments. But they are commissioning the sun who's always been the sun to go do the next thing. And that's the role that's home to place. Fascinating. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. One thing, goddess. Many things. I have heard. Okay. Let's do another one. . We're shifting totally from the Gospels to Acts. So I'm going to jump

community has been scattered out of Jerusalem after Stephen got executed. Paul has been confronted

“by Jesus on the road to Damascus by Acts 13. He's in full missionary mode cruising around with”

Barnabas. In fact, that's where we jump in. He's Paul in a bunch of his companions. Go to a town called Pasidian Antioch. And this is Acts 13 verse 13. We're told on the they of Sabbath, they went to a synagogue and they sat down. And there was a reading of the Torah on prophets. And the synagogue officials said, "Oh hey, new guys, brothers, do you have any, you know, challenge or encouragement to offer the people? Go ahead, have a speech." That real risky open

mic. Yeah, open mic moment. Yeah. So Paul stood up and motioning with his hand. He said, "Men of Israel and those of you who fear God are probably talking about non-israelites. Who are there? Who are

there? Listen up. And he does this amazing speech that retells the whole story of Israel

“from the calling of Abraham forward. So cool. Then leading up to God's calling on David.”

And then he retells the story of Jesus arriving, doing mighty deeds as a prophet. And then Acts 13 verse 28, he said, "Even though they, the leaders of Jerusalem, found no grounds for putting him to death, they asked Pilate that he'd be executed." I'm fast-forwarding us to the death. And when they carried out all that was written about him, meaning when the killed them, but all of this was written about him. Yeah, Acts presents the death of Jesus, not as a

surprise, but as part paradoxically of the divine plan. They took him down from the cross and laid him into tomb. But God raised him up from the dead. Paul says, "And for many days, he appeared to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. These are the very ones that are now witnesses to all the people. We're announcing to you the good news of the promise made to our ancestors. God fulfilled the promise to our children when he raised up Jesus,

like it's written in the second Psalm. It numbers it. You are my son. Today I've been

gotten you." So now as he's reflecting on the resurrection of Jesus, he's hearing Psalm 2 being spoken. Yeah. Of you are my son. So you're interesting. You said it's a go-time, like saying. Yeah, in the baptism, in the baptism. You're going to go with the wilderness past tests. And that presumes that it is an eternal statement of the Father. Okay. From eternity past. Yeah. Present the eternal now. And that it's in a go-time announcement. Okay. So now we have kind of two moments.

I see. And it's the perpetual eternal way the Father's son. Yeah. Experience each other. Mm-hmm. It's the go-time announcement and the baptism and the amount of transfiguration. Yeah. And then it's also this kind of victorious moment in the resurrection

“of death will not even separate us. You are my son. Yeah. Okay. So what does this mean?”

That resurrection is linked to the words. And they quote, "You are my son. Today I've been gotten you." So is he metaphorically applying the birthing? Today I've bruised you to the resurrection

in the sense of its third and new life. Right? Yeah. The verse is about life. That's one possibility.

It's also possible that he's got multiple texts on the brain. There's multiple hyperlinks here. Because it's very interesting that in one of the biblical passages, most often connected to Psalm 2, and I've already alluded to it, is God's promise to David about a future king that will come from his line in 2 Samuel 7. And here it is again, 2 Samuel chapter 7, verse 12, "God says the David, "When your days are complete, when you die, and you lay down with your

fathers, I will raise up your seed after you." The one who comes forth from you, all establishes kingdom, he'll build a house for my name, all establishes kingdom forever, all be a father to him, he'll be a son to me. So the language of father's son relationship and raising up seed. It's connected to an eternal kingdom. Yeah, what kind of king could be called the son of God who's going to reign forever? Yeah. And just this phrase, I'll raise up seed after you,

Yeah. To be born after you and come into your royal power, it's metaphorically like

taking somebody from low and raising them up high. It's like a special metaphor. For there's going to be a descendant of yours who's born, who becomes an adult. Right? Who restores your royal reputation and power in kingdom and rules. That's what raise up means on one level. Right. But it seems like Paul is connecting that raising up language with resurrection, with Jesus walking out of a live after being executed.

He's linking resurrection and the language. So you think he has seconds to everyone on the

“brain too? I think he has both passages on the brain. And why do I think that?”

Yeah. Why do you think that? Paul gives us a little window into his

basic way of summarizing the good news and the identity of Jesus. He's appended it in the little poem that he uses to open the letter to the Roman churches. And he talks about in Romans chapter 1, verse 2, he says, "Listen, I'm an apostle. I've been set apart for the good news of God." Just like Acts 13, we have good news to tell you. That good news has been promised beforehand through the prophets in the holy scriptures.

That's what was happening in that synagogue in Acts. Like they read the Torah and prophets.

“Paul says, "I got news for you." And in Romans, Paul says that good news promise was about his”

son, who was born from the seed of David? Right. The language is right out of second Samuel 7.

So he was born from the seed of David according to the flesh. Like his human nature. Right. He was human nature. Yes, human lineage. Yeah. Who was marked out as or appointed as the son of God with power from his raising up from the dead, according to or you could probably means by means of the spirit of holiness, the Holy Spirit. That is Jesus, Messiah, our Lord. Now it's a dense little poetic set of lines. Okay. But the son was born a seed of David

born to the flesh. Yep. And he was declared the son of God through resurrection, through resurrection

“by the power of the spirit. By the power of the spirit. According to the spirit. So according to the”

flesh, he's a human. Yeah. And that human body came from the seed of David. He's also like a divine son of God. And that was made public by the raising up of the dead, according to the scriptures. He's using the ideas of Psalm 2 and connecting Jesus as Psalm 2 status with his raising up from the dead. So to that mean that Jesus wasn't that before. All right. So we're back to that question in Mark and the baptism and you can go out many places and Paul's writings and he doesn't

think that Jesus became the son of God at a certain moment to him. But there was a moment when the promise made to the line of David got joined together and was fulfilled by the eternal son of God. Sort of like there was a job description for King from the line of David, right, waiting to be fulfilled. And the Hebrew Bible was trying to paint that picture in many ways. And the gospel authors, Jesus, are telling us that the one who is the eternal son of God,

so Psalm 2 can describe that eternal sonness became a human to fulfill the open and unresolved unfulfilled task of a son of David's son of God. And that Psalm 2 can also be applied to that and that the resurrection was a moment that brought that past brought what's past. It was the moment where the eternal son fulfilled the job description of the human son of David role. The filled the job description by overcoming death in the resurrection. That's interesting because of the

idea of being an image of God, son of God. Right, right, immediately in the story of Adam and Eve, okay, eat of the tree of life. Right, yeah. And yeah, this picture of life that doesn't end when you eat of God's life. And so death is this tragedy that humans experience that is keeping us from our true

identity as the children of God. So if you're going to die, then you're really not able to be the son of God.

Mm-hmm. God, our damage of God. You're not, yeah, your death is for the biblical authors. And in our life experience is the unavoidable end of all the meaning and hope

“that built up over the course of our lives. What else is it, except the great?”

Oh, just catastrophe, right? Unravels, all the meaning we've been building in our lives. So God's commitment to the human family as his children to rescue them from death is a job that could only be fulfilled by somebody who could overcome it. But it's got to be a human. So the language of Psalm 2, hyperlink to 2nd Samus 7, become Paul's way of using the son of God language to refer, and not only does it

eternal identity, but also to him fulfilling the job role that humanity needs for someone to conquer death on their behalf. And he gets there by linking the language of Psalm 2

“with 2nd Samus 7 to describe the resurrection to Jesus. Okay. All right. So Psalm 2 for the gospel”

authors and for Paul is a way to reflect on a number of things. It's Jesus' eternal identity.

The always is that always happening like connection of the Father and Son,

which is a way to reflect on the identity of God. Yeah. Well, okay. Well, next level. It's also used to describe these moments of go time when the eternal son becomes flesh and then has to go and pass the test in the wilderness, or go to Jerusalem to get killed. It's like the go time phrase. And then it's also this moment of victory when Jesus defeats death and says, to be the son of God means connected to God's life forever. Yeah. That can't stop this and that's

“the moment of the resurrection. I am the son. Yeah. Okay. Yep. Then when Jesus invites his followers to”

trust him and then see that who they are is sons and daughters of God, in him so that what's

true of him is true of me and my identity. What you find are uses of Psalm 2 or the apostles will then use Psalm 2 to describe disciples of Jesus and their experience of the world. This is so interesting. So back to the book of Acts earlier. Peter and John get arrested in the temple courts for sharing the good news about Jesus. They get put in prison or at the temple leaders. They get released from prison after a warning. And in Acts chapter 4, verse 23, Peter and John,

released from prison, go back to their companions. They told them everything the chief priests and elders said and when they all heard this, they lifted up their voices to God and they pray. And here's their prayer. Oh Lord, it is you who made the sky and the land and the sea and everything in them. We'll seven day creation note right there. And by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our Father David, your servant said, so Lord, you said something by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of

our Father David, your servant. And then what follows is a quotation of the opening lines of Psalm 2. Why do the nations rage? Why do the peoples devise futile things? The kings of the earth take their stand rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Messiah. So that's the opening of their prayer. Then look at what how they make sense of both Psalm 2 and what just happened in the last day. They say in their prayer, truly in this city, there were gathered together

against your Holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the nations and the peoples of Israel. Interesting. So they're looking at Psalm 2 and the nations that are raging. They're like, yeah, that Herod and Pontius Pilate was the nations raging. Yes, yeah. And when peoples are devising feudal things, yeah, that's the people of Israel handing Jesus over. It's the temple leaders. Wow. Okay. So in Psalm 2, you remember you were feeling

And too bad if you're the nations, you're going to get stumped. You're your crush. And they actually

“include the leaders of Israel within the peoples who were raging. You had the opening of Psalm 2.”

Okay. The fascinating. Yeah. So verse 29 of Acts 4. Now, Lord, take note of their threats. Grant that your servants can speak your word with confidence, extend your hand to heal so that signs and wonders take place through the name of your Holy servant, Jesus. And when they prayed, the place where they gathered together was shaken. It's like a little pentacost moment

because the whole house was shaking in the wind. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and

began to speak God's word boldly. So they've just suffered. Yes. The way Jesus had suffered. Yeah. And they reflect on Jesus' suffering as the nations were raging. And they're identifying

“with that. They just experienced that kind of raging too. Yeah. And having to go to prison.”

Yes. And then afterwards, what they experience is the power of God, the sending on them. And like shaking the ground and all of a sudden they have this boldness. Okay. So in Psalm 2, it's like the nations are raging, but God's like I got a king. And this king, he's the true source of power. And like the cosmos will bend to the will of the sun. That's kind of like the thrust of Psalm 2. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. And this is the apostles like identifying with that power.

Yeah. We're experiencing the raging of the nations, but now we're experiencing the like boldness of the king's power. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Who's the road? Yeah. So the leaders gathered against your Holy servant, Jesus. Yeah. Singular. Okay. Now, x429 grant that your servants, that's us, may speak your word with confidence. Give us the identity of the king. Yeah. So there, now a new group of leaders and people and kings and nations are against us, just like they were against

your servant. So now where your servants, I mean, that's a request to live into their royal identity. Yeah. That's the sons of God. Yeah. It doesn't quote, right. You are my son, part. But that's the assumed. Oh, interesting. Interpretation is that what's true of the Messiah is now true of us. Yeah. So he suffered resistance and hostility as your servant. Now we are suffering as servants. And the servant, Jesus, is the Son of God. The servants of Jesus are kind of like

follows the logic. Son of God. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Or another way Paul will reflect on this is being

“a part of the body of Jesus. Or you neither Jesus. Or my life is to how in Jesus. There you go.”

Like, yeah. So I can actually say, I am, mm-hmm. Yes, son of Psalm 2. Totally. Because I'm United with Jesus. Yes. Okay. So this same idea, this expanding of who is the son of Psalm 2, then gets expanded to be the sons and daughters of God who are in the Messiah as it were. This world will end from the last book of the Christian Bible, from the Revelation. So Jesus has seven speeches to seven churches at the beginning of the Revelation.

And to the church in Fiatira, this is Revelation 2 verse 18, Jesus says, this is what the son of God says. The one with eyes like fiery flame and his feet like blazing bronze. Mm-hmm. So this referring to Jesus. It's referring to Jesus. Okay. Yep. Calling him the son of God. He is referring to himself in third person. Okay. Jesus is saying,

I'm the son of God. Mm-hmm. Here's what I have to say. Here's what I have to say. And I look like,

you know, the son of man and the ancient of days of Daniel chapter seven. This is the fire that's the fire that's the fire that falls on fire and like bronze. Okay. That's a hyperlink there. So as a whole thing of what he says, at the end, what he says is, hey, hold on strong until I come.

and who keeps doing my work until the very end. Mm-hmm. I will give that one authority over the

“nations and he will shepherd the nations with an iron rod as the clay vessels are broken.”

And just like I have received that from my father and that will give them the morning star. Oh, the one who hasn't here let them here with the spirit sense. Okay. Wow. Okay. So I'll go on. Yeah. But these are people who are being persecuted. Ah, being persecuted and pulled into worshiping other gods at local like shrines. Oh, okay. And then connected to all the partying and sex that happens at those temples. Mm-hmm. And so it's this call to, don't do that stuff. Don't

do that. Be faithful to me. Okay. Yeah. And here's the promise. Mm-hmm. The promise is that

my authority as the sun. Mm-hmm. The authority that we read in Psalm 2, I'm going to give to you.

“Authority over the nations. Shepherding with an iron rod, broken clay vessels is a quotation from”

right after the you were my son. Yeah. They have been gotten you. Yeah. It's from Psalm 2, verse 9. Right. Yeah. You're going to have authority over the whole world. Mm-hmm. This is the Psalm 2 King. Mm-hmm. Given authority over all the world and then specifically said, we'll have an rod of iron to like break. Well, the nations. Shattered the nations. Okay. This is

so cool. Okay. First of all, let's just notice we'll talk about the breaking shattering in a moment.

Okay. But let's just notice Jesus says, I received this authority from my father. Yeah. So he's talking about his eternal identity as the sun. His go-time from the baptism, his go-time from the mountain of transfiguration, his taking up the role of the human son of God, King from the line of David, merging that was eternal identity. Yeah. All of that. Jesus is the risen Lord of heaven and earth.

“He's the son of God. Okay. So that's what I have received from my father. Jesus says.”

And what he says here is, if you guys hang in there and actually lived like who you are, I will give to you that identity. What is true with me? Yeah. Yeah. And then he quotes of Psalm 2, which is a very specific like of the King being able to rule the nation. Totally. And in Psalm 2, verse 9, and Hebrew says, you will this verb, with iron rod. And it can activate a Hebrew root to like break into pieces. Yeah. That's what Psalm 2 says. You will shatter, shatter them

on the wrong side. All right. However, so cool. So those same Hebrew letters are connected to what is a separate Hebrew root. That means to shepherd or to like guide a group of domestic animals in an out into a field and give them food. So if we have the same Hebrew letters that actually have two different groups, they're called homonyms. Every language has homonyms. So John sees an opportunity here. It's a highlight that the Jesus and Nazareth's twist on shattering his enemies.

Yeah. How does Jesus rule? It has a shatter. How does he shatter in the nations? Yeah. So he activates the other meaning of this Hebrew root in light of the shepherd theme of the Messiah in Ezekiel and in Jeremiah. So he's hyperlinking too. It's not just... Hmm. He's not just wordplay. No. He's actually hyperlinking to the shepherd Messiah motif of another section of the prophet. But he does it by tweaking the Greek translation of the quotation of Psalm 2.

Yeah. If you were to strictly quote Psalm 2 would be, and he will shatter them with an iron iron on. And he says he will shepherd them with an iron on. That's right. Yeah. And most English translations here don't do shepherd. They end up with like rule. Oh, rule them. Okay. Which metaphorically, you know, a shepherd is ruling sheep. Sure. But it actually is the word for like... Hmm. That be a shepherd guide for animals. Yeah. Because when we read Psalm 2 together,

I was reflecting on. This is intense. Yeah. All right. Like this isn't the nature of God as I experienced in Jesus of like just the like mocking and the... Yeah. Langory, angry, like temper. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And just I've got this rod. I'm just gonna go out and just break things. Yeah. You see,

Yeah. Calling themselves the good shepherd. Yeah. And feeding hungry people. And so how does the Psalm 2 king actually rule the nation? Yeah. Yes. So this is similar to the mountain of transfiguration, the way Luke switched the phrase, the beloved son to the chosen one has a link to all these passages in Isaiah about the suffering servant. Oh, okay. So it's very similar to John. It's making a little tweak to the quotation of Psalm 2, but as a hyperlink to the image of the messianic,

good shepherd of Jeremiah 23 and Ezekiel 34 and that Jesus himself told himself.

So it's never one passage. It's always more. And it's not just cool like nerd artistry. They're

doing theology when they're hyperlinking and making these little tweaks. And what is the

“theology? It's like who is God? Who am I? What's wrong with us in the world? Is there any solution?”

And if so, what is the solution and how it's God bringing it about? You know, like those are the questions that the biblical authors get at and they get at it by means of these interpretive moves. The many meanings of Psalm 2, John. It's cool. The many meanings, many layers. Many layers of meaning. Actually, yeah, thank you. My point isn't that Psalm 2 can mean whatever you want

at the beginning. There's like layers of meaning. There's a basic meaning. And each layer on top of it

is connected to what's under it, but it is also developing it as the story unfolds a little more. So we went through this whole journey. Psalm 1 on its own, Psalm 2 on its own,

“Psalm 2 together. And now we're looking at Psalm 2 quoted in New Testament. Yeah. And each time”

new meaning unfolds, Psalm 1 by itself is kind of to the common man, the everyday guy, saying like, you want success in life, you want the good life, meditate on the instruction of God, the Torah of God, and you will be this like, truthful of life. And that's this reflection on the calling of humanity.

Of being the sons of God, the image of God, like we want to reflect God's character and know

good from bad. How do we do that? We need God's voice, his wisdom in our lives. That's connecting us to the story of who humans are meant to be. Yeah, because there's coming a moment of decision of justice. And assorting out where destructive ways of being human won't be allowed to vandalize the thing that God has in store in the future. Yeah. Mm-hmm. That stuff's got to get left behind. Yeah. Yeah. Well, so you keep at it. Don't give up on this path. Yeah. That's right.

Yeah. Yeah. Psalm 2 is talking about these violent warrior kings, establishing God's anointed king. And it's also the same kind of reflection of there's a path of trying to rule the world. That's just going to lead to destruction. Not just of yourself, but of like others that you're subject to getting. Yeah. And on a large scale level. Yeah. King's in nations. Yeah. And God is not going to put up with them. Mm-hmm. And then in Psalm 2 is this phrase that then the New Testament

author's just deep like mining for meaning, which is this conversation that God had with the within God's own son. But the eternal son. Yeah. You are my son. Mm-hmm. We're doing it. Mm-hmm. This is what it means. This is who you are. And this is what it means that you are loved and you are the one through whom I'm going to bring my authority over creation, over the nations. Yeah. Yeah. So how am I to then delight in God's wisdom and his Torah, Psalm 1. And also

kiss the sun and identify with the sun of Psalm 2. Yeah. And it all comes to embracing the identity of Jesus, making my identity. Mm-hmm. The identity of Jesus. Mm-hmm. Yeah. If I really believe that I am a child of God, that my identity and my future is entirely determined by a move that

“God already made in partnership with the eternal son. Like he's got me. I'm good. Good. Life is”

going to throw all kinds of stuff at me. And but that doesn't call into question who I am and what

a role in creation full of responsibility and meaning and purpose and contribute to the larger community of good in the world. And there are parts of me and my life and there's a part of my community or my nation and the way we exist in the world. Mm-hmm. Like it's got to go. That is not going to contribute to eternal goodness. So that stuff's going to have to get left behind. Mm-hmm.

“And that's calling. I think of Psalm 1 and 2. It's about the eternal son of God. It's about Jesus”

Messiah. It's about his life, death and resurrection and announcement of the Kingdom of God. And it's about you and me, as it's followers. It's about everything. One thing. Many things I've heard. Mm-hmm. Wow. Okay. Psalm 1 and 2. Psalm 1 and 2. Yeah, it doesn't feel like closure. It feels like the beginning of a way to start thinking. Oh, right. Because it's just the

first two pumps of the Psalm scroll. Right. There's a 148 more. Mm-hmm. And they are all interconnected

like this. Mm-hmm. And little bundles and hyperlinked to each other and then to the Toron profits.

“And then the New Testament. We should talk about some more. Okay. And days to come. One day,”

more Psalms. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Let's do that. Deal. Thanks for listening to Bible Project Podcast and that's it for this short series on Psalm 1 and Psalm 2. We'll be back to do more Psalms in the future. Next week, we're going to start a new series on the 10 Commandments. Now, I have to admit that when Tim told me that we should study the 10 Commandments, I thought that actually sounds a little boring. How interesting can this really be? But during

those conversations, my mind was truly expanded and I was challenged in so many ways. It was so fun.

“And I'm excited to share it with you and that begins next week.”

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