How Hebrews Helps Us Read the Psalms Christologically

The Kingdom of Heaven

What is the first Scripture passage that calls Jesus “Christ” and “God’s Son” and then speaks about his kingdom?

You might guess that such a passage occurs in Matthew since it is the first book of the New Testament and is quite concerned about the kingdom of heaven. Or you might suspect that this is a trick question and guess that it is found in Mark or Romans.

All these books, however, come far too late.

The answer is Psalm 2. Psalm 2 is often viewed along with Psalm 1 as part of an introduction to the entire Psalter. Psalm 1 speaks about the righteous man whose mind is occupied with God’s word and who is blessed by the God in whom he delights. Psalm 2 suddenly zooms outward, revealing that the story of righteousness and of God’s dealing with his own is not only personal but also global. There are kings and nations, thrones and scepters. We quickly find that the line in Psalm 1 that divides between the righteous and the wicked runs through all of human history. In Psalm 1 the division is based on how one responds to God’s word, but in Psalm 2 the dividing line is grounded in how one responds to God’s Son—that is, his Word.

Psalm 2:7 happens to be the first passage of Scripture that Hebrews cites that speaks of Jesus. It begins the author’s strategy of seeing the Scriptures as containing a conversation between the Father and the Son, and it will ease us into reading the Psalms both as words about Jesus and as the words of Jesus.

Of all the psalms cited in Hebrews, Psalm 2 is possibly the easiest to read in this way or at least one of the most straightforward. God and his anointed one rule. The system of the world rebels against God. God’s Son is exalted. Salvation and judgment hang in the balance and are determined by whether one submits to this Son of God. On this side of the Gospels, it is hard not to read Psalm 2 as about Jesus.

Reading Psalm 2

Psalm 2 is a song of contrasting speech. The wicked nations gather together and speak in conspiracy against God and his anointed (Ps. 2:1–3). God speaks to the Son (Ps. 2:4–6), and the Son declares the Father’s words (Ps. 2:7–9). Then at last the narrator (still the Son?) speaks to the wicked rulers of the first several verses, proclaiming the need for either joyful repentance or fearsome destruction (Ps. 2:10–12). Each three-verse stanza develops this drama of global rebellion and repentance.

The Speech of the Wicked (Ps. 2:1–3)

Why do the nations rage
     and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
     and the rulers take counsel together,
     against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,
“Let us burst their bonds apart
     and cast away their cords from us.” (Ps. 2:1–3)

The psalmist sets the stage by raising a rhetorical question: “Why do the nations rage?” (Ps. 2:1). The nations are bothered that the world is ruled by God, not them.

This is, of course, a global version of what is true in every human heart. To be a sinner is to want to rule your life instead of to submit to God’s rules. To be a sinner who happens to be a king is to want to rule the world instead of to submit to God’s rule. The psalm imagines the nations gathered at a great summit, conspiring together to overthrow the Lord.

The psalmist, however, adds one wrinkle to this global frenzy. They scheme not only against the Lord but also “against his Anointed” (Ps. 2:2). This is not just any anointed figure, no mere priest or prophet. It is the Anointed of the Lord. Of course, the Hebrew word here is mashiach, “Messiah.” Or if you were reading along in your Greek translation like the author of Hebrews was, the title would stand out to you even more clearly: they are set against the Lord and against his christos, his “Christ.”

This sets up the tension that Hebrews will resolve and provides a key for when and how Hebrews reads Psalms Christologically: Does the text of the psalm itself create a tension that the psalm, or even the whole Old Testament, cannot resolve? If so, it may be resolved in the person and life of Jesus. Who is the Anointed of the Lord against whom all wicked nations rage? If it is not David, there is a son of David to whom we can look.

The Speech of the Father and Son (Ps. 2:4–9)

He who sits in the heavens laughs;
     the Lord holds them in derision.
Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
     and terrify them in his fury, saying,
“As for me, I have set my King
     on Zion, my holy hill.”

I will tell of the decree:
The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;
     today I have begotten you.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
     and the ends of the earth your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron
     and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” (Ps. 2:4–9)

In the face of the gathered might of all humanity arrayed against God in rebellion, God laughs. Human pride is ultimately pitiful. No system we construct in rebellion against God can last; all will be undone by a single word from the Lord. He laughs not because human sin on a grand scale is funny but because it is futile.

God’s solution for human wickedness is a human king. The overthrow of every wicked kingdom, every evil system, every power that turns against God, is accomplished by the King that God establishes. Again, the psalm compels us to ask, Who could this be? What human king could possibly bring an end to all unjust human power? It cannot be David, for even when he ruled, he did not order all things as God commanded.

Into this tension, God’s Anointed, God’s King, speaks.

I will tell of the decree:
The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;
     today I have begotten you.” (Ps. 2:7)

Although our picture of this Anointed one is not yet clear, it has nevertheless moved more into focus. He introduces himself not by name but by title. The Lord decreed that this Anointed one, this Christ, is also God’s Son. Notice the shift in person, the Anointed himself is speaking to us (“The Lord said to me”). Before he tells us what he will do, he tells us who he is.

If we limit ourselves to the Psalter, or even to the whole Old Testament, we are confronted with an inescapable question: Who can this one be? Who speaks in Psalm 2? Who is God’s Son, God’s King, God’s Christ?

The Speech of the Psalmist (Ps. 2:10–12)

Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
     be warned, O rulers of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear,
     and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son, lest he be angry,
     and you perish in the way,
     for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him. (Ps. 2:10–12)

The psalmist does not answer the question of who this Son is. Instead, he prepares his way. He sketches for us the role that this Anointed one must fill.

He is fierce in his judgments; he is free in his gifts.

The Son is a terrifying force to evildoers. In him the power of God to rule and punish is on display. In him all wicked schemes are undone, and unrighteousness comes to ruin. And yet, the psalm does not envision a shrinking obeisance nor end with gloating derision at those who bend the knee. No, while the Son is fearsome, in his service is joy, and in his shadow is blessedness. Repentance is not shame, and the Son does not hold against anyone their need to come to him. He is fierce in his judgments; he is free in his gifts. The psalm ends with a call and a promise. The call is to repent, to kiss the Son, to submit to him and love him. The promise is blessedness under his care.

Reading Hebrews

For to which of the angels did God ever say,

“You are my Son,
     today I have begotten you”? (Heb. 1:5a)

The author to the Hebrews saw in Psalm 2:7 the perfect starting point for his description of Jesus’s superiority to the angels. After declaring that God’s new and final revelation has come in his Son (Heb.1:2), the author wants to demonstrate just how special this Son of God is. To do that, he states a simple fact: no angel was ever called the son of God. Sometimes in the Old Testament the angels are collectively called “the sons of God” in the plural (e.g., Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7; possibly also Gen. 6:2, 4; Deut. 32:8), but never is one singled out with this title. The author reflects on this and infers that the singular Son, Jesus, is superior to the angels by virtue of his sonship. Jesus is Son in a way that the angels are not. He is the only Son, even as there are many sons of God.

The fact that the author of Hebrews uses Psalm 2:7 to establish this argument tells us that he was reading Psalm 2 as we just did above. The Old Testament does not mention a person who can fit the role, but the New Testament does. Jesus is the greater King, so Jesus must be the one whom God calls Son in Psalm 2:7.

I expect that you have already reached this same conclusion. Of course Jesus is the greater David, the one greater than Solomon (Matt. 12:42; Luke 11:31). But there is an additional implication that may be less obvious. If Jesus is the Son of Psalm 2:7, then he is also the speaker of Psalm 2:7–9:

I will tell of the decree:
The Lord said to me, “You are my Son” (Ps. 2:7)

Psalm 2 is not only about Jesus but also contains his words.

This means, at the very least, that when we read the Psalms sometimes Jesus directly speaks to us—not only in the sense that he inspired them but also that the psalmist speaks in the person of Christ. This may provide an interpretive key for Psalm passages we find difficult. Christ the King whose enemies are sin and death will conquer and trample his foes. Christ the fully righteous one can plead his righteousness before God. Christ the sufferer can call down judgment. This does not separate us from the Psalms. After all, Christ’s people are his body, so he can speak for us too. But it does give us a theological resource for understanding difficulties. Particularly, in Psalm 2, when the text itself confronts us with tensions it cannot answer, the speech of Jesus in the psalm resolves all issues.

Reading Psalm 2 Again

When we read Psalm 2 again, after reading Hebrews, what new insights do we find?

First, the rage of the nations, their disordered rebellion against God, is a rebellion against Christ—not against the Lord’s anointed in a general sense but specifically against Jesus. Any human system built on human power and not on obedience to God is opposed to Jesus. Thus, it will eventually oppose God’s commands and word. It will also oppose Christ and his people. In the Gospels, Christ predicts persecution for his people (Matt. 5:11–12; Mark 4:17; Luke 11:49; John 15:20), and Paul assures that all who seek to live godly lives will be persecuted (2 Tim. 3:12). Psalm 2 predicts the same. It must eventually happen because the only thing that unites the powers of this world is opposition to the Lord and to his Christ.

Second, Jesus overcomes all such rebellion, either by winning over his opponents through merciful conversion or by shepherding the nations and shattering the proud with his rod of iron. Jesus suffered. Jesus’s people suffer. But Jesus does not lose. He is God’s solution to all opposition, to the wickedness that runs rampant in the world. His kingdom has already been established by God, and it will encompass all the nations of the earth.

Third, Jesus speaks what the Father spoke to him. We find in Psalm 2:7–9 the pattern explicitly set out in John 12:49: “For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak.” In his work within creation, the Son brings the message of the Father. He says the words his Father sent him to say. Or as Hebrews 1:2 says, “In these last days [God] has spoken to us by his Son.” The Son is the revelation of the Father. To see the Son is to see the Father (John 14:7–9). This is what Scripture means when it calls Jesus the Word of God (John 1:1) or the radiance of God’s glory (Heb. 1:3). This is especially clear in the New Testament, but it is not new. In Psalm 2, hiding in plain sight, the same pattern is revealed. God the Son’s actions in revelation and redemption follow the same pattern throughout salvation history, even before the incarnation, because they reflect who the Son is.

This article is adapted from Songs of the Son: Reading the Psalms with the Author of Hebrews by Daniel Stevens.

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