Why do the nations rage, and the people speak in vain? The kings of the land rebel, and the lords counsel with one another against the Lord and his anointed.
The world can tolerate all ungodly doctrines and idolatries, but it cannot tolerate the Lord and His anointed. Thus we have been able to suffer all abominations in the papacy, but now we cannot suffer the sign of truth; against this the whole race sets itself. These two men, the Lord and Christ, no one wants to suffer, while before we could suffer so many monks 2c.
2. the "Gentiles" are the kingdoms and countries or nations. The "people" (populi) are actually what we now call plebs. So then he says: "The kingdoms, the peoples under kings, and all the rest of the authorities and the common people, all this is utterly nonsensical against Christ; the wisdom, power, and multitude of the wager must be all therefore.
(3) But this is our comfort, that we know that the race cannot suffer Christ and his word. The other consolation is that they deal with it, but do not accomplish what they want. So the prophet points to the suffering of Christ, that they may kill Christ, but they will not take away his kingdom. Christ is the sign that is contradicted, against which they rage but do nothing. They speak against him, but in vain. They come together and confer, but nothing comes of it.
V. 3. Let us break their bands and throw off their ropes.
4th There they want to go. In him they are not satisfied that he has suffered and been mocked, but they want to cast away his kingdom and suppress it. For it is an imitation of their way of speaking: We do not want to have Christ as a king. So they are not satisfied with persecuting and tormenting him, but want to have him purely removed and gone, so that nothing can be done about him.
remain there. But they are also blasphemers, because they call the kingdom of peace and grace a yoke, and their salvation and life a death. So today our doctrine is the worst thing, and must be called a fetter of the temporal and spiritual regime. It is unpleasant, they say, one should not watch them any longer. And this is precisely the suffering of Christ; this is how far they go with their attacks. But because they do not sin against the anointed one as well as against the Lord, they fall into God's judgment.
V. 4. But He who dwells in heaven laughs at them, and the Lord mocks them.
It is a consolation and an urging. It has already been decided in heaven, the raging and the council must be suffered, likewise their blasphemy, that they condemn and want to pass through with their heads. But in heaven it is said: "in vain". Yes, God respects them here also for nothing, who could only believe it. Now he makes fools of the pope and the Turk; but the effect will also follow, namely this:
V. 5. He will speak to them in his wrath one day, and with his fury he will terrify them.
6. "Once", in his time, when they shall come down, when he shall overthrow them. "He will speak" is spoken according to the Hebrew way, because God judges everything by the word. As Ps. 107, 20. also says, "He sent his word, and made them whole." "He sent his word", he did 1) his part. So also here: "He will speak," he will attack them, namely the Jews and the Romans, who have experienced it; the pope and Turk will also experience it. He overthrows them and thus confirms the kingdom of his son.
V. 6. But I have set my king upon my holy mountain Zion.
7 This is a protection and a high word against the nations, kings, princes and peoples 2c.
1) In the original: "thut".
the gates of hell. So I will set him and keep him, the king, and I will see who will depose him. This is a very glorious text. But it distinguishes this king from the others. For the other kings are chosen by nations; this one alone is set up as king by God Himself, and that as king on earth.
V. 7. I will preach from such a way.
8 Here he describes how the king should be: that he should first of all rule in Zion, here on earth, and his regiment should be called "preaching from one way". This word means ceremonies and ordinances. "A manner" he shall preach. But what manner or law shall it be? He adds:
That the Lord said to me: You M my son, today I have begotten you.
Here he completely abolishes the whole Old Testament, as if to say: "The law of Moses has been taught long enough; now I will also teach, but something different than Moses ever taught or thought of, namely, that I should be man and Lord on earth, that I should be the Lord and Son of God. This is the new preaching that God has subjected everything to this man Christ. This is also what the gospel teaches, that we should accept Christ, the Son of God, and believe in him. It is a very beautiful way of speaking, however, that he does not merely say, "I am the Son of God," but appeals to the reputation of the one who is speaking, as if he wanted to say: I have not made myself a king, another has done it. As he also says in the Gospel [John 14:24], "The word is not mine, but his who sent me." It is the prestige (auctoritas) of the Father who calls me his Son. The apostles in their epistles have well acted this passage, that this certain King is called the Son of God, and is also by nature the Son.
10) Some understand the word "today" to mean the time of grace, but I would rather understand it to mean, "Today I have begotten you," so that it may be understood that this Son is not begotten spiritually but naturally, so that this is the opinion, "You are my natural Son.
Son, whom I have begotten with me today, since "today" is always, and since there is neither yesterday nor tomorrow, but One Day and One Everlasting Day, which is always called "today". On the same day I begat you: You are by nature true and eternal God. Now this is the best verse in the Psalm, that it cites the reputation of the Father. And this is now the description of the person, that he is a preacher and son of God, born in eternity. "On Zion," therefore he is a man. "A son," therefore he is GOD. He is therefore a wonderful king. Now the kingdom also comes from this: You will reign, but not in Jerusalem, like David and the other kings.
V. 8: "Cry unto me, and I will give thee the heathen for an inheritance, and the end of the world for a possession.
011 He saith not what he shall ask, saying, Thou shalt suffer: but he saith only, Heish, and I will give thee more than thou hast asked. For I will not give thee Jerusalem and that nation only, but I will make thee lord of the world; thou shalt have as much to rule as I have. Thus Christ has his kingdom first of all by nature. Secondly, he is also declared to be a king; as is also the custom in the world when kings are crowned. Therefore his kingdom is announced here by the Holy Spirit: "You own the whole world; whether they are not all obedient or not, it is not up to him; he has them all in his hand.
V. 9. You shall smash them with an iron scepter; like pots you shall break them.
012 There shall none abide before thee; there shall none reign but thee, and against thee. And whosoever will not break himself, thou shalt smite him with the scepter of iron. Now I have given the kingdom to you; whoever wants to take it from you, you take from him what he has. This is how it will be with the pope and the Turk.
(13) This is the main passage about the Son of God, who is declared King on earth, but by faith and by the Word. It says: "I will preach from one way"; there it remains; we do not see it, but we hear it. Now follows an exhortation:
V.10. Let yourselves therefore be instructed, O kings, and let yourselves be chastened, O judges of the earth.
014 Take heed, be ye wise. He addresses all kings and judges, none excepted, and exhorts them to hear the word: Let them tell you. But they say, What shall we hear, because we are otherwise wise? But such wisdom is foolishness. And notice here that he does not address the common people, but princes and kings, namely the most wise and learned.
V. 11. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
Honor this Lord with fear, and be glad before him. This is a very good verse, by which he puts away the whole law of Moses. This is the service and worship of one another: Put away from yourself all confidence in your own wisdom, and fear his word. But he does not want the mere fear of despair, but also wants us to rejoice in the faith of grace, that as we should fear for our righteousness, so we should rejoice in his righteousness. For our part we are to fear, but in him we are to rejoice. It is not in vain that it says "with trembling," that is, with a certain timidity. For the zealots who think they have eaten the gospel make a carnal liberty, and rejoice with presumption and boldness, and are all too glad; but let it be with reverence that we think we have it from him. Those who serve God with works fear nothing at all from Him.
V. 12. Kiss the Son.
16. do homage to the son. Here he explains what "serve" means, namely to take hold of the son. He who wants to serve God honors only the Son; he who does not honor the Son dishonors the Father. God's service cannot exist unless one kisses the Son, that is, if one believes in Christ; one may do no more.
For he saith not, Be ye circumcised, fast; but speaketh evil, Let the Son be told you. Whoever accepts this word may boast that he serves God.
That he may not be angry.
For apart from Christ there is no righteousness. "That he be not wroth," saith he. Either kiss him, or you will have wrath, and your righteousness will be condemned; there is no third; there is no more help nor counsel. But nobody believes it. The pope, the monks, the Turk want to do enough with their works. But John says [John 3:36]: "Whoever does not believe in the Son of God, upon him abides the wrath of God." In this verse, all monasteries and convents are condemned and thus doomed to perish.
And you perish on the way.
18 Namely, with your works. Apart from Christ there is no salvation, and yet all men try to bring it about with their works, without Christ. But it shall not be. "Kiss the Son, or be eternally lost.
For his wrath will soon burn, but well to all who trust in him.
This is the final promise. When Christ's kingdom begins, the cross follows immediately. The wrath and the cross are exercises of faith. He seeks his own, he says, he will soon be angry, he will soon come behind his own. Therefore he also comforts and says: The cross is before you, not that you will be lost under it, but that you will learn to trust God. But this is to be noted, that all crosses seem as if our Lord God were angry with one. Therefore, one should oppose faith, saying, "Blessed are those who trust in Him." For to be able to trust in God when everything is going well is not an art; but in the cross, when he stumbles, that one can then accept it as a ruth and say, "Dear Father," then it is an art.
About the same Psalm.
Today I have begotten you.
"I have begotten" indicates that he was his natural son, because he had called him his son; ["I have begotten," he says].
Lest he be thought to have been adopted in the Son's stead.
"Today" denotes eternity, which is a constant present; as Christ speaks John.
8, 58: "Before Abraham was, I am". For there it does not say: He was, or will be, neither yesterday nor tomorrow, but: "He is", and "today".
So he calls himself a son, on the reputation and on the testimony of the father, so that he does not honor himself.
He is not made or created, but begotten; nor otherwise than "to-day," that is, equal to eternal; nor before or after the Father, but at the time which is called "to-day" by the Father.
So the new sermon is the gospel of the Son of God.
Hiss from me.
He is
the Master, the Lord, the King
of all things, from which it follows that he is true God.
This majesty of dominion is not given to the angels, but to the Son alone, who is GOD, and yet it is said to him: "Heische", as to a lesser and a man. Therefore it is given to him, that is, God proves that he is His Son, Rom. 1, 4.
He would not be
King,
Anointed One, Preacher,
Priest,
if he were not human.
He would not be
the begotten Son, the Lord of the world,
if he were not GOD.
For the kingdom or regiment over the world he gives to none but himself.
So Christ is
s a new king and a new priest,
What else would it be necessary to appoint a king to preach, since there were preachers before, namely the Levitical ones?
But because he preaches, he is a spiritual king.
But he lives forever, having been raised from death, for he reigns in all the ends of the earth, which a mortal man could not do without an heir in his place. But now there is no heir here.
And yet he is mortal, for he is a king and priest who preaches to mortal men on Mount Zion. Therefore he who is mortal must become immortal through his resurrection, that he may reign.
The iron scepter
is the gospel, because it shatters
the wisdom, the justice, the power
of the people,
that is, it condemns our works. So also
the kings, the righteous, the saints, the princes
with their power, so that he may be alone
the righteous, the wise, the mighty.
What the hell is going on here
Monks, pens, papists?
Iron.
For nothing must resist him who rules everything with the word, as if he wanted to say: All adversaries will not be able to resist the same.
So the king here is a priest who is teaching, so he adds:
Let yourselves now be instructed, O kings.
Hear this one, all of you,
you Jews and you Gentiles.
No one shall continue to teach. He wants to have all of us as his disciples; he takes away the right to teach and to be wise.
"Be wise," that is, let that which is yours be punished, for here is the King.
But why does he address only the kings and judges? Because they are the ones who are most opposed to this king, and they most seriously believe that they are fools.
"Serve with fear"; because your works are condemned.
"Rejoice with trembling" because of the great gifts and benefits given to you by Him.
Thank God that you are worthy to be His servants with all reverence, and take care with diligence and fear whether you will be lords and let yourselves be served as kings.
Again, be joyful and without worry, because you have a King, High Priest and faithful Master, who is willing, able and knows how to govern and sustain you. He is all, through all], in you all, Eph. 1, 23. Col. 3, 11.
Kiss the son.
There remains wrath against all the ways that do not worship the Son and receive this King who is God. Your way, he says, will perish with you.
"Who trust in him." He does not say, "They that do works," but, "They that trust;" because he had hitherto spoken of the word, here he says of faith in the word. But he says:
"Soon", that is, he will be angry about a little thing. As also Ps. 8, 6: "You will let him be forsaken by God for a little while"; where "to be forsaken by God" means as much as that God is angry.
So now we see that this psalm claims that the gospel is a rebellious doctrine, because it causes trouble among pagans, kings, nations and princes. But not through its fault, because the psalm says, "Why?" and "in vain," that is without all cause.
"The kings" are lords and princes set over land and people.
"The Gentiles" are their subjects.
"Lords" or senators and councillors, councilors are the authorities in cities.
"The people" (populi) are their communities.
These four are enemies of the gospel:
The kings, and their subordinates.
The lords or authorities, and their communities.
By lords or authorities are also understood the other rulers and the petty rulers.
See how the order is reversed:
First he sets
the heathens, the people,
thereafter
the kings,
the authorities,
to indicate the rebellion, and that the authorities do not act as God-ordained authorities against Christ, but as perverse authorities.
Also, he says differently:
the heathens rage,
the people talk, the kings rebel, the lords deliberate,
because they trust in
their quantity,
Law and justice, their power, their wisdom.
They rage, they talk, they rebel, they counsel,
but in vain, because what they are subjected to will not happen.
because
the people rage and go at it without judgment,
The kings are hopeful, without fear, and think of violence,
The mob is presumptuous, without prudence; the authorities are presumptuous, passing judgment and condemning without equity and justice.
With impetuosity, with violence, with presumption, with unreasonableness
they fight; no one allows themselves to be
to hear,
To use discernment, to consider, to ponder, and to be reasonable.