Psalms 2:3

_LET US BREAK THEIR BANDS ASUNDER, AND CAST AWAY THEIR CORDS FROM US._ The easy yoke of Jesus seems to natural men a galling chain. The law of Yahweh, and especially the Gospel law of Messiah, which to the godly is his "delight" and continual subject of "meditation" (Psalms 1:2), is to the ungodly insufferable bondage (Jeremiah 5:5). (Contrast Matthew 11:29; 1 John 5:3.)...

3._Let us break, etc_. This is a prosopopoeia, (25) in which the prophet introduces his-enemies as speaking; and he employs this figure the better to express their ungodly and traitorous design. Not that they openly avowed themselves rebels against God, (for they rather covered their rebellion under every possible pretext, and presumptuously boasted of having God on their side;) but since they were fully determined, by all means, fair or foul, to drive David from the throne, whatever they professed with the mouth, the whole of their consultation amounted to this, how they might overthrow the kingdom which God himself had set up. When he describes his government under the metaphorical expressions of bonds, and a yoke, on the persons of his adversaries, he indirectly condemns their pride. For he represents them speaking scornfully of his government, as if to submit to it were a slavish and...

1-6 We are here told who would appear as adversaries to Christ. As this world is the kingdom of Satan, unconverted men, of every rank, party, and character, are stirred up by him to oppose the cause of God. But the rulers of the earth generally have been most active. The truths and precepts of Christianity are against ambitious projects and worldly lusts. We are told what they aim at in this opposition. They would break asunder the bands of conscience, and the cords of God's commandments; they will not receive, but cast them away as far as they can. These enemies can show no good cause for opposing so just and holy a government, which, if received by all, would bring a heaven upon earth. They can hope for no success in so opposing so powerful a kingdom. The Lord Jesus has all power both in heaven and in earth, and is Head over all things to the church, notwithstanding the restless endea...

Verse Psalms 2:3. _LET US BREAK THEIR BANDS_] These are the words of the confederate heathen powers; and here, as Bishop Horne well remarks, "we may see the ground of opposition; namely, the unwillingness of rebellious nature to submit to the obligations of Divine laws, which cross the interests, and lay a restraint on the desires of men. Corrupt affections are the most inveterate enemies of Christ, and their language is, We will not have this man to reign over us. Doctrines would be readily believed if they involved in them no precepts; and the Church may be tolerated in the world if she will only give up her discipline....

LET US BREAK THEIR BANDS ASUNDER - The bands of Yahweh and of his Anointed. They who are engaged in this combination or conspiracy regard Yahweh and his Anointed as one, and as having one object - to set up a dominion over the world. Hence, they take counsel against both; and, with the same purpose and design, endeavor to cast off the authority of each. The word “bands” here refers to the restraints imposed by their authority. The figure is probably taken from fastening a yoke on oxen, or the bands or cords which were used in plowing - the bands of the yoke being significant of their subjection to the authority or will of another. The same figure is used by the Saviour in Matthew 11:29 : “Take my yoke upon you.” The idea here is, that it was the purpose of Yahweh and his Anointed to establish a dominion over men, and that it was equally the purpose of the king

EXPOSITION HERE we have again a psalm without a title, and, so far, we are left to conjecture its age and author. The Jews, however, have always regarded it as Davidical; and there is evidence in Scripture itself (Acts 4:25) that the early Christians were of the same opinion. Modern critics, for the most part, agree, although there are some (Ewald, Paulus, Bleek) who ascribe it to Solomon, and others (Maurer, Delitzsch) who suppose it written by Hezekiah or Isaiah. The psalm is certainly Messianic. It is assumed to be so in Acts 4:25; Acts 13:33; Hebrews 1:5;...

LET US BREAK THEIR BANDS ASUNDER,.... These are not the words of the apostles, nor of the saints in Gospel times, encouraging one another, notwithstanding the rage and opposition of Jews and Gentiles against their Master and his interest, to break asunder the bands of wickedness, the idolatrous customs and practices of the Heathens, and to throw off the insupportable yoke of bondage, of Jewish traditions and ceremonies, see Isaiah 58:6; but of the Heathen, the people, and kings of the earth, and rulers who, with one voice, say this and what follows, AND CAST AWAY THEIR CORDS FROM US; with relation to the Lord and his Anointed, whose laws, ordinances, and truths, they call "bands" and "cords"; so Arama interprets them of the law, and the commandments; or a "yoke", as the Vulgate Latin, Septuagint, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions render the last word; and the phrases in

Psalms 2:1. _Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us._ This was what they did when they took the Lord of life and glory, dragged him to the judgment seat, and then nailed him to the accursed tree. «This is the heir,» said they, «let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours.» They thought that they had destroyed the power of Christ, the appointed and anointed King, and that he would never reign among the sons of men. Psalms 2:4. _He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision._ God might well laugh at their folly, for the

Psalms 2 THE REJECTED KING _ 1. The rejection and the coming confederacy (Psalms 2:1)_ 2. Jehovah's attitude and interference (Psalms 2:4) 3. The coming of the King and his inheritance (Psalms 2:7) 4. Warning and exhortation (Psalms 2:10) Psalms 2:1. The rejection of the perfect Man, the Son of God, by man, is here revealed. It is the first psalm quoted in the New Testament. See...

II. MESSIAH'S REIGN. Also without a title. Here we have a distinctly Messianic Ps., put in this place, possibly, as an introduction to other Messianic Pss. which follow. Messianic it is in the strictest sense of the word, for it does not look forward to a dynasty of Davidic kings (_cf._ Jeremiah 23:4 ff., Ezekiel 34:23), or to the direct intervention of Yahweh, as 2 Is. and Malachi do. Rather the Kingdom of God is to be founded and maintained by an anointed King who is the Son of God and His vicar on earth. The poet speaks as if the ideal King had already ascended His throne. But we cannot be sure that the Ps. refers to an actual king then alive. He is present to the imagination of the Psalmist: that is all we can say. Much less can we point to any contemporary in whom his dream was already realised