We can learn a lot about a person’s character by how they handle disappointments and successes in life. Some people allow success to go to their head. Others use their success for the benefit of others. Likewise, there can be a contrasting response to disappointment. Some people become bitter and resentful. Others choose to learn and grow from these experiences. 1

(10 mins. reading time)

In the last post [Introducing …] we saw how David, even though he had been privately anointed as the next king of Israel, spent fifteen years suffering as a fugitive and patiently waited to be exalted. David’s handling of his disappointments became a template for future ‘anointed ones’ or Messiahs.

As we move to the heart of Psalm 2, we get to hear the ‘anointed one’ speak. After the nation’s rant (vs 1-3), and God’s response (vs 4-6), this is the third speech in Psalm 2, and from a third speaker. The ‘anointed one’ begins by quoting from God’s promise to King David (2 Samuel 7:1-17).

7 The king proclaims the Lord’s decree:
“The Lord said to me, ‘You are my son.
    Today I have become your Father.
8 Only ask, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance,
    the whole earth as your possession.
9 You will break them with an iron rod
    and smash them like clay pots.’”

While the anointed one’s speech was brief, it was loaded with meaning that Jewish readers at the time would have understood. For a better understanding of what the ‘anointed one’ is saying, let’s go back to 2 Samuel 7, and learn about God’s promise to David.

Promise Maker

After David was exalted as king over the tribes of Israel, he established Jerusalem as the capital city. He then brought the tabernacle and the ark of the covenant to reside permanently in Jerusalem. Wherever King David went, God was with him and cut off all his enemies. After years of being a fugitive, David now lived in a cedar palace while the ark of the covenant resided in a tent. So, David proposed to build a proper house or temple for the ark.

God’s response was, “No thank you. I’m happy with my tent.” God reminded David that he never requested a house of cedar, and that he had been content to move among the people while dwelling in a tent. The tent image is a beautiful foreshadowing of John’s description of Jesus when he arrived on the scene about 1,000 years after David. “So the Word became human and made his home among us“ (John 1:14). The word used for home in this verse is the same as dwelling or tent. God came and tented among his people and walked among them.2

Let’s go back to David’s request. After politely declining David’s offer, God then flipped the script and said, “Here’s what I’m going to do for you, David. I’m going to build you a house,” using the same word that David used for ‘house.’ This can refer to a physical building such as the temple, but it can also refer to a household, meaning the people or family.3 God continued by telling David that he took David from the pasture to be ruler over God’s people, and God will make David’s name great – a name that will be recognized and respected.

Partners

Unlike Nimrod and the Babylonians, who desired to make a great name for themselves (see Big Plans post), God was going to make David’s name great. God made a promise to David like the promises he previously made to the nation of Israel, to Abraham, and to Noah. These promises, or covenants, were God’s way of partnering with individual people and with the Israelite nation, as a way of renewing his partnership with the rest of humanity.4

In Noah’s case, God promised not to destroy the earth again using a flood, but Noah was not required to do anything in return. God promised to be faithful even though he knew humans wouldn’t be.

Next is Abraham, whom God promised to bless, give a large family and plenty of land to flourish. God asked Abraham to trust him and to train his family to do what is right. God promised that through Abraham’s family, he would bring blessings to all families in the world.

When Abraham’s family had flourished into the nation of Israel, God made promises to the entire nation through Moses at Mount Sinai. God asked them to obey a set of laws, which are guidelines for living well as a community. God promised to bless them, and they would become a people who would represent him to the rest of the world.

And finally, God made promises to David. God asked David and his descendants to partner with him by leading Israel, observing his laws, and doing what is right and just. God promised to bless them, and that one day one of David’s sons would come and extend God’s kingdom of peace and blessing over all nations.5

God warned David that, if he or his descendants failed in their part of the partnership, God would discipline them like any father would their son, and he assured David that God’s favour would not be taken from his family as it was with King Saul. He promised that David’s throne would be secure forever.

God’s promise to David was an expansion of his previous promises to Israel. Notice how the covenants progressively build upon one another, forming a complete redemptive storyline.

“God preserved the world through Noah, initiated redemption through Abraham, established the nation of Israel through Moses, and promised an eternal shepherd-king through David.”6

Father and Son

God said, as part of his promise in 2 Samuel 7, “I’m going to make a house [dynasty] for you, David, and I am going to give you a great name. Out of that house will come a seed and that seed will establish my name and my house.” Think of this as like the British royal family referred to as the “House of Windsor.”

God continued that David’s son Solomon would be a son to God, and God would be a father to him. The covenant promises given to David in 2 Samuel 7 were the same words spoken by the ‘anointed one’ in Psalm 2.

7 The king proclaims the Lord’s decree:
“The Lord said to me, ‘You are my son.
    Today I have become your Father.


In Solomon’s prayer of dedication for the temple (1 Kings 8:22-52), he affirmed that God had fulfilled the promise made to his father David, that David’s seed would build the temple. Then Solomon asked God to carry out the additional promise he made to David, “If your descendants guard their behaviour, and faithfully follow me as you [David] have done, one of them [David’s seed] will always sit on the throne of Israel.”

Promise Breakers

Many of the kings that followed Solomon were weak or rebellious, but the dynasty continued for four centuries. The kings who broke the covenantal bond or ‘blew it’ were corrected by God but God’s love didn’t depart from David’s lineage. When one king failed in their role as the ‘anointed one,’ there was a hope that their successor would fulfill the covenant role in the next generation. This hope appeared to run out in 587 BC when the temple was destroyed by the Babylonians, and the people were taken into exile in Babylon. The family line of David continued but it never regained the throne.

Promise Keeper

The people in David and Solomon’s days experienced the fulfillment of God’s promises firsthand. The nation flourished and there was peace around them. Five hundred years later, the people living in Babylonian captivity only heard the stories of the greatness of David and Solomon. The temple was gone and there was no king from the house of David. Where was the fulfillment of God’s promise for these exiled Jews?

The story of Psalm 2 is reshaped for the Babylonian exiles who were very far in time and space from David and Solomon. When they reflected on the story of David, they knew that David was not THE Messiah. And so, they held on to the promise that the seed of the eventual Messiah would come from the line of David.

God’s promise to David had both a near and a far fulfillment. As God fulfilled the promises, he made David’s name great. David was Israel’s greatest king, and his name still stands as one of the great men of history. This greatness was not for David’s own benefit and glory, but to benefit the nation he ruled. The promises to David came true during David’s own reign, and they also remained God’s ultimate plans for his people even in later times when the Jewish people suffered hardships.

These plans depended on the fulfilment of God’s promise to send a ‘son of David’, the ‘anointed one,’ who would be the one finally to bring God’s people the security and peace they always needed.7 The story of God’s promise to David is pointing to the future Messiah.

Whose Plans?

The heart of Psalm 2 points to God’s promise to David. The promise was in response to David’s request to build a temple – a request that God denied. This post began by considering people’s responses to disappointments and successes. How did David respond to the success of becoming king over the tribes of Israel? He used his success to bring peace from the neighbouring countries, and he wanted to honour God by building a temple for the ark of the covenant.

But when God said no to David’s request, does David sulk, pout or get angry with God?  David’s response was a beautiful prayer of humility before God. David realized that God had something much greater in mind. God wanted to partner with David so that through David’s family God would not only bring peace and flourishing to the nation of Israel, but also bring redemption for all people through Jesus, the ‘anointed one.’

God’s plans are so much bigger than our ideas – even when we mean well. God’s plans reach so far beyond us that we may never know their full impact. Later, Paul would encourage Ephesian believers to partner with God because he already has amazing work planned for them.

“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”

Eph. 2:10

Next time you approach God with a big idea, listen and see what good things he has already planned out through you.

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Up Next

Take warning! How do we respond to the Psalm 2 speakers.

Notes:

    1. Jerry Vines, Vines Expository Bible Notes (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2018)
    2. Jerry Vines
    3. BibleProject Podcast, The Anointed, Episode 4 – Isaiah’s Anointed One, April 3, 2023. https://bibleproject.com/podcast/isaiahs-anointed-one/
    4. BibleProject Covenants Script, January 2015 https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/covenants/
    5. BibleProject Covenants Script
    6. Whitney Woollard, Five Key Covenants God Makes with Humans in the Bible https://bibleproject.com/articles/covenants-the-backbone-bible/
    7. D.A. Carson, R.T. France, J.A. Motyer, G.J. Wenham ed., New Bible Commentary (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 1994).

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