Psalm 2 is a royal psalm that speaks of David and His descendants reigning in Jerusalem—ultimately pointing to Christ’s millennial rule on the earth. “I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion…I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession” (verses 6, 8). “Israelite kings and priests were anointed with oil when they took office. The ‘Anointed One’ probably originally meant ‘king.’ It came, however, to stand for more. The Hebrew word is masiah, which became Messiah and is translated into Greek as Christos or Christ. This psalm was understood in the New Testament as referring to Jesus—for no Old Testament king ever gained the control of the nations implied here” (Zondervan New Student Bible, note on verse 2).

Considering that God announced His plan and has all power to fulfill it, the psalmist wonders at the audacity of plotting against Him. To take counsel against God and His Anointed is a vain thing. God laughs scornfully at the long history of human insubordination (verse 4). Kings and leaders have been warned in advance. They should “wise up” and serve the Lord in fear and trembling (verse 11; Deuteronomy 10:12-13). At the end of the age, a union of nations will mount another rebellion against God—this time an attack on the returning Jesus Christ. With all power at His command, Christ will destroy the rebel armies and commence to rule the nations “with an iron scepter” (verse 9; Revelation 2:27; Revelation 12:5, NIV).

“You are My Son, today I have begotten You” in Psalm 2:7 “is the public proclamation that the Son is to inherit the kingdom from His Father…establishing the Son’s right to rule over God’s kingdom” (The Bible Reader’s Companion, note on verse 7). God has not said this to His angels (see Hebrews 1:5). He reserved this for Jesus (Acts 13:33) as well as other human beings who would be spiritually begotten as God’s children (see Hebrews 1–2).

“Kiss the Son” (verse 12) is perhaps meant “as a sign of submission (see 1 Samuel 10:1; 1 Kings19:18; Hosea 13:2…). Submission to an Assyrian king was expressed by kissing his feet” (Zondervan NIV Study Bible, note on Psalm 2:12). The New Testament shows kissing on the cheek as a means of greeting, which would signify welcome and acceptance. The Jewish Tanakh translation renders the entire phrase “pay homage in good faith,” leaving out the word “Son”—perhaps with some concern over Christian interpretation—but declaring the Hebrew uncertain in a footnote. It is true that the word for “son” would here be the Aramaic bar rather than the Hebrew ben. However, as Expositor’s states in its footnote on verse 12, “In favor of the traditional translation [‘Son’]…are the context of the psalm (submission to the Lord and to the anointed), the proposal by [commentator] Delitzsch that the sequence bar pen (‘Son, lest’) avoids the dissonance of ben pen…and the suggestion by [another commentator] that the usage of the Aramaism may be intentionally directed to the foreign nations”—as Aramaic was the common language of the entire ancient Middle East. Interestingly, it would also be the language of the Jews when Jesus the Son actually came among them.