Why Do the Nations Rage? — Psalm 2 Explained (Session 2)

In this verse-by-verse study of Psalm 2, Reasoning Through the Bible explores one of the Bible’s clearest Messianic Psalms. The psalm begins with a world in chaos — nations raging, rulers conspiring, and people resisting the authority of God and His Anointed One. But the message of Psalm 2 is not that rebellion will win. The message is that God reigns, Christ is His King, and all resistance to Him is ultimately vain. 

This session explains the narrative flow between Psalm 1 and Psalm 2, the meaning of “Messiah” and “Christ,” why the nations reject God, how Acts 4 connects Psalm 2 to Jesus, and what it means that God has installed His King on Zion. The study also addresses the Father’s words, “You are My Son,” the future reign of Christ, and the warning that the Son will one day rule the nations with a rod of iron. 

The episode closes with one of the psalm’s most important truths: the nations rage, but God invites sinners to do more than tremble — He calls them to take refuge in the Son. Psalm 2 is both a warning and an invitation, pointing people away from rebellion and toward safety, blessing, and salvation in Christ. 

Topics in this episode include:

•  Psalm 2 explained 
•  why the nations rage 
•  the Messiah in the Psalms 
•  God’s King on Zion 
•  Christ and Acts 4 
•  the Son and the Father 
•  the rod of iron 
•  God’s wrath and refuge 
•  how sinners can take refuge in Christ 

Reasoning Through the Bible is a verse-by-verse Bible teaching ministry committed to careful exposition, biblical context, and faithful application.

Transcript

Welcome And Psalm 2 Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Hello and welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible. Today we are going to be in Psalm 2, the second in our intermittent series on the Psalms. You have your Bible, open it to Psalm 2. If you're not familiar with our ministry, go to our website, rtb.net. You can also reach us at reasoningthruthebible.com. We create verse-by-verse Bible teaching through the Word of God, and you'll also find teaching materials that we offer that you can improve your teaching, teach small groups, and use our materials as support. So we trust that you'll be following along with us. The Psalms, of course, are Hebrew poetry that were originally set to music. They were songs that were sung in the temple ceremonies. People today normally think of the psalms as contemplative, meditative, but as we're going to see today in Psalm 2, there's also a lot of teaching about God, about salvation, and our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. There's patterns to the Psalms. They're not just random collections of poetry. Yes, there's beautiful descriptive language, but there's also flow of thought that goes through. Psalm one was the happy man. Happy is the man who follows the Lord. Psalm two is the man who is living in a world that has full of uproar and turmoil and chaos. There's an interesting parallel here between Psalm 1 and 2 and the first parts of Genesis. In Genesis, the first parts of Genesis were Adam and the garden, and there was a lot of happiness and joy and fellowship with God. Then sin enters the world, and man gets cast out of the garden, and we immediately find turmoil and chaos and pain and death. And so that same pattern we have here in the Psalms, they open up Psalm 1 with fellowship with God. And by the time we get here to Psalm 2, we have turmoil and restlessness in the nations. Once the turmoil happens in Psalm 2, then Psalms really three through seven are cries out to God for help.

Why Psalms Have A Narrative Flow

SPEAKER_00 2:40

And by the time we get to Psalm 8, we have a praise to God for his holiness. So there's patterns like this that flow through most, if not all, of the Psalms. So let's go ahead and dive in. Steve, can you read the first three verses of Psalm 2?

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Why are the nations restless and the peoples plotting in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers conspire together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, Let's tear their shackles apart and throw their ropes away from us.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

So the first line there, why are the nations restless? The old King James there says, Why do the heathen rage? Throughout human history, we've always had a lot of war, a lot of conflict, a lot of nations against each other, a lot of restlessness, a lot of the heathen raging. Most of human history is full of war, full of nations against each other. The periods of peace have been brief and far between. There's a great deal of war throughout human history, a lot of restlessness and chaos and conflict. I remember speaking to a war veteran who had been through one of the greatest wars, and he said that he had seen a lot of people killed. A lot of his comrades and his friends didn't make it. They died. And he said, and for what? It was all meaningless. So the nations are restless and without peace. And most of the conflict is meaningless. So, Steve, why does it seem like the nations are always in an uproar?

SPEAKER_01 4:12

What we see here also, Glenn, is that it's not an accidental rebellion. They're organized, they are gathering together and they're saying, let's plot and tear these shackles and the ropes from us. In other words, they're viewing God's rule as bondage, and they don't see the Lord's authority as being a blessing like you and I would, or wisdom and protection. They see it as a yoke to be broken. So I think that gives your answer. Why do the nations rage against God is because they don't see Him as being a loving God. They don't see Him as being someone that's in authority. They want to be in authority themselves. They want to do what's right in their own eyes, and they see the relationship between them and God as one, as they're in bondage that they need to break free from. It's just a completely different view of God of what you and I and fellow believers have of God.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Why are the nations restless? Well, it's because of sin. Sin goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. In the garden, Adam was in fellowship with God. There was peace. He committed sin. And not long after that, the first murder happened. Cain killed his brother Abel. And we've had ever since then, nation against nation killing each other because of sin. Much of what the world does is motivated by greed, power, hate, and lust. We have the nations in turmoil. So this is right where we meet today. We see it in the

The Nations Rage Against God

SPEAKER_00 5:45

news every day. Why are the nations restless and the peoples plotting in vain? It's all empty plotting. The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers conspire together. So it's a plan. It's not just accidental evil. They get together and stay up nights thinking ways of committing sin. And there in verse two and three, the kings of the earth conspire together, not just to sin, but to attack the Lord. And it says to attack the Lord and his anointed, who is the Messiah. The word there that is translated anointed is the Hebrew word Mashiach or Messiah. In Hebrew, he's saying here, they attack the Lord and his Messiah. So obviously, Steve, who is this person that is talking about being attacked?

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Well, it is talking about the Messiah, the anointed one. That is what Mashiach means in Hebrew. In Greek, it's Christos, where we get the English word Christ. That means anointed one. So whenever we say Jesus Christ, we're saying Jesus the anointed one or Jesus the Messiah. So that is who this is talking about here. That's why Psalm 2 is known as being a messianic psalm, is because it's talking about his anointed one. That's the one thing you are talking about, sin. Sin tell tries to tell us that we are in bondage, that we're restricted by God. But in reality, what scripture tells us is that the sin itself, the rage against God, the separation from God is what enslaves us, that we are enslaved to the sin itself. And the other thing of what you mentioned as far as these uh nations is that what they're doing is irrational. They're not negotiating or uprising against fellow human nations, they're uprising against the creator, God Himself and the Messiah. They're lifting their fist in anger to the creator itself. So it's just irrational what you see that they're doing here. But the main thing is what you're pointing out it's not just Yahweh the Lord, but it's also his anointed one.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

In Acts chapter four, Peter and John were preaching the gospel about Jesus Christ, and they were arrested, went through a bit of punishment. But they were released with a threat. And after they were released, Peter was praying a prayer, and he quotes this psalm, this verse here, about the people being against the Lord and his anointed. When they were released, they prayed this verse that Herod, Pilate, and the Jewish leaders were coming against Christ. So we have here this psalm being a bit prophetic that yes, the Messiah was being fought against by the heathen, the nations. Are there still people today, Steve, that go out of their way, that plan to fight against the Lord and his ways? And why is that? Why is it still today that we have nations and individuals fighting against God and his ways?

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Well, and it's not only against his ways, it's also against his anointed, his messiah. So the rejection of God's Messiah is also a rejection of God the Father Himself. So that's the point that we're seeing here in these first three verses. But it goes back to what we started this session out with is that sin, the separation and missing the mark of what God wants us to be and to do and to have a relationship with him. That is something that puts us into slavery because we want to push back against God. We don't want to have him as being authority, we don't want to have to be accountable to him for what we do. We want to do whatever we think is right in our own eyes, as I mentioned before. That's, I think, is why it's the sinful nature that we have of wanting to resist God. And it's really not until we come into a relationship with Jesus Christ, his anointed, that we then have that proper forgiveness from him, that we are found righteous through Jesus Christ, and that we can have that proper relationship with him. And once we have that, then we no longer have those desires to be away from him or the sin that's taken us away. We don't think of our life as being in bondage or under a yoke that needs to be cast off from us, and we don't plot against him. We pray that we might do his will. So the whole demeanor and character of us is what Paul says, we become a new creation and we are to put on Christ every day, the new person every day, and throw off the old person. So we see a completely dramatic change whenever we become a believer in Jesus Christ. One that we want to be with God, we don't want to be separate from Him.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

So the question is there people today that are fighting against Christianity? Well, yes, obviously. And why? It's because of sin. It's the same reason as all the way back here in Psalm 2. It's the same reason as in Acts chapter 4. It's because people do not want to be reminded of their sin. They want to do what they want to do. And God in his ways reminds them that they are sinning, that what they're doing is self-centered instead of being focused on God. It really answers this question. If we look at the Psalm again, Psalm 2, the rulers conspire together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, and then verse 3 gives the reason, saying, let's tear the shackles apart and throw the ropes away from us. People don't want to be restricted by God's rules. They want to go live out their own lusts. They want to go live out their own greed. They think that God's ways will be shackles on them. Really, once we learn God's ways, it's really freeing. God's ways are not shackling us, they're freeing us from the bondage of sin and death. Such great, great teachings that are so practical. Let's go ahead and read the next part of the Psalm, starting in verse 4, says this He who sits in the heavens laughs, the

Messiah Meaning And Acts 4 Link

SPEAKER_00 12:00

Lord scoffs at them. Then he will speak to them in his anger and terrify them in his fury, saying, But as for me, I have installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain. I will announce the decree of the Lord. He said to me, You are my son, today I have fathered you. Ask it of me, and I will certainly give the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, you shall shatter them like earthenware. So kings of the earth chase power and surround themselves with people who will tell them they're powerful. On earth, these rulers get puffed up and kind of full of themselves. All the great dictators of the world were conquerors. They thought they were the ultimate power. Caesar, Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Hitler, all these people thought, well, I am the one here. I am the great ruler, but they've all come and gone, and God is still on his throne. And at the beginning of that section, we just read, Steve, what is how does God react to these great world leaders?

SPEAKER_01 13:08

He's laughing at them because anything that they do is not going to matter to him being the creator. It's silly for them to even think that they're going to be able to rebel against the creator. So it's that type of a laugh. I'd look at it as more of a chuckle and a shake of the head of saying these kings that are down there, they think that they have power. In reality, they don't have any power against me. And they also think that they're kings over their areas and territories, which really means something. But what I've done, as he mentions there in verse six, is I've installed my king. And where is it? It's at Zion. It's on his holy mountain there in Jerusalem. So it's very clear to see that God is in complete control. They are frantic, they're organized, but they're defiant. But God is enthroned and he is not threatened. He's not panicking. He does not ask the nations for permissions at all to do what he wants to do. So I again see that as him just kind of chuckling and shaking his head at these really puny kings that think that they're going to be able to do something against their creator, God.

SPEAKER_00 14:23

These great world powers, these great world dictators have come and gone. In the meanwhile, they have killed a lot of people. But the Christians should not ever really be afraid of these people simply because of what it says here in Psalm 2. God sits on his throne and laughs because he will not be shaken. The idea that these people could stand out in the midst of a field and shake their fist and threaten the Almighty God, the creator of the universe, and he just has a good chuckle. The Christians should not be afraid of these dictators. We fear God, and the only respect we have for the leaders is because God has commanded us to have respect for them and has commanded us to submit to the earthly civil authorities. Jesus told us, quote, do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. He said that in Matthew 10, 28. So we have here what should be our response to these great world dictators. They tend to puff themselves up, but God has a good chuckle. Verses four to six in this psalm we just read shows us God's response. God sits in heaven and has a good laugh. He says, God will terrify them in his fury. In verse six, Steve, what does God say he's going to do?

SPEAKER_01 15:50

That he's installed my king upon Zion, as I mentioned before. It's not one of the ones that are down there resisting him. He's saying it's my king, it's one that he has appointed to rule from Jerusalem.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

So we have to note that in particular, he says, my king in a specific place, Zion, my holy mountain. That is a specific geographic place. It is not somewhere in North America or South America or Europe. It is in Jerusalem. And so he's very clearly picking out my king who is sitting on my throne in Jerusalem. So Steve, obviously, who is this king who will sit on the throne in Mount Zion in Jerusalem?

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Well, it's his Messiah, as this psalm is talking about, his anointed one. So now we know who that anointed one is, that it is Jesus Christ, Jesus, the anointed one. That is the Messiah. Therefore, this psalm is

God Laughs And Installs His King

SPEAKER_01 16:55

talking about Jesus directly.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

The New Testament opens up in Matthew 1:1, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David. God made a promise to David in 2 Samuel 7 that one of his descendants would be on the throne of Israel forever. And forever means forever. So here we have in Psalm 2 that God says again, I will put my Messiah on the throne in Jerusalem. This is Jesus. He's the one that has the royal lineage. He is the one who has the right and the authority and the power to hold the kingship of Israel. So God, once again, of the many places in the Bible, Psalm 2 is one of these messianic psalms that says very specifically the Messiah himself will sit on the throne in Jerusalem. It's the throne of David. This is repeated so many times that it's just amazing that some people miss it and deny it these days. Jesus will be reigning from Jerusalem as king in the millennium. Then in verse 7, Yahweh is speaking here and he says, Quote, you are my son. Today I have fathered or begotten you. Hebrews 1:5 tells us this is speaking about Jesus, saying Jesus is not an angel. So Steve, there's a lot there that we could talk about. What comes to mind when it says there, today I have fathered you or begotten you?

SPEAKER_01 18:25

He's clearly saying there that this king that he's going to install is also his son. We see that Jesus is referred to as being the son of God. So all of that fits together with giving this picture of the coming Messiah and Jesus when he came. All of the things we're told about through the gospels and through the New Testament books and epistles as well. It all starts to make sense and show up. A good way to summarize what we're looking at here is that the nations are raging on earth, but God is reigning in heaven. God is doing what he wants to do. And in this case, while the nations are raging and plotting against him, trying to shake off his rule, he is installing his king, the king that he wanted to install, the Messiah, the anointed one. And it is also noted that it's his son.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

We have here this phrase, today I have fathered you, or today I have begotten you. Some people falsely take this phrase there and claim that the word begotten or fathered means that Jesus had a beginning point. This is a false teaching. These teachers say that God, God the Father, produced a child like a human does, and like a human child has a birthday, a beginning point. Therefore, they say, well, Jesus had a beginning point. That's a misunderstanding of the word begotten. Begotten merely means to send forth or to bring forth. The father sent Jesus to earth on a mission to die on the cross and then to fulfill the royal throne. The father sent Jesus, so therefore he fathered him, he sent him. It does not mean that Jesus had a beginning point. God is not a man, he's not a human being, and the terms father and the term son cannot be applied to an infinite God the way it does to a finite human being. Just because the Bible uses the term father and son doesn't mean that the relationship between the Heavenly Father and Christ are the same as a human father and a son. We can't impose human relations on a divine being. We cannot impose finite human relationships on an infinite being. Jesus being the son of God does not mean that they have the same relation as humans do. Being the son of the father is a term meaning that they have the same nature. That's what it's saying here. John 5.18 says that Jesus being the son of the father means that he is equal with God. So says the divine author of the gospel, John. So it says here in Psalm 2, I have installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain. And he says to in verse 7, You are my son, today I have fathered you. So it's merely giving a relation of the Father and the Son in the sense that the Father sent the Son. They are of the same nature. The Messiah, according to Psalm 2, is of the same nature with God. Why? Because today I have fathered

You Are My Son Explained

SPEAKER_00 21:45

you. That's what the term means. Then in verse 8, he says, Ask of me, and I will surely give the nations as your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as your possession. Here we have the Father speaking to the Son, the nations. Belong to God and He controls them. So, Steve, according to this, who owns the nations of the world?

SPEAKER_01 22:07

Jesus owns the nations. They have been given to him, the Son. It shows the personal distinction that as the Lord speaks to the Son, yet the Son shares divine authority and receives the kind of trust that belongs to God. So we're seeing this relationship developing between Yahweh, the Lord, and his son. So we're getting depictions here of the one and the same as far as being God that's being spoken of here. And this psalm is really also one of the only areas in the Tanakh that speaks of God as King, as God as Messiah, and the Son in one place. So we're seeing this depiction here of how important this psalm is in regards to Hebrew scripture.

SPEAKER_00 22:55

Again, this says that the Father gives the nations to the Messiah, to Christ. So this aligns with many of the Old Testament prophets, such as Isaiah and Ezekiel. God controls the nations by raising them up and taking them down again. And here the Father gives the nations to the Son. The next verse, verse 9, Jesus will return and defeat the nations that are coming against Israel. He says, You will break them with a rod of iron. My friend, Jesus did not come the first time he came to earth with a rod of iron. He came as gentle Jesus, meek and mild. He came with an offer of peace. When he comes next time, he will come riding a white horse with fire in his eyes and a sword out of his mouth, and he will destroy the nations with a rod of iron. At no point in the past, figuratively or literally, did the Messiah defeat the enemies of Israel. This is such a great psalm that has so much great applications for our day-to-day, and it's hidden back here in the Psalms. Steve, can you read the last verses of this Psalm, verses 10 through 12?

SPEAKER_01 24:10

Now then, you kings, use insight. Let yourselves be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son that he not be angry, and you perish on the way. For his wrath may be kindled quickly. How blessed are we who take refuge in him.

SPEAKER_00 24:31

So, Steve, has God warned the world about Jesus?

SPEAKER_01 24:35

He has warned them, and he is giving a plan of what he is going to do in relation to all the nations here. And we have a lot of atheists and skeptics who like to put out there the hidness of God, the problem of evil, and they question as to why God doesn't interject himself and make himself known. Why doesn't God come down and take care of the evil in the world? Well, this psalm is depicting that there is going to come a time whenever that is going to happen, that Jesus is going to be ruling from Jerusalem. He's going to be ruling the nations with a rod of iron. He's going to be ruling them in righteousness. And he's going to be taking care of the evil on this world. And he's going to be here showing himself, making himself present during this kingdom. So it's curious to me as to what those scoffers are then going to say whenever this happens. Right now, they look at this and they say, Oh, that's something that's not ever going to happen. They continue to be scoffers and skeptical as to whether there's a God or not. But it's clear here that God is going to become unhidden at some point. He's going to take care of evil at some point. And then we will see what the scoffers and the atheists have to say whenever that time comes.

SPEAKER_00 25:53

If we look at verse 12, it tells us what might happen to nations who ignore Jesus. What does it say there, Steve? Might happen to these nations.

SPEAKER_01 26:12

It says there that his wrath may be kindled quickly, and blessed are those who take refuge in him. So we have this juxtaposed position. You can either not accept him and reject him and face his wrath, or you can accept him and run to him as a place of refuge and be blessed in him. That's the two points that are made here in this verse 12.

Kiss The Son And Take Refuge

SPEAKER_00 26:35

I find it fascinating that the first time Jesus came, the Jewish people were wanting a warlord. They wanted a general, a king with a sword in his hand that would drive out the Romans. And what they got was gentle Jesus, talking of peace and repentance from sin. When Jesus comes next time, it's going to be just the opposite. People are going to be crying out for peace. They're going to want gentle Jesus, meek and mild, to bring peace. And what they're going to get is a wrathful Jesus that it says here in verse 12 might get angry and cause you to perish on the way. He's going to come again with a rod of iron and breaking the nations. People always seem to underestimate Jesus. It seems very interesting to us today that Jesus would come with wrath. That's not a thing that's taught today very much, but nevertheless, here that's what it's saying. He's going to return with wrath against the nations. Even for those that are his children, look at the end of verse 11. We should rejoice with reverence, but rejoice with trembling. So we should have great fear and respect for the Lord because of his power and his majesty. Yes, Jesus is loving, but he also has wrath, and he has a rod of iron. And Steve, at the last part of the Psalm, the end of verse 12, how do we get blessed?

SPEAKER_01 27:59

We are blessed by taking refuge in him. This is juxtaposed to Psalm 1, where it has that depiction on the individual level. This is a one that's regarding the nations and the people themselves and the decision they they make, that we're blessed whenever we take refuge in him. So this psalm isn't only about ancient kings or future nations, it's also about something that confronts every human heart. Everybody's going to have to make a decision. So we might not, on an individual basis, gather armies against God, but every sinner is tempted to say, I want my own way. I don't want God to rule over me. And so that's the heart of rebellion. But Psalm 2 tells us that rebellion is in vain, it can't succeed. God has installed his king and his king is going to reign. It's a done deal. It is something that is going to happen. So the question is not whether God's king will rule, the question is whether we will resist him or take refuge in him. Going back to your question, what is it that we're going to do? So Psalm 2 begins with rebellion that shows the heart of not only the nations, but also of individuals. And it ends with the ability to take refuge in Jesus Christ. That's the gracious imitation of the psalm. The nations rage, but God reigns. The ruler's plot, but God has spoken. The world resists, but the Son will rule. And blessed are those who

Final Appeal And Ministry Resources

SPEAKER_01 29:30

take refuge in him. There in the last part of verse 12.

SPEAKER_00 29:34

My friend, if you're still in the sound of my voice, there's still time to avoid God's wrath and to take refuge in Christ. It's a very simple thing. Won't you trust him today? Such great teachings back here in the Psalms, such great, wonderful, practical things about our Lord and about the Christ, about us and our relationship to him. We'll be back next time with more of our verse by verse teaching. We trust that you'll check out our other books that we do. We go verse by verse through the entire Word of God. Check our website, reasoningthruthebible.com. You'll find information there, and you'll also be able to reach out to us, give us feedback. We'd love to hear from you. We trust that you'll be with us as we continue to reason through the Bible.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.