PSALM 2:7–12 Christ’s Heritage
READ: PSALM 2:7–12 (DEUTERONOMY 7:6–11)
V. 8 “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage.”
Psalm 2 is a very feisty and dramatic piece of inspired poetry. It’s got a very tough message for the nations: your plotting against the one true God and his Son Jesus Christ is futile. In fact, it’s even dangerous, for this great King has the power to smash you in pieces like a clay jar (v. 9). A shiver down the spine is entirely in order when you hear divine instruction like that.
But alongside the dire warning is a warm invitation to these same rebellious nations, “Blessed are all who take refuge in him” (v. 12). That’s how the psalm ends—with a gospel call. The “all” includes the peoples and tribes who earlier were plotting against King Jesus. It turns out that the warning is issued not to seal their fate but to urge their repentance before it is too late! The LORD’s Anointed wants the nations to bow the knee before him so that he does not have to destroy them with his iron sceptre.
And it’s more than a desire—it’s a promise given him by his Father: “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage.” Words like “heritage” and “possession” were well-known to the Israelites. That was the way the LORD had described his relationship to them many times in the past. Out of pure grace, God so loved his people that he rescued them from slavery to make them a people for himself, his “treasured possession” (Deut. 7:6). The nation of Israel alone had this privilege—until now.
That’s the amazing extension of grace here in verse 8: the Gentile peoples will be given to the LORD’s Anointed as a gift, to be his heritage! And if Christ’s, then also the Father’s and the Spirit’s. In David’s day this was a distant hope but at Jesus’ arrival this has become a reality—every non-Jew that has become a Christian is proof. Where does the risen Jesus send his disciples with his gospel? To the nations (Matt. 28:19). Christ’s royal authority is exercised not first to destroy but to save.
The final judgment is coming but in the meantime the grace of Christ calls out to the world: come and kiss the Son and receive life! Let us have the same heart as our Master and echo his call wherever we can to a world that so desperately needs it.
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