The blessedness of faith in Christ, rejected of man, but exalted of God to the throne in Zion, but which is also over the Gentiles, and to the ends of the earth; and which is to be established by a power overthrowing all opposition, when the time of present patience has reached its limit.

Why do the Gentiles rage, and the nations meditate a vain thing ?

2. The kings of the earth set themselves, and the princes take counsel together against Jehovah, and against His Anointed :

3. '"Let us snap Their bands asunder, and cast Their cords from us!"

4. He sitting in the heavens laugheth :the Lord mocketh at them.

5. Then speaketh Me unto them in His anger, and confoundeth them in His wrath.

6. " And I, I have set My King upon Zion, My holy mount."

7. "I will declare as to the decree:Jehovah hath said unto Me, 'Thou art My Son; I this day have begotten Thee.

8. "'Ask of Me, and I give Thee the for Thine inheritance, and for Thy possession the ends of the earth.

9. "'Thou shalt shepherd them with an iron rod; as a potter's vessel Thou shalt dash them in pieces.'"

10. And now, ye -kings, be wise! be admonished, ye judges of earth!

11. Serve Jehovah with fear and exult with trembling.

12. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way; for suddenly shall His anger kindle. Happy all they who take refuge in Him!

Text.-(6) "Set" is preferable to "anointed," because it is Jehovah's answer to the opposition of the nations. The critics are about equally divided between the two renderings.

(9) "Shepherd" is one of two possible renderings, but which the New Testament decides for, always quoting it thus.

(12) "Kiss the Son:" the Aramaic form, "Bar," used here instead of "Ben," has been the subject of criticism on the part of rationalists hostile to the rendering here given, denied also by all the ancient versions except the Syriac; but all have to change the word to translate it otherwise. " The context and the usage of the language both require "Kiss the Son." The Piel, nishek, means "to kiss," and never any thing else, and …. nothing is more natural here, after Jehovah has acknowledged His Anointed as His Son, than that Bar, which has nothing strange about it when found in solemn discourse, should denote the unique Son, and in fact the Son of God. The exhortation to submit to Jehovah, as Aben Ezra has observed, is followed by the exhortation to do homage to Jehovah's Son." (Delitzsch.) Gesenius, DeWette, and Rosenmuller, though all rationalists, agree in this rendering.

(12) "Suddenly" seems more in place than "but a little," since it refers, surely, to ver. 9.

Connections.-(1) Quoted and applied, Acts 4:25-58:the opposition manifested then has characterized the course of this world ever since; although never will it be so intense and bitter as at the final crisis in the days just preceding the appearing of the Lord.

(4) "He sitting in the heavens:" comp. Psalm 11:3, 4.

That there are twelve verses in this governmental psalm is surely significant. These divide regularly into four sections of three verses each:the first gives the attitude of the nations; the second, Jehovah's; the third is Messiah's voice; the fourth, the warning to the kings of the earth.