Jesus as the Psalm 2 Royal Son of God

Summary

BibleProject Podcast — "Jesus as the Psalm 2 Royal Son of God" (March 16, 2026)

Hosts: Tim Mackey (B) and John Collins (A)
Episode Theme: Exploring how Psalm 2 is quoted and interpreted in the New Testament to reveal the true, eternal identity of Jesus as the Royal Son of God—and how that identity is extended to his followers.

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Tim and John conclude their mini-series on Psalm 1 and Psalm 2 by focusing deeply on Psalm 2 and its extensive resonance within the New Testament. They explore how key New Testament events—Jesus’ baptism, the Transfiguration, Paul’s letters, Acts, and Revelation—quote or allude to Psalm 2. These connections reveal how Jesus is depicted as the true "Son of God," not merely as a human king in David’s line, but as the eternal Son. The episode then considers the implications for Christian identity: that believers participate in Jesus’ royal sonship.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Layered Reading: Psalms in Literary and Theological Context

• Understanding Scripture as a Mosaic: Each Psalm is like a tile in a larger biblical mosaic; meaning unfolds as context expands ([03:13], [04:15]).
  • Quote: “Every passage is like one little tile ... in a larger mosaic. ... But then it’s about expanding the circles of context and reading the piece in relationship to what comes before and after it, or what’s connected to it.” — Tim, [03:18]
• Interconnectedness: The Psalms are intentionally arranged, hyperlinked to the Torah and Prophets; New Testament writers read them as part of a network, not in isolation ([05:05], [07:44]).

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2. Psalm 2 as Quoted at Major Moments in Jesus’ Life

a. Jesus’ Baptism and Psalm 2

• The Heavenly Voice: “You are my son, the beloved One. With you I am well pleased.” ([09:27])
  • This alludes directly to Psalm 2:7.
  • The phrase recalls the appointment of a Davidic king, but with deeper, layered meaning.
• Is "Sonship" Bestowed or Revealed? The baptism isn’t granting Jesus a new status, but revealing his eternal identity—the Son who was always in relationship with the Father ([18:23], [22:27]).
• Quote: “So when the voice says, you are my son, is this bestowing a brand new identity on Jesus or is this calling to mind something... set long ago in the past?” — Tim, [18:23]

b. The Transfiguration: Expanding the Identity

• God’s declaration, “This is my son, whom I love. Listen to him,” again echoes Psalm 2, now with added phrases linking Jesus to Isaiah’s servant and Moses’ prophetic role ([24:58]-[32:27]).
• Synoptic Gospels record the heavenly voice slightly differently, each weaving in links to Israel’s story:
  • Matthew: "with whom I am well pleased"
  • Luke: "my chosen one"
  • Mark: "the Beloved One"
• The apostles care less about the precise wording than about “the meaning ... connecting Jesus to the servant in Isaiah” ([26:37]).
• Quote: “The gospel author's value doesn't seem to be giving us video camera footage. ... They want to relay an event to us and weave into the story ... the meaning and import of the story.” — Tim, [25:25]

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3. Psalm 2 and the Eternal "Son of God"

• Son of God as Royal Title and More:

  • In the ancient Near East, kings called themselves “son of god” as a claim to divine appointment ([13:30]).
  • In biblical development: Adam (humanity), Israel, the line of David—all are “sons,” but all fail, setting up expectation for a future, ideal Son ([14:44]-[16:54]).
  • Jesus fulfills, supersedes, and eternally embodies what “son of God” means.

• Trinitarian Implications: Early Christians read Psalm 2:7 as words spoken in eternity between Father and Son, not just at moments in Jesus’ earthly life ([35:02], [36:50]).

  • Quote: “God, for a Christian, refers to a communion of eternal love between the one God, having more than one within that one God.” — Tim, [37:43]

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4. Psalm 2 and the Resurrection (Paul’s Use)

• Acts 13: Paul links Jesus’ resurrection directly to Psalm 2: “You are my son, today I have begotten you” ([43:05]).

  • Resurrection is read as a “birthing” into new life, fulfilling the vocation prescribed to the Davidic kingship and humanity at large.
  • Paul sees this as the moment where Jesus, the eternal Son, also fulfills the promised human "Son of David"—by conquering death ([47:31], [48:09]).

• Romans 1:2-4: Paul summarizes the gospel by joining Psalm 2, the resurrection, and 2 Samuel 7’s promise of a human descendant of David. Jesus both has eternal Sonship and also publicly, definitively takes up his role in resurrection ([47:31]-[49:54]).

  • Quote: “So the language of Psalm 2 hyperlinked to 2 Samuel 7 become Paul’s way of using Son of God language to refer not only to Jesus’s eternal identity, but also to him fulfilling the job role that humanity needs: conquer death on their behalf.” — Tim, [51:13]

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5. Psalm 2 Applied to Jesus’ Followers

• Acts 4 (The Apostles in Prison): After persecution, the apostles pray using Psalm 2 (“Why do the nations rage...?”), now applying it to themselves as they face opposition ([53:01]-[56:54]).

  • They identify with Jesus, experiencing the "raging nations" and sharing in his royal identity by the Spirit.
  • Quote: “So in Psalm 2 ... it creates a very us and them, we’re the Israelites... too bad, if you’re the nations, you’re gonna get stumped. ... They actually include the leaders of Israel within the peoples who were raging.” — Tim, [55:36]

• Believers Become "Sons of God":

  • The pattern is extended: What is true of Jesus ("Son of God," overcoming opposition) is now true for his followers united to him ([58:44]-[59:02]).
  • Quote: “My life is now in Jesus. So I can actually say I am the son of Psalm 2?" — John, [58:55]

• Revelation 2: Jesus to Thyatira: “To the one who is victorious ... I will give authority over the nations; he will shepherd them with an iron rod ... just like I have received from my Father” ([61:26]).

  • Jesus extends his Psalm 2 authority to his followers.
  • Notably, “shepherd” is chosen over “shatter”—a key theological shift toward Christ’s compassion ([64:48]-[65:27]).
  • Quote: “How does the Psalm 2 king actually rule the nations? ... John is ... as a hyperlink to the image of the Messianic Good shepherd.” — Tim, [66:04]

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6. The Takeaway: Many Layers, One Story

• Psalm 2’s "Network of Meaning": The phrase “You are my Son” is a node—pointing to Jesus’ eternal relationship with the Father, his public mission, his victory over death, and the inclusion of believers in his royal, life-giving identity.
  • These meanings build on each other but are always anchored in the text and its trajectory in the biblical canon ([67:19]-[68:35]).
• Quote: “The many meanings, the many layers of meaning... My point isn’t that Psalm 2 can mean whatever you want it to mean ... each layer is connected to what’s under it.” — Tim, [67:19]

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “One thing God has spoken, two things I have heard.” — Psalm 62:11, discussed [30:42], capturing how divine speech is dense with layers of meaning.
• On Biblical Interpretation: “Whenever they’re quoting from the Scriptures, they’re never just quoting from one. They’re always quoting from a network.” — Tim, [27:02]
• On Identity: “If I really believe that I am a child of God ... anchored in what God has done in partnership with the Eternal Son ... I'm good. ... There are parts of me that have to go, but that’s the calling.” — Tim, [70:28]
• John on finale: “It doesn’t feel like closure. It feels like the beginning of a way to start thinking.” — John, [71:57]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:05-02:33: Episode intro and overview of Psalm 2’s NT relevance
• 03:13-05:05: Metaphor of the Psalms as a mosaic; interconnectedness in scripture
• 09:27-13:19: Jesus’ baptism and its link to Psalm 2:7
• 18:23-22:27: Is “Son” a new title or eternal status? New Testament implications
• 24:58-32:27: The Transfiguration in light of Psalm 2 and Isaiah’s servant
• 35:02-37:43: Trinitarian theology and Psalm 2 as eternal conversation
• 43:05-49:54: Paul in Acts and Romans on resurrection and sonship
• 53:01-58:44: Acts 4—apostles’ persecution, prayer, and sharing in sonship
• 61:26-67:19: Revelation 2—Jesus’ authority as Son now extended to the faithful
• 67:43-71:55: Summary: Many layers of Psalm 2, implications for identity and discipleship

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Conclusion

The episode masterfully demonstrates how a single biblical phrase—"You are my son"—resonates across scripture, culminating in a portrait of Jesus as the eternal, royal son and a vision of believers participating in his identity and mission. The podcast models how to read the Bible hyperlinked, multi-layered, and ultimately as a unified story that leads to—and includes—us.

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Transcript

[A]

Welcome to BibleProject podcast. For the last few weeks, Tim and I have been studying Psalm 1 and Psalm 2. We read each on their own, and then we read them side by side and saw how they spark off each other and connect us to the story of the whole Bible. Today we're going to zoom in on Psalm 2 and look at how Psalm 2 is extensively quoted in the New Testament. Now remember, Psalm 2 is the poem about the anointed kingdom who God calls his Son, who will inherit the whole world, and how rebel kings of the land are called to serve this king. And the first time Psalm 2 is quoted in the New Testament is during Jesus baptism, when the sky rips open and God's voice from heaven says, you are my son.

[B]

He's hearing a phrase from the heavenly voice quoting the first few words of Psalm 2. And Jesus, immediately after this, goes out into the wilderness, passes the test that Israel and humanity failed, and then starts announcing the arrival of God's kingdom. So this voice is saying something of the Son, almost as it were, of like, it's go time. Go, son, go get him.

[A]

Later in the Gospels, right before Jesus heads out to Jerusalem to be killed, he ascends a mountain with three of his disciples. And suddenly his face and clothes begin shining, revealing who he really is. And we hear the voice of the Father from heaven again, declaring, this is my son, whom I love. Listen to him.

[B]

Jesus status as the Son is not happening in this moment. Rather, this moment on the mountain and the baptism then are little flash openings into the true identity of Jesus, going farther back than any of our brains can imagine into the eternal identity of God.

[A]

We'll look at how Paul quotes Psalm 2 to talk about the resurrection of Jesus.

[B]

So what does this mean? That resurrection is linked to the words, you are my son, today I've begotten you.

[A]

And finally, in the Revelation, we'll see how Jesus tells the church in Thyatira that his Psalm 2 royal identity is not for him alone, but that he shares that status of sons with those who are his.

[B]

Jesus is the risen Lord of heaven and earth. He's the Son of God. And what he says here is, if you guys hang in there and actually live like who you are, I will give to you what is true of me.

[A]

Today, Tim Mackey and I will explore how the New Testament quotes Psalm 2 and applies it to Jesus, who then applies it to us. Thanks for joining us. Here we go. Hey, Tim.

[B]

Hello, John Collins.

[A]

We're gonna do one last conversation in this little miniseries on Psalm 1 and 2.

[B]

Yes. Yes, we are.

[A]

So we read Psalm 1 just by itself and enjoyed it.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

We read Psalm 2 by itself. We enjoyed it.

[B]

Had a great time.

[A]

Great time. Psalm 1 and 2. Then we read together as if they were talking to each other, as if they were two sides of one big reflective idea.

[B]

Yeah, that's right.

[A]

And that was like, whoa, just sparking with all these cool new things.

[B]

Yes. I hope it wasn't too repetitive, but it's very helpful for me to remind myself whenever I'm reading at one place in the Bible. Any passage in the Bible has many layers of meaning depending on an expanding, like, circle of context. Every passage is like one little tile, you know, in a larger mosaic or one puzzle piece in a bigger puzzle. And you can just examine that puzzle by itself. In fact, that's really great. That's one thing you can meditate on. But then it's about expanding the circles of context and then reading the little piece you're meditating on in relationship to what comes before and after it, or maybe what's connected to it in terms of literary design or connected to it on other scrolls through hyperlinks. And every one of those layers of meaning is a part of. Of what a biblical text means.

[A]

Okay, so you're saying that the Psalm scroll, for example, is 150 individual poems.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And you could think of each poem as like a tile in a mosaic. A mosaic being.

[B]

Yeah, an image that is really only clear to you when you back away and you see 300 tiles all arranged in a pattern. And when you're zoomed in, you're like, there's some blue ones next to each other, there's some red ones.

[A]

As you back up and get perspective. A new image.

[B]

Yeah. Then you like a picture of a face or something.

[A]

And so as the Psalm scroll was compiled by the scribes and prophets and these psalms were arranged, but also given their final editorial shape.

[B]

Yeah. Literary design shape.

[A]

That it was done with all of the psalm scroll in mind.

[B]

Bigger picture in mind.

[A]

And so that's how a scroll is designed. But then also all these scrolls are connected together. Like the Psalm scroll sits alongside the Torah and the prophets in a really strategic place in the Hebrew Bible. Connected to Joshua being a Torah reader.

[B]

Yeah. We looked at how the ending of Malachi has all these important hyperlinks to Psalm 1 and 2. Yeah.

[A]

Remind me what was happening in Malachi.

[B]

Malachi is about the day of the Lord. That's going to bring a purifying act of justice to sift out the righteous and the wicked and purify creation to make it new. Okay. So, you know, when you're looking at Malachi tying into the vocabulary of Psalm 1 or 2 or Joshua, you don't always know, and I'm not sure it's always important to know which one came first or second. And sometimes you can make case or think about a hypothesis. You know, this came first and is quoting from that passage. But what's just as important is then the effect of now these two different parts of Joshua 1 and Psalm 1 pinging off each other, and the electricity flows both ways. You're supposed to now read the book of Joshua in light of the Psalms and read the Psalms in light of Joshua.

[A]

And so we've backed out a lot to the whole Hebrew Bible. And let's back out one more step and look at how New Testament literature was reflecting on especially Psalm 2.

[B]

Especially Psalm 2. So, yeah, Jesus and the apostles, for them, the Scriptures are ancient.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And they see in them layers of meaning, that if you're only looking at the one little poem by itself, you're kind of like, what? How'd they get that? Hmm. So this will be a principle that we'll see is that whenever Jesus and the apostles are quoting from their scriptures, they're never just connecting to one passage. They're connecting to a network of passages. And they use the language from the passage in the network that has, like, the lowest hanging fruit most often.

[A]

Okay, I think I understand. I mean, I think a lot of people have this experience where they see the New Testament quoting the Old Testament, and you go and look it up,

[B]

you're kind of like, huh?

[A]

Yeah. You're often like, wait, hold on.

[B]

How'd they get that?

[A]

How did.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

The point they're making doesn't seem to be what exactly is there.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

What's going on? And you're saying it's because they're thinking about a whole network of texts.

[B]

Yeah. A whole hyperlinked network of texts. Yeah. Okay.

[A]

And so we got to learn to think like them.

[B]

Yeah. You know, the biblical authors, Jesus and the apostles know the scriptures so well. They're never just wanting to draw our attention to the one thing. They're using words from when they're quoting. They want to draw to our attention a whole network of linked passages. And the way that Psalm 2 gets quoted and used in the New Testament is just an excellent specimen of this technique. And once you get used to it, you're like, oh, I get it. But if you don't know what they're doing or what to look for. It can feel like random. So Psalm 2 just gives us a great example. I thought there's so many cool examples that I just wanted to make a whole episode in this little series on it.

[A]

Great.

[B]

So the way that Psalm 2 fits into the huge mosaic of the whole Christian Bible, old and New Testaments. So let's dive in, pun intended. Because we're going to start with the baptism of Jesus. Okay, let's dive in. So we've looked at the baptism of Jesus a lot of times.

[A]

Yeah, dozens.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. It's always worse. A little more meditation, though. Okay, so Jesus in Mark, Matthew and Luke in the early parts of all three of their presentations of Jesus, have the moment where Jesus goes to the Jordan river to get baptized by John the Immerser. And he goes into the waters. He comes up out of the waters. And we are told in all three Gospels that the heavens opened. Mark actually tells us the heavens open. Word ripped apart. It's like a violent word of ripping. Super interesting. The Spirit comes down in the bird like form of a dove. And then there's a voice from heaven. And the voice says three things, three elements to what the voice says. You are my son, the beloved One. With you I am well pleased. And in that phrase, you are my son is coming. Right, from Psalm 2, verse 7. Okay, so real quick, let's just upload what Psalm 2, verse 7 is. So remember, in the flow of Psalm 2, begin with the nations raging.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

And then they have a little tantrum

[A]

speech, which the tantrum speech is, well,

[B]

the kings are rebelling against Yahweh and his Messiah. And they say, let's tear off their chains and throw off their fetters bonds or whatever.

[A]

Yeah, let's live how we want to live, which is in like, violent open rebellion against God. We want to take power as we want to take power.

[B]

That's right. Yep. That's what kings do. And they stand up to make that little speech. Okay, the next stanza of Psalm 2 in the poem is Yahweh is sitting. Yahweh sits down, meaning he's enthroned up in the skies.

[A]

Yeah, he.

[B]

He's not biting his fingernails. God's not stressed out. He's like, I've already set in motion a plan to deal with those kings, and that is appointing a king on Mount Zion, my holy hill. So that's the opening of the poem, what the kings stand and say and then what? Yahweh sits down and says, okay, so that's part one. Of the poem, part two is then that king just start speaking up and saying, hey, dear reader, let me tell you all a decree that Yahweh made about me.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

He said to me, and now here we are. You are my son. Today I have birthed you. Yeah.

[A]

So there's three speeches.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

The nations, they have their little tantrum speech. Yahweh has his announcement speech of like, I got a plan. And it's a king, the true king. And then the king gets a speech. And the king's speech is where we're going to focus in on. And it's the king saying that his identity is of being God's son.

[B]

Being the son of God birthed by

[A]

God on that day, that enthronement day.

[B]

Yeah. And so the son all of a sudden pipes up, speaking to us, the reader. But then the son is reporting a past conversation that Yahweh had with him. So this is a conversation in the past in terms of the full narrative.

[A]

All right.

[B]

Then after the son finishes his speech, he goes on and he says, God told me to ask for the nations as my inheritance. So that's what I'm going to get. Then Psalm 2 ended with the poet then coming out of the little story and then addressing the kings personally and saying, hey, kings, given this situation, better be wise and humble yourselves and give your allegiance to the king. Yeah, yeah. To the sun.

[A]

Kiss the sun.

[B]

Kiss the sun. Yep. All right. That's Psalm 2.

[A]

That's Psalm 2. So what does it mean that this king is a son?

[B]

Yeah. So one layer of meaning. Just reading Psalm 2 by itself, son of God was a typical royal title in the rhetoric of kings in the ancient Near East. When they're claiming that their role as king is divinely appointed, in fact, their very identity is bound up with unity with the gods. They're the offspring of the gods.

[A]

This would be a typical thing for an ancient king to say, I am the son of God.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. And it was said many times, many times by Egyptian or Mesopotamian kings long before the Israelite people ever existed.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

In ancient egyp long tradition of this. Yeah. So the Israelite kingship emerged in a time period where Son of God was a thing, you could say. So it's at least a title for a king. Is it more than that? Is that all that it is? Or is there more layers of meaning? And that has to do with how Son of God fits in as a theme study through the whole Hebrew Bible, which we don't have time for.

[A]

We don't have time to do that. So. But we are going to talk about this phrase son of God as it relates to Jesus.

[B]

Yeah, we are.

[A]

Give me the punchline.

[B]

Yeah, I mean, essentially humans are presented as sons of God in the early chapters of Genesis. They're called the image of God, but just as a child, an image of their parents. So humans are an image of God, therefore humans are also. You could call them sons of God.

[A]

Yeah. And that's in the New Testament. We are called children of God or sons of God.

[B]

Totally. Exactly. Yeah. So humanity ends up kind of making a mess of their vocation as the image sons of God. And so what God does is choose one family out of the nations people of Israel. He makes a covenant with them and calls them my firstborn son is what God calls the people of Israel in Exodus 4. Then the people don't do a good job of being royal priests and God's covenant partners. So God chooses one family out of the people of Israel and that's the line of David and to the line of David in 2 Samuel 7, which will come into play in some later examples that we'll see. 2 Samuel 7 is where God says, hey, I'm going to raise up your seed after you, David, after you die. And that king will build a house for my name and he'll reign forever and ever. And I will be a father to that one, and he will be my son. So everybody keeps failing humanity, Israel, the line of David fails miserably at being a son of God in terms of being a faithful reflection and representative of God in the world. So this is what leads to the crisis of the Hebrew Bible. Is no Israelite, human or son of David ever fully is what God called any of those sons to be? And so in the prophets you get an anticipation of a future David who's described in ways that makes it hard to tell if this king is Yahweh or a human son of Yahweh. Okay, that's in a nutshell where the Hebrew Bible tees up. Yeah, this moment right here at the baptism.

[A]

So we get to Jesus and Jesus called God's son, and we start wrestling with the identity of Jesus. Is Jesus just a human who now can finally claim this identity of being the image of God the way all humans are meant to be? Or is Jesus something more? Something more. And that's what the New Testament authors

[B]

are trying to communicate. That's right. So that something more is not only indicated by using of Psalm 2. That's something more, say in Mark's Gospel is Jesus is identified with the Lord who is coming on the great day of Yahweh. Interestingly, from the end of Malachi, the end of Malachi gets quoted by Mark. The Lord is coming. Prepare the way of the Lord. He's coming in the wilderness. And then Mark says, and Jesus came.

[A]

What does Yahweh look like when he comes?

[B]

Yeah, yeah. Mark's already made the claim that Jesus is the Yahweh coming on the day of Yahweh in the paragraph right before the baptism. Then he rolls up and Jesus hears this, that you are my son. And on one level, it means a human king who's been appointed by God, who shares the most intimate connection with God. That's what it means in its ancient Near Eastern.

[A]

Yeah. And the king who's going to set the world right.

[B]

King who's going to set the world right. Exactly. However, given that Mark just said, this guy, Jesus is Yahweh, come to us as a human. When we hear these words, you are my son, it's sort of like, whoa. And also, you are my son. What you're supposed to know is the next line, today I've birthed you, and that this is a quote of the Son telling us about a conversation he and his divine Father had a long time ago, like in the past. So when the voice says, you are my son, is this bestowing a brand new identity on Jesus or is this calling to mind something that was like, set long ago in the past?

[A]

So the today. What's the today?

[B]

Oh, right, yes, yeah, exactly. Okay, let's go back to Psalm 2 and just. We're reading Psalm 2, we're backing up in time. So birthing. If I'm saying to you today, I'm giving birth to you, we're working in the language of metaphor, clearly. So divine birthing of a royal sun on one level is ancient and Near Eastern style rhetoric to talk about a king's enthronement or appointment. Okay, so a basic level of meaning. Psalm 2 could be imagined as a king from the line of David telling us about the day that Yahweh appointed him as the king of Israel. That's a basic level of meaning. However, when I get to Psalm 2 in the Hebrew Bible, I already have all this expectation of like. But no king from the line of David ever did that. Right. And the psalm scroll was put together after the exile and after the miserable failure of the kings from the line of David. Yeah, so what king is this about? Yeah, because this psalm and this promise of God, of a coming king still needs to be fulfilled because God won't go back on his word. So that's the expanded meaning of Psalm 2 that's being drawn on here by the Gospel authors. And what does it mean for then, Jesus to hear these words?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So what he's hearing are words that presumably he himself uttered in the past through David the prophet. Right.

[A]

Wait, what?

[B]

Okay, so let's zoom into Jesus at the baptism.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

He's hearing a phrase from the heavenly voice quoting the first few words of Psalm 2. It's like quoting the first few lines of a melody. You gotta finish it out. You are my son. Oh, yeah. Today I've begotten you.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Those words aren't quoted from the heavenly voice, but it's the next words of Psalm 2. So what does it mean for Jesus to hear these words uttered from the Father in heaven? Like, what would it mean for him to hear, you are my son, Today I've birthed you? Yeah. This could be an announcement of something happening in the present. Right. That's bestowing upon Jesus something that hasn't been before. Right. That's a possible reading. But I just heard a quotation right before the story that said Jesus is Yahweh coming on the day of the Lord as a human that identified him. So already I'm kind of like, all right, well, there's a lot more to this guy. So what Mark's doing is presenting in classic Jewish meditation, literature style, a puzzle in front of us that you have to read, keep reading through the Gospel to discern the ultimate identity of the Son. But it could be that Jesus is getting appointed as the Son in this moment. So that Psalm 2 becomes sort of like a predictive prophecy. One day there'll come a king. Yeah. Of which God will say this.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And now here's what's happening.

[A]

But that doesn't seem to be the way the rest of the New Testament authors think about the identity of Jesus. If you look at the prologue of John's Gospel, for example, you see them going, this Son existed before this moment and is united with God in a way that is just fundamentally different. In fact, this Jesus is what then trinitarian theologians will later try to tease out as being God, but distinct from God.

[B]

Yeah, Being. Yep. As the eternal Son. So let's go forward then, to the next story in Matthew, Mark and Luke that you saw him too. That really is sort of like the answering or closing the loop that was left open in the baptism. And that is the mountain of Jesus's transfiguration. Okay, so we're looking at Mark, chapter nine, Matthew 17, or Luke, chapter nine is where the story is found. And Jesus is up on a high mountain. He's with James, Peter and John. Famously, Moses and Elijah appear next to him, and Jesus starts glowing. His face is glowing, his clothes are glowing. Mark even adds a little detail that his clothes. Clothes are more white than any laundry person could ever wash instead of clothes. Anyway, it's pretty cool. And the cloud forms and the voice says, this is my son, the Beloved one. And then, depends on which gospel you're reading, there's three different versions of what the voice says. So in Mark's version, it's, this is my son, the Beloved One. Listen to him. In Matthew, it's, this is my son, the Beloved One, with whom I'm well pleased. That's from the baptism. Listen to him. Luke has, this is my son, my chosen one. Listen to him. This is so great, man. I love this. Love the Bible.

[A]

Yeah. You delight in this. I think a lot of people come to this and go, okay, what was actually said from the heavens?

[B]

Oh, sure, yeah.

[A]

This is confusing. Like, this didn't happen three different times.

[B]

Oh, right, right, yeah.

[A]

And one thing was actually said. So why are we getting three versions?

[B]

Yeah, three takes. And you're like, yeah, that's even better. It's like multi stereo.

[A]

Explain.

[B]

Well, listen, the gospel author's value doesn't seem to be giving us video camera footage, security footage. They want to relay an event to us and weave into the story through little tweaks, the meaning and import of the story. And that's what these little differences represent.

[A]

This is important. I think this is super important because to change a word of what God said from the heavens to Jesus, let's say it was, this is my son, the beloved. And Luke goes, yeah, I'm gonna change that.

[B]

Yeah, that's what. Yeah, but he's changing it by change

[A]

to the chosen one.

[B]

Yeah, change the Beloved one to the chosen one.

[A]

But that's not what God said.

[B]

But it is what God said. It's what God said to the servant in the book of Isaiah.

[A]

Okay?

[B]

So the phrase, you are my loved one, I love you, and I have chosen you, you are my chosen one, is all a repeated kind of switching titles back and forth for the servant of God in Isaiah 40:55.

[A]

So what's more important to Luke than what were the exact sounds that were heard out of the heavens that day?

[B]

Right.

[A]

Was what?

[B]

What's the meaning?

[A]

What's the Meaning. And part of that meaning is connecting Jesus to the servant in Isaiah, the figure of the servant that Jesus was hearing from the Father, that he is the Son. And that's connected to all of these ideas in the Hebrew Bible.

[B]

Yeah, it's what I was saying earlier. Whenever they're quoting from the Scriptures, they're never just quoting from one. They're always quoting from a network. And here, the same voice out of God's mouth can get hyperlinked to a different network of texts based on which gospel author you're reading. So they're all things that God said about the servant. Matthew's version keeps the phrase spoken at the baptism, with whom I'm well pleased. That's also what God says to the servant in Isaiah 42. So both Luke and Matthew are linking the son of Psalm 2 to the servant of Isaiah, but by networking it to different phrases. Isn't that interesting?

[A]

Yeah. So there was something about that moment. Jesus went up on a mountain. The disciples experienced something.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Jesus transformed. There was this kind of prophetic, wild experience.

[B]

Experience that the disciples had. And Moses and Elijah are there talking to a Jesus that looks like he's on fire.

[A]

Yeah. And as they went away from that, and they needed to explain to people, like, what happened. They are like, well, we heard a voice from heaven.

[B]

Yeah. And they want to make sure that the voice from heaven is connected to what the voice said at the baptism. That's very clear. That they want to put those two moments together. And then Luke and Matthew, you know, introduced little tweaks to make sure that we don't miss that the son of Psalm 2 is who Jesus is, and that all of those are the same figure as the suffering, exalted servant of that section of Isaiah. The precise wording is less important to them than the meaning of what the voice said. That's the speed bump.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You want to back up the car and roll over the speed bump more slowly. You want to feel every. But that's good, John. That's good. Yeah.

[A]

I'm not the only one who's feeling

[B]

this, too, because this used to bother me too.

[A]

Yeah. A voice from heaven. God's voice from heaven announced something that day. We don't actually have word for word exactly what was announced. What we have is a number of the disciples reflecting back and thinking about not exactly what was said, but the meaning of what was said.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And to do that, they start quoting from Scripture, which may or may not have been the scripture God was quoting from heaven.

[B]

Well, I mean, what are we A voice from heaven.

[A]

Right. Did they hear a voice from heaven?

[B]

Oh, I think so. Okay, definitely.

[A]

All right.

[B]

Yeah. But what I'm saying is any encounter

[A]

could have recorded it.

[B]

The being who is the eternal, infinite source of all reality. Any encounter I have with that being is going to be a moment that's saturated with just, like, so much meaning. I'm going to be pondering and thinking about it and getting new insights out of it for the rest of my life. There's a wonderful moment in Psalm 62 that I think captures this in two poetic lines. And I've showed you this before over the years. Psalm 62, 11. One thing God has spoken. Two things I have heard.

[A]

Yeah, that's super fascinating that the voice of God could be so dense.

[B]

Rich. Yeah, maybe rich. Think of like a rich meal. Yeah, really complex. Rich.

[A]

All the notes.

[B]

Dinner, dish or cup of coffee. Some fancy cup of coffee.

[A]

What are you hearing? You could actually be hearing two things at once.

[B]

It's wild to think about, but this is basic to how the biblical authors think about divine speech, is that the precise wording is important, but it's less important than the meaning and the ideas that the words are meant to convey. And in a hyperlinked collection of scriptural texts where we hear God's voice, you can hear God's voice and have your mind go to different texts within the collection. Yeah, but you're still hearing God's voice.

[A]

When they encountered God's voice, they were hearing Isaiah and they were hearing Psalm 1, and they were hearing all these things, and it was all kind of mixed together. When you actually have to write down what was the voice, you're like, oh, well, okay, I guess I was hearing this, and I was hearing this, and

[B]

I was hearing this. This is the king from the lion of David. This is the suffering, exalted servant of Isaiah. Listen to him. Comes right from Deuteronomy. Quote, like copy and paste. Deuteronomy 18:15, where Moses says, listen, when I die, God is going to raise up a prophet like me from among you.

[A]

Listen to him.

[B]

When God does that, listen to. So Jesus is being identified as the son of David, the servant of Isaiah, and as the new Moses predicted by Moses.

[A]

The voice of God is saying all these things at once. At once. Somehow the disciples are experiencing that.

[B]

Yeah, okay. One thing God has spoken. Many things have we heard. Okay. So the key thing is this closes the loop on that open question from the baptism. Okay, so is Jesus being appointed as the Son at the moment of his baptism, meaning he didn't have that identity before. Yeah. And this line comes along right. Of this Repeat of Psalm 2 changes it from you are my son to this is my son. All three gospels have this is my son. And Jesus is not being like adopted or appointed here, right?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

He's standing in the middle of Moses and Elijah as the one on fire. I mean, that itself is a narrative claim too.

[A]

Yeah. I love how you brought this up a couple times for me. And each time I feel like I come to it, it's a fresh awe, which is this is Jesus being depicted as the radiance of Yahweh on the

[B]

mountain, the one that Moses met and Elijah.

[A]

When Moses went up on the mountain and somehow experienced God's glory, what did he see? And this is the story of what he saw.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

It's so wild.

[B]

Yeah, it is so wild. You could. Yeah. Even get more. Because what he had Moses asked for was let me see your face. And God said, my back will do, otherwise you'll fry. But then here's Moses seeing the face of the Lord in the person of Jesus and it's Jesus. Yeah. So I mean, are we meant to think that this is the moment? Is this like some time bending portal moment where Moses is getting the answer to that request? But either way, it's clear Jesus is in a slot of Yahweh. So there's the invisible Yahweh high and above that can never be seen. No man can see me and live. That's what God said to Moses. But then there's a visible form of Yahweh and that visible Yahweh became human in the person of Jesus. And Jesus status as the Son is not happening in this moment. It's not being bestowed on him.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Rather, this moment on the mountain and the baptism then are little flash openings into the true identity of Jesus going farther back than any of our brains can imagine. Like into the eternal identity of God. Yeah, the eternal Son.

[A]

The eternal Son.

[B]

I was hugely helped by the work of a scholar of New Testament Second Temple Judaism. Matthew Bates has an excellent book on. This is called the Birth of the Trinity. It's about how much of trinitarian theology was birthed in Jesus and the apostles making claims about who Jesus is using the language of scriptural texts, like what we're doing. And here's what he notices in the patterns of the use of Psalm 2 in the New Testament. And this will go for the other passages we're going to look at. He says for the earliest Christians, Psalm 2:7 was consistently regarded not merely as direct speech made from the Father to the Son. Yes, that. But as a speech that was originally spoken by the Son. Remember, because Psalm 2 says, hey, dear reader, let me tell you a decree that Yahweh made about me. He said, quote. So back to Matthew Bates. So this is a speech originally spoken by the Son, but reporting words the Father spoke to him at an earlier time. They believed as Jesus and the apostles, that David, under the inspiring influence of the Spirit, that David was capable of taking on a different Persona when speaking as a prophet. So that the words are not David's alone, rather they are the words of the pre existent Messiah, reporting an earlier conversation between himself and. And his Father. Yeah, that's what Jesus and the apostles saw when they read Psalm 2.

[A]

You're saying there's this identity of the Father, Son that goes into the eternal past.

[B]

Just is.

[A]

That just is.

[B]

Yeah, it was and is and is to come.

[A]

And when the Father and the Son communicate to each other, the phrase that just saturates it is, you are my son.

[B]

Today I have birthed.

[A]

Today I have birthed you. And it's this kind of intimate, like communal way of them, of the Father, Son connecting.

[B]

Yeah. It's using a metaphor of human experience of a parent having birthed a child. But actually look at this. The Father saying this of the Son is actually cast in also a maternal role of birthing. Right?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So kind of breaks our biological sex categories anyway.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

And that this birthing is a metaphor of human experience to invite us into the infinite mystery of the Christian claim about God revealed in Jesus in these moments. Right here. That God, for a Christian, refers to a communion of eternal love between the one God, having more than one within that one God. And there you go. Okay, I'm not going to try and improve on the metaphorical language of Father, Son and birthing, because what I was

[A]

going to reflect on is when Jesus hears this at the baptism or hears this at the mountain of Transfiguration, these are very familiar words that have been spoken between him and the Father.

[B]

Yeah, I mean, when you use the past tense, that words that have been spoken, that's us looking back in time. But it's also true today. I've birthed you. Always is, always is happening, the eternal present. The Son is always today coming from the Father as it were being birthed. And it will always be the case. Yeah. This is the moment in each of these three gospels, back to the baptism, where Jesus, immediately after this goes out into the wilderness, passes the test that Israel and humanity failed, and then starts announcing the arrival of God's kingdom. So this voice is saying something of the Son, almost as it were, of like, it's go time. Yeah, here's who you are.

[A]

But, yeah, let's rally around this.

[B]

Always will be this. Yeah, now it's time. Go, son. Go get him. And then the mountain of transfiguration is the pivot point in Matthew, Mark, and Luke of when Jesus sets his face to go to Jerusalem. So both are, as it were, commissioning moments, but they are commissioning the Son, who's always been the Son, to go do the next thing. And that's the role that Psalm 2 plays. Isn't that fascinating? Yeah, yeah.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

One thing. God has said many things I have heard. Okay, let's do another one. We're shifting totally from the Gospels to Acts. So I'm going to jump into acts, chapter 13, like middle of the book of Acts. All right, so the apostles and the Jerusalem community has been scattered out of Jerusalem after Stephen got executed. Paul has been confronted by Jesus on the road to Damascus. So by Acts 13, he's in full missionary mode, cruising around with Barnabas. In fact, that's where we jump in, is Paul and a bunch of his companions go to a town called Pisidian Antioch. And this is Acts 13:13, we're told on the day of Sabbath, they went to a synagogue and they sat down and there was a reading of the Torah and prophets. And the synagogue officials said, oh, hey, new guys, brothers, do you have any, you know, challenge or encouragement to offer the people? Go ahead, have a speech. Isn't that real risky? Open mic. Yeah.

[A]

Open mic moment.

[B]

Yeah. So Paul stood up and motioning with his hand, he said, men of Israel, and those of you who fear God, probably talking about non Israelites who were there, who were there, listen up. And he does this amazing speech that retells the whole story of Israel from the calling of Abraham forward. So cool. Then leading up to God's calling on David. And then he retells the story of Jesus arriving, doing mighty deeds as a prophet. And then Acts 13:28, he said, even though they, the leaders of Jerusalem, found no grounds for putting him to death, they asked Pilate that he be executed. So I'm fast forwarding us to the death. And when they carried out, all that was written about him, meaning when they

[A]

killed him, but all of this was written about him.

[B]

Yeah. Acts presents the death of Jesus not as a surprise, but as part, paradoxically, of the divine plan. They took him down from the Cross and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him up from the dead, Paul says, and for many days he appeared to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. These are the very ones that are now witnesses to all the people. We're announcing to you the good news of the promise made to our ancestors. God's fulfilled the promise to our children when he raised up Jesus. Like it's written in the second psalm, it numbers it. You are my son, today I've begotten you.

[A]

So now as he's reflecting on the resurrection of Jesus, he's hearing Psalm 2 being spoken of. You are my son.

[B]

That's interesting.

[A]

You said it's a go time, like saying. Yeah, in the baptism.

[B]

In the baptism, you're gonna go in

[A]

the wilderness and pass the test.

[B]

And that presumes that it is an eternal statement of the Father to the Son from eternity, past, present, the eternal now. And that it's a go time announcement. Okay, so now we have kind of two moments.

[A]

It's the perpetual, eternal, like, way the Father, son, experience each other. It's the go time announcement and the baptism and in the mount of transfiguration. And then it's also this kind of victorious moment in the resurrection of death will not even separate us. You are my son.

[B]

Yeah. Okay, so what does this mean? That resurrection is linked to the words. And he quotes, you are my son, today I've begotten you. So is he metaphorically applying the birthing, today I've birthed you to the resurrection in the sense of it's birthed a new life, right? Yeah, because birth is about life. That's one possibility. It's also possible that he's got multiple texts on the brain. There's multiple hyperlinks here. Because it's very interesting that in one of the biblical passages most often connected to Psalm 2, and I've already alluded to it, is God's promise to David about a future king. That would come from his line in 2 Samuel 7. And here it is again, 2 Samuel 7:12, God says to David, when your days are complete, when you die and you lay down with your fathers, I will raise up your seed after you, the one who comes forth from you. I'll establish his kingdom. He'll build a house for my name. I'll establish his kingdom forever. I'll be a father to him, he'll be a son to me. So the language of father, son, relationship, and raising up seed is connected to an eternal kingdom. Yeah, an eternal kingdom. Yeah. What kind of king could be called the Son of God who's going to reign forever.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And just this phrase, I'll raise up seed after you, which on its first layer of meaning, I think it's just referring to there'll be a king born to be born after you and come into your royal power, is metaphorically like taking somebody from low and raising them up high. It's like a spatial metaphor for there's going to be a descendant of yours who's born, who becomes an adult. Right. Who restores your royal reputation and power and kingdom and rules. That's what raise up means on one level. Right. But it seems like Paul is connecting that raising up language with resurrection, with Jesus, like walking out of the tomb alive after being executed. He's linking resurrection and the language.

[A]

So you think he has Second Samuel in the brain too?

[B]

I think he has both passages on the brain. And why do I think that?

[A]

Yeah, why do you think that?

[B]

Paul gives us a little window into his basic way of summarizing the good news and the identity of Jesus. He's appended it in a little poem that he uses to open the letter to the Roman churches. And he talks about in Romans, chapter one, verse two. He says, listen, I'm an apostle. I've been set apart for the good news of God. Just like Acts 13, we have good news to tell you. That good news has been promised beforehand through the prophets in the Holy Scriptures. That's what was happening in that synagogue in Acts, like they read the Torah and prophets and Paul says, I got news for you. And in Romans, Paul says that good news promise was about his Son who was born from the seed of David. The language is right out of two Samuel seven. So he was born from the seed of David according to the flesh, like

[A]

his human nature, right?

[B]

Yeah, his human lineage, who was marked out as or appointed as the Son of God with power from his raising up from the dead according to. Or you could probably means by means of the Spirit of holiness, the Holy Spirit, that is Jesus, Messiah, our Lord. Now, it's a dense little poetic set of lines.

[A]

Okay, but the Son was born a seed of David according to the flesh.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

And he was declared the Son of God through resurrection.

[B]

Through resurrection. By the power of the Spirit. By the power of the Spirit according to the Spirit. So according to the flesh, he's a human. And that human body came from the seed of David. He's also like a divine Son of God, and that was made public by the raising up of the dead according to the Scriptures. He's using the ideas of Psalm 2 and connecting Jesus, Psalm 2 status with his raising up from the dead. So does that mean that Jesus wasn't that before?

[A]

Oh, right.

[B]

So we're back to that question in Mark in the baptism. And you can go out many places in Paul's writings and he doesn't think that Jesus became the Son of God at a certain moment in time. But there was a moment when the promise made to the lion of David got joined together and was fulfilled by the eternal Son of God. It's sort of like there was a job description for a king from the line of David.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Waiting to be fulfilled. And the Hebrew Bible was trying to paint that picture in many ways. And the Gospel authors, Jesus are telling us that the one who is the eternal Son of God. So Psalm 2 can describe that eternal son ness became a human to fulfill the open ended, unresolved, unfulfilled task of a son of David, Son of God. And that Psalm 2 can also be applied to that. And that the resurrection was a moment that brought that to pass.

[A]

Brought what to pass?

[B]

It was the moment where the eternal Son fulfilled the job description of the human Son of David role, fulfilled the job description by overcoming death in the resurrection.

[A]

That's interesting because the idea of being an image of God, Son of God.

[B]

Right, right.

[A]

Is immediately in the story of Adam and Eve of hey, eat of the tree of life.

[B]

Right? Yeah.

[A]

And you get this picture of life that doesn't end when you eat of God's life. And so death is this tragedy that humans experience that is keeping us from our true identity as God's sons.

[B]

Yeah. It keeps us from fulfilling and yeah, living fully into our identity as the children of God.

[A]

So if you're going to die, then you're really not able to be the Son of God or the image of God.

[B]

You're not. Yeah. Death is for the biblical authors and in our life experience is the unavoidable end of all the meaning and hope that built up over the course of our lives. What else is it except the great just catastrophe. Right. That unravels all the meaning we've been building in our lives. So God's commitment to the human family as his children, to rescue them from death is a job that could only be fulfilled by somebody who could overcome it. But it's got to be a human. So the language of Psalm 2 hyperlinked to 2 Samuel 7 become Paul's way of using the Son of God language to refer not only to his eternal identity, but also to him fulfilling the job role that humanity needs for someone to conquer death on their behalf. And he gets there by linking the language of Psalm 2 with 2 Samuel 7 to describe the resurrection of Jesus. Okay, all right.

[A]

So Psalm 2 for the gospel authors and for Paul is a way to reflect on a number of things. It's Jesus's like, eternal identity. The always. Is the always happening connection of the Father and Son, which is a way to reflect on the identity of God.

[B]

Yeah, Whoa, okay, whoa. Next level.

[A]

It's also used to describe these moments of go time when the eternal Son becomes flesh and then has to go and pass the test in the wilderness or go to Jerusalem to get killed. It's like the go time phrase.

[B]

And.

[A]

And then it's also this moment of victory when Jesus defeats death and says to be the Son of God means connected to God's life forever. Death can't stop this. And that's the moment of the resurrection. I am the Son.

[B]

Yeah, okay. Yep. Then when Jesus invites his followers to trust him and then see that who they are is sons and daughters of God in him, so that what's true of him is true of me and my identity. What you find are uses of Psalm 2, where the apostles will then use Psalm 2 to describe disciples of Jesus and their experience of the world. This is so interesting. So back to the book of Acts earlier. Peter and John get arrested in the temple courts for sharing the good news about Jesus. They get put in prison by the temple leaders. They get released from prison after a warning. And in Acts, chapter 4, verse 23, Peter and John, released from prison, go back to their companions. They told them everything the chief priests and elders said. And when they all heard this, they lifted up their voices to God and they pray. And here's their prayer. O Lord, it is you who made the sky and the land and the sea and everything in them. Little seven day creation. Note right there. And by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our Father David, your servant said so. Lord, you said something. By the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our Father David, your servant. And then what follows is a quotation of the opening lines of Psalm 2. Why do the nations rage? Why do the peoples devise futile things? The kings of the earth take their stand. Rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Messiah. So that's the opening of their prayer. Then look at how they make sense of both Psalm 2 and what just happened in the last day. They say in their prayer. Truly, in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate along with the nations and the peoples of Israel.

[A]

Oh, interesting. So they're looking at Psalm 2 and the nations that are raging. They're like, yeah, Herod and Pontius Pilate was the nations raging.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And when peoples are devising futile things. Yeah. That's the people of Israel handing Jesus over.

[B]

It's the temple leaders. Wow.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

So in Psalm 2, you remember you were feeling this in Psalm 2. It creates a very us and them, we're the Israelites with our king. And too bad if you're the nations, you're gonna get stumped.

[A]

You're gonna get crushed.

[B]

And they actually include the leaders of Israel within the peoples who were raging at the opening of Psalm 2. Isn't that fascinating? So verse 29 of Acts 4. Now, Lord, take note of their threats. Grant that your servants can speak your word with confidence, extend your hand to heal so that signs and wonders take place through the name of your holy servant Jesus. And when they prayed, the place where they gathered together was shaken. It's like a little Pentecost moment because the whole house, you know, was shaking in the wind. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak God's word boldly.

[A]

So they've just suffered the way Jesus had suffered.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And they reflect on Jesus suffering as the nation's raging, and they're identifying with that. They just experienced that kind of raging, too.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And having to go to prison.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And then afterwards, what they experience is the power of God descending on them and, like, shaking the ground. And all of a sudden, they have this boldness. Oh, okay. So in Psalm 2, it's like the nations are raging, but God's like, I got a king. And this king, he's the true source of power. And, like, the cosmos will bend to the will of the Son. That's kind of the, like, the thrust of Psalm 2.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah.

[A]

And this is the apostles, like, identifying with that power. Like, we're experiencing the raging of the nations, but now we're experiencing the, like, boldness of the king's power.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, that's right. Who's enthroned? Yeah. So the leaders gathered against your holy servant Jesus, Singular.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Now, Acts 4. 29. Grant that your servants, that's us. May speak your word with confidence.

[A]

Give us the identity of the king.

[B]

Yeah. So there now a new group of leaders and people and kings and nations are against us, just like they were against your servant. So now we're your servants. I mean, that's a request to live into their royal identity as the sons of God. It doesn't quote the you are my son part, but that's the assumed. Oh, interesting interpretation. Is that what's true of the Messiah is now true of us.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So he suffered resistance and hostility as your servant. Now we are suffering as servants. And the servant Jesus is the son of God. The servants of Jesus are kind of like, follow the logic. Sons of God.

[A]

Yeah. Or another way, Paul will reflect on this. Is being part of the body of Jesus or united with Jesus, or my life is now in Jesus.

[B]

There you go.

[A]

So I can actually say I am the son of Psalm 2?

[B]

Totally.

[A]

Because I'm united with Jesus.

[B]

Yes. Okay. So this same idea, this expanding of who is the son of Psalm 2, then gets expanded to be the sons and daughters of God who are in the Messiah, as it were. This is where we'll end from the last book of the Christian Bible, from the Revelation, Sam. So Jesus has seven speeches to seven churches at the beginning of the Revelation and to the church in Thyatira. This is Revelation 2, verse 18. Jesus says, this is what the Son of God says. The one with eyes like fiery flame and his feet like blazing bronze.

[A]

So this is referring to Jesus.

[B]

Referring to Jesus. Okay. Yep.

[A]

Jesus is calling him the Son of God.

[B]

He's referring to himself in third person.

[A]

Okay. Jesus is saying, I'm the Son of God. Here's what I have to say.

[B]

Here's what I have to say. And I look like, you know, the Son of man and the ancient of Days of Daniel, chapter seven.

[A]

This is the fiery.

[B]

That's the eyes that fought on fire and felt like bronze. That's a hyperlink there. So he has a whole thing of what he says at the end. What he says is, hey, hold on strong until I come. So he's telling them, be faithful. This is down in verse 25. And to the one who is victorious and who keeps doing my work until the very end, I will give that one authority over the nations. And he will shepherd the nations with an iron rod as the clay vessels are broken. And just like I have received that from my Father. And I will give them the morning star. Oh, the one who has an ear. Let them hear what the Spirit says. Okay. Wow.

[A]

Okay. There's a lot going on. But these are people who are being

[B]

persecuted, being persecuted and pulled into worshiping other gods at local, like, shrines and then connected to all the partying and sex that happens at those temples.

[A]

And so it's this Call to.

[B]

Don't do that stuff.

[A]

Don't do that stuff.

[B]

Be faithful to me.

[A]

Okay?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And here's the promise. The promise is that my authority as the Son, the authority that we read in Psalm 2, I'm going to give

[B]

to you authority over the nations. Shepherding with an iron rod, broken clay vessels is a quotation from right after the. You were my son, today I've begotten you.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It's from Psalm 2. 9, right? Yeah.

[A]

You're going to have authority over the whole world. This is the Psalm 2. King given authority over all the world. And then specifically said, we'll have a rod of iron to break the nations. Shatter the nations.

[B]

Okay. This is so cool. Okay, first of all, let's just notice. We'll talk about the breaking shattering in a moment. Okay. But let's just notice. Jesus says, I received this authority from my Father.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So he's talking about his eternal identity as the Son, his go time from the baptism, his go time from the mountain of transfiguration, his taking up the role of this human Son of God, king from the line of David, merging, that was eternal identity. So all of that, Jesus is the risen Lord of heaven and earth. He's the Son of God. So that's what I have received from my Father, Jesus says. And what he says here is, if you guys hang in there and actually live like who you are, I will

[A]

give to you that identity.

[B]

What is true of me. Yeah, yeah.

[A]

And then he quotes of Psalm 2, which is a very specific like of the king being able to rule the nations.

[B]

Totally. And in Psalm 2, verse 9 in Hebrew says, you will verb raah with an iron rod. And it can activate a Hebrew root to, like, break into pieces.

[A]

Yeah, that's what Psalm 2 says. You will shatter.

[B]

Shatter them with a rod of iron. All right. However, this is so cool. So those same Hebrew letters, raah, are connected to what is a separate Hebrew root, Ra, that means to shepherd or to, like, guide a group of domestic animals out into a field and give them food. So we have the same Hebrew letters that actually have two different roots. These are called homonyms. Every language has homonyms. So John sees an opportunity here to highlight that the Jesus of Nazareth twist on shattering his enemies.

[A]

How does Jesus rule? How does he shatter the nations?

[B]

Yeah. So he activates the other meaning of this Hebrew root in light of a whole shepherd theme of the Messiah in Ezekiel and in Jeremiah. So he's hyperlinking too. It's not just.

[A]

Not just wordplay.

[B]

No, he's actually hyperlinking to the shepherd messiah motif of another section of the prophet. But he does it by tweaking the Greek translation of the quotation of Psalm 2.

[A]

Yeah. If you were to strictly quote Psalm 2, it would be. And he will shatter them with an iron rod. And he says he will shepherd them with an iron rod.

[B]

That's right. Yeah. And most English translations here don't do shepherd. They end up with, like, rule. Oh, rule them.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Which metaphorically, you know, a shepherd is ruling sheep.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

But it actually is the word for, like, be a shepherd. Guide for animals.

[A]

Yeah. Because when we read Psalm 2 together, I was reflecting on. This is intense.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Right. Like, this isn't the nature of God, as I experience in Jesus, of, like, just the, like, mocking and the.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Angry, Angry, quick temper and just. I've got this rod. I'm just going to go out and just break things.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You see Jesus acting with compassion and love.

[B]

Yeah, totally.

[A]

And bringing people in and restoring people.

[B]

Yeah. Calling himself the good Shepherd.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And feeding hungry people in the world.

[A]

So how does the Psalm 2 king actually rule the nations?

[B]

Yeah. Yes. So this is similar to the mountain of transfiguration, the way Luke switched the phrase the beloved Son to the chosen one as a link to all these passages in Isaiah about the suffering servant. This is very similar. So John is making a little tweak to the quotation of Psalm 2, but as a hyperlink to the image of the Messianic Good shepherd of Jeremiah 23 and Ezekiel 34, and that Jesus himself called himself. So it's never one passage, it's always more. And it's not just cool, like, nerd artistry. They're doing theology when they're hyperlinking and making these little tweaks. And what is theology? It's like, who is God? Who am I? What's wrong with us in the world? Is there any solution? And if so, what is the solution? And how is God bringing it about? You know, like, those are the questions that the biblical authors get at. And they get at it by means of these interpretive moves. The many meanings of Psalm 2, John. That's cool.

[A]

The many meanings, the many layers.

[B]

Many layers of meaning, actually. Yeah. Thank you. My point isn't that Psalm 2 can mean whatever you want it to mean. Sure. There's, like, layers of meaning. There's a basic meaning, and each layer on top of it is connected Right. To what's under it. But it is also developing it as the story unfolds a little more.

[A]

So we went through this whole journey. Psalm 1 on its own, Psalm 2 on its own. Psalm 1, two together. And now we're looking at Psalm 2 quoted in the New Testament. And each time new meaning unfolds. Psalm 1 by itself is kind of to the common man, the everyday guy saying, like, you want success in life, you want the good life? Meditate on the instruction of God, the Torah of God, and you will be this like tree full of life. And that's this reflection on the calling of humanity, of being the sons of God, the image of God. Like we want to reflect God's character and know good from bad. How do we do that? We need God's voice, his wisdom in our lives that's connecting us to the story of who humans are meant to be.

[B]

Yeah. Because there's coming a moment of decision, of justice. Oh, right. And a sorting out where destructive ways of being human won't be allowed to vandalize the thing that God has in store in the future.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

That stuff's gotta get left behind. Yeah, yeah. Wow.

[A]

So you keep at it. Don't give up on this path.

[B]

Yeah, that's right.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Psalm 2 is talking about these violent warrior kings. It's establishing God's anointed king. And it's also the same kind of reflection of there is a path of trying to rule the world that's just going to lead to destruction, not just of yourself, but of like others that you're subjugating.

[B]

Yeah. And on a large scale level. Kings and nations. Yeah.

[A]

And God is not going to put up with it. And then in Psalm 2 is this phrase that then the New Testament authors just keep like mining for meaning, which is this conversation that God had with

[B]

the within, God's own Son, with the Eternal Son.

[A]

You are my son. We're doing it.

[B]

This is, this is what it means.

[A]

This is who you are. And this is what it means that you are loved.

[B]

You are the one through whom I'm going to bring my authority over creation, over the nations. Yeah. Yeah.

[A]

So how am I to then delight in God's wisdom in his Torah Psalm 1, and also kiss the Son and identify with the son of Psalm 2. And it all comes to embracing the identity of Jesus, making my identity the identity of Jesus.

[B]

Yeah. If I really believe that I am a child of God, that my identity and my future is entirely determined by a move that God already made in partnership with the Eternal Son, like he's got me. I'm good. Good. Life is going to throw all kinds of stuff at me, but that doesn't call into question who I am and what God has in store. And that identity is being a son or a daughter of God who's destined to have a role in creation full of responsibility and meaning and purpose and contribute to the larger community of good in the world. And there are parts of me and my life and there's a part of my community or my nation and the way we exist in the world that, like, it's gotta go, that is not gonna contribute to eternal goodness. So that stuff's gonna have to get left behind. And that's the calling, I think, of Psalm 1 and 2. It's about the eternal Son of God. It's about Jesus, Messiah. It's about his life, death, and resurrection and announcement of the kingdom of God. And it's about you and me as his followers. It's about everything. One thing God has spoken, many things I've heard. Mm. Whoa.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Psalm 1 and 2.

[A]

Psalm 1 and 2. Yeah. It doesn't feel like closure. It feels like the beginning of a way to start thinking.

[B]

Oh, right. Because it's just the first two poems of the psalm scroll.

[A]

Right.

[B]

There's 148 more, and they are all interconnected like this in little bundles and hyperlinked to each other and then to the Torah and prophets and then the New Testament. We should talk about some more.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

In days to come, one day, more psalms. Yeah.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Yeah, let's do that. Deal.

[A]

Thanks for listening to bibleproject podcast. And that's it for this short series on Psalm 1 and Psalm 2. We'll be back to do more psalms in the future. Next week, we're going to start a new series on the Ten Commandments. Now, I have to admit that when Tim told me that we should study the Ten Commandments, I thought, that actually sounds a little boring. How interesting can this really be? But during those conversations, my mind was truly expanded and I was challenged in so many ways. It was so fun, and I'm excited to share it with you. And that begins next week. Bibleproject is a crowdfunded nonprofit, and we exist to help people experience the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus. Everything that we create is free because of the generous support of thousands of people just like you. Thank you so much for being a part of this with us.

[B]

Hi. We're a young adult group from Summerland Baptist Church in bc, Canada. We first heard about the Bible Project as a youth. Our church uses the Bible Project from as young as our children's ministry all the way up to our regular Sunday services.

[A]

Our favorite thing about the Bible Project is the easy to understand yet sophisticated messages and the intriguing animations.

[B]

We believe the Bible is a unified story that leads to Jesus. Bibleproject is a nonprofit funded by people like me. Find free videos, articles, podcasts, classes, and more on the Bibleproject app [e-mail] hey

[C]

everyone, this is John Horton. I'm an engineering manager with our platform team at bibleproject, which is just a fancy way of saying that my team makes sure sure all of the right information is available to the websites and apps that we make available for free. I've been working at bibleproject for three years and my favorite part about my work is that we get to participate in this incredible movement that is bringing the Bible to life for people in new and engaging ways. And I'm so grateful that I get to be a part of it. There's a whole team of people that bring the podcast to life every week. For a full list of everyone who's involved, check out the showcase credits in the episode description. Wherever you stream the podcast, as well as on our website.