Psalm 2:7
“I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.” Psalm 2:7 KJV
In verses 1-3 we see the kings and peoples of earth opposing with fierce hostility the setting up of Christ’s kingdom. In verses 4-6 we see Jehovah’s response to their opposition. He laughs at their schemes and is angered by their rebellion. He has already anointed and set the king of His own choosing upon His holy hill of Zion (vs6). Now in verses 7-9 we have the response of the chosen King Himself. This is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. The first eleven words of vs 7 are His. “I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me,”. The rest are His Father’s words which He declares. “Thou art my Son: this day have I begotten thee…”
Notice first that the words of the Father which the Son declares are a royal decree. The Hebrew word translated “decree” here is translated as “law” in Gen. 47:26, “ordinance” in Ex. 12:24, and “statute” in Ex. 15:25. Heaven has made an official enactment and Christ is declaring it to His enemies. He has been made King of kings by the divine appointment of Jehovah. God made this decree in eternity past because all of His decrees are made from eternity. This is why it is said in Rev. 13:8 that Christ is, “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” He was delivered to the cross, “by the determinate counsel (decree) and foreknowledge of God…” (Acts 2:23). This is why 1Peter 1:20 says Christ was, “verily (surely)… foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times unto you.” God’s decrees are eternal, unchanging, and untouched by men and angels. Those who oppose Christ had best leave God’s decree alone. When Moses would have delivered and helped his brethren in Ex. 2:11-15 they resisted him and said, “Who made thee a prince and judge over us?” Christ has an answer to this retort. He’s been divinely appointed as Prince and Judge over all by His Father’s decree. He, “glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee” (Heb. 5:5).
The Father says first that Christ is His Son. Christ is the, “only begotten of the Father” (Jn. 1:14). Albert Barnes says that Christ has eternally, “sustained a relationship to God the Father which could be compared only with that which a son among men sustains with his father.” Christ’s Sonship means equal nature with the Father. In John 5:18 the Jews sought to kill Jesus because he said, “…that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.” But this wasn’t just His claim, it was his Father’s. At His baptism and at the Mount of Transfiguration there was a voice from heaven that said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Mt. 3:17, 17:5). In Heb. 1:5 the writer asks a rhetorical question concerning Ps. 2:7, “For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee?” In other words, no one else is qualified to be the ruler and redeemer of all except Christ by virtue of His Sonship to God. Those who oppose Christ should consider that He is the Son of God!
Lastly, the Father says, “this day have I begotten thee.” Acts 13:33-34 shows us that “this day” refers to the day of Christ’s resurrection and His being begotten is the resurrection itself. He is the “first begotten from the dead” (Rev. 1:5). In Christ’s resurrection His Sonship was most powerfully and evidently displayed (Rom. 1:4), God’s decree concerning Him was carried into effect (Ps. 2:8-9), and his exaltation began (Phil. 2:9-11). The Father raised Him and set him at his own right hand far above all principality, power, might, dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age but the one to come (Eph. 1:20-23). He became, “the firstborn from the dead that in all things he might have pre-eminence” (Col. 1:18). The heathen raged, the people imagined vainly and the kings and rulers put Christ on a cross. But they were so far from thwarting God’s decree concerning Him that they fulfilled it, for without the crucifixion there would have been no resurrection.