2. Psalm 2:7

“I will declare the decree: the Lord has said to me, you are my Son: this day have I begotten you”. (Psalm 2:7). In the New Testament the apostles appeal to this verse as a prophetic passage of which Jesus, the Son of God, is the fulfillment (Acts 13:33; Matthew 3:17).

Jewish Objection

A. “This passage refers to King David, not Jesus.”

Isaac Troki states, “The reference to that psalm [Psalm 2] is objectionable, since the royal psalmist spoke here of his own person. It was against himself that the Gentiles raged, and carried on their warfare, when he had commenced his government.” 28

To respond to this, it should be stated that this entire Psalm has long been interpreted by Jewish sources to be Messianic in nature. E.W. Hengstenberg relates,“It is an undoubted fact, and unanimously admitted even by the recent opposers of its reference to Him [Jesus], that the Psalm [Psalm 2} was universally regarded by the ancient Jews as foretelling the Messiah. ….In the older Jewish writings also, there is a variety of passages in which the Messianic interpretation is given to this Psalm. Even Kimchi and Jarchi [Jewish polemicists] confess, that it was the prevailing one among their forefathers; and the later very honestly gives his reason for departing from it, when he says he preferred to explain it of David for the refutation of the heretics, that is, in order to destroy the force of the arguments drawn from it by the Christians.” 29

The Midrash Tehillim on Psalm 2 states,“And when the hour comes, says the Holy One, blessed be He, to them: I must create Him [Messiah] a new creation, as even it is said, ‘this day have I begotten you.” 30From the Yalkut:“If I shall find the son of the King, I shall lay hold on him and crucify him and kill him with a cruel death. But the Holy Spirit mocks at him, ‘He that sits in the heavens laughs, Jehovah has them in derision [Psalm 2:4].” 31

Even the great Jewish scholar of the Middle Ages, Moses Maimonides, affirms:“The prophets and saints have longed for the days of the Messiah, and great has been their desire towards him, for there will be with him the gathering together of the righteous and the administration of goodness and wisdom and royal righteousness, with the abundance of his uprightness and the spread of his wisdom, and his approach of God, as it is said: Jehovah said unto me, ‘Thou art my son, today have I begotten thee.” 32

It is quite obvious that not only do Christians recognize that the passage is Messianic but so do the Jewish sources themselves. Other passages from Midrashic and Jewish writings could be cited; however, the point is well established. Mr. Levine even recognizes this and explains the Jewish interpretation of Psalm 2 as Messianic in this light:“According to Jewish commentaries which say that Psalm 2 refers to the Messiah specifically, and not to David, that still leaves the issue open, for we still cannot know who the Messiah is. To say that Psalm 2 points necessarily and exclusively to Jesus, because he called himself the son of God is really absurd.” 33

There is no doubt here that the Jewish case for Psalm 2, as referring to David has no merit. The ancient Jewish sources themselves recognized and considered this Psalm as Messianic. It points to and finds fulfillment in the Messiah, the King of Israel.

2. Summary

The fact that this Psalm is Messianic, and that it states that the Messiah will be the Son of God, is clear. As a reaction against the Messianic claims of Christ, it has found a different interpretation within Judaism. The New Testament asserts that Jesus is the Son of God and the fulfillment of Psalm 2.“God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that he has raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second Psalm, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you’” (Acts 13:33).

Only Jesus meets and fulfills the criteria of this Psalm. He not only claims to be the Son of God, but He proves and verifies His claim by His resurrection from the dead:“Jesus Christ…declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead”. (Romans 1:3-4).