You Are My Son

Listen. Can you hear it? Voices in the distance, angry voices, whispering plans in throne rooms all over the world. Let's break free. Let's throw off their rule. And far above it all, someone is laughing.

This is the second psalm, one of the songs of ancient Israel, sung in Jerusalem. It does not tell a story with names and places the way Genesis does. It is a royal song, about the king God has chosen, the anointed one. Anointed means someone who has had oil poured on his head to mark him out for a special job. Kings in Israel were anointed. In Hebrew the word is mashiach, the word we say as Messiah. In the time of the kings, when a new son of David took the throne, nearby nations often saw a chance to rebel. Psalm two answers that moment. And it is sung like a drama, with four different voices.

The first voice is the singer, looking out at the world. “Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his Anointed.” And then we hear the rebels themselves. “Let's break their bonds apart, and cast their cords from us.” The powerful of the earth want to be free of God. No more of his rules. No more of his king. They gather their armies. They make their speeches. They feel very big.

But then the song lifts its eyes to heaven. “He who sits in the heavens will laugh. The Lord will have them in derision.” Not a nervous laugh. The kind of laugh you might give if a tiny ant shook its fist at a mountain. Then God speaks, and his voice is like thunder. “Yet I have set my King on my holy hill of Zion.” Zion is the hill of Jerusalem. The rebels can plot all they like. God has already crowned his king. It is done.

Now the king himself speaks. “I will tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, You are my son. Today I have become your father. Ask of me, and I will give the nations for your inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession.” Not just Israel. The whole earth. Finally the singer turns back to the kings who were plotting, and gives them some advice. Be wise. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Give sincere homage to the Son. And the song ends with an open door. “Blessed are all those who take refuge in him.” Even the rebels are invited in. When Jesus was baptised in the Jordan, a voice from heaven said: You are my beloved Son. The first Christians sang this psalm and prayed it, believing that Jesus is the Anointed one, the Son that the nations could not overthrow.

This psalm has a famous place in music. In seventeen forty-two, George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah was first performed in Dublin. Near the end of its second part, a bass soloist sings Why do the nations so furiously rage together, and the choir takes up the rebels' words, Let us break their bonds asunder. A few minutes later comes the most famous chorus of all: Hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.

You are my Son. That's Psalm two. Kings plot, but God has set his King on his holy hill, and everyone who runs to him is blessed. So here is a question to carry with you. When the world feels loud and angry, what difference does it make to know that God's King is already on the throne?