Ver. 1. Why do the heathen rage?] WHY? or for what reason? The psalm beginneth abruptly, with an angry interrogation; q.d. What? are they mad to attempt such things, as whereof they can neither give any good reason, nor expect any good effect? The Lord Christ, of whom David was both a father and a figure (as here appeareth), shall surely reign, maugre all the rage and resistance of his enemies, who may seem to be ambitious for their own destruction, and are therefore in this psalm schooled, and counselled to desist. Nothing is more irrational than irreligion. Why do the heathen tumultuously rage, or hurtle together, Fremunt et ferociunt? When the Philistihes heard that David was made king in Hebron, they came up to seek him, and to dethrone him, 2 Samuel 5:17; so the heathen and people, that is, Gentiles and Jews, would have dealt by Christ, Acts 4:25,26. The devil, ever since he was cast out of heaven, tumultuateth and keepeth ado; so do unruly spirits acted and agitated by him. Daniel 6:15, Then those men kept a stir with the king against Daniel; it is the same Hebrew word that is here, and possibly Daniel’s spirit might think of David’s terms. John 11:33, Jesus troubled himself, but after another manner than these his enemies; his passions were without mud, as clear water in a crystal glass; wha t was an act of power in Christ is an act of weakness, if not of wickedness, in others. The apostle’s Greek word for this in the text denoteth rage, pride, and fierceness, as of horses that neigh, and rush into the battle, εφρυαξαν, Acts 4:25. And the people imagine] Heb. meditate, or mutter a vain thing, an empty design, that shall come to nothing. Niteris incassum Christi submergere puppem: Fluctuat, at nunquam mergitur illa ratis. Dipped may the Church’s ship be, but not drowned; Christ will not fail her enemies to confound. Some think that by this muttering people are meant, such as act not open outrages against Christ, but yet in words murmur and mutiny, whispering treason.
Ver. 2. The kings of the earth set themselves] Or, stand up, as if they would do the deed, and bear down all before them. The many had acted their part, Psalms 2:1, and now the mighties show themselves, but go off again with shame enough. The Spanish friar used to say, there were but few princes in hell; and why? because there were but few in all. It was a poor comfort to our Henry VIII to be told upon his death bed that he was now going to the place of kings. Some such there have been as proved nursing fathers to the Church, and propagated the kingdom of Christ in their generations, Isaiah 49:23 but what a vain vaunt was that of those bloody tyrants in the primitive times, who sounded the triumph beforehand, and thus engraved the victory upon pillars of marble, Nomine Christianorum delete qui Remp. evertebant? What was all this but a blaze before their last light went out? or like some bulging wall that was swollen immediately before it fell? Have any ever yet waxed fierce against Christ and prospered? Job 9:4. And the rulers take counsel together] Or, have laid their foundation; for counsel is to action saith Aben Ezra here, the same that the foundation is to a building. The Chaldee hath it they consociate to rebel before the Lord, and to fight against his anointed, Syncretismum ineunt, et quasi se fundant consiliis suis. But with what success, see Isaiah 8:9,10. Immanuel will overly match them.
Ver. 3. Let us break their bands asunder, &c.] Here these rebels are brought in proclaiming their treasonable decrees against Christ, and his adherents, who seek to promote his kingdom. Resolved they were to run riot, as lawless and aweless, and therefore they slander the sweet laws of Christ’s kingdom, as bonds and thick cords (those signs of slavery, Jeremiah 27:2,6,7), as burdens and grievances. So the Popish clergy of Collen told their good Archbishop Albert (who had made use of Bucer and Melancthon to bring things into better order), that they had rather live under the Turkish government than under such a reformation (Melch. Adam in Vit. Bucer). But what saith our Saviour? “My yoke is easy, and my burden light.” No more burden it is to a regenerate person than the wings are to the bird. He delighteth in the law of God after the inward man, Romans 7:22 It is not to him now, as once, bands and cords, but as girdles and garters, which gird up his loins, and expedite his course the better. It confineth him to live in that element where he would live; as if one should be confined to paradise, where he would be, though there were no such law.
Ver. 4. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh at them] Videt, ridet. He seeth and smileth, he looketh and laugheth, at these giants. He sitteth in heaven, far above their reach; neither doth he much trouble himself about the matter. No more should we; but trust in him, and know that there is a council in heaven that will dash the mould of all contrary counsels upon earth; as the stone cut out of the mountain did the four great monarchies, Daniel 2:34. See an instance hereof in latter times. Luther, that heroic reformer, was excommunicated by the pope, proscribed by the emperor, hated and cursed all Christendom over almost, yet he prospered, and the work of Christ went on in his hands. And when the Elector of Saxony, his only patron, was much afraid what would become of him, and of the business of religion, Luther out of his Patmos (as he called it), where he lay hid, writeth him a rousing letter, wherein is read this among many other brave passages: Sciat celsitudo tua et nihil dubitet longe aliter in coelo quam Noribergae de hoc negotio conclusum est, Let your Highness rest well assured of this, that things are far otherwise carried and concluded in heaven, than they are at the Imperial Diet held at Norinberg. After this, in the year of grace 1526, there conspired against the gospel, and the professors thereof, the emperor and his prisoner in Spain, the French king, the princes also and bishops in Germany, stirred up by the pope. The French king was set at liberty, upon the condition that he join with the emperor to root out Lutheranism, that is, true religion. This was the agreement, but God broke it; for the French king was no sooner home but he made a league with the pope and the Venetians against the emperor. The pope excuseth his falling off from Caesar by a petulant and malapert epistle. Caesar, by another letter, lay open to the world the pope’s perfidy, exhorting him to peace, and concluding that they had more need to unite their forces for the extirpation of Lutheran heresy. By this means the Church had a happy halcyon, while these great ones were out, and at it. The Lord shall have them in derision] Adonai, that is, the sustainer and upholder of all. Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords, Revelation 19:16. Lords and lowlies are all his vassals and underlings, as Constantine, Theodosius, and Valentine, those great emperors, called themselves. This name or style Christ hath written on his vesture, that all may see it, and on his thigh, where hangs his sword, to show his absolute dominion, his unlimited empire, got and held out of the hands of his enemies, with his mind, and with his bow, Genesis 48:22. And when he is said to deride them, this is no more than to laugh at them, as the following effects show.