Nowadays Psalm 2:7 is often explained as an adoption formula in which God adopts the king of Israel as his son.1 This has consequences for the exegesis of Mark 1:11. Through the connection with Psalm 2:7 the meaning of the term son
in that psalm qualifies the expression Son of God
in the New Testament. The arguments against the adoption exegesis are as follows:
(a) The promise to David does say that God will be a father to his son and that the son will be a son to God (2 Samuel 7:14; 1 Chronicles 28:6) so that that son will say my Father
(Psalm 89:26). But this promise does not include that God will beget a son for David of which it can be said unquestionably “You are my Son” (Psalm 2:7). These differences in formulation are completely clear—also in the Septuagint.
(b) Psalm 89:1–52 complains that because of God’s punishments for the sins of David’s house it seems as if God is not keeping his promises to David. In contrast, in Psalm 2:1–12 the union between God and his anointed is unconditional (as distinct from Psalm 89:30–32).
(c) The kings of David’s house do reign in Jerusalem, but over Israel or Judah. If Psalm 2:1–12 were to speak of a king of Judah, the expression that God has set that king “over Zion” would be inaccurate (Psalm 2:6).
(d) This holds true all the more because it does not say “over Jerusalem,” but “over Zion, my holy hill.” There was never a Jewish king of whom anyone dared to say that he reigned over the holy hill of Yahweh. It is true that in the prophets, Zion
can refer to Jerusalem as the city of the Lord, but even then Zion
retains its special meaning as a reference to the domain of the temple where God is king (Psalm 48:1–14; Psalm 74:2; Psalm 84:7). It is the hill of Zion (Isaiah 4:5, Isaiah 10:12, Isaiah 18:7, Isaiah 31:4, Lamentations 5:18). This is Yahweh’s domain. He will live there for ever and from this place he makes a horn to sprout for David (Psalm 132:13, Psalm 132:17). When Psalm 2:6 speaks of a king whom the Lord has set over Zion, his holy hill, it is clear that this verse speaks about a higher king, one with greater holiness than David, Solomon, or any of their descendants in the Old Testament.
(e) In Psalm 2:12 all who take refuge in the Son of God are called blessed. In the Old Testament taking refuge with someone is connected to Yahweh, in whom the people take shelter, and not to the Jewish kings who themselves also had to place their trust and help in Israel’s God and King!
In conclusion, Psalm 2:1–12 speaks prophetically about someone who is anointed by God, someone who is God’s own Son, and who reigns so closely connected with him over the holy hill that all peoples (who are already governed by him now, Psalm 2:2–3) can only choose between perishing or submitting (Psalm 2:12). This anointed One clearly rises so far above everything that David and Solomon represented that the readers of this psalm could do nothing but await this person in the future and meanwhile believe that he was present, though invisible, with God on his holy hill. 2
7 I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.