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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
I will declare, or publish, that all people concerned may take notice of it, and submit to it upon their peril. Publication or promulgation is essential to all laws or statutes.
The decree, or, concerning the decree, i.e. the will or pleasure and appointment of God concerning my advancement into the throne, and the submission and obedience which the people here following shall yield to me.
Thou art my Son; which though it may in some sort be said to or of David, who was in some respects the son of God, and begotten by him, as all believers are, Joh_1:12 1Jo_3:9 Jam_1:18; yet much more truly and properly belongs to Christ, who is commonly known by this title both in the Old and New Testament, as Pro_30:4 Hos_11:1 Mat_2:15 Mat_3:17 4:3,6, and oft elsewhere; and to whom this title is expressly appropriated by the Holy Ghost, who is the best interpreter of his own words, Act_13:33 Heb_1:5 5:5, and to whom alone the following passages belong.
This day have I begotten thee: this is also applied by some to David, and so this day is the day of his inauguration, when he might be said to be begotten by God, inasmuch as he was then raised and delivered from all his troubles and calamities, which were a kind of death, and brought forth and advanced to a new kind of life, of royal state and dignity; and so this was the birthday, though not of his person, yet of his kingdom, as the Roman emperors celebrated a double birthday; first the emperor’s, when he was born, and then the empire’s, when he was advanced to the empire. But this is but a lean, and far-fetched, and doubtful sense; and therefore not to be allowed by the laws of interpretation, when the words may be properly understood concerning Christ. And so this may be understood either,
1. Of his eternal generation.
This day; from all eternity, which is well described by this day, because in eternity there is no succession, no yesterday, no to-morrow, but it is all as one continued day or moment, without change or flux; upon which account one day is said to be with the Lord as long as a thousand years, and a thousand years as short as one day, 2Pe_3:8. Or rather,
2. Of the manifestation of Christ’s eternal sonship in time; which was done partly in his birth and life, when his being the Son of God was demonstrated by the testimony of the angel, Luk_1:32, and of God the Father, Mat_3:17 17:5, and by his own words and works; but principally in his resurrection, which seems to be here mainly intended, of which day this very place is expounded, Act_13:33; when Christ was in a most solemn manner declared to be the Son of God with power, Rom_1:4. And this day or time Christ might very well be said to be begotten by God the Father; partly, because the resurrection from the dead is in Scripture called a regeneration or second birth, Mat_19:28, as well it may, being a restitution of that very being which man received by his, first birth, and that by the peculiar and mighty power of God; partly, because in this respect Christ is called the first begotten of the dead, Rev_1:5; and partly, because of that common observation, that things are oft said to be done in Scripture when they are only declared or manifested to be done; of which see instances, Gen_41:13 Jer_1:10 Eze_43:3, and elsewhere.