Psalm 2:8
claiming your rights
Ask of me, and I will give thee the Gentiles for thy inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession. (Psalm 2:8 DR)
The Psalmist continues in prophetic utterance to speak of Christ, and here describes the more specifically the scope of His kingdom—that is, the Church—which is to be spread throughout the entire world.
That this has prophetic import is naturally seen in remembering that the “inheritance” of the Promised Land that God gave to the people of Israel had very specific boundaries, roughly from the Nile and Mediterranean Sea on the south and west and to the Euphrates on the north and east. Yet even at the height of the kingdoms of David and Solomon the people of Israel never fully possessed their entire inheritance. And even if they had it was not a promised kingdom which would fill the whole earth.
Instead, the Psalmist here anticipates the prophecies of Daniel, wherein the kingdom of God expands to fill the whole world:
But in the days of those kingdoms the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, and his kingdom shall not be delivered up to another people, and it shall break in pieces, and shall consume all these kingdoms, and itself shall stand for ever. According as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and broke in pieces, the clay, and the iron, and the brass, and the silver, and the gold, the great God hath shewn the king what shall come to pass hereafter, and the dream is true, and the interpretation thereof is faithful. (Daniel 2:44-45 DR)
This kingdom is said to consume the kingdoms that it breaks, which is a fascinating image in that this kingdom is not like other worldly kingdoms which replace a former kingdom, but instead in some way takes those kingdoms into itself like a man takes food into himself and the food becomes a part of him. In this manner the peoples of the earthly kingdom become a part of the kingdom of God through conversion, being themselves incorporated into the Church and thus mystically into the Body of Christ. This is why St. John in his vision says of the new Jerusalem:
And the nations shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honour into it. And the gates thereof shall not be shut by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it. (Apocalypse 21:24-26 DR)
This kingdom which Christ has as an inheritance is His by birthright, as it were, for unlike the people of Israel who were sons by election and grace He is Himself Son by nature:
As if God the Father were to say: You my natural Son, the incarnation of my power raised from the dead, have just right to ask me for power over all nations as your inheritance, and the whole world, even to its remotest boundaries, as your possession of right. (St. Robert Bellarmine, A Commentary on the Book of the Psalms, 2, 8.)
In a temporal sense, however, this inheritance is purchased through His sacrifice on the cross; His obedience to the Father is the claim—so to speak—of His right to possession of the nations; that is, the Church, which He purchased with His own blood:
This has at once a temporal sense with reference to the Manhood which He took on Himself, who offered up Himself as a Sacrifice in the stead of all sacrifices, who also makes intercession for us; so that the words, “ask of Me,” may be referred to all this temporal dispensation, which has been instituted for mankind, namely, that the “nations” should be joined to the Name of Christ, and so be redeemed from death, and possessed by God. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 2, 7.)
This naturally echoes what St. John sees in his vision of the Lamb:
And they sung a new canticle, saying: Thou art worthy, O Lord, to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; because thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God, in thy blood, out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation. (Apocalypse 5:9 DR)
Our Lord’s offering of His life on the cross thus becomes the fulfillment of this verse, in which the Psalmist foresees our Lord purchasing the nations (cf. Acts 20:28, 1 Peter 1:18-19) and thus obtaining them (in the temporal dispensation, see above) as an inheritance.
I didn’t have a clear direction for this animation, but as I was playing around with Trapcode Mir I came up with what I thought was an interesting look that kind of felt like a halfway point between land and clouds. At any rate I decided to go with it and liked how it turned out.
Enjoy.
Ask of me, and I will give thee the Gentiles for thy inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession.
(Psalm 2:8 DR)
View a higher quality version of this gif here: