2 Samuel 22:44-45 - David's Psalm Of Thanksgiving.

The head of the nations.

David once more records how God had delivered him in and from the contests in which he had been involved; and declares that he had thus kept him "to be the head of the nations" (Revised Version), not only Israel, but foreign peoples. He, or, if not he, the Spirit which spake by him ( 2 Samuel 23:2 ), may have had in view the ultimate purpose of God respecting him and his posterity, viz. the exaltation of his great Son to be, in a wider sense than was applicable to David himself, "the Head of the nations." We may at least take the words as applicable to the Lord Jesus Christ.

I. THE OPPOSITION HE ENCOUNTERS . Like David, he has to withstand many "strivings of the people."

1 . In his life on earth he was much opposed. He endured the "contradiction of sinners against himself" ( Hebrews 12:3 ). "He came unto his own, and his own received him not" ( John 1:11 )—his own people, his own family ( John 7:5 ). All classes, with a few exceptions, rejected him—Pharisees and Sadducees, elders and scribes, ecclesiastics and politicians, rulers and people. The multitude sought once to make him king ( John 6:15 ), and, when he entered Jerusalem for the last time, welcomed him, in the hope that he was about to ascend the throne; but he would not be such a king as they desired, and they cared not to have such a King as he was to be. Hence they united with their superiors in saying, "We will not have this Man to reign over us" ( Luke 19:14 ); and, to put an end to his pretensions, put him to death. They did not know that they were thus very effectually promoting his victories and reign.

2 . He has met with various and constant opposition ever since. His cause has advanced in spite of perpetual strivings against it. Jews and Gentiles, kings and subjects, rich and poor, the intellectual and the ignorant, the refined and the coarse, have "set themselves.; against the Lord, and against his Anointed" ( Psalms 2:2 ). He, too, can speak still of the "strivings of my people." As at first amongst the Jews, so since amongst Christians (so called), and amongst those in high positions in his Church, have been found his worst foes. Men are willing to bear his Name, to receive some of his doctrines, and even contend for them, to appropriate the comfort he gives; but to obey him, to let him rule in their minds and hearts and lives, in their homes, in their business, in their pleasures, in their social life, in their national affairs,—that is quite another matter. And those who strive earnestly to obey him themselves, and to induce others to do so, must be prepared for opposite "strivings," and even persecution. Nor do they wonder, seeing they find, more or less, in their own nature, elements of opposition to the rule of the Christ which explain the hostility of others.

IX. THE EXALTED POSITION HE NEVERTHELESS OCCUPIES . "Head of the nations." The answer of the Almighty to all the rebellious counsels and works of men is, "Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion" ( Psalms 2:6 ). The kingdom of Christ is the kingdom of Jehovah; vain, therefore, must be all strivings against it. Its opponents can only dash themselves to pieces, but "he must reign" ( 1 Corinthians 15:25 ).

1 . The extent of his dominion. "The nations," in a wider sense than was true of David. "All nations shall serve him" ( Psalms 72:11 ). And not only all nations in existence at any one time, but all that may come into existence while the world endures.

2 . The nature of his dominion.