Psalms — Chapter 2
QUARE FREMUERUNT GENTES. Lapide: The second psalm follows immediately as the companion to the first: the first shows the way of the just, the second shows the opposition of the nations to the Anointed (Christus) of the Lord. Peter and John quote this very verse in Acts 4:25 as fulfilled at the Passion of Christ. Lapide: the "tumult" (fremitus) of the nations = the noise of the Sanhedrin, Herod, and Pilate conspiring. "Et populi meditati sunt inania" — they meditated vanity, for their plot against Christ was futile; the Cross they intended as destruction became the instrument of universal salvation.
Verse 7
Dominus dixit ad me: Filius meus es tu
Lapide identifies this as the central Messianic verse of the entire Psalter, cited five times in the NT (Acts 13:33, Heb 1:5, 5:5). The 'hodie' (today) of 'this day I have begotten thee' does not refer to eternal generation alone but to Christ's eternal generation as applied to His Resurrection (Acts 13:33, per Paul), to His Incarnation (Hilary, Ambrose), and to His eternal procession from the Father (Augustine). Lapide refutes Arianism: 'Filius meus' is a name of nature (generation), not adoption; the Son shares the divine essence, not merely divine favor. The Gentiles given as inheritance (v.8) = the universal Church gathered from all nations through the preaching of the Apostles.