Acts 4:26Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

They cite the prophecy as though demanding from God what He had promised. At the same time they console themselves, because the enemies devise everything in vain. Thus their words mean this: bring all this to completion, and show that they have devised vain things. See how they say nothing superfluous, but speak only of the Lord's power. Or rather, as Christ said to the Jews, "if I speak by the Spirit of God" (Mt 12:28), so they also say, "by the Holy Spirit." Here also the Savior speaks of the Spirit. Hear what they say: "Master, God, You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of our father David, Your servant: Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples devise vain things?" In Scripture one is commonly spoken of as many.

It goes without saying that this prohibition and threat had no effect on the apostles. They returned home after experiencing the first persecution for the name of Christ. They had also seen the first instance of the Holy Spirit's help. Jesus Christ had foretold that it would not be they who spoke at trial, but the Holy Spirit. Therefore they first resolved to pray to God that He would continue His help to them, through signs and wonders, for the conversion of unbelievers. Then, having received a new sign confirming God's good pleasure, for the place where they prayed was shaken, they preached the Gospel with still greater boldness.

Peter and John related to their own people what the chief priests and elders had said to them. Here, as before, the writer of Acts does not define more closely the content of the threats with which Peter and John were released from the council chamber. But the content of the prayer shows this to us. Through it the souls of the believers responded to the news of these threats. This first public Christian prayer known to us is a prayer of supplication. The believers entreat almighty God, the Creator of heaven and earth, to defend them against their persecutors. They ask Him to grant them strength to remain firm and fearless confessors of Christ's name while suffering for Christ.

"The kings of the earth stood up against Him, and the rulers," that is, Herod Antipas (Lk 23:11) and Pilate, as representatives of worldly authority. "They were gathered together" with the Gentile Romans and the representatives of the people of Israel, v. 27. They gathered "against the Lord," that is, against Jehovah, who sent His Son Jesus Christ into the world, "and against His Christ," the Lord Jesus Himself. "Whom You anointed": the Lord's anointing occurred at His baptism (cf. Acts 10:38; Lk 3:21 and following), when the Holy Spirit descended upon Him.

Cf. Ps 2:1-2. The prayer rests on David's psalmic saying about the rising of kings and princes against the Lord and against His Christ. It applies this to the revolt carried out against Jesus Christ, and now against His apostles. Thus the apostles preached that in Christ the most widely known prophetic and messianic psalms had been fulfilled. Such was the second psalm, which once formed a single whole with the first psalm. Alongside the general correspondence between the position of David the anointed one and the higher Anointed One, Jesus Christ our Savior, Who possessed the whole fullness of the Messiah's gifts, interpreters also note particular correspondences. By the raging Gentiles are meant the Romans. By the peoples devising vain things are meant the twelve tribes of Israel.