WHATEVER the character of the watching, and whatever the thing to be looked for, there can be no question that the exhortation to watch for an event whose precise time is not stated, implies that when the event does take place, the watching ones will know it. Watch, because ye know not, in order that at the proper time ye may know, is the thought; and the intimation clearly is, that those who do not watch will not know: that the events which are to be known in due time to the Watchers, will be recognized by them, and not recognized by others, at the time of accomplishment.

New Testament Scriptures show that the Second Psalm had a partial fulfillment at the time of the First Advent and Jesus’ resurrection. “God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee” (Acts 13:33). “Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done” (Acts 4:25-28).

Jesus, who was anointed to be a King, continues to speak, but he was merely repeating what God will say to him: “Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” The translators realized that the anointing was not particularly to a priesthood but was of a King to be a ruler over subjects. Therefore, they preferred to use the word “king” in verse 6 in order to show the type of anointing. Verse 8 is not yet operative, for Jesus has not asked Jehovah for the heathen as his inheritance. The asking is still future and awaits the fulfillment of other circumstances first.

The point is that three overturnings had to be fulfilled before Jesus could assume the rulership at his Second Advent. At that time God would “give it [the Kingdom to] him [Jesus].” Jesus secured the right to rule at his First Advent, but the exercising of this right pertains to the Second Advent—to sometime after the end of Gentiles Times, hence 1914 or thereafter. The long period of void from AD 135 “until he come whose right it is” is likened to Gentile Times. It is also likened to the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, in which the rich man wanted a little water to cool his tongue, and to the Parable of the Pounds, in which Jesus said a nobleman went away “into a far country [heaven] to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return” (Luke 16:19–31; 19:12–27).