Psalm Night on Psalm 2

Let us Pray

Father in heaven we thank you for this time to study Psalm 2 enlighten our minds by your Word and Spirt.

In Christ Name Amen

turn in your trinity psalter hymnal to psalm 2B

Lets Sing

Psalm 2 out of our Trinity Psalter Hymnal

*Hear now the very Word of God

Psalm 2

1. Why do the nations rage

and the peoples plot in vain?

2  The kings of the earth set themselves,

and the rulers take counsel together,

against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,

3  “Let us burst their bonds apart

and cast away their cords from us.”

4  He who sits in the heavens laughs;

the Lord holds them in derision.

5  Then he will speak to them in his wrath,

and terrify them in his fury, saying,

6  “As for me, I have set my King

on Zion, my holy hill.”

7  I will tell of the decree:

The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;

today I have begotten you.

8  Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,

and the ends of the earth your possession.

9  You shall break them with a rod of iron

and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

10  Now therefore, O kings, be wise;

be warned, O rulers of the earth.

11  Serve the Lord with fear,

and rejoice with trembling.

12  Kiss the Son,

lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,

for his wrath is quickly kindled.

Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Verses 1-3

1–3 The first stanza portrays nations and peoples, kings and officials rebelling against the universal reign of the Lord.

The psalmist greets this rebellion with astonishment:

“Why are they attempting this ‘vain’ struggle?”

This is not a literal question but an exclamation of surprise.

But the initial survey of the rebellion seems to suggest that nations hold the advantage, because they have the advantage of greater numbers.

v. 2 sets two pair of antagonists against each other:

The kings of earth and the officials

They both stand against the LORD and against his anointed

If this struggle were to be determined strictly by numbers,

the kings and officials would obviously have the upper hand.

the psalm’s dominant motifs of kingship and speech are apparent.

Likewise, the theme of speech is introduced by the verbs rage and murmur or plot in vain as it reads in the ESV.

The quotation that closes the first stanza: Let us shatter their bonds.…

In fact, the entire rebellion of the nations is depicted as nothing but speech.

They do not raise sword or weapon against God, but rather only their voices.

They are angry at God.

Next in verses 4-6

Verses 4-6

4–6 the scene shifts to heaven, where the Lord is enthroned.

The motifs of kingship and speech are continued in this stanza.

When the psalm says sits enthroned—

its a technical term denoting God’s kingship.

The Lord is far from alarmed by the revolt of the nations, which merely provokes divine scorn.

The heavenly king answers the rebellious speech of the earthly kings with more speech.

The Lord laughs,

The Lord mocks,

and the Lord speaks.

And what does God say?

I, have established my king, upon Zion, my holy mountain. we see this in verse 6.

v. 6. The Davidic kings exist solely as a result of God’s sovereign actions.

We see that God chose David and his descendants to be kings and Mount Zion in Jerusalem as the divine dwelling place.

The enthronement of the Davidic king is part of the Lord’s answer to the rebellion of the kings of earth.

Next in verses

Verses 7-9

7–9 the setting shifts back to earth,

but the location is different from that in stanza 1.

Stanza 2 closed by mentioning the Davidic king on Mount Zion, and that is the focus now.

In fact, the change to first person verbs—“I will tell of the decree of the LORD”—implies that it is now the voice of the Davidic king that is heard.

The dual themes of kingship and speech continue .

The themes of speech and kingship continue to be developed as the king reports God’s words and promises: He said to me, “You are my son, today I have begotten you.” In the Old Testament, as in other parts of the ancient Near East, the king was considered God’s son (cf. 2 Sam. 7:14).

I have begotten you’ is metaphorical language; it means more than simply adoption, and implies that a ‘new birth’ of a divine nature took place during the coronation.

The language emphasizes the special relationship that the king has with God.

Because the relationship he has with God is now that of a “father-son” relationship, the king is in a position to ask what he will of God.

The king does not ask for anything specific from God; God merely promises that the king may ask and God will grant it.

Within the promise, there is a poetic tie back to stanza 1. In vv. 1–2, the nations and kings of earth rebel against God. In v. 8, the king reports that God has willed the nations and ends of the earth as the king’s inheritance.

This internal link underscores one link in the psalms argument,

namely that a part of God’s response to the rebellion of earthly powers is to install the Davidic monarch on Zion.

Verses 10-12

10–12 The final stanza of the psalm continues with the established themes of the psalm, yet breaks from some of the established poetic structures.

The themes of kingship and speech are continued, as the kings and rulers of earth are warned to serve the Lord.

The setting of the fourth stanza does indeed seem to shift back to the dispersed kings of earth that were encountered in stanza 1.

In the final stanza, the verbs shift to an imperative warning: be wise, be warned, serve, and kiss!

The kings and rulers are depicted as rebelling against God by their speech, and so now they are in effect warned to keep silent.

And they are told to kiss the Son in Verse 12.

In the ancient world, to kiss the feet of a king (or the ground in front of the king’s feet) was a symbol of humility and political obedience.

Thus, the psalm closes by warning the kings of earth not to utter vain words of rebellion against the universal king of heaven and God’s chosen king on Zion The Lord Jesus Christ.

Instead, those kings are told to use their mouths more appropriately in an act of silent submission.

The plot of Psalm 2 circles around a basic question:

Who rules the earth?

Do human princes and kings rule?

Or is there a different lord of creation,

one to whom the downcast might turn and to whom all might address their prayers?

According to Psalm 2, the issue is never really an issue.

God reigns in heaven and extends heaven’s will downward into our sphere through the work of Israel.

And yet, says the psalm, there are many who do not recognize God’s authority.

These many—whether the rulers of nations and cities,

or business owners and military leaders,

or maybe only the hostile neighbor down the street—

are opposed both to God’s will and to God’s people.

They seek to cast off the cords of justice and peace and live as they see fit, even though it harms others.

But Psalm 2 also bears witness to the faith that God’s reign,

hidden and invisible though it may appear now,

is the only true reality.

God is active here and now, the psalm confesses, even if God’s reign is not yet fully visible.

The righteous—those who live under God’s sovereignty—will be vulnerable to the powers of the world,

but they will never be without help

The striking claim of Psalm 2 is that true happiness is found by those who take refuge in God

God’s Son Psalm 2 is a royal psalm,

one of those psalms that originally had to do with Jerusalem’s kings.

In its original setting, the psalm probably was a part of a public ceremony such as a coronation or the announcement of a prince designated as the future king.

In that era, the king was God’s anointed (v. 2) and God’s son (v. 7). But in its current setting in the Psalter, the psalm has a different function.

The psalm was incorporated into the Psalter long after the institution of Israel’s human kings had disappeared.

According to the theological vision of the Old Testament, one of the reasons for the failure of the monarchy was that her kings never lived up to the ideals against which they were to be measured.

Yet, Israel’s prophets had consistently promised that a Davidic king who would fulfill those ideals and reign.

The New Testament associates that ideal Davidic king and the son and anointed of Psalm 2 with Jesus.

At Jesus’ baptism, transfiguration, and death, different voices declare him to be God’s Son.

Peter confessed that Jesus was the Christ (the Greek word for “anointed” or “messiah”).

The book of Acts even associates Pilate and Herod, who stood in judgment over Jesus, with the kings and rulers that oppose God’s will in Psalm 2.

The rulers of Psalm 2 sought to cast off the chains of the Lord, in order to achieve freedom for themselves.

But like Psalm 1, Psalm 2 envisions independence from God not as freedom but as bondage.

True liberty consists rather of living in relationship with God and taking refuge in God and God’s anointed.

As the New Testament says, “if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36)

So Psalm 2 should point us to the Son of God.

Jesus Christ

The one that the Book of Revelation depicts coming on a white horse at the final judgment.

And it is Jesus finished work that we should always take refuge and comfort in

And he is the Son we need to Kiss or we will perish in the way.

*Let us pray

Father we thank you for this teaching on what it looks like to trust in you our King and the one who rules over all.

HELP US TO TURN FROM WORSHIPING MEN AND POWER IN THIS WORLD.

Lord help us and enable us to turn to your son Jesus who is the only mediator between God and man.

AMEN.

Let’s Sing Psalm 2 One more Time

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