Psalm 2
12 verses · BSBPsalms book hub →
Speaks with:Revelation 17×2Hebrews 12×2Revelation 19×2Acts 4×1Psalms 46×1Matthew 26×1
Summary
Chapter summary
The nations rage and kings take counsel together against Jehovah and against his anointed. Heaven answers with laughter and decree: 'I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion… Thou art my son; this day have I begotten thee.' The nations are offered as inheritance, rule with a rod of iron. The psalm closes in counsel: be wise, kiss the son, and blessed are all they that take refuge in him, quoted of Christ throughout the New Testament.
Context
Poetry · David, Asaph, Sons of Korah, others — Psalms overview
The world behind this chapter
Psalms 2The history
In that world, the death of a king was the moment subject peoples made their move. Treaties in the ancient Near East were personal: a smaller kingdom swore loyalty to a particular ruler, and when he died the oath was widely treated as expired. A new king's first year was normally spent putting down the provinces that had decided to stop paying. That is exactly the scene here — rulers taking counsel together to break the cords.
The "decree" in the middle of the psalm is a coronation document. Ancient enthronements involved a written charter read aloud, declaring the king's authority and his relation to the god who installed him. Egypt's pharaohs were declared sons of the god at their crowning. Israel used the same courtroom-and-throne language, but with a difference that mattered: the Lord installs the king by adoption and grant, not by making him divine.
The rod of iron and the shattered pottery are two pictures from one practice. Egyptian kings inscribed the names of rebel cities and enemy rulers on clay bowls and figurines and then smashed them — the surviving examples are known to archaeologists as execration texts. Broken pottery cannot be repaired into a jar again; that was the point.
"Kiss the Son" was a real gesture of submission. Vassals and courtiers kissed the hand, the foot, or the ground before a sovereign, and Assyrian reliefs show it plainly. Israelites also kissed idols in false worship, which is why the act carried weight.
What it meant to them
For Israel, wedged between empires, this song said that the noise of great powers is a rehearsed farce watched from a throne higher than theirs. The nations rage; the One enthroned laughs.
It also set a bar no son of David ever cleared. Each new king was sung this psalm, and each one died with the ends of the earth still unhandled — which kept Israel looking down the line for a king who would fit the words.
Sources cited
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews & Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- Charles H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David on Psalm 2
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Psalms 2. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Connections from this chapter
v. 1 · Quoted here
'Why did the heathen rage': the gathered believers in prayer ('by the mouth of thy servant David'). Royal psalm.
Acts 4:25→You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of Your servant, our father David: ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
public-domain commentaries in agreement
v. 1 · Same kind of writing
both royal psalms; the two most-cited messianically in the NT; shared enthronement form.
Psalms 110:1→The LORD said to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”
Gunkel
v. 2 · Linked to Acts 4:26
H4899 mashiach -> LXX christos (G5547); the messianic title carried by the Greek OT (feeds the Christos card).
Acts 4:26→The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against His Anointed One.’
LXX Ps 2:2 (Swete, PD); Acts 4:26
v. 7 · Quoted here · Quoted with a formula: 'it is written'
'Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee': Paul at Antioch ('as it is written in the second psalm').
Acts 13:33→He has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm: ‘You are My Son; today I have become Your Father.’
public-domain commentaries in agreement
v. 7 · Quoted here
same line: Hebrews, Son superior to angels (w/ 2Sa 7:14).
Hebrews 1:5→For to which of the angels did God ever say: “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father”? Or again: “I will be His Father, and He will be My Son”?
public-domain commentaries in agreement
v. 7 · Quoted here
same line: Hebrews, Christ's high-priestly appointment.
Hebrews 5:5→So also Christ did not take upon Himself the glory of becoming a high priest, but He was called by the One who said to Him: “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father.”
public-domain commentaries in agreement
v. 7 · A picture of Christ
You are My Son, today I have begotten You
Matthew 3:17→And a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!”
MannaFest topical index
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.