Psalm 2

The Second Psalm has 2 meanings:

1. It is about God’s promise to King David that his sons would reign in Jerusalem after him. The king was called “the Lord’s anointed.” This psalm was used as an enthronement hymn for each new king.

2. It is also about Jesus, the Anointed One, the Son of David, who is the true King. In Hebrew, the word for “anointed one” is Messiah, which in Greek is “Christ.” In the New Testament, this Psalm is frequently quoted as the apostles looked back and saw that it was always pointing towards Jesus.

There are four 3-verse sections:

• section 1 (vv. 1-3): the kings of the earth want to rebel against the Lord’s authority.

• section 2 (vv. 4-6): the Lord is not threatened and states that his representative is the King in Jerusalem. (Mount Zion is the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.)

• section 3 (vv. 7-9): the king speaks and quotes God’s promise to David, how God will give power and glory and strength to the anointed one.

• section 4 (vv. 10-12): warns the rebel kings not to get any foolish ideas and to go ahead and submit to the Anointed One. It concludes by saying that those who do so will be blessed!

P.S.

This is my favorite tree in our neighborhood, and it always makes me think of yesterday’s psalm.