Psalm 2 (1928 BCP)

Psalm 2 (1928 BCP) is a royal psalm of opposition to the LORD and his anointed king, divine judgment, and refuge in the king. The 1928 Book of Common Prayer places it in the first morning's portion of the Psalter, immediately after Psalm 1. Christian readings connect its anointed king and Son with Jesus Christ, following passages in Acts that apply the psalm to his rejection and resurrection.

Text of the Psalm

The Prayer Book gives the Latin opening Quare fremuerunt gentes? The asterisks divide the verses for recitation or chanting.

WHY do the heathen so furiously rage together? * and why do the people imagine a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth stand up, and the rulers take counsel together * against the LORD, and against his Anointed:
3 Let us break their bonds asunder, * and cast away their cords from us.
4 He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh them to scorn: * the Lord shall have them in derision.
5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, * and vex them in his sore displeasure:
6 Yet have I set my King * upon my holy hill of Sion.
7 I will rehearse the decree; * the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.
8 Desire of me, and I shall give thee the nations for thine inheritance, * and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession.
9 Thou shalt bruise them with a rod of iron, * and break them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
10 Be wise now therefore, O ye kings; * be instructed, ye that are judges of the earth.
11 Serve the LORD in fear, * and rejoice unto him with reverence.
12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and so ye perish from the right way, if his wrath be kindled, yea but a little. * Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

Rebellion, kingship, and refuge

The psalm moves through several voices. The opening asks why nations and rulers conspire; their own words describe the rule they resist as bonds and cords. The heavenly response reverses their expectation: God declares that he has set his king on Sion. The king then recites the decree of sonship and the promise of an inheritance extending to the ends of the earth. Finally, the rulers themselves are urged to learn wisdom and serve the LORD. The imagery of the iron rod and shattered pottery makes judgment unmistakable, yet the last word is a blessing on those who take refuge.

The psalm speaks in the language of Israel's kingship and Sion. Its opening rebellion is answered by God's commitment to his anointed; its closing appeal addresses the same earthly rulers who appeared at the beginning. The word “Anointed” is the basis for the title Messiah, rendered “Christ” in Greek. Neither the violent image of verse 9 nor the warning of verse 12 should be detached from the summons to reverence and the promise of refuge that frame them.

John Mason Neale's Anglican commentary describes the gesture in the Prayer Book's “Kiss the Son” as:

expressing thereby, as to a monarch, both love and awe.

Neale's interpretation relates the command to allegiance rather than mere fear. On the same page he notes that ancient translations differ at this point; the Prayer Book's “Kiss the Son” is one rendering of a difficult expression.

The psalm in Acts

In Acts 4 the disciples pray the opening of the psalm after Peter and John have been threatened. The Authorized Version gives the second verse of their citation:

The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.

Their prayer goes on to name Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel in relation to Jesus (Acts 4:27–28). The passage interprets the psalm in light of Jesus' rejection while presenting it as a prayer for the disciples' own situation. Augustine similarly reads the opening with reference to Christ's persecutors:

For what they wished, namely, Christ's destruction, they accomplished not; for this is spoken of our Lord's persecutors, of whom also mention is made in the Acts of the Apostles.

Augustine's reading is a Christian theological interpretation of the psalm, grounded here in Acts rather than a claim that the psalm names Jesus in its own text. Later in Acts, Paul's speech at Antioch cites the sonship decree in announcing God's fulfillment of his promise:

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.

The speech connects the decree with God raising Jesus; it does not require the “today” of the psalm to be read as the beginning of the Son's divine existence. The New Testament's use of the psalm gives Christian worshippers grounds for reading its royal hope in relation to Christ's death and resurrection.

In the Daily Office

Psalm 2 follows Psalm 1 in the first day's Morning Prayer portion and precedes Psalms 3–5. The arrangement joins Psalm 1's blessing on the person who delights in the LORD's law to Psalm 2's blessing on those who trust in him. The Daily Office also allows a selection of psalms; the monthly sequence is therefore an appointed course, not a requirement to recite Psalm 2 at every Morning Prayer.

After the Venite the Office directs:

Then shall follow a Portion of the Psalms, according to the Use of this Church. And at the end of every Psalm, and likewise at the end of the Venite, Benedictus es, Benedictus, Jubilate, may be, and at the end of the whole Portion, or Selection from the Psalter, shall be, sung or said the Gloria Patri:

The rubric permits the Gloria after each psalm and requires it after the whole portion or selection. Thus the royal psalm is prayed within the Church's Trinitarian praise, while its summons to rulers remains a warning against treating earthly power as ultimate. Its final blessing offers a response to that warning: trust in the one whom God has established.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• The Psalter (1928 BCP)
• Daily Office (1928 BCP)
• Psalm 1 (1928 BCP)

External Links

• The 1928 Psalter, Psalms 1–50, Society of Archbishop Justus
• Augustine's exposition of Psalm 2, New Advent