After church this Sunday, I joined my fellowcollegestudents for the traditional lunch and Bible study. We focused on Psalm 2 and Matthew 28 (they’re an interesting combination). In Psalm 2:1-3, there were some questions raised as to what exactly was being said. Although discussion cleared up the basic issues, there were some more details I thought were worth sharing but would be a bit confusing if brought up at that moment. So I’ll share those thoughts with you good folks.
First, a translation:
Verse 1
Why do the nations conspire / and the people imagine a vain thing?
Verse 2
The kings of the earth set themselves / and the rulers take counsel together
Against Jehovah / and against his Messiah
Verse 3
Let us break their fetters apart / and cast off their chains from us.
Certainly, we’re dealing with poetic text, and as such it does not follow the typical pattern of prose. But no need to despair. By looking at it carefully, we can understand. Firstly, note the / marks. I use those to illustrate the poetic structure of the Hebrew parallelism. Bottom line: in Hebrew poetry, there’s a tendency to repeat things in somewhat different ways. So we can consider each pair of statements to be part of a unified statement.
So let’s start with verse 1. The Psalmist is here telling us that the “nations” and “the people” are conspiring and thinking up a worthless thing. In Hebrew, “the nations” (goyim) is also the word for “gentiles,” that is, “non-Jews.” And as the Jews are considered “the people” of God, I think we’re safe in interpreting this first verse as referring to a foolish conspiracy between both Jews and non-Jews; a universal problem, not of any particular ethnic group. Furthermore, the framing of this verse as a question (Why . . . ?) is a feature used by the Psalmist to more clearly point out what a “vain thing” this conspiracy is.
Verse two elaborates upon this foolish conspiracy by telling us that the political rulers are carrying out this thinking and plotting against Jehovah and his Messiah. This Messiah is the Christ. And as Jesus said, “I and the Father are one,” so any plot against the Messiah Jesus Christ is also against his father.
But in the third verse there seems to be a break. “Let us break their fetters apart and cast off their chains from us.” The Psalmist does not explicitly tell us who is saying these words. It must be either Jehovah and his Messiah, or the kings and rulers. Because there is no good reason to think that Jehovah and his Messiah are in any sense “chained,” all that is left is for the rulers and kings to be saying these words. “Let us break their fetters . . . and cast of their chains” now makes sense as a statement that these kings and rulers of the earth want to cast off what they see as the imprisoning constraints of Jehovah’s and his Messiah’s commands.
So, if I may paraphrase this in a more prose style: “It is futile, the way many, Jews and Gentiles, conspire together against the God and Jesus Christ. People in leadership are involved in a coordinated effort to rebel against the just commands of God Almighty and his Son Jesus Christ, because they believe that following the teachings of Christ is overly restrictive and confining.”
And so the Psalm, though it may at first sight seem dusty and obscure, in fact speaks to a situation that is very important even to us today. Want to know what the Psalmist winds up concluding? Read the rest of the second Psalm. It’s a classic.
Related Posts:
psalm 2:1-3, english translation and commentary
After church this Sunday, I joined my fellowcollegestudents for the traditional lunch and Bible study. We focused on Psalm 2 and Matthew 28 (they’re an interesting combination). In Psalm 2:1-3, there were some questions raised as to what exactly was being said. Although discussion cleared up the basic issues, there were some more details I thought were worth sharing but would be a bit confusing if brought up at that moment. So I’ll share those thoughts with you good folks.
First, a translation:
Certainly, we’re dealing with poetic text, and as such it does not follow the typical pattern of prose. But no need to despair. By looking at it carefully, we can understand. Firstly, note the / marks. I use those to illustrate the poetic structure of the Hebrew parallelism. Bottom line: in Hebrew poetry, there’s a tendency to repeat things in somewhat different ways. So we can consider each pair of statements to be part of a unified statement.
So let’s start with verse 1. The Psalmist is here telling us that the “nations” and “the people” are conspiring and thinking up a worthless thing. In Hebrew, “the nations” (goyim) is also the word for “gentiles,” that is, “non-Jews.” And as the Jews are considered “the people” of God, I think we’re safe in interpreting this first verse as referring to a foolish conspiracy between both Jews and non-Jews; a universal problem, not of any particular ethnic group. Furthermore, the framing of this verse as a question (Why . . . ?) is a feature used by the Psalmist to more clearly point out what a “vain thing” this conspiracy is.
Verse two elaborates upon this foolish conspiracy by telling us that the political rulers are carrying out this thinking and plotting against Jehovah and his Messiah. This Messiah is the Christ. And as Jesus said, “I and the Father are one,” so any plot against the Messiah Jesus Christ is also against his father.
But in the third verse there seems to be a break. “Let us break their fetters apart and cast off their chains from us.” The Psalmist does not explicitly tell us who is saying these words. It must be either Jehovah and his Messiah, or the kings and rulers. Because there is no good reason to think that Jehovah and his Messiah are in any sense “chained,” all that is left is for the rulers and kings to be saying these words. “Let us break their fetters . . . and cast of their chains” now makes sense as a statement that these kings and rulers of the earth want to cast off what they see as the imprisoning constraints of Jehovah’s and his Messiah’s commands.
So, if I may paraphrase this in a more prose style: “It is futile, the way many, Jews and Gentiles, conspire together against the God and Jesus Christ. People in leadership are involved in a coordinated effort to rebel against the just commands of God Almighty and his Son Jesus Christ, because they believe that following the teachings of Christ is overly restrictive and confining.”
And so the Psalm, though it may at first sight seem dusty and obscure, in fact speaks to a situation that is very important even to us today. Want to know what the Psalmist winds up concluding? Read the rest of the second Psalm. It’s a classic.
Related Posts: