Introduction

Psm 2 seems innocuous to most Christian readers, but it is — together with Psms 22 and 118 — one of the psalms most frequently referenced to in the New Testament as it points to the work and person of our Lord Jesus Christ; "from the perspective of early Christianity," says Peter Craigie, "it is a messianic psalm par excellence."1

In all English translations of the Bible this psalm is entitled Psm 2. This habit has the support of Acts 13:33, where this psalm is quoted and identified as "the second psalm." The psalm, however, does not have a heading, and in some manuscripts it runs on from Psm 1 as if it is a continuation of it. Perhaps because of this Psms 1 & 2 are treated in some Jewish traditions as a single psalm, serving together as the introduction to the Psalter. This may seem strange to most of us since the two psalms — on a first reading — seem to deal with entirely different themes. On further reflection, however, there is a certain logic to their conjointment, though it is more difficult to discern in English translations. First, the two psalms are framed in what scholars call an inclusio. An inclusio is a literary device in which a passage opens with a key word and closes with the same word. Thus, Psm 1(v1) opens with "Blessed ('ashrey) is the man who . . ." and Psm 2(v12) closes with "Blessed ('ashrey) are all those who . . . " Psm 1(v1) speaks of the righteous man who refuses to "stand ('amad) in the way of sinners," Psm 2(v2) speaks of the kings of the earth who "take their stand" (yatsab) against Yahweh and His Anointed. Psm 1(v2) speaks of the righteous who "meditate (haga)" on Yahweh's torah day and night. Psm 2(v1) speaks of the people who "plot" (haga)," but what they haga upon is riq, a word often used in the Old Testament to describe the barren harvest from a land devastated by drought or God's curse (Gen 41:27; Lev 26:16, 20, 33) or of sacks and jars with nothing in them (Gen 42:35; Judg 7:16; 2 Ki 4:3; Eze 24:11). Psm 1(v6) warns of "the way (derek)" of the wicked that "will perish ('abad)," Psm 2(v12) warns those kings and rulers of the earth who would not submit of the possibility that they might "be destroyed ('abad) in your way (derek)."

Both psalms, therefore, urge commitment to Yahweh's way and warn of the dangers of the futility and destruction that sin and opposition to Yahweh's cause will surely bring. Psm 1 speaks to the person ("the man") in his/her personal capacity, while Psm 2 addresses, ostensibly, the kings and rulers of the nations to do the same in their role as representatives of the peoples they rule. In different ways they expound what it takes to be "blessed," 'ashrey, that is, to be the kind of people who model what all peoples ought to be. Anyone who picks up the Psalter to sing its songs—whether to help him praise God or to borrow its words to voice his grief for which he could not shape his own, or to lament and supplicate for help and favour—must first resolve the question of his allegiance to the ways and will of Yahweh. For those who would not walk in His ways, there is only the certainty of ultimate futility and loss. However loudly and fervantly they may sing the words and ape the rhythms of worship, they have no right or privilege to expect Yahweh to hear their plea or keep His promise. Those who take refuge in Him, however, are 'ashrey; theirs is the promise of Yahweh's favour and succour.

This commitment to Yahweh's agenda in the Psalms, however, takes on a whole new shape. John Walton has proposed seeing the entire work of the Psalter as "a cantata about the Davidic covenant."2 As a work that first took shape under David's liturgical reform, it is impossible for it not to have been shaped by his (and his administration's) understanding of Yahweh's covenant with, and promises to, him and his line. Many scholars now share this view that the Davidic covenant served as the framework for the entire Psalter; it is ultimately a work celebrating the rule of Yahweh through the Davidic kings. Seen in this framework, Psm 1 & 2—seen as one—therefore, moves the worshipper naturally from his personal commitment to walk in Yahweh's way to his theological commitment to God's kingdom as it is worked out through the Davidic kings. It is the first of the so-called 'royal psalms,'where we see the king in prayer.'' The divine offer to "ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession" (v8), therefore, "represents a form of fulfillment of [Yahweh's] promise to Abraham . . . The nation is destined to rule the world on [Yahweh's] behalf."3 From a Christian perspective this means commitment to the Messianic Son of David and His kingdom. It is little surprising, therefore, that the NT could so easily take up the later half of this psalm (what is now Psm2) and read it in the light of the work of Jesus the Christ. Our reading of the Psm, of course, can do no less.