Why read Psalm 2?
Psalm 2 offers encouragement when conflict or opposition unsettles you. It places human turmoil in the light of God's sovereignty and ends by blessing those who take refuge in Him.
You can read this psalm when its themes speak to your circumstances, or as part of your regular reading of the Psalter. This explanation draws on the text itself; the psalm is not reserved for one particular need.
The full text of Psalm 2 (12 verses), from the 1st Kathisma of the Psalter. The opening words — “Why did the nations rage and...” — are also the psalm’s traditional “name”: our grandmothers did not say “psalm 2”, but called it by name, using its first words.
The text of Psalm 2
1. Why did the nations rage and the peoples ponder vain things?
2. The kings of the earth rose up and the rulers gathered together against the Lord and His anointed, saying:
3. “Let us break their bonds and cast their yoke away from us.”
4. He who dwells in the heavens will laugh at them, and the Lord will mock them!
5. Then He will speak to them in His wrath and trouble them in His anger;
6. But I am appointed king by Him over Zion, His holy mountain, proclaiming the command of the Lord.
7. The Lord said to Me: “You are My Son, today I have begotten You!
8. Ask of Me and I will give You the nations as Your inheritance and the ends of the earth as Your dominion.
9. You will shepherd them with an iron rod; like a potter’s vessel You will shatter them!”
10. And now, kings, understand! Be instructed, all who judge the earth!
11. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice in Him with trembling.
12. Receive instruction, lest the Lord be angry and you perish from the straight path when His anger is quickly kindled! Blessed are all who hope in Him.
When Psalm 2 is read
- It belongs to the 1st Kathisma — the psalms are read in full within the cycle of kathismata, at Matins and Vespers.
- At the end of each psalm, tradition adds: «Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.».
Adjacent psalms
The numbering follows the Orthodox Psalter (Septuagint). The same psalm may have a different number in other Bible editions.
