The way or course of life which God does not know perishes. A path perishes when, like some dim forest track, it dies out, leaving the traveller bewildered amid impenetrable forests, or when, like some treacherous Alpine track among rotten rocks, it crumbles beneath the tread. Every course of life but that of the man who delights in and keeps the law of the Lord comes to a fatal end, and leads to the brink of a precipice, over which the impetus of descent carries the reluctant foot. "The path of the just is as the shining light, which shineth more and more till the noontide of the day. The way of the wicked is as darkness; they know not at what they stumble."
1 Why do the nations muster with tumult, And the peoples meditate vanity? 2 The kings of the earth take up their posts, And the chieftains sit in counsel together Against Jehovah and against His Anointed. 3 "Let us wrench off their bands, And let us fling off from us their cords."
4 He who sits in the heavens laughs; The Lord mocks at them. 5 Then He speaks to them in His anger-wrath, And in His wrath-heat puts them in panic. 6 ... "And yet I, I have set my King Upon Zion, my holy mountain."
7 I will tell of a decree: Jehovah said unto me, My son art thou; I have begotten thee this day. 8 Ask from me and I will give thee the nations as thine inheritance, And as thy possession the ends of the earth. 9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, Like a potter's vessel shalt thou shatter them.
10 And now, O kings, be wise; Let yourselves be warned, O judges of the earth. 11 Serve Jehovah in fear, And rejoice in trembling. 12 Kiss the Son (?), lest He be angry, and ye perish in [your] way; For easily may His wrath kindle. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him!
Various unsatisfactory conjectures as to a historical basis for this magnificent lyric have been made, but none succeeds in specifying events which fit with the situation painted in it. The banded enemies are rebels, and the revolt is widespread; for the "kings of the earth" is a very comprehensive, if we may not even say a universal, expression. If taken in connection with the "uttermost parts of the earth" (ver. 8), which are the King's rightful dominion, it implies a sweep of authority and a breadth of opposition quite beyond any recorded facts. Authorship and date must be left undetermined. The psalm is anonymous, like Psalm i., and is thereby marked off from the psalms which follow in Book I., and with one exception are ascribed to David. Whether these two preludes to the Psalter were set in their present place on the completion of the whole book, or were prefixed to the smaller "Davidic" collection, cannot be settled. The date of composition may have been much earlier than that of either the smaller or the larger collection.
The true basis of the psalm is not some petty revolt of subject tribes, even if such could be adduced, but Nathan's prophecy in 2 Sam. vii., which sets forth the dignity and dominion of the King of Israel as God's son and representative. The poet-prophet of our psalm may have lived after many monarchs had borne the title, but failed to realise the ideal there outlined, and the imperfect shadows may have helped to lift his thoughts to the reality. His grand poem may be called an idealising of the monarch of Israel, but it is an idealising which expected realisation. The psalm is prophecy as well as poetry; and whether it had contemporaneous persons and events as a starting-point or not, its theme is a real person, fully possessing the prerogatives and wielding the dominion which Nathan had declared to be God's gift to the King of Israel.