translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: PSA

label: NET study note

text: . In this royal psalm the author asserts the special status of the divinely chosen Davidic king and warns the nations and their rulers to submit to the authority of God and his chosen vice-regent.


text: The expression kings of the earth refers somewhat hyperbolically to the kings who had been conquered by and were subject to the Davidic king.


text: And terrifies them in his rage. This line focuses on the effect that God’s angry response (see previous line) has on the rebellious kings.


text: ‘You are my son!’ The Davidic king was viewed as God’s “son” (see 2 Sam 7:14 ; Ps 89:26-27 ). The idiom reflects ancient Near Eastern adoption language associated with covenants of grant, by which a lord would reward a faithful subject by elevating him to special status, referred to as “sonship.” Like a son, the faithful subject received an “inheritance,” viewed as an unconditional, eternal gift. Such gifts usually took the form of land and/or an enduring dynasty. See M. Weinfeld, “The Covenant of Grant in the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near East,” JAOS 90 (1970): 184-203, for general discussion and some striking extra-biblical parallels.


text: I will give you the nations. The Lord promises the Davidic king universal dominion.


text: Like a potter ’ s jar . Before the Davidic king’s awesome power, the rebellious nations are like fragile pottery.


text: The speaker here is either the psalmist or the Davidic king, who now addresses the rebellious kings .


text: Who take shelter in him . “Taking shelter” in the Lord is an idiom for seeking his protection. Seeking his protection presupposes and even demonstrates the subject’s loyalty to the Lord. In the psalms those who “take shelter” in the Lord are contrasted with the wicked and equated with those who love, fear, and serve the Lord ( Pss 5:11-12; 31:17-20; 34:21-22 ).