I always come to these classes at night thinking yikes three hours, I'm going to run out of things to say and then I end them by thinking Wow, there was so much I had to leave out and you know Catapult to next time perhaps someone was asking if we were going to discuss a debrief McCann a little bit I would like to do that if we can possibly do it tonight I'm not I'm let's say cautiously optimistic that we'll get to McCann tonight if not we will get to him next time I'll make a point of that because very interesting stuff I know that some of you went to great lengths to get your hands on a copy of that essay over those two chapters. So Please reserve that keep it if we don't get to it tonight. Now what I want us to do in this session I want us to break up not immediately, but I want to give a little bit of instruction and then we're going to break up into our groups again Enjoy that body life and you and TV land can break up into your group. I hope it's more than one But if it's only one of you watching this then I guess you break up anyway What I want us to do tonight we're gonna you notice that one of the things I handed out was Psalm 2 sort of laid out in in Hibreia-sized English It's a it's a weird Layout of of Psalm 2 it doesn't flow particularly well in English But it reflects the Hebrew text in terms of word order as best I could and also when you see a hyphen Between words that means that in Hebrew that's one word or compound word, okay? So where there's not a hyphen where there's a space that's the space between a Hebrew word Now what I want you to do in in just a minute after I give a little more instruction is to break up into your groups and to do a poetic Scanchan repetition aids learning, but that's not all I want you to you know work through there and and begin to identify parallel terms. I know some of you love this today parallel terms and then just just to observe just to observe the parallelisms we have and the movement but then I want you to go beyond that toward what I'm going to describe as the explication of a song Leeland Reichen in one of his books entitled Words of Delight Leeland Reichen teaches literature at Wheaton College and has written a lot on the Bible as literature and has been doing so long before it was widely popular as it is today But he says he has a he has a four-part System for Explicating a song and if you're a teacher if you're going to be a preacher if you're ever going to be sharing your insights from the songs With someone else. This is not a bad way to go about it to explain or explicate a song It's four parts and it's kind of like you're in a you're in an airplane and you're coming in for a landing So you start with the big overview and you become increasingly specific So you put your audience into the picture and then and then then move on in until you're down at ground level and you're looking line by line and Exploring the riches of the song and so these are the four parts in fact I have them here on your outline under Explicating Hebrew poetry first he says you should give some indication in some subtle way of the genre and the implied Situation then talking about some titles well they imply a situation if you think it fits you can use that and talk a little bit about the Situation in the life of David now. We're going to look at Psalm 2 which doesn't have a superscription So you may or may not be able to say a lot about the implied situation, but you should be able to make some Stab that what kind of genre you're dealing with What type of what one of the literary forms? lament song of Thanksgiving him royal song wisdom song big five we've talked about and there many subheadings under that So you know you give them an idea This is a such and such kind of song whether or not they understand exactly what that means at least they've heard it And then you talk about the intellectual core. What is the topic? What is the theme? What's the difference between a topic and a theme? Well a topic can be expressed in in one word Whereas usually we think of a thematic statement, you know with a subject and predicate Topic would be God's sovereignty a thematic statement would be God is sovereign It doesn't sound like a big difference, but and it's not but you need to give them some indication of the what it's all about what this Psalm is about Then you talk about structure and unity see you're still you're starting high up Seeing the psalm at a glance, but now you're coming down and now you're gonna start to talk a little bit about structure and unity So what I want you to do in your groups and I'll I'll give you a cutoff point I'll say do your poetic scantions for I'll give you maybe seven minutes and then I'll say now I want you to talk about the Structure of this psalm for seven minutes, so you may not get through with either one of those But how does the psalm hang together? How would you outline it? What are its stanzas if you want to use that term? What is it? What is the outline of the psalm and then you come to what he calls poetic texture and That's where you can go back in and explaining the psalm once you've oriented yourself and others to the Structure and the unity of the psalm then you can begin to say now let's look at verse one What what do we learn from that? You know and then you really can go through the psalm line by line and they've got the they've got the orientation So they know where they are in terms of the overall structure of the psalm and you can talk about Parallelisms and say you know see how see how this line carries us a little bit farther See how this this line parallels what went before and sharpens it or heightens it in some way and there will be some Significance to some of these things so with that brief instruction any questions understand basically what's going on I want you to break up into your groups and begin don't be don't be overly perfectionistic about it begin Identifying terms try to identify parallel terms just so that you observe the relationships I'll give you a certain number of minutes and then I'll say all right now. I want you to start talking about unity and structure Okay, everyone finished Actually actually if you've gotten through the first two verses, let's say that's good Okay, some are a little farther than that. Maybe some are still getting there one group told me they spend a lot of time on the implied Situation and you know if they answered that question that's that's magnificent what we need to do now I didn't expect you to finish all the way. So that's fine. What I want you to do now is Just looking at the English not worrying so much about parallel terms. Maybe looking at the way I have it laid out on that sheet Trying to think about structure read through the whole psalm and say how does it hang together? What is it's unity and structure? Has it hang together and what is what how would I outline it? Okay, so this is more just outlining Okay Ladies and gentlemen your time is up whatever you haven't accomplished is homework. No just kidding. This is just an in-class exercise This is to give you an impression of what it would be like to forget to prepare your Sunday school lesson You know and have to do it in the 15 minutes while everyone else is drinking coffee, you know before you go in the class This is about how desperate you would be What I'd like us to do is now turn back this direction and let's do a little debriefing and Again, your task was impossible mine's gonna be impossible in the last 13 minutes of this class to do a proper Explication of psalm to but I want to just hit a few high spots and we'll race along and and see what we can accomplish and see what of this You've already discovered now don't be discouraged if you didn't discover a great great deal in what was about 20 minutes At best Let me let me project this and again. I know you're not gonna be able to see this too well. Let me try to focus it Better worse. That's better right a little better Who can tell they're just little black dots shall I turn this down to? Well, it's it's a screen, you know, it's not all it's no. Well, who is that so much? Oh, oh now I do need to turn on the light Excuse me, you know, there's always the option of turning on the lamp Hmm, okay That's like one of those very sobering experiences. Well, who okay now your first you're in terms of the explication Well, why don't we we'll just march through it that way and then we'll get to poetic texture We'll talk a little bit about parallelism genre and implied situation Among the ones we've talked about what what did we say this was? Probably royal a kingly song, okay, because it's talking about Against Yahweh and against his anointed that being a kingly title in this instance implied situation Sounds like maybe a coronation, you know of a power change and in in these kinds of cultures in the ancient Near East and even elsewhere Transitions of power or times when people make bids for power and so this could be a coronation It would be a time perhaps when the nations would be in tumult in tumult Acts 425 does ascribe this song to David now We don't have a superscription in the Hebrew text, but we need to bear in mind what the New Testament makes with it I don't know exactly what all to make of that it does sound very much as if David is the the writer of this song So I would take that at face but there may be more to be said there But I don't want to say it now in the interest of time intellectual core topic and theme What would you say the topic of this song is Sovereignty of God could we be more specific a little bit because he sovereign in so many ways His authority Yeah rule his rule over the nation over the nations maybe Yahweh's rule and if we wanted to add even a little bit to that We could add Yahweh's rule through his anointed as the anointed one figures largely Could you give a thematic statement? That's if that's the topic Yahweh's rule. What about a thematic statement? Okay, Yahweh rules through his anointed can we bring can we bring the The opposition the agitation into this in some way That's rebellion Maybe something like what about earthly rebellion or maybe the powers of this world are no match for Yahweh's anointed something like that That's rather casual thematic statement, but something that long those lines that tries to bring in the rebellion brings in Yahweh's sovereign rule and the fact that he chooses to do that through the instrumentality of his anointed one Okay, now what about structure and unity? How many divided this song into four parts? Okay I did leave an extra space between some of those verses it does there may be other ways to do it But it works very nicely just to divide it verses one to three four to six seven to nine and ten to twelve Okay, and and as Let's go on and talk about well Maybe I can do it this way Give you just a brief word about the the structure and unity and if we had time You know I could hear what all your groups have done But just see if any of this is similar to maybe what some of what you're beginning to discover versus one to three The psalmist is speaking and he is one he is wondering at the arrogance of worldly powers in opposing Yahweh in his anointed he asked a question why You know how can this be That's in one to three in verses four to six Yahweh himself responds and we have a description of his derisive response to this earthly rebellion And we have the terrifying announcement that his king is already installed Okay, so notice the speaker changed in in the first three verses it was the psalmist describing the the problem the situation In four to six we hear Yahweh's response and then we actually hear him speaking Just as at the end of the in verse three we hear the earthly rulers and rebellion we hear them speaking now We hear Yahweh speaking in verse six And then in verses seven to nine we hear the anointed king himself speaking let me tell of the decree of the Lord And then in verses 10 to 12 the psalmist again comes back and warns the worldly powers with with whom he began Wondering at their arrogance and their rebellion he now comes back and warns them to turn from their arrogance and To serve Yahweh and to kiss the son All right, so in in very brief terms you could describe the structure the unity and structure does seem to hang together Speakers change, but it all is a nice flow once you recognize that Notice that in the in the text it doesn't say and then Yahweh said or and then the anointed one said But you can discern that from just carefully observing Now let's look at poetic texture And we've got just a few minutes so we'll we'll move along and I'll just make quick comments as we go First let's look at the earthly rebellion the first three verses and many of you are getting this I know that it is not possible to get very far in this song in seven minutes But if you just begin since you probably can't see it. I'll describe what's here I put an a over why you could you don't have to do that it is why is assumed in the second half So why are they in tumult? I made that my b term the nations. I made that the c term And the peoples okay paralleling nations Imagining devising vanity notice why is assumed for both halves but the The b element are they in tumult is now I think Specified it's made more specific you know because you can be in tumult because you're happy or excited or for whatever reason But now we know that they are imagining devising vanity Okay, then the second line now some of you very astutely Continued using terms from the first line because there is interlinear parallelism To keep my life simple I started again with a and said I'll recognize that other later all right So they take their stand some of you made that be again, you know They're in tumult their devising vanity they take their stand who the kings of the earth Okay, that parallels the nations and the peoples Okay, so you could do it that way. I just started again with a no relation to the proceeding on the kings of the earth be And the rulers be prime sit in conclave together And then in sort of a tri-colon perhaps or a very short Additional by colon you have the object of their rebellion against Yahweh and against his anointed one Those are obviously in parallel those two terms Okay, any focusing or sharpening here. Well, I think so they take their stand That can be an individual an individual action of Act of defiance But not only do they do that they join up in defiance against the Lord and against his anointed one So you see how there's a kind of a going one better as we hear the description and now we come to a direct quotation And they say let us snap a Their fetters be and let us cast a prime From us that's a new element. So I made that see Their chords. I see that as paralleling their fetters. I remember these are observational tools There's not even exactly right way to do this Any progression there Well, it's it's sort of graphic and you see this idea of if you vote if you watch to one of these hercules I don't recommend the hercules movies that are on or the TV shows right now nor whatever that woman is Zena see I knew you're watching Zena. I don't necessarily recommend them for certainly not for children They kind of come across as children shows, but you know You've seen hercules, you know, he's with these bulging biceps and they put something on his arm And he just go pop you know and pops it and so he pops their he pops their fetters and then he casts them from him So you do see that graphic image, you know, if nothing else. There's that going one better break it first and throw it away Okay, and so that's what that's the nature of their rebellion and you know God is just terrified, isn't he? You know as it as as the speaker changes the narrator now turns from the what's happening On earth to what's happening in heaven and he says the one who sits in heaven laughs The Lord okay, I put that as a b because that is the one who sits in heaven in the heavens the Lord mocks them okay, so laughs and mocks Again laughter is unspecified. That could be just joviality and and and and the light But mockery he's laughing in derision and the object of his laughing is those who are in rebellion against them He first laughs he thinks it laughable that humans would rebel against him this way Then he will speak to them in his anger And in his fury in his fury paralleling in his anger He will terrify them okay, that's he will speak to them. He will terrify them. Those are in parallel Now some have said well that that's not even really in parallel because You know speaking and terrifying are not sufficiently like ideas There's a very sophisticated linguistic discussion that says that we should translate not speak but berate Well, that's that's a possibility that that's not fully convincing Knowing what we know about sharpening and intensification and heightening. I think it's fine to say generally Then he will speak to them in his anger He'll have a word with them and in so doing he will terrify them with his fury Okay, so I see this is acceptably parallel even with this translation And this is what he will say Again, the text doesn't have direct quotation marks, but it seems to be what y'all are saying But as for me I have installed my king upon Zion my holy mountain my letters get a little off here I see upon Zion and my holy mountain as being in opposition saying the same thing twice. So this is More or less what we call synthetic parallelism, but as for me I have installed my king upon Zion my holy mountains like one continuous sentence Okay, no, no synonymous parallelism going on there Then we come almost to the end of our time then we come to the the the anointed one and he speaks first Let me tell the decree of the Lord He said to me my son are you I today have begotten you and hear my letters really get skewed I know where they go you may not Ask of me and I will give the nations as your inheritance and as your possession the ends of the earth Okay sharpening of these two terms the B terms the nations. Yes Indeed the very ends of the earth Will be the possession of the anointed one the sun you shall break them with the rod of iron as a vessel of a potter You shall shatter them break shatter those I think are clearly parallel with the with the sharpening there and then we come back having Having heard from the rebels having heard from the one who sits in heaven who first laughs and then confronts Having heard from the one he has appointed and installed on Zion of what the decree is and that he will be given rule Then the psalmist comes back and I heard one of the groups I overheard them saying isn't it interesting when you read the whole thing to see the redemptive character even of this psalm Where the psalmist returns even to the rebels with warning and doesn't just say so forget you guys He says so now oh kings be wise Accept correction oh judges of the earth serve Yahweh with reverence rejoice with trembling Kiss the sun if we had time we could talk about that That naughty interpretational problem. I think that's probably right Some other translations will say do pure homage or do pure give pure worship And it has to do with the fact that sun in aramaic is bar And there's also a word that means pure that has the same is the same way so kiss purely Okay, give a pure kiss of homage. Well kiss the sun. I think works because the nations are being addressed And the lingua franca for those nations was aramaic Okay, so when he turns to address them he says kiss the sun the anointed one the one who has been described here lest he be angry and he and you perish in the way for ignited in an instant is his anger But happy are all seeking refuge in him what does that remind you of but happy are blessed is the man and So in Psalm 2 we have sort of the book end of the introduction of the Psalter Psalm 1 describes the two ways for the individual and Psalm 2 describes the two ways for the nations And both in in tale warning and description of the wicked but both also Include description of what it is that brings joy what it is that brings happiness now I was formerly optimistic Yeah, you have cautiously optimistic of discussing mechan tonight I'm no longer optimistic of discussing mechan tonight But we will try to we will definitely discuss mechan when we meet again when In two weeks, okay, so don't come next week and be upset