Psalm 2/TPN/Overview

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The following gives a basic Overview of the Psalm, answering the following questions:

  • Title – what title best describes this unique psalm?
  • Purpose – why was this psalm written?
  • Content – in summary, what is said in this psalm?
  • Message – what is the main point or theme?

Every psalm has a coherent story behind it. However, many psalms are not written in typical "story" format, with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Here, we attempt to understand the story and background that prompted the psalmist to write.

Story Behind



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Knowing the layout of the psalm by sections helps us to understand the progression of thought as the poem progresses. The picture below shows the main “chunks” or pieces of the poem. Verse numbers appear on the left. The second column has a title for each section. The large third column contains a brief summary of the section’s content. As you read through the content column, you will see important words and ideas highlighted in similar colors. The icons on the right may be used as memory aids.

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Progression–what is the flow of thought and emotion as the poem progresses?


Part of poetry is communicating emotion. Each section, and even each verse, can contain a number of different emotions. Here are the main emotional themes of each section:

[[File:Psalm 2/TPN/Overview|class=img-fluid|825px]]


In poetry, it is important to keep track of who is speaking, who is the audience, and what it is that the speaker is trying to do with his words. In the chart below, the left-hand column identifies the speaker, the right-hand column identifies the audience, while the middle column tells what the speaker is trying to do with his words (his speech acts) in each section.

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Poetics–what kinds of artistic beauty did the psalmist incorporate into the poem to reinforce its message? (See Poetic Features video and layer for more details.)


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Prominence–what words, phrases, or ideas are most important in this psalm? It is also important to consider how the author chose to draw attention to certain parts of the psalm. Here are the parts of the psalm that we believe are most prominent, and thus should be most prominent in a performance of the psalm.

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