After Psalms 1 and 2, which are foundational psalms—the first stressing the importance of the law of God in one’s life, and the second the ultimate triumph of the Messiah—there are a number of psalms dealing with various circumstances that come into the godly man's life in which he must trust God. Psalm 3, which heads the list, describes a person who is in danger as a new day dawns.

In the final section of this psalm, verses 10-12, the narrator speaks again, uttering words of warning and entreaty to those who have not yet bowed before God's Son. Since the author of the psalm is not specifically identified, it is perhaps not overly whimsical to follow Ironside at this point too, since he speaks of "four voices" in the psalm: those of the world, of God the Father, of God the Son, and of God the Holy Spirit. It is the role of the Holy Spirit to draw us to Jesus, which is what the individual I have called the narrator is doing here.

The third section of the psalm, verses 7-9, contains the words of God's Anointed, the Lord Jesus Christ. Scholars who see Psalm 2 chiefly as a psalm of coronation for a Davidic king take the words "You are my Son; today I have become your Father" (v. 7) as a formula for the symbolic adoption of the Jewish king by God at the time of his inauguration. But aside from the fact that nothing like this is ever said or suggested in the Old Testament, the Bible's own handling of the words is always in regard to Jesus.

In the second section of the psalm, verses 4-6, the speaker is God the Father, though the narrator sets up his words just as in the opening section he set up the arrogant words of the rebelling monarchs. What is God's reaction to the haughty words of these pygmy human rulers? God does not tremble. He does not hide behind some vast celestial rampart, counting the enemy and calculating whether or not he has sufficient force to counter this new challenge to his kingdom. He does not even rise from where he is sitting. He "laughs" at these great imbeciles. 

The outline of Psalm 2 is straightforward. It divides into four nearly equal parts, each uttered by a different speaker or speakers. In the first section, verses 1-3, the speakers are the rebellious rulers of this earth, introduced by the narrator. He asks why they engage in anything as useless as trying to throw off the rule of God's Anointed.