Introduction To Psalms

HoHum:

Philip Yancey wrote in How I learned to stop hating and start loving the Psalms: “People around me seemed to use the book as a spiritual medicine cabinet. “If you feel depressed, read Psalm 37.” If you health fails, try Psalm 121.” That approach never worked for me. Instead, I would with uncanny consistency land on a psalm that merely exacerbated, not cured, my problem. Church historian Martin Marty judges about a 1/3rd of the psalms to be “wintry” in tone, and when feeling down I would accidentally turn to one of the wintriest psalms and end up frostily depressed.”

WBTU:

Philip Yancey goes on to say, “The process of letting God in on every detail of life is one I need to learn from the Psalms. I am continually amazed by the spiritual wholeness of the Hebrew poets, who sought to include God in every area of life. They brought to God every emotion experienced in every daily activity. For them, there were no walked off areas; God could be trusted with reality.”

Thesis: Introduction to Psalms

For instances:

I. The significance of Psalms

A. The Psalms have had a magnetic effect of drawing God’s people to its pages

1. Located in the center of the Bible. Many have observed that this is symbolic of their importance. Got Questions says, “There is a traditional belief that Psalm 118:8, which reads, “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in humans,” is the middle verse of the Bible. However, this is not correct. There are 31,102 verses in the Bible (KJV). Since the count is an even number, there is no single middle verse of the Bible. Psalm 103:1–2 are the two middle verses of the Bible, with 15,550 verses before them and 15,550 verses after them. The middle verses of the Bible say this: “Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all His benefits” (Psalm 103:1–2). Such an observation is not intended to detract from the importance of the Gospels or Acts. Rather, it is a reminder that the Psalms have been at the heart of the worship of God’s people for centuries.

2. Unequaled in range and power of expression. Praise/ Lament; Petition/ complaint; celebration of God’s grace/ begging for more help; assurance/ anxiety; vowing of loyalty/ voicing of disappointment, doubt. Philip Yancey wrote, “In my fixation with the details of the psalms- their categories, interpretive meaning, Logical consistency, poetic form- I had missed the point, which is that Psalms comprises a sampling of spiritual journals. They are personal letters to God.” Even so, they help us express our thoughts and feelings to God.

3. The deepest feelings of the human heart come through devoutly, honestly, beautifully, and forcefully. Seldom has a people opened their souls so freely to all humanity as has Israel in the Psalms. Yet the Psalms are more than an eye into Israel. They witness to the timeless and universal nature of man and his relationship to God. Whoever an individual finds himself on his journey of faith, the Psalms will speak to his needs.

B. Israel’s use of Psalms

1. The psalms were designed to be a hymnal for use in the temple and synagogue worship. Musicians were provided to worship God in the temple and the psalms were composed to be used there. According to the Mishna, certain psalms were recited on certain days of the week in the temple. A song of ascents is a grouping of Psalms that were recited on the way to the temple for a religion celebration- Psalms 120-134.

2. Church’s use of Psalms.

A). Jesus- Occupied an important place in His own devotion and worship. His teachings were salted with quotations from Psalms. Jesus urged his followers to find His coming foretold in them (Luke 24:44- He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms”).

B). Apostles and 1st century Christians. New Testament quotes from Psalms more than any other OT book. Of the NT’s 283 direct quotations from the OT, 116 are from Psalms- over 40%. If a NT writer views a psalm as predictive of the Messiah, then we must accept without question the validity of that approach. The early church worshipped God with “psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit” (Colossians 3:16). Surely Paul and Silas used psalms as they sang at midnight in the Philippians jail (Acts 16:25).

C). Christ’s example and the example of the early church combined to establish a tradition for the Christian church which has continued through the centuries. All through the Middle Ages the walls of the European monasteries echoed with the chanting of Psalms. In the Catholic Church the signing of praises to God was reserved for priests and monks. When the Reformers, like John Huss and Martin Luther, broke off from the Catholic Church, they gave singing back to the people as it was in NT times. The Protestant Reformation once again put the reading/ singing of Psalms at the center of worship services. Appreciation for and use of the Psalms has suffered a decline in modern times. A shift toward more non liturgical worship has been a factor. The hectic pace of modern life has led to a deterioration of devotional life. For many people the number of Psalms they know by heart has dwindled to 2 (23rd and 100). Such a situation cannot be desirable in light of the Psalm’s popularity for so many centuries. What are your favorite psalms? Let me know and I will go over them. Go over Psalm 1 next week so have time.