Introduction to the Psalms
The psalms of the Old Testament are at the heart of the spiritual experiences of Jew and Gentile believer alike. (Shelly) The book of Psalms was a manual and guide for the devotional life of Jewish believers. It came to be used as a hymnal at the temple and synagogue. The early church used it both in public and in private settings. When Benedict formed his monasteries he directed that the psalms all be sung, read, and prayed at least once a week. (Keller) The Psalms played a role in the Reformation. Martin Luther directed that “the whole Psalter, psalm by psalm, should remain in use.” John Calvin wrote, “The design of the Holy Spirit was…to deliver the church a common form of prayer.” They still serve the people of God today by providing devotional reflection, comfort, encouragement, praise to God, prayers of penitence, etc. Psalms is the longest book of the Old Testament and the one most often quoted in the New Testament.
What is your favorite Psalm?
We are not simply to read psalms; we are to be immersed in them so that they profoundly shape how we relate to God. The psalms are the divinely ordained way to learn devotion to our God. (Keller) Luther called the psalms a “mini Bible.” It gives an overview of salvation history from creation through the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai, the establishment of the tabernacle and temple, the exile due to unfaithfulness, and it points us forward to the coming messianic redemption and the renewal of all things. It treats the doctrines of revelation (Psalm 19), of God (Psalm 139), and of human nature (Psalm 8) and sin (Psalm 14).
N. T. Wright: They are full of power and passion, horrendous misery and unrestrained jubilation, tender sensitivity and powerful hope. Anyone at all whose heart is open to new dimensions of human experience, anyone who loves good writing, anyone who wants a window into the bright lights and dark corners of the human soul—anyone open to the beautiful expression of a larger vision of reality should react to these poems like someone who hasn’t had a good meal for a week or two. It’s all here.
In this introduction we are going to look at the character and nature of the Psalms as we plan to spend the next several weeks looking at some of the Psalms and how to use them in our lives. Psalms is a Book of Books Written by Many Authors. The book is divided into five groups of songs, each ending with a doxology. Psalm 1-41 Psalm 42-72 Psalm 37-89 Psalm 90-106 Psalm 107-150
(150 serves as the doxology to close the collection -Utley)
Who Wrote the Psalms? 73 are attributed to David. 2 are from Solomon (72, 127). One each from Heman (88) and Ethan (89). One by Moses (90). 23 by the levitical singing groups of Asaph (50; 73-83) and Korah (42-49; 84; 85; 87). 49 are are anonymous.
Headings. “Two-thirds of the psalms are introduced by headings; the other psalms are sometimes called orphan psalms because they don’t ‘belong to anybody’.” (Mays) The headings belong to individual psalms, were not part of the original text. (Utley)
We do not know when or by whom the book was given its present arrangement.
Psalms 1 and 2 serve as introduction to the whole collection.
When have the Psalms been important to you / your spiritual life?
There are Different Kinds of Psalms (Mays)
Lament: Prayer for help of an individual. “This type is by far the most numerous in the Psalter. The typical character is: An individual in serious troubles cries out to the Lord for salvation.” McCann suggests the characteristic elements:
-Opening address, such as “O Lord’.
-Description of the trouble or distress, complaint.
-Plea for help, often accompanied by reasons for God to hear and act.
-Profession of trust or confident in God.
-Promise or vow to praise God or to offer a sacrifice.
-However, each lament has some degree of uniqueness, not all have all elements.
A type of lament Psalm is the Imprecatory Psalm. Lamenting evil people: Fiery appeals for God to pour out his wrath on evildoers and enemies of the nation. (35; 69; 109; 137). Lamenting the lack of justice. Lewis: The writers of the Psalms…look forward to “judgement” because they think they have been wronged and hope to see their wrongs righted. Lamenting the delay of God’s intervention: The Psalmists are not pleading for personal revenge but for the vindication of God’s right ways among men. Both Testaments teach that vengeance-taking is God’s business, yet both Testaments teach that God sometimes takes vengeance through human agency.
Navigators: It’s best to view the imprecatory psalms as we do the rest of the psalms: as deep, heartfelt expressions that we offer to the throne of heaven, confident that God will not only comfort us … but also give us the confidence that He will have the final word in all matters of injustice. Then we will be free to forgive our enemies and eventually be able to ask God to be merciful to them, even if they remain hard-hearted and remorseless.
Bob Ekblad “The psalms articulate cries for help, feelings of abandonment, and confession of sins with language that desperate people can relate to. The psalmist makes requests that hurting people can easily identify with. Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? (Psalm 10:1) Rouse yourself! Why do you sleep, O Lord? Awake, do not cast us off forever! (Psalm 4:23). If the psalmist can pray like this, maybe I can dare to express my true sentiments.
A second kind of Psalm is Thanksgiving song of an individual. “This poor man called, and the Lord heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles” (Psalm 34:6). McCann: The offering of the praise that is regularly promised in the concluding sections of the laments. Expressions of praise and gratitude to God
A third kind of Psalm is the Corporate prayer for help. When disaster threatened the existence of the entire national community, urgent prayer was offered on behalf of the people of God. These are laments from the perspective of the community, not just an individual (Psalm 44, 74, 79, 80, 83). McCann: The communal laments encourage reflection on what it means to continue to profess faith in God’s sovereignty in situations of severe extremity.
A fourth kind of Psalm is The Hymn / Song of Praise. “Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom.” (Ps 145:3). McCann points out that sub categories of songs of praise are:
-Enthronement Psalms that proclaim the reign of God (29, 47, 93, 95-99)
-Songs of Zion that focus praise on the city of Jerusalem (46; 48; 76; 84; 87; 122) Wright: When we take the Psalms as a whole and learn to stand at their complex intersection of God’s time and ours, of the past Davidic kingdom with its flaws and failures and the coming kingdom of God, with Jesus at the middle of that sequence, we find that they themselves express the eschatological tension and invite us to stand exactly there.
A fifth type of Psalm are Psalms of Instruction. These guide and encourage the trust and obedience of worshipers. Some call these wisdom or Torah Psalms in that they share characteristics or themes similar to wisdom literature. Torah is a Hebrew word that means instruction that comes from God. One of the wisdom psalms opens the Psalter and serves as a kind of preface - Psalm 1! Psalm 1, 19, 119 are often identified as torah or law Psalms.
The Psalms Tell Us About God. At the heart of the psalms is the personal God of Israel. The Psalmists never tire of praising God as Creator, Sustainer, Lawgiver, Ruler, Vindicator, and Judge. The direct and earnest prayers were natural outpourings of hearts which were intimate with the Almighty.
-The Psalms stress the infinity of God (Psalm 139)
1. He is omniscient (1-6)
2. He is omnipresent (7-12)
3. He is omnipotent (13-18)
4. He is infinite in righteousness (19-24)
-The Psalms magnify the goodness of God (Psalm 103)
1. Individuals know his mercies (1-5)
2. His chosen people know his love (6-19)
3. All creation rejoices him (vs 20-22)
-God’s righteousness and justice are extolled in the psalms (Psalm 5)
1. Mankind needs the Lord (1-3)
2. God hates evil (4-6)
3. God blesses the righteous (7-21)
-God is forgiving toward the penitent (Psalm 51)
1. Mankind needs the Lord (1-3)
2. God hates evil (4-6)
3. God blesses the righteous (7-21)
-God is the shepherd of his people (Psalm 23)
1. His people can depend on his care throughout their pilgrimage (1-4)
2. His people will dwell with him forever (5-6)
-Keller: The Psalms help us see God - God not as we wish or hope him to be but as he actually reveals himself.
The Psalms Anticipate the Messiah. Both Judaism and Christianity see a number of the Psalms as
predictions of the Christ. Several psalms are cited in the NT and interpreted as having spoken of the Christ. The manner of presenting these psalms in the NT seems to imply that the whole corpus of the psalms is regarded as foreshadowing the Christ whenever it refers to David or the Davidic throne. Christ is presented as…
-Prophet (22:22)
-Priest (110:4)
-King (2:6; 45:6)
-Sufferer (22:1-18)
-Son of God (2:7)
“The frequency of the use of the psalms is evidence of the essential role the Psalter plays in New Testament literature and thought. The psalms are especially crucial in Christology. They are the primary scriptural context for the titles by which Jesus has been identified.” (Mays)
Jesus claimed that the psalms spoke of him. Luke 24:44b “Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” The Psalms were Jesus’ songbook. There is every reason to assume that Jesus would have sung all the psalms, constantly , throughout his life, so that a he knew them by heart. It is the book of The Bible that he quotes more than any other. (Keller)
The Church Used the Psalms
The Church of the New Testament knew and used the Psalms. When the early church was wondering whether to replace Judas, they turned to Psalm 69 (Acts 1:20). When Peter preached at Pentecost, he used Psalms 16 and 110 to teach Christ’s resurrection (Acts 2:26-36). Paul taught salvation by faith from Psalm 32 (Romans 4:6-8). Peter teaches believers to return good for evil based on Psalm 34 (1 Peter 3:9-12) (Johnson) The early church used psalms in its public worship in song. Ephesians 5:19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord,
Colossians 3:16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. Mays: “Psalms have been recited and sung in a variety of ways in services of worship - as
responsorials, chants, and metrical hymns.”
The church has used the psalms as personal guides to spiritual growth.
Mays: The psalms have been used widely and continuously to nurture and guide personal meditations and devotions. Christians have said them as their own prayers, as guides to learning pray, and as texts through which they came to know themselves and God more surely. … a chain of prayer that binds the saints across the ages and frees them from isolation and arbitrary autonomy in prayer.
The Psalms Address the Matters of the Heart. (Piper)
Piper: One of the reasons the Psalms are deeply loved by so many Christians is that they give expression to an amazing array of emotions. See list of emotions below.
Ancient church father, Athanasius, wrote, “Whatever your particular need or trouble, from the same book [the psalms] you can select a form of words to fit it, so that you … learn the way to remedy your ill.” (Keller)
Meditative Use of the Psalms (Holloway)
Meditation.
Reading the Bible is not like reading other books. We are not simply trying to learn information or master material. Instead, we want to stand under the authority of Scripture and let God master us. While we read the Bible, it reads us, opening the depths of our being to the overpowering love of God. (Hebrews 4:12-13). The Psalmist joyously meditates on the words of God (Ps. 1:2; 39:3; 119:15, 23, 27, 48, 78, 97, 99, 148). Meditation is taking the words of Scripture to heart and letting them ask questions of us. It is slowing down, chewing over a text, listening closely, reading God’s message of love to us over and over. There are many ways to meditate. Praying and Bible study cannot be separated. One way of praying the Bible is to make the words of a text your prayer. We are asking God to open our hearts, minds, and lives to him. We ask to hear his voice, not ours and not the voice of the world around us.
Community.
We study the Bible in community. By praying over Scripture in a group, we hear God’s Word together. God speaks through the other members offer group. The wisdom he gives through them keeps us from private, selfish, unusual interpretations. They help us keep our own voices in check as we desire to listen only to God.
Prayer
We pray with God’s covenant people. The Psalmists lifted up God’s people, Israel, in prayer. Like the Psalmist, we live in a world of injustice. In the face of poverty, racism, violence, and war, the Psalms give us words to plead for justice. We pray and sing in solidarity with the oppressed.
And we also sing and pray with Jesus.
When Christians end their prayers with “In Jesus Name,” we are not merely signing off on the prayer. Jesus is there with us and in us, bringing our cries to the Father.
As we meditate on the Psalms, we sing and pray from the heart. We sing and pray with God’s people. We sing and pray for the oppressed. We sing and pray with Jesus and the Spirit.
Conclusion
Keller offers a three step manner of contemplating the Psalms:
-Adore - What did you learn about God for which you could praise or thank him?
-Admit - What did you learn about yourself for which you could repent?
-Aspire - What did you learn about life that you could aspire to, ask for, and act on?
Now turn your meditation into a personal prayer. This will take you into the deep level of wisdom and insight the psalms can provide.
Tim Keller: Psalms, then, are not just a matchless primer of teaching but a medicine chest for the heart and the best possible guide for practical living. They are written to be prayed, recited, and sung - to be done, not merely to be read. The Psalms themselves indicate that the human beings who sing them are actually being changed by doing so. Their very innermost selves—which include their physical selves—are being transformed.
Next Wednesday: Psalm 1 - Strong Roots in the Lord
Piper’s List of Emotions in the Psalms
Loneliness: “I am lonely and afflicted” (Psalms 25:16).
Love: “I love you, O Lord, my strength” (Psalms 18:1).
Awe: “Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him” (Psalms 33:8).
Sorrow: “My life is spent with sorrow” (Psalms 31:10).
Regret: “I am sorry for my sin” (Psalms 38:18).
Contrition: “A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalms 51:17).
Discouragement and turmoil: “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me” (Psalms 42:5)?
Shame: “Shame has covered my face” (Psalms 44:15).
Exultation: “In your salvation how greatly he exults” (Psalms 21:1).
Marveling: “This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes” (Psalms 118:23).
Delight: “His delight is in the law of the Lord” (Psalms 1:2).
Joy: “You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound” (Ps 4:7).
Gladness: “I will be glad and exult in you” (Psalms 9:2).
Fear: “Serve the Lord with fear” (Psalms 2:11).
Anger: “Be angry, and do not sin” (Psalms 4:4).
Peace: “In peace I will both lie down and sleep” (Psalms 4:8).
Grief: “My eye wastes away because of grief” (Psalms 6:7).
Desire: “O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted” (Psalms 10:17).
Hope: “Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you” (Psalms 33:22).
Brokenheartedness: “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18)
Gratitude: “I will thank you in the great congregation” (Psalms 35:18).
Zeal: “Zeal for your house has consumed me” (Psalms 69:9).
Pain: “I am afflicted and in pain” (Psalms 69:29).
Confidence: “Though war arise against me, yet I will be confident” (Psalms 27:3).
Songs That Shape the Mind and Heart - sermon by John Piper
https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/songs-that-shape-the-heart-and-mind
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References
Ekblad, Bob. Reading the Bible With the Damned. John Knox Press, 2005.
Holloway, Gary. Psalms: Hymns of God’s People. Leafwood, 2022.
Johnston, James A. Preaching the Word: The Psalms (Vol. 1). Crossway, 2015.
Keller, Timothy. The Songs of Jesus: A Year of Daily Devotions in the Psalms. Viking, 2015.
Lewis, C. S. Reflections on the Psalms. Mariner Books, 1958.
Navigators, The. LifeChange Bible Study Series: Psalms. NavPress, 2010.
Mays, James L. Interpretation Commentary: Psalms. John Knox Press, 1994.
McCann, J. Clinton, Jr. The New Interpreters Bible Commentary, Vol. 3, The Book of Psalms. Abingdon, 2015.
Piper, John. Sermon - Songs That Shape the Mind and Heart.
https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/songs-that-shape-the-heart-and-mind
Shelly, Rubel. A Book-By-Book Study of the Old Testament. 20th Century Christian, 1982.
Utley, Bob. Introduction to the Psalms. https://bible.org/seriespage/introduction-psalms
Valentine, Bobby. https://stonedcampbelldisciple.com/
Wright, N. T. The Case for the Psalms: Why They Are Essential. HarperOne, 2013.
Chart of Types of Psalms https://www.crivoice.org/psalmtypes.html
Swindoll’s chart of the Psalms: https://www.insightforliving.ca/read/insights-bible/psalms
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Monthly Psalm Reading Plan
Day 1 Psalm 1-5
Day 2 Psalm 6-10
Day 3 Psalm 11-16
Day 4 Psalm 17-20
Day 5 Psalm 21-25
Day 6 Psalm 26-30
Day 7 Psalm 31-35
Day 8 Psalm 36-42
Day 9 Psalm 43-46
Day 10 Psalm 47-51
Day 11 Psalm 52-56
Day 12 Psalm 57-61
Day 13 Psalm 62-67
Day 14 Psalm 68-72
Day 15 Psalm 73-77
Day 16 Psalm 78-82
Day 17 Psalm 83-87
Day 18 Psalm 88-92
Day 19 Psalm 93-97
Day 20 Psalm 98-102
Day 21 Psalm 103-107
Day 22 Psalm 108-112
Day 23 Psalm 113-118
Day 24 Psalm 119
Day 25 Psalm 120-125
Day 26 Psalm 126-130
Day 27 Psalm 131-136
Day 28 Psalm 137-140
Day 29 Psalm 141-144
Day 30 Psalm 145-147
Day 31 Psalm 148-150
Source: Bobby Valentine https://stonedcampbelldisciple.com/
