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.
II. Origin and development of Psalms
A. Origin
We know that Moses and the Israelites celebrated their victory at the Red Sea with hymns, the Songs of Moses and Miriam (Exodus 15:1-18, 21). We know that Moses wrote Psalm 90.
The victory of Deborah and Barak over Rabin, king of Canaan, was celebrated in much the same way as at the Red Sea (Judges 5).
Eventually, the Israelites began to collect their poetry. Mentions of book of Jasher (Joshua 10:13 talking about Joshua’s victory over the Amorites and 2 Samuel 1:18 talking about David’s lament over the death of Saul- the book has been lost to us)
David contributed the most to Israel’s extensive use of psalms in worship. There is David’s reputation as the “sweet psalmist of Israel.” When King Saul was tormented, David’s songs brought relief (1 Samuel 16:14-23). When David brought the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem, he had a great celebration with all kinds of instruments (2 Samuel 6:5). David is the founder and organizer of temple music. Look up 1 Chronicles 23:2-6 and then 25:1-2. 73 mentioned as David’s but Psalm 2 and 95 are ascribed to David in the NT so 75. Asaph was also the author of some of the psalms. Find this in 1 Chronicles 15:19 says, “The musicians Heman, Asaph and Ethan were to sound the bronze cymbals” Make copies of chart and pass them out. Who were the sons of Korah? Who was Korah? Korah is mentioned in Numbers 16:1- “Korah son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and certain Reubenites—Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth—became insolent and rose up against Moses." Now these were all burned to death or the earth swallowed them up. Even so, we find that the line of Korah did not die out- Numbers 26:11. These sons of Korah were very different from their notorious ancestor. 50 of the Psalms are anonymous (minus the 2 to David), although many of the anonymous ones are attributed to David.
B. Development
Book of Psalms came into being by a process of collecting over a span of about 600 years. Different authors from widely ranging time periods. 5 fold division within the book itself. Book I- Psalm 1-41; Book II Psalms 42-72; Book III Psalms 73-89; Book IV Psalms 90-106; Book V Psalm 107-150. One theory is that the 5 divisions of Psalms reflect the 5 books of the Torah- Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Book I corresponds with Genesis having much to say about man. Book II corresponds with Exodus having much to say about redemption. Book III corresponds with Leviticus and emphasizes worship. Book IV begins with the psalm of Moses (Psalm 90) and corresponds with Numbers stressing wandering. Book V corresponds with Deuteronomy and offers Thanksgiving for God’s faithfulness with emphasis on the word of God. Psalm 119, the longest, has as its theme “the word of the Lord.” Perhaps the central thought of this book of praise is Psalm 95:6-7: “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.”
4 possible eras when such collecting and editing took place are suggested in the historical books.
1. David (1010-970 BC). David assigned a division of the Levites to the musical service of the Temple (2 Chronicles 23:2-6). Logical to suppose that a collection of Davidic psalms would have come into existence toward the end of his reign or soon after death.
2. Jehoshaphat (873-848 BC). Revival results from increased emphasis on teaching the Law (2 Chronicles 17:7-9). Much Levitical activity and literary fervor associated with it.
3. Hezekiah (715- 685 BC). Revitalized temple worship including the musical responsibilities of the Levites (2 Chronicles 29:25-30). Hezekiah’s literary interest is noted in Proverbs 25:1. By the end of his reign, hymnody had reached a new plateau.
4. Ezra and Nehemiah (458- 400 BC). Temple singers had an honored status during the governorship of Zerubbabel when the temple was rebuilt (Nehemiah 12:47). Later, when the walls of Jerusalem were dedicated under Nehemiah the singing Levites were summoned. Had 2 choirs that walked on the walls and met while continuing to sing. The “singers had built themselves villages around Jerusalem” (Nehemiah 12:29; 12:45-46).
Titles and superscriptions in the Psalms.
Interesting tidbit:
2/3rds of the psalms have individual headings or superscriptions in the Hebrew Bible. Septuagint (Greek translation of OT) had headings for all the Psalms except 1 and 2. These headings indicate. 1). Authorship. 2). Historical background such as Psalm 3, 34, 51, 52 and many more. 3). Intended use such as Psalm 30, 92. 4). Type such as Psalm 17, 38, 45. 102. 5). Musical notations. Maskill and Miktam are often mentioned. Have no idea what this means today. Selah is mentioned in the text of several of the Psalms but we have lost the original meaning as well. Got Questions said, “The Amplified Bible adds “pause and calmly think about that” to each verse where selah appears. When we see the word selah in a psalm, we should pause to carefully weigh the meaning of what we have just read or heard, lifting up our hearts in praise to God for His great truths." 6). Who was to lead this, often choir director is mentioned (Perhaps, the Psalms bearing this title indicate solo parts for him, while other Psalms were performed by the choir alone) Although these many not have been part of the original text, they preserve a valuable and well authenticated tradition which is very ancient. Finalized after the time of Ezra and before the coming of the NT.
