The Anglican Parishes of Whittington,

Weeford and Hints

What the Lord requires of you is to do justice and to love mercy and to
walk humbly with your God
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The Book of Psalms

An Introduction to these
sacred texts

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Introduction
The Book of Psalms is part
hymn book, part prayer book,
part wisdom literature, and
part anthology of poems
concerning Israel and God. Its
subject matter is
astonishingly broad.
On one hand it proclaims
praise and prayer for God
Most High (Psalms 50:14),
and on the other, it embraces
human experience as
intimate as lamenting a lost mother (Ps. 35:14).
Psalms is distinctive in the First Testament in
that most of it consists of people talking to God.
Elsewhere, the First Testament is mostly God
talking to people or it is narrative.
Although thousands of years old, virtually all the
psalms, in one way or another, mirror our own
struggles and our joys today. Whatever a
particular psalm’s subject may be, each gives

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voice to the emotions we feel as we grapple with
life’s issues. Some psalms capture our delight in
God as we experience the divine presence with
us through a tough situation that has had a good
ending.
Others express raw emotions of anger or grief in
a struggle to understand why God has not acted
as we thought he would when “the wicked
triumph.” In some, God speaks. In others God is
silent. Some find resolution, while others leave
us with unanswered questions.
The psalms were not all written by one person at
one time

The Psalms are so important in the Christian

tradition that they form the daily prayer cycle of
many monastic communities such as the
Benedictines. For Anglicans they form the basis
of our cycle of prayer morning, noon, evening
and night.

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 The entire collection of
Psalms is entitled
“Praises” in the Hebrew
text. Later, rabbis often
designated it “The Book of
Praises.” The Greek
translation of the First
Testament labelled it
“Psalms.”

The Greek verb from

which the noun “psalms”
comes basically denotes the “plucking or
twanging of strings,” so that an association with
musical accompaniment is implied. The English
title derives from the Greek term and its
background. The Psalms constituted Israel’s
ancient, God-breathed (2 Tim. 3:16) “hymn
book,” which defined the proper spirit and
content of worship.

There are 116 psalms that have superscriptions

or “titles.” The Hebrew text includes these titles
with the verses themselves. When the titles are
surveyed individually and studied, there are
significant indications that they were appended

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to their respective psalms shortly after
composition and that they contain reliable
information (Luke 20:42).

These titles convey

various kinds of
information such as
authorship,
dedication, historical
occasion, liturgical
assignment to a
worship director,
liturgical instructions
(e.g., what kind of
song it is, whether it
is to have a musical accompaniment, and what
tune to use), plus other technical instructions of
uncertain meaning due to their great antiquity.

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Authorship and Date

From the divine perspective, the Psalter (Book of

Psalms) points to God as its author.

Approaching authorship from the human side,

one can identify a collection of more than 7
composers.

King David wrote at least 75 of the 150 psalms;

the sons of Korah accounted for 10 (Pss. 42, 44–
49,84, 85, 87); and Asaph contributed 12 (Pss.
50, 73–83). Other penmen included Solomon
(Pss. 72, 127), Moses (Ps. 90), Heman (Ps. 88),
and Ethan (Ps. 89).

The remaining 48 psalms remain anonymous in

their authorship, although Ezra is thought to be
the author of some. The time range of the
Psalms extends from Moses, ca. 1410 B.C. (Ps.
90), to the late sixth or early fifth century B.C.
post-Exilic period (Ps. 126), which spans about
900 years of Jewish history.

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Background and Setting

The backdrop for the Psalms is twofold:

1) the acts of God in creation and history,
2) the history of Israel.

Historically, the psalms range

in time from the origin of life
to the post-Exilic joys of the
Jews liberated from Babylon.

Thematically, the psalms

cover a wide spectrum of
topics, ranging from heavenly
worship to earthly war. The
collected psalms comprise the
largest book in the Bible and
the most frequently quoted
First Testament book in the
Second Testament.

Psalm 117 represents the middle chapter (out of

1,189) in the Bible. Psalm 119 is the largest
chapter in the entire Bible. Through the ages, the
psalms have retained their original primary
purpose, i.e., to engender the proper praise and
worship of God.
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Historical and Theological Themes

The basic theme of Psalms

is living real life in the real
world, where two
dimensions operate
simultaneously:

Without denying the pain

of the earthly dimension,
the people of God are to
live joyfully and
dependently on the
Person and promises
standing behind the
heavenly/eternal
dimension.

All cycles of human troubles and triumphs

provide occasions for expressing human
complaints, confidence, prayers, or praise, to our
sovereign Lord.

In view of this, Psalms presents a broad array of

theology, practically couched in day-today

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reality. The sinfulness of man is documented
concretely, not only through the behavioural
patterns of the wicked, but also by the periodic
stumblings of believers. The sovereignty of God
is everywhere recognized, but not at the
expense of genuine human responsibility.

Life often seems to be out of control, and yet all

events and situations are understood in the light
of divine providence as being right on course
according to God’s timetable.

Assuring glimpses of a future” God’s day”

bolsters the call for perseverance to the end.
This book of praise manifests a very practical
theology.

A commonly misunderstood phenomenon in

Psalms is the association that often develops
between the “one” (the psalmist) and the
“many” (the theocratic people). Virtually all of
the cases of this occur in the psalms of King
David. There was an inseparable relationship
between the mediatorial ruler and his people; as
life went for the king, so it went for the people.
Furthermore, at times this union accounted for

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the psalmist’s apparent
connection with Christ
in the messianic psalms
(or messianic portions
of certain psalms). The
so-called imprecatory
(curse pronouncing)
psalms may be better
understood with this
perspective.

As God’s mediatorial
representative on
earth, David prayed for
judgment on his
enemies, since these
enemies were not only
hurting him, but were
primarily hurting God’s
people. Ultimately,
they challenged the
King of Kings, the God
of Israel.

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Interpretive Challenges

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It is helpful to recognize certain recurring genres
or literary types in the Psalter. Some of the most
obvious are:

1) the wisdom type with instructions for right

living;

2) lamentation patterns which deal with the

pangs of life (usually arising from enemies
without);

3) penitential psalms (mostly dealing with the

“enemy” within, i.e., sin);

4) kingship emphases (universal or mediatorial;

theocratic and/or messianic rule);

5) thanksgiving psalms. combination of style and

subject matter help to identify such types when
they appear.

The comprehensive literary characteristic of the

psalms is that all of them are poetry par
excellence. Unlike most English poetry, which is
based on rhyme and meter, Hebrew poetry is

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essentially characterized by logical parallelisms.
Some of the most important kinds of parallelisms
are:

1) synonymous (the thought of the first line is

restated with similar concepts in the second line,
e.g., Ps. 2:1);

2) antithetic (the thought of the second line is

contrasted with the first, e.g., Ps. 1:6);

3) climactic (the second and any subsequent

lines pick up a crucial word, phrase, or concept
and advance it in a stair-step fashion, e.g., Ps.
29:1, 2);

4) chiastic or introverted (the logical units are

developed in an A … B…B’ … A’ … pattern, e.g.,
Ps. 1:2).

On a larger scale, some psalms in their

development from the first to the last verse
employ an acrostic or alphabetical arrangement.
Psalms 9, 10, 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 119, and 145
are recognized as either complete or incomplete
acrostics.

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In the Hebrew text, the first letter of the first
word of every verse begins with a different
Hebrew consonant, which advances in
alphabetical order until the 22 consonants are
exhausted. Such a literary vehicle undoubtedly
aided in the memorization of the content and
served to indicate that its particular subject
matter had been covered from “A to Z.” Psalm
119 stands out as the most complete example of
this device, since the first letter of each of its 22,
8-verse stanzas moves completely through the
Hebrew alphabet.

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Outline

The 150 canonical psalms were organized quite

early into 5 “books.” Each of these books ends
with a short hymn of praise before people
departed the congregation. These are known as
a doxology (Pss. 41:13; 72:18–20; 89:52; 106:48;
150:6).

Jewish tradition
appealed to the
number 5 and
alleged that these
divisions echoed
the Pentateuch,
i.e., the 5 books of
Moses.

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It is true that there are clusters of psalms, such
as

1) those drawn together by an association with

an individual or group (e.g., “The sons of Korah,”
Pss. 42–49; Asaph, Pss. 73–83),

2) those dedicated to a particular function (e.g.,

“Songs of ascents,” Pss. 120–134),

3) those devoted explicitly to praise worship

(Pss. 146–150).

But no one configuration key unlocks the

“mystery” as to the organizing theme of this 5-
book arrangement. Thus, there is no identifiable
thematic structure to the entire collection of
psalms.

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Psalm 139
You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
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You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4
Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5
You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
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Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
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Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
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If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
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If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
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even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
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If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
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even the darkness will not be dark to you;

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 the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
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For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
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I praise you because I am fearfully and
wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
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My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of
the earth.
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Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in
your book
before one of them came to be.
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How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
How vast is the sum of them!
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Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you. 19 If only you,
God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
20
They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.

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Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against
you?
22
I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
23
Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
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See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

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originator

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