Simple Songs for Psalms

What are the Psalms?

     The Psalms are the greatest and most celebrated single body of poetry in all of human history. They often taught as devotions, probably because most people think of them that way, full of wisdom and piety as they are. They are much more than that. The New Testament writers made extensive use of the Psalms as an authoritative source. But what do the Psalms teach? The Psalms have no story, outline no doctrine, differ widely among themselves, were ascribed to different people, and were written over a broad range of time. Nevertheless, they are instructive and impart much wisdom, without being at all like the Proverbs. How?
     The Psalms are a collection of 150 Hebrew poems, assembled in five collections or books, as shown below:

• book I, psalms 1-41
• book II, psalms 42-72
• book III, psalms 73-89
• book IV, psalms 90-106
• book V, psalms 107-150

     While the progression of books may represent decreasing age or different periods in the history of Israel, there is no known predecessor showing the collection of psalms through Psalm 89 in any other order, grouping, or selection. But the Dead Sea Scrolls show the assembly of psalms following Psalm 90 in a variety of different orders and content. Thus the latter part of the canon of Psalms may have been in a state of flux as late as 100-200 B.C., though this cannot be known for certain. The Septuagint (third century B.C.) has all 150 psalms just as we have them, though divided slightly differently.
     The titles or superscriptions for the Psalms are not thought to be original. No one knows for certain how old they are, but those in the Septuagint are markedly different from those in the Hebrew text. Nevertheless, the titles offer important evidence as to authorship and intent, where they appear. There is a respected body of opinion that holds the psalm titles to be part of the inspired text, added under the direction of the Spirit by the original compilers of the psalm collections, which implies that the ascriptions are authoritative. And, among the psalms themselves, there may also be connections between individual psalms that are not apparent in the text we have; these are conjectures based on interior evidence.
     Apart from these individualities, all the Psalms are alike—that is, each is a distinct composition, containing speech directed primarily to God and only secondarily directed to man. Most are composed in the first person. Absolutely all contain picturesque, emotive language that is undeniably poetic on character. They are at once personal and universal, local and cosmic. They are poetry—God’s word deliberately joined with art.
     Let us consider various facets of the Psalms:

          A. The Psalms as poetry
          B. The Psalms as literature
          C. The Psalms as songs
          D. The Psalms as praise and devotion
          E. The Psalms as Scripture
          F. The Psalms reveal the mind of God
          G. The Psalms witness to the Messiah

     We continue the discussion with a consideration of singing.

 
Copyright, 2010-2011, by Robert McAnally Adams,
        Curator, Christian Quotation of the Day.
Logo image Copyright 1996 by Shay Barsabe, of “Simple GIFs”, by kind permission.
Send comments to curator@cqod.com.

Last updated: 3/6/11

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