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The Psalms Explained: Songs, Prayers, and Theology | Walter A. Elwell · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed Thinking. We're the show that takes a deep
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look at the sources, the history, and the theology behind
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topics that matter. We do the readings so you don't
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have to. And today we are doing a deep
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dive into what is, I think, for many, the spiritual core of the
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Old Testament itself, the book of Psalms, or as it's often
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called, the Psalter. Right.
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And our mission today is pretty straightforward.
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We want to pull out some of the most critical insights from the
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sources about its origin, how it's structured, and of course,
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it's theological scope. Because for you, our listener,
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this isn't just a jumble of ancient poems.
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Not at all. I mean the sources frame the
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psalms as poems that were intended to be sung, usually
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with instruments like the harp. That's what the name songs even
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means. That gives us the form, sure,
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but the Hebrew title, Tehillim, That's where we get the content.
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Right. That's where we get the purpose.
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It's titled Praises or the book of praises.
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And that's really telling, you know, because a huge number of
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these are actually agonizing laments, not praises at all,
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which. Suggests the ultimate goal is
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always praise, even when you start from a place of pain.
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It does. And this collection, It was the
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devotional heartbeat of the Old Testament church.
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It had a vital place in their worship, a place it's really
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held right through history all the way to our own services
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today. It's.
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Just a remarkable work, and the sources point to this incredible
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balance it strikes. On one hand you have the sheer
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vastness of God, Creator, King, totally sovereign, and on the
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other you get these immediate, raw, personal cries from people,
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cries of, you know, deep sorrow or just overwhelming joy.
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It really does cover the whole spectrum of what it means to be
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human in a relationship with God.
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It really is the prayer book that God gave to his people, and
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what's so interesting in the source material is how much
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effort has gone into establishing just how old and
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reliable this book actually is. Especially after a century or so
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of pretty intense scholarly skepticism.
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Right. And getting a handle on its
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antiquity is just so key to understanding its authority.
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OK, let's do that. Then let's unpack that whole
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historical argument, and we can start with the big question that
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really anchors the whole collection authorship, age, and
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whether we can trust those little notes the top of the
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page. The titles, yes.
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When you open up the Psalter, the first thing you notice are
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those titles, those little superscriptions, and they
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immediately turn this whole authorship question into, well,
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a bit of a numbers game. That's a great way to put it,
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because when you just tally up the attributions that we find in
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the Hebrew Masoretic Text, David is credited with 73 songs. 73
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That's about half the book. It is, and that number gets even
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bigger if you look at other ancient versions like the Greek
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Septuagint or the Latin Vulgate. In those traditions, David's
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name gets attached to even more of them.
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But it's clearly not just him. The collection is a composite
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work involving a lot of other figures who were central to
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Israel's worship life. Oh, absolutely.
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Beyond David, you see these direct connections to the Levite
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leaders who were in charge of the temple music.
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You've got Asaf, who is the head of a major Levitical singing
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group. He's connected with 12 Psalms.
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12 yes, and then the sons of Cora, who are another key
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musical Guild they're linked to 11, maybe 12 depending on how
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you count Psalm 88. And then we have a few other big
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historical names thrown in there.
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We do. 2 Psalms are credited to Solomon.
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That's 72 and 127. One a very famous 1.
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Psalm 90 is ascribed to Moses. And then you have individuals
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like Ethan for Psalm 89 and Heeman who shares credit for
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Psalm 88 with the sons of Korah. And the rest, yeah, the ones
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with no name. The rest, about 50 of them, are
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what scholars called the orphan Psalms.
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They just don't have any specific attribution in the main
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Hebrew text. OK, this distribution brings up
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a technical question, but it's a really important one.
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It's about the language. When we read a title like a
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Psalm of David, what is that little preposition of actually
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mean? Does it always mean he's the
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author? That's the $1,000,000 question,
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isn't it? The primary meaning, and the one
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that most the sources really lean on, is authorship.
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But you know, the Hebrew preposition is flexible.
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We have to allow for other possibilities.
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Well, when it's applied to a group like Asaf or Korra, it
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might not mean they wrote it. It could just mean that the
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Psalm was part of their guild's official repertoire.
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So it was of their collection, not by their hand.
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Potentially, yes, it could mean they were the ones responsible
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for performing it or preserving it in the worship setting.
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But when that same preposition is used for a figure like David
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or Moses, authorship really is the strongest and most natural
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reading. That makes sense, but if we
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accept that it usually means authorship, we have to deal with
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the next layer of information. A lot of these titles don't just
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name an author, they tie the song to a specific critical
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event in David's life. Yes they do.
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They connect psalms like 371830 and 51 to these particular
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moments fleeing from Absalom, facing his enemies.
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We're dealing with his own deep personal sin.
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And this is where that historical skepticism you
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mentioned comes in. For a long time, the scholarly
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consensus was that these titles were basically worthless.
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It was following the work of a very influential 19th century
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scholar named Julius Wellhausen. The common view was that these
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were just late additions, that later editors were trying to
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force these ancient prayers into specific historical stories even
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when they didn't really sit. The idea being that most of the
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songs were written much later after the exile.
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Exactly. But modern scholarship has, for
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the most part, moved away from that deep skepticism.
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More and more the titles are seen as reasonably reliable
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guides. So what's the evidence for that
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shift? What makes us think these titles
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are actually ancient and trustworthy?
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There are three really strong lines of argument.
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The first one has to do with translation and chronology.
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It looks like these titles were added at a very, very early
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date. How do we know that?
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We know because when the songs were translated into Greek the
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Septuagint somewhere around the 3rd century BC, the translators
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themselves clearly had a hard time understanding the technical
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terms in the titles. So the titles were already
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archaic to them hundreds of years before Christ.
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Precisely. They were wrestling with words
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and phrases that were already ancient and maybe falling out of
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use even back then. If the titles were recent
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additions, the Greek translators would have understood them
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perfectly. Their struggle is evidence of
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age. OK, that's a strong point.
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What's the second one? The second point is about
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editorial consistency, or maybe the lack of it.
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What do you mean? Well, let's imagine that later
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editors, centuries after David, were just inventing these
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historical backstories. If they were doing that, you'd
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expect them to do it for all the Davidic songs, right?
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Sure, they'd want to give a plausible story for everyone.
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But they didn't. Only a small fraction of the
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Psalms attributed to David have these specific historical notes.
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The fact that it's so selective suggests they weren't inventing
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stories, they were preserving facts that had been handed down
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with those specific Psalms. And the Third Point is the most
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interesting one because it's sort of flips a problem into a
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proof. This is where it gets really
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compelling. We can look at cases where there
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seems to be a mismatch between the titles historical note and
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the actual content of the Psalm. OK, give me an example.
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Psalm 30. The title says it's a song for
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the dedication of the temple, but when you read the poem, it
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feels incredibly personal. It's all about being rescued
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from a serious illness from the brink of the grave.
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That does sound like a mismatch. It does, but think about it.
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A later editor trying to make things neat would never have
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invented that title for that Psalm.
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The mismatch suggests the title was supplied by someone who knew
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an original historical connection that we've lost.
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Maybe David dedicated something after recovering from a
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sickness. The fact that the awkward
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connection is preserved is a sign of authenticity, not
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invention. We see a similar little wrinkle
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with Psalm 34, right? The title says David acted crazy
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before a king named Abimelech. Right, but the historical
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account in First Samuel 21 says the King's name was Akush of
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Gath. So a contradiction.
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Not necessarily. The sources suggest a simple
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explanation. It's very likely that Abimelech
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wasn't a personal name, but a general title for Philistine
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kings, kind of like how the Egyptians used Pharaoh.
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I see, so these minor issues don't really undermine the whole
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case. The titles were seen as a guide
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helping the worshipper connect the prayer to a real life
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situation. Yes, even if the titles
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themselves weren't considered part of the inspired text of the
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poem, they were a historically valued guide.
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And all of this evidence just solidifies David's central role.
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Maybe he didn't write every single one with his name on it,
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but core of the Psalter comes from his time.
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So let's lay that out. What is the traditional case for
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Davidish authorship? Yeah, the sources list about 6
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main points. They do, and together they build
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a really strong cumulative case for the time period and for
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David as the chief author. Let's start with his established
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literary skill. OK, so .1 Dave, his other
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accepted works give us a baseline.
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We have his lament over the deaths of Saul and Jonathan in
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Second Samuel 1. It's this beautiful, moving
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piece of early Hebrew poetry, and it shows his poetic spirit.
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It establishes that he had the skill and the temperament to be
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a lyric poet. So we know he could do it.
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And .2 is that he wasn't just a poet, he was the architect of
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Israel's entire worship system. That's a huge piece of it.
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David had this well known reputation as a gifted musician,
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an inventor of instruments, and the one who organized the temple
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worship. First Chronicles goes into great
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detail about how he set up the Levites and their duties,
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including the main singing guilds of Asaph, Kora and Haman.
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Even centuries later, the prophet Amos mentions David's
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musical. Inventions he does.
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Jewish tradition connects David to the Temple music in the same
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way it connects Moses to the Law.
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The clear implication is that he gave serious, organized
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attention to how the cultic singing was structured and what
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was sung. And the Third Point connects his
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personal talent to the national mood.
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It was a unique time in Israel's history.
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It was the early monarchy. David's time was a period of
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really unprecedented national confidence.
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They'd secured their borders, established Jerusalem as the
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capital and achieved a level of stability they've never known.
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That kind of environment, a sort of golden age, is the perfect
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breeding ground for a burst of artistic and creative work.
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With the king himself leading the.
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Charge as the chief patron and contributor, yes.
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The fourth point then brings it back to the personal aligning
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the spiritual content of the Psalms with the actual man.
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And the alignment is undeniable. There's such a close
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correspondence between David's life as we read it in one and
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two of the Psalms, Samuel Shepard, fugitive warrior king
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and, you know, a deeply penitent Sinner, and the content of the
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Psalms. His life was incredibly
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dramatic, hiding in caves, fleeing his own son, celebrating
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huge victories. And all of those experiences
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matched the prayers of faith, repentance, and distress that we
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find in the collection. Psalm 51 is the perfect example.
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It's the absolute perfect reflection of the moral disaster
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with Bathsheba and Uriah, okay. So, moving beyond the Old
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Testament, the fifth point is that the New Testament itself
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validates his authorship. It does, specifically naming
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David as the author in Matthew 22.
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Christ himself asks the Pharisees how David, speaking in
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the Spirit, could call the Messiah Lord, and he's quoting
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Psalm 110. Now, some critics used to argue
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David was just a shorthand for the whole book.
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Like saying I'm reading Shakespeare when you're reading
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one play. Right, but the context in the
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New Testament really implies a personal author acts one, acts
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2. They all attribute specific
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quotes directly to the mouth of David.
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And the 6th and final point just solidifies his overall influence
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on the collection. It does.
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The substantial core of the Psalter is Davidic, and it's
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very likely he wrote some of the anonymous Psalms too.
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The writer of Hebrews attributes the anonymous Psalm 95 to him,
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and Acts attributes Psalm 2 to him.
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So even if you're skeptical of the titles, the overwhelming
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evidence from tradition, context, and the New Testament
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points to David as the defining originator.
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So we can confidently would push back on that old skeptical idea.
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We can. The sources are clear that old
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Wellhausen view that the Psalms were just the hymn book of the
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second temple, meaning almost entirely post exilic.
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That view is now completely outmarted.
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Modern scholarship over overwhelmingly accepts a much
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earlier date for most of the songs.
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What was the big discovery that caused that reversal?
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It was mainly comparative studies looking at the poetry
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and hymns of surrounding cultures like Egypt and
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Mesopotamia, and especially the material they found at the
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Canaanite city of Uberit. And what did they find?
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They found direct parallels in structure, form, even the
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language between nearly 120 Israelite Psalms and this very
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early Canaanite material. It strongly suggests that the
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classical age for writing Psalms was during the monarchy, just as
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the titles claim. But that doesn't mean every
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single Psalm fits into that early window.
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There's some clear examples from the exile and after.
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Of course, the book grew over a long period.
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Psalm 137, with its cry by the rivers of Babylon, is obviously
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exilic. Psalms one, O 7 and 126 refer to
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the return from captivity. There's even a debate about
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Psalm 74. Some think it could be as late
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as the Maccabean period, around 160 BC, though the destruction
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of Jerusalem in 586 BC is an equally good fit.
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So if these were written over such a long time, who put them
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all together and when did it become the final book we have
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now? Well, it was a process, a multi
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stage growth. The fact that so many Davidic
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Psalms are clustered in the first part suggests that books
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one and two were collected pretty early, maybe even near
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the end of David's life and. The final editor.
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The traditional credit for the final collection and editing
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goes to Ezra the scribe, and that's a reasonable idea given
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his role in reshaping Israel's religious life after the exile.
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And we have hard evidence that the whole process was finished
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by a certain point in history. We do.
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It was definitely complete before the Psalter was
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translated into Greek. The Septuagint, which happened
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at the end of the 3rd century BC.
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And critically, we have corroboration from the Dead Sea
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Scrolls from Cave 4 at Qumran. They helped confirm the general
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order of the Psalms as we have them.
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That sets the stage perfectly. We know who wrote them and when,
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which leads us right into Section 2, the structure of the
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collection and how it was used in Israel's formal worship.
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Right, the cultists. Once you get past authorship,
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the books connection to the formal worship of the temple
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becomes impossible to. The titles are the first clue
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again, aren't they? They're not just historical
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notes, they're practical instructions.
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They're functional. 55 psalms are addressed to the
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choirmaster. That tells you right away this
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isn't private poetry. It's for public orchestrated
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performance. And as we said, another two
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dozen are linked to the professional singing guilds Asaf
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Kora Heemum. And this brings us to those
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fascinating but sometimes frustratingly obscure musical
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directions that are embedded in the text.
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Sila is the most famous one. Sila It shows up 71 times, and
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there's still scholarly debate about what it truly means, which
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adds a bit of mystery to the whole thing.
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What's the leading theory? The most widely accepted idea is
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that it was a technical note indicating a pause, maybe for an
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instrumental interlude, or maybe it signaled A crescendo, a
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moment to raise the volume or the emotional intensity.
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But it's fascinating. Some sources suggest it was an
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instruction for the reader to lift their hands, or even a
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marker for a textual variant. So we don't know for sure, but
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its presence proves this was highly structured music.
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It does. And what about Higian?
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You see that in Psalm 9. That's less common, right?
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Much less common, it's often interpreted as a suggestion for
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a meditative attitude during that part of the Psalm.
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It shifts the focus from just the external act of singing to
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the internal act of contemplation.
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We also find titles that sound poetic themselves, but they're
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actually musical cues, probably referencing popular tunes of the
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day. Yes, things like The Hind of the
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Dawn for Psalm 22 or Lilies for Psalms 45 and 80.
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These were likely existing, well known melodies that the song was
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meant to be sung to. It's like writing to the tune of
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Amazing Grace at the top of a new hymn.
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And beyond the general musical setting, some psalms are clearly
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tied to specific rituals or offerings in the temple.
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They. Are the singing is tied directly
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to the sacrificial system, you see psalms linked to the
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memorial offering or a song for the Sabbath for Psalm 92.
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And critically Psalm 100 is the Psalm for the thank offering.
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This shows us that the Psalms were the verbal part that gave
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theological meaning to the physical act of sacrifice.
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Can you walk us through how that might have worked in practice,
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like with a vow offering? Sure.
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Think about Psalm 22. It begins with that famous cry.
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My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
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The first part is a desperate plea.
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But then it shifts dramatically. It does.
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The second-half from verse 22 on becomes this powerful song of
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Thanksgiving, and verse 25 explicitly says the psalmist
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will fulfill his vow before the great congregation.
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So, having been delivered, he comes to the temple to publicly
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give testimony. And that fulfillment of a vow
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almost always involved a communal meal.
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A shared sacrificial meal. Yes.
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Thanksgiving in Israel wasn't a silent, private thing.
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It was a public declaration followed by a feast, and the
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Psalm provided the liturgy for that whole event.
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It paints a very holistic picture.
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But that raises a big question. How do these very specific
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ritual bound prayers written by a king in the 10th century BC
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become a universal hymn book for the whole nation and then for
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Christians for 2000 years? And the answer to that is one of
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the most brilliant literary techniques in the whole book.
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The use of stereotype. The actual specific problem the
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psalmist is facing is almost never spelled out.
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So instead of saying the Assyrian army is at the gates,
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what do they say? They use a standard, generalized
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language of adversity, a whole set of powerful metaphors.
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They talk about being attacked by wild animals, lions, dogs,
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bulls. Or they talk about the elemental
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forces of nature, like waves and floods about to drown them, or
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the hidden snares and traps of a hunter.
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So the key to their wide use is actually the lack of specific
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detail. Precisely this allows songs that
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started as an individual's prayer to be adopted for
18:14
communal use. It makes them spiritual models,
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not just historical records, one of the swan says.
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They become readily usable by others whose distressed
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circumstances may in fact be vastly different.
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So your enemy might not be a Philistine warrior.
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It might be an illness or a financial crisis or a spiritual
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temptation. Right, but you can still pray,
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say, the raw emotional truth of that Psalm about escaping the
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snare of the Fowler. The focus stays on the
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relationship with God and the theological response, not the
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historical details of the problem.
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The stereotype language makes it timeless.
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Now let's zoom out and look at the macro structure of the book.
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It's not random, it's intentionally organized into 5
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distinct sections. The five book structure is
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unmistakable. Book 1 is Psalms 1 to 41.
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Book 2 is 42 to 72, and so on, all the way to Psalm 150, and
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these five sections are separated by 4 clear doxologies.
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The short, concluding bursts of praise.
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A division into five seems, well, it seems too deliberate to
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be an accident. It's widely believed to be a
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conscious imitation of the five books of the Law of the Torah.
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By structuring the prayer book in five parts, the editors were
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elevating it. They were placing it right
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alongside the Torah as a guide for living and worship.
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It's as if you move from the instruction of the law to the
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heartfelt response of the songs. And we have evidence that these
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five books might have circulated on their own for a while before
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being combined. We do, and the clearest evidence
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is duplication. For instance, Psalm 14 and Psalm
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53 are basically the same Psalm, but they appear in different
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books, and the end of Psalm 40 is reproduced as the entirety of
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Psalm 70. That kind of thing only happens
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when you're merging previously separate collections.
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And the way God is named is different in the first two
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books, which also suggests two different source collections
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were brought together. That's the Elohim versus Yahweh
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distinction. In book one, God is mostly
20:03
called Lord or Yahweh. In book 2, he's more often
20:07
called God or Elohim. The final editors even left
20:10
their fingerprints on the text, like the note at the end of
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Psalm 72 that says the prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are
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ended. Even though we find more Davidic
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Psalms later on. Exactly.
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It's the smoking gun that shows they were combining and
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preserving earlier independently circulating documents.
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It's an incredible work of literary and theological
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organization. With that structure in mind,
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let's move to Section 3 and talk about the theology itself, what
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the Psalms teach us about God and about man.
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Well, the Psalter as a whole presents this very strong, very
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consistent view of God. He's not some abstract
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philosophical force. He is revealed in these deeply
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personal relationships inside the Covenant community.
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It's a God centered book, but one that somehow remains
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incredibly accessible to the individual.
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And that accessibility is helped by the constant use of
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anthropomorphisms ascribing human traits to God.
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Right, we read about God's voice, His ears, his eyes, his
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face, his hands. And the sources are quick to
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point out that we shouldn't stumble over this.
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The value of this language is that it makes God feel real,
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intimate, and responsive to the person praying.
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It almost seems like a necessary tool for us to even comprehend
21:18
God. I mean, how else could a finite
21:20
person relate to an infinite being?
21:22
Source material argues that it is necessary because we have to
21:25
describe God in terms we can understand from our own
21:27
experience. The alternatives are either a
21:29
vague mysticism or a kind of sterile pantheism where God just
21:34
dissolves into nature. Describing God's actions in
21:37
human terms doesn't mean we think God is just a glorified
21:40
man. It just affirms that he is a
21:42
person who speaks and listens and acts.
21:45
And beyond that relational character, the monotheism in the
21:48
Psalms is absolutely uncompromised.
21:50
Oh completely. Psalms 115 and 139 leave no room
21:53
for doubt. There is one true God.
21:56
He's the Creator. He sustains all of nature as you
21:59
see in Psalms 8 and 95. He's also the Lord of history,
22:02
directing the fate of Israel and the nations in Psalms like 78
22:05
and one O 5. What's so unique is that the
22:07
psalmist never let God's absolute greatness become a
22:10
barrier to fellowship. They hold His sovereignty and
22:12
His nearness at the same time. That is the core theological
22:16
tension they managed so well. They can celebrate his control
22:19
over the cosmos in Psalm 19, and in the next breath they're
22:23
talking to him as a friend, a fortress, a shepherd, a father.
22:27
In fact, His greatness is what guarantees the security of their
22:30
personal relationship. So let's turn to the doctrine of
22:33
man. Even with this huge gap between
22:35
the creator and the creature, man is still given a position of
22:39
real dignity and responsibility. Has this mediating role.
22:43
Yes, he's a creature. His life is short, as Psalm 90
22:45
says, but he's also granted authority over the rest of
22:47
creation. Psalm 8 says he is crowned with
22:50
glory and honor. It establishes man's inherent
22:53
worth. But that worthy relationship is
22:55
constantly threatened by Finn, which is really the agonizing
22:59
problem at the heart of all the laments.
23:00
It is Psalm one O 6 shows how tragically sin disrupts that
23:04
fellowship. But the Psalter always points
23:06
back to God's character. It tells us he is gracious,
23:08
long-suffering, faithful and forgiving.
23:11
Like in songs One O 3 and 1:30. And while the sacrificial system
23:14
is obviously part of their worship, the Psalm seemed to put
23:17
the emphasis on something much deeper than just the outward
23:19
ritual. Overwhelmingly, the stress is on
23:21
a personal religion that requires sincerity, true
23:24
obedience, and a surrendered heart.
23:27
Psalm 40 says sacrifice, an offering you did not desire, but
23:31
my ears you have pierced. That points to a commitment far
23:35
beyond just going through the ceremonial motions.
23:38
Which brings us to the crucial insight from David's great
23:41
confession in Psalm 51. It seems to show that when sin
23:45
is deep enough, the entire ritual system is just
23:50
inadequate. This is a profound theological
23:53
point, and it's central to understanding the covenant.
23:56
Under the Mosaic Law, the sacrifices were mainly designed
23:58
to cover unintentional sins, sins of weakness, not the
24:02
brazen, deliberate, high handed sins like David's adultery and
24:05
murder. David Sin carried a death
24:07
sentence under the law. There was no animal sacrifice
24:10
prescribed for covering deliberate murder.
24:11
Exactly. And David knew it.
24:13
He knew he was outside the bounds of ritual atonement, so
24:16
his confession had to bypass the sacrificial system entirely
24:19
because it was totally incapable of dealing with the depth of his
24:22
transgression. He just throws himself on God's
24:24
mercy alone. He does, and Psalm 51 he says,
24:27
For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it.
24:31
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and
24:34
contrite heart. Oh God, you will not despise.
24:37
It's this powerful confirmation that moral obedience and
24:40
spiritual brokenness are what God truly desires.
24:44
That focus on mercy over ritual is so central to a Reformed view
24:48
of justification. Now we have to talk about the
24:52
afterlife. The Psalms seem to capture a
24:54
moment of theological transition and how Israel understood death.
24:58
They do. The traditional Hebrew view
25:00
centered on a place called Sheol, the abode of the dead.
25:03
It was generally seen as this shadowy subterranean place where
25:06
you had a mere existence, but nothing more.
25:08
And, crucially, your active relationship with God just
25:11
stopped. It stopped.
25:13
You hear this fear from the psalmist in Psalm 6IN Psalm 88,
25:16
they're terrified that praise and fellowship will end the
25:19
grave. That must have been a terrifying
25:21
thought for a faithful person, that this precious relationship
25:23
with the living God would just vanish.
25:25
How did their faith push them to break with that view?
25:27
It was their deep conviction about God's absolute power and
25:31
goodness that forced the change. The growing understanding that
25:34
God is almighty and omnipresent led to the thought that even
25:38
she'll couldn't be outside His reach.
25:41
As Psalm 139 says, if I make my bed and shield you are there.
25:45
That's a huge shift. So their experience of
25:47
fellowship in this life demanded A conclusion greater than
25:51
eternal separation after death. Precisely, Faith itself demanded
25:55
that their covenant fellowship with God could not be terminated
25:57
by death. They began to hope for
25:59
vindication, for reception into God's presence.
26:02
Psalm 1649 and 73 show this hope bursting through.
26:07
The psalmist in Psalm 73 says, Nevertheless, I am continually
26:10
with you. Afterward, you will receive me
26:13
to glory. It's the theological seed for
26:15
the later, fully developed doctrine of resurrection.
26:17
Even if it's not fully clear yet in the Psalms, it's an
26:19
incredible testimony to their belief that God's love is
26:22
stronger than death. It is.
26:23
It's the poetry of conviction winning out over conventional
26:26
thinking. And this brings us right to our
26:28
final section, the mechanics of the poetry itself and how the
26:32
entire collection ultimately points toward the Messiah.
26:35
Before we get to the big genres, we should probably touch on the
26:37
basics of Hebrew poetry, especially for listeners who are
26:40
used to Western poetry with rhyme and meter.
26:43
It's a completely different system.
26:45
Hebrew poetry has almost no consistent rhyme and only a very
26:49
basic meter based on word stress, but it's defining
26:53
feature. The thing that makes it so
26:55
memorable is parallelism. Where the main unit of thought
26:58
isn't a single line but a balanced couplet.
27:01
The second line relates directly to the first, echoing it,
27:05
contrasting it, or completing it, right?
27:07
And we can break it down into 4 main types of parallelism that
27:10
really shaped the flow of the poem.
27:11
OK, let's start with synonymous parallelism.
27:14
This is the most common one where the lines reinforce each
27:16
other. With synonymous parallelism, the
27:19
second line essentially repeats the thought of the first, just
27:22
using different words. And it's not just redundant,
27:25
it's for emphasis. Psalm 1.2 is a perfect example.
27:29
But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he
27:32
meditates day and night delight and meditates law of the Lord
27:36
and His law. They reinforce the core truth.
27:39
Then there's antithetic parallelism, which uses
27:41
contrast. This is based on a stark
27:43
contrast between the two lines, and you see it a lot in Wisdom
27:46
literature. Psalm 1.6 does it perfectly, for
27:50
the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the
27:52
wicked will perish. The contrast makes the moral
27:55
lesson incredibly clear. 3rd is synthetic parallelism where the
28:00
thought moves forward. Right here, the second line
28:03
doesn't just repeat or contrast, it completes or adds to the
28:06
thought of the first line. It takes the idea one step
28:08
further. Like in Psalm 3.4, I cried aloud
28:11
to the Lord, and He answered me from His holy hill.
28:14
The second line advances the scene by telling us where the
28:16
answer came from. And the fourth type, climactic,
28:19
builds a kind of intensity. It's also called stair like
28:23
parallelism, because it builds on itself.
28:25
Part of the first line is repeated and then the thought is
28:28
carried to a higher conclusion. Psalm 29 is a great example.
28:31
Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings.
28:33
Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
28:36
Ascribe to the Lord the glory do his name.
28:39
You can feel that repeated phrase building the atmosphere
28:42
of worship. We should also briefly mention
28:44
acrostic poems, where they use the alphabet to structure the
28:46
poem. This was used to suggest a sense
28:49
of completeness, wasn't? It it was, the verses or
28:52
sections begin with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
28:55
Psalm 119 is the most fungus example.
28:58
The idea was to suggest exhaustive coverage that you're
29:01
saying everything from aleph to tav from A-Z.
29:05
With those mechanics in mind, we can turn to the highest
29:07
theological reading of the Psalms.
29:09
Messianic hope, and that hope is really rooted in the specific
29:13
genre called the Royal Psalms. The royal psalms like Psalm 240,
29:17
five, 72110 are a whole category focus on the historical Davidic
29:22
king, his rule, and his special relationship with God.
29:26
And since the monarchy ended in 586 BC, we know these were
29:30
written before them. It's so important to be clear
29:32
about the Staten of the Davidic King.
29:34
He was God's representative, his vice Regent, but he was never
29:37
considered divine himself. That is absolutely key.
29:40
The king in Israel was God's son by adoption.
29:43
He was meant to be the mediator through whom the blessings of
29:45
God's righteous rule would flow to the people.
29:48
But the historical record is pretty clear that the Kings, for
29:51
the most part, fail to live up to that perfect standard.
29:54
They. Profoundly disappointed that
29:56
hope. And because the historical
29:58
monarchy ultimately failed and was removed in judgement, the
30:01
hope for a truly righteous king couldn't just die, it had to be
30:05
preserved. So that hope was projected into
30:07
the future, and that projection became the very basis of the
30:10
Messianic expectation. The failure of the human kings
30:13
defined the need for a perfect one.
30:15
A perfect one, the one God himself would choose, the
30:18
Messiah, the anointed. 1 And This is why the early church
30:21
immediately read these royal psalms as Messianic songs.
30:25
They saw Jesus as the fulfillment of the perfect King
30:27
the Davidic line could never produce.
30:29
So let's look at the big three proof texts the New Testament
30:32
writers use from the Psalms. OK, first up is Psalm 2.
30:35
It's quoted all over the New Testament in Acts 13 and Hebrews
30:39
one. It talks about the king being
30:41
given the nations as his inheritance, having universal
30:43
rule. That scope goes far beyond
30:46
anything David or Solomon ever achieved.
30:48
It points to Christ's Incarnate ministry as the anointed king
30:51
who establishes a universal Kingdom. 2nd Psalm 45.
30:55
Psalm 45 is technically a royal wedding song, but in verse 6 the
30:59
king is addressed with the words Your throne.
31:01
O God endures forever and ever. The writer of Hebrews takes that
31:06
divine address, O God, and applies it directly to Christ to
31:09
show his superiority over the angels.
31:11
It's a confirmation of the divine nature of the ultimate
31:14
ruler. And finally, Psalm 110.
31:17
This one is the most quoted Messianic Psalm in a whole New
31:20
Testament. It's foundational to New
31:22
Testament Christology. It's referenced everywhere from
31:24
Matthew 22 to Acts 2 and all through Hebrews.
31:27
It starts with that staggering line.
31:29
The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your
31:33
enemies a footstool for your feet.
31:35
And the fact that David calls his own descendant my Lord is
31:38
the very point Christ used to confuse the Pharisees.
31:40
It is, and that position at God's right hand signifies
31:44
ultimate authority. But Psalm 110 doesn't just talk
31:47
about kingship, it introduces a whole new priesthood.
31:50
Verse 4 The Messiah will be a priest forever after the order
31:53
of Melchizedek. Why is that so significant?
31:55
Because it's language that makes no sense unless it's fulfilled
31:58
in Christ. The normal Levitical priesthood
32:01
was temporary and based on Aaron's lineage.
32:04
Melchizedek from Genesis 14 was a king and a priest with no
32:08
recorded beginning or end. So by making the Messiah a
32:11
priest like Melchizedek, the Psalm establishes a permanent
32:14
priesthood based not on ritual succession but on an eternal
32:18
life. He is both king and high priest
32:21
forever. OK, so the Royal Psalms set the
32:24
stage for the New Testaments understanding of who Jesus is.
32:28
Now let's look at the two big emotional categories.
32:30
The laments and the shocking implicatory psalms.
32:33
Laments, as we said, are the backbone of the Psalter, about
32:36
50 of them. They are prayers from times of
32:39
deep distress, but they're generalized through that poetic,
32:41
stereotyped language. And they follow a very
32:43
consistent structure, which makes them such a helpful model
32:46
for us even today. They do.
32:48
They start with a description of the distress, a cry of anguish
32:51
that's followed by a petition to God for help.
32:54
Then very often there is an expression of confidence in
32:57
God's faithfulness, and they almost always end with a promise
33:00
to praise God for the deliverance they expect to
33:03
receive. They model the journey from
33:05
complaint to confidence. Which brings us to the really
33:08
difficult passages, the imprecatory Psalms, the ones
33:12
with pleas for God to judge and overthrow the wicked.
33:15
These are the passages that can genuinely shock a modern
33:18
Christian with language like we see in Psalm 109 or the brutal
33:22
ending of Psalm 137. The source material offers a few
33:25
mitigating factors to help us understand this language, not to
33:28
excuse it, but to put it in its proper context.
33:31
How do we get our heads around that level of rage, the desire
33:34
for the destruction of your enemy's children, as you see in
33:37
Psalm 137? We have to remember a couple of
33:39
things. First, for them, the cry for
33:42
vengeance was tied directly to God's public honor.
33:45
Because their view of final judgement wasn't as developed,
33:48
they believed justice had to be seen in this life.
33:52
When the wicked prospered, it looked like God wasn't in
33:54
control. So their prayer wasn't just
33:57
personal spite, it was a burning desire for God's righteousness
34:00
to be publicly vindicated on earth.
34:02
They're asking God to prove He is just, not just to settle a
34:06
personal score. That's the key distinction.
34:08
The second factor is the communication style itself.
34:11
The poetic Oriental world view use hyperbole, extreme language
34:16
to express deep passion and outrage.
34:18
It was meant to shock the reader into a sense of moral
34:21
seriousness about evil still. We have to view these to the
34:24
lens of the fuller revelation than any testament.
34:26
We do. While those outbursts were maybe
34:28
understandable in their covenantal context, the New
34:31
Testament demands a different response.
34:34
Christ calls us to love our enemies, to pray for those who
34:37
persecute us. Divine judgment is still a
34:40
reality in the New Testament, but private vengeance is
34:43
forbidden. The Old Testament believer
34:45
surrendered their cause to God's temporal justice.
34:48
We surrender ours to His final eternal justice.
34:51
And just to round it out, let's circle back to the penitential
34:53
Psalms, which perfectly illustrate that surrender to
34:55
mercy. Psalms 32, fifty, 130.
34:59
They are just filled with this intensity of feeling, this deep,
35:03
agonizing sense of how enormous sin is in God's sight.
35:06
And David's action in Psalm 51, throwing himself entirely on
35:09
God's mercy instead of offering an insufficient sacrifice, is
35:13
the ultimate illustration that true penitence is superior to
35:16
any ritual. The Psalter truly is a treasure
35:18
of spiritual experience. It covers every aspect of
35:21
communion with God, from the deepest sin to the highest joy.
35:24
So as we wrap up this deep dive, the value of the Psalter is just
35:27
so clear. It is a treasury that reflects
35:31
the entire messy, glorious range of communion with God, from
35:36
bitter complaint and anguish all the way to joyous praise and
35:39
messianic hope. Martin Luther said that in the
35:42
Psalter you can look into the heart of all the Saints, and
35:45
that strength of personal relationship with God that you
35:48
see in Old Testament worship is just perfectly captured in these
35:51
150 prayers. And because the psalmists use
35:54
that stereotype language, giving so little specific historical
35:58
detail, the Psalter has been able to be the universal hymn
36:01
book for generation after generation of believers.
36:03
I mean, our material lives are vastly different from ancient
36:06
Israel, but God hasn't changed, and the basic spiritual needs of
36:10
the human heart are exactly the same.
36:11
OK, so here's where we leave you with a final thought to
36:13
consider. The source material notes that
36:16
the Book of Psalms was probably accepted as inspired as
36:19
canonical much earlier than the rest of that section of the Old
36:22
Testament known as the Writings, possibly as early as 300 BC.
36:25
That's at least 2300 years ago so.
36:28
If the Psalms were so readily and so universally accepted by
36:32
God's people as their inspired worship guide, and so quickly,
36:36
what does that immediate, widespread acceptance tell you
36:39
about the recognizable voice of God speaking through its pages
36:42
to the very core of the human heart?
36:44
It made them canonize their praise so fast.
36:46
That's something to carry with you.
36:47
Thank you for joining us for this deep dive into the Book of
36:50
Praises.