Sing to the Lord!

Psalms: The most read and most loved portion of the Old Testament

Psalm 5 Give Ear to my Words Oh Lord

Psalm 8 How Majestic is Your name - Keith Green

Psalm 9 I Will Give Thanks to the Lord - Keith Green

Psalm 23 The Lord is My Shepard - Keith Green

Psalm 24 King of Glory - Chris Tomlin

Psalm 25 My Hope is in You - Third Day

Psalm 36 Your Love Oh Lord - Third Day

Psalm 42 As the Deer

Psalm 51 Create in Me a Clean Heart - Keith Green

Psalm 112 Blessed is He Who Fears the Lord; Who finds Delight in His Commands - 4 Him

Psalms 121 I Lift my Eyes up

Psalm 126 You have Done Great Things - Matt Redman

Psalms 136 Give Thanks to the Lord for He is Good - Chris Tomlin

How do these words to and about God operate as God’s word to us?

• They are not propositional truths, such as we get in the Letters
  
• They are not imperatives to be obeyed, such as in the Law
• They are not narratives, such as we get in so many other places

• How are we to use a Psalm that seems to be negative throughout and seems to express the misery of the speaker?
• Is this something that should be used in a church service?
• Or is it for private use only?
• What of a psalm that tells about the history of Israel and God’s blessings on it?
• Can an American Christian make good use of this sort of psalm?
• Or is it reserved only for Jews?
• What about Psalms that predict the word of the Messiah?
• What of psalms that laud the benefits of wisdom?
• What about the several Psalms that discuss the glory of Israel’s human kings?

Since very few people in the world now live under royalty, it seems especially difficult to make sense of the latter sort of psalm.

What does one do with the desire that Babylonian infants should be dashed against the rocks?” (137:8-9)

The Psalms as Poetry
The most important thing to remember in reading or interpreting Psalms is that they are musical poems.

Hebrew poetry was addressed to the mind through the heart.

Don’t read too much into a text by finding special meanings in specific words or phrases where the poet probably did not intend such meaning.

Ps. 19 “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.”

The text has the second line repeats and reinforces the sense of the first.

‘God is revealed in his creation, especially in the heavenly bodies.’ but does so in much more beautiful and memorable language.
The lines are not trying to say 4 different things.
They are not differentiating between the heavens & the skies.

• The psalms themselves are musical poems.
• They appeal to the emotions.
• They evoke feelings rather than propositional thinking.
• They stimulate a response on the part of the individual that goes beyond mere cognitive understanding of facts.

Ps. 51:5 “And in sin my mother conceived me.”

Not a commentary on his mother’s moral life.
Not an explanation of the doctrine of original sin.
Not a belief that sex is sinful.

Rather a blurting out of his overwhelming sense of sinfulness so deep in his character, it’s as if he were made of sin.
The vocabulary of poetry is purposefully metaphorical. We need to look for the intended meanings of the metaphors

“The Lord is my shepherd"

Means God watches out for us as shepherd do sheep it’s not telling us to act like sheep.

The Psalms as Literature
The Psalms are of several different types of poetry; we may need to ask ourselves regularly, “What type of Psalm am I reading?”
Each Psalm is also characterized by its formal structure, topical categories tend to be matched by structural categories.
Each type of psalm was intended to have a given function in the life of Israel. Royal psalms were sung at the celebration of Israel’s kingship.
Some Psalms are written in a literary pattern; some phrases repeated over and over again, per refrain or acrostic psalms each one beginning with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet (e.g., Ps. 119, each 8th verse that way).
Each Psalm has its own integrity as a literary unit. They often portray a flow of thought that move from presentation, to development to conclusion some times terms used in one part of the Psalm are defined in another part of that Psalm.

Some Basic Facts on the Psalms
These were functional songs for use in worship.
They served the function of helping make connection between worshiper and God.
Some were sung by soloists, but many became as familiar Top 40 hits today.

Five Books of the Psalms

1. 1-41
2. 42-72
3. 73-89
4. 90-106
5. 107-150

Each of the five books of Psalms concludes with a similar ending. "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen." (Ps. 41:13) "Praise be to his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and amen.: (Ps. 72:19) "Praise be to the Lord forever! Amen and amen." (Ps. 89:52) Each ending was not a part of the original Psalm. They were added as the individual books were put together.

Dating the Psalms is near impossible, but unlike the prophets, the psalms do not need to be tied to immediate history to be understood again, they are emotive not propositional.

Authorship
Many of the Psalms have titles associated with them. These titles were not a part of the original text. They were added at later dates to help the reader know something about the Psalm.

• 73 David
• 1 Moses
• 2 Solomon
• Several by “sons” of Asaph and of Korah “sons” mean "students of"

Collection was done after return from exile and they became the hymnal.

7 Types of Psalms
Each type of Psalm has its own organization, elements that are common to that type of Psalm. Our book points out the elements of Psalms of Lament and Thanksgiving Psalms.

1. Laments The largest group, more than 60 some are individual laments; others are corporate express deep trust in Yahweh but also report great suffering. They are a great resource for our praying in time of our suffering. (example: Psalm 3)
   
2. Thanksgiving Psalms Give thanks for things that have gone well
3. Hymns of Praise Give praise of God’s character, God’s greatness, God’s mercy
4. Salvation History Psalms recount history of God’s interventions with Israel, especially Exodus
5. Psalms of Celebration and Affirmation Covenant renewal liturgies Royal psalms: celebrating God’s anointing of Kings or lamenting royal troubles Enthronement psalms: celebrating enthronement of kings may have been done annually Songs of Zion celebrating Jerusalem.
6. Wisdom Psalms - 8 of them: operate like Proverbs
7. Songs of Trust 10 psalms focus attention on fact that God can be trusted.

Imprecatory Psalms: To pray for evil or misfortune (Ps 69)
Psalms of judgment on foes given that we are to “be angry but sin not” (Ps. 4:4) and given that words do not do quite the damage as do swords especially when the words are verbalized when we are alone.
Imprecatory psalms recount the verbal tirades of David, while in prayer.
They redirect our anger toward God and away from other humans Imprecatory psalms harness our anger and help us express it to God by using the same sorts of obvious, purposeful exaggeration known to us from other types of psalms.
Nothing in scripture suggests that even if these judgments were carried out on enemies, that doing so would bring eternal damnation. We should honestly express our anger to God, no matter how bitterly and hatefully we feel it, and let God take care of justice against those who misuse us.

3 Basic Benefits from the Psalms

1. As a guide to worship both by quoting from the psalms and by following the example of bold praise to God.
2. As a model of how to relate honestly to God open expressions of joy, disappointment, anger.
3. As an encouragement to reflect and mediate on things God has done for us. Psalms do not guarantee a pleasant life.

God's Megaphone: Thus Says the Lord

4 Major (Longer)
Isaiah
Jeremiah (Lamentations?)
Ezekiel
Daniel

12 Minor (Shorter)
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi

Written in brief period of time: 760-460 BC
(Abraham was 1800 BC)

This was a time of great upheaval in Israel, exile, unprecedented political, military, economic and social upheaval enormous level of religious unfaithfulness and disregard for the original Mosaic covenant shifts in populations and national boundaries.

Determine when and where the prophet was

1. Israel to the north (Elijah, Elisah, Jonah, Amos, Hosea)
   


2. Judah to the south (Isaiah, Micha, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Ezekiel, Daniel, Joel, Obadiah)
   


3. Exile to the East


4. Prior to exile
   


5. During exile
   


6. After exile (Zechariah, Haggai, Malachi)
   

The Nature of Prophecy
Dictionary Prophecy Definition: Foretelling or prediction of what is to come

• Only 7% of OT prophecies regarding Jesus or the End Times
• Hundreds of prophets spoke for God
  
• Record of Prophets differs
  
• Only a handful wrote or had their oracles recorded into books.
• Difficult books to interpret.
• They are strung together oracles
• Beginnings and endings are not typically signaled
• You don’t know when one ends and the next begins.
• Historical distance makes it hard to understand some of what they say.

4 Functions of Prophecy in Israel

1) The Prophets were Covenant Enforcement Mediators
Given that the Law constituted the terms of the relationship between God and Israel, and given that the Law included blessings and curses as incentives for covenant-keeping, the prophets served as enforcers of that covenant, handing out the blessings and curses accordingly. They reminded the people of their obligations to obedience, promising blessing for obedience and warning of curses for disobedience.

6 Kinds of Blessings Promised

1. life
2. health
3. prosperity
4. agricultural abundance
5. respect
6. safety

10 Kinds of Curses Threatened

1. death
2. disease
3. drought
4. dearth
5. danger
6. destruction
7. defeat
8. deportation
9. destitution
10. disgrace

These blessings and curses were given corporately
In times of independence and prosperity they warn of impending danger
In times of exile and poverty, they promise blessing

2) The Prophets’ message was not their own, but Gods
Each prophet has a style all his own but the prophet speaks as one representing God. They were called by God to speak for God.

3) The Prophets were God’s direct representatives
The prophets were generally recognized by their societies as voices for God, and as leaders in the community they were not generally radical social reformers they were proclaimers of God’s Law and were continually calling the people to obey that Law and were the ones who handed down sentences when the people were disobedient.

4) The prophets’ message is unoriginal
The essential message of the prophet was the Law
Their wording and style might be original, but their content was not. Even the prophecies about the Messiah originate in Gen 3 and especially in Deuteronomy (God promising to raise up a leader to guide them)

They use several literary devices: 5 in particular

1. The Lawsuit prophecy written up as a lawsuit against the people with God as the plaintiff and Israel as the defendant
2. The Woe Oracle predictions of doom and gloom, with attendant singing of “woe is me, woe are we”
   
3. The promise “salvation oracle” speaks of the future “In that day…” of radical change and blessing
   
4. The prophet acts out the story: Hosea marrying a harlot or Isaiah walking around in underwear like when people are taken, deported and held in exile
   
5. The messenger speech “Thus says the Lord…”
   

Most prophets are written like poetry which makes them more easily memorized but not as scientific and obvious in meaning.

Much of the writings of the prophets is just like the epistles: Do this Don’t do that.

The prophets see the distant future thru the lens of the present be very cautious to not over interpret what they say about today.