Wednesday, July 20, 2022

Overview of the Bible: Psalms

 Psalms  

Title: Psalms - from Greek, usually translated as “instrumental music”. Hebrew – Tehilim – praises (though more than 30% of psalms are the psalms of sorrow and distress).    

Date of writing: goes between 1450 BC to 586-536 BC

Authors: from Moses to David, sons of Korah, Asaph and others   

Structure: Five books

Book I: 1 – 41 [41:13] (9+10 and 32+33) = 39 total = 22+17

Book II: 42 – 72 [72:18-19, 20] (42+43) = 29 total = 12+17

Book III: 73 – 89 = 17

Book IV: 90 – 106 = 17

Book V: 107 – 150 = 44 = 22+22

22 – number of the letters in Hebrew Alphabet (cp. Ps 111, 112, 119)

17 – number related to the nations of the world

12 – tribes of Israel     

Main themes: First two psalms lay out the landscape of the psalter: the word of God, ways of righteousness and wickedness, God’s creation as an image and reflection of life, spiritual warfare – distress and victories, worship of the Son, surrender of the earthly authorities to the King of kings.      

Main Characters: godly man, Son of God, wicked ones, stars, trees, rocks, Levites.    

Reflection in other parts of the Bible: Singing hymns on semi-regular basis became a part of Israel’s life during exodus – Ex. 15, Num. 21, Deut. 32 and 33. But, overall, the worship was “silent”, we have prescribed ritual, but not a prescribed “liturgy”. Only with the coming of king David we get “songs”. Interesting to see this development in the Book of Revelation ch. 4 the throne is empty; therefore, four living creatures say the words of Holy, holy, holy (4:8). Then in ch. 5 we see the ascension on the throne of Lion-Lamb – then the four living creatures and the elders immediately begin to sing (5:9-10).   

The Book of Psalms is the most quoted OT book n the New Testament. The liturgical usage of psalms made it very familiar for the people of God. Lex orandi – lex credendi.

Lutheran teaching: The Book of Psalms holds one of the longest list of quotations in the Book of Concord (the Confessions of the Lutheran Church). Therefore, I’ll point out only a few themes: godly rulers, human bodies as God’s creation.

Reflecting on the Ps. 2:10 A treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope states: the chief members of the Church, the kings and princes, should especially guard the interest of the Church [54]. This statement anole shows that the relationship between the civil and spiritual authorities is more complicated than a simple “separation of the church and state”.  

Based on the creation of any human (139:14-16) Formula of Concord states: Scripture testifies that God has created human nature not only before the fall, but that it is God’s creature and work also since the fall (SD, I:34-36).   

NB: the first lectures of Luther on the Bible were not lectures on Romans and Galatians, but the lectures on Psalms (1512,13 – 1515), discovering the Gospel.  

Lutheran hymnody:

LSB 656, 657 – A Mighty Fortress is our God. 

LSB 709 – The King of Love My Shepherd is. 

Relevancy of the Book: Epistles of Paul (Eph. 5:18-19; Col.3:16) teach that it is important to sing psalms to overcome the spiritual, emotional, and communal struggles. The “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” – are types that can be found in the inscription of the psalms.

Peter (Acts 2:34-35) and the author of the Letter to Hebrews (1:13; 5:5,6) base their Christology on psalms – especially Ps. 2 and 110.     

Memory verses:

1:1-2: Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, not stands in the way of the sinners, not sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law (Torah, teaching) of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.

119:105: Your word is a lamp to feet and a light to my path.

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