Psalms

I’m not sure if I still have any readers after my vacation and recovery, but if so, I ‘ll continue the Bible Reading Guide with Psalms.  I ‘ll just say by way of preface that in my arguments, I spent more time with this book than any other (two weeks compared with not more than one week for any other book).  It was extremely rich and rewarding.  A good part of what I learned I could not communicate in this brief guide for my son.  But hopefully this is still of value.

The book of Psalms is different than most of the other books of the Bible because there is not an apparent “story” from beginning to the end. When you get older, I ‘ll let you read a paper I wrote a few months ago that explains what I think is the basic “structure” of the five books, but for now, you can profitably read each psalm on its own.

It helps to know that there are different groups of psalms. Nearly all (if not all) of Book 1 (1-41) was written by David. Another group is the Psalms of Ascent (120-134). The first two psalms are probably an introduction to the whole book, and the last five psalms (146-150) are probably the grand conclusion (with an emphasis on praising God).

There are other groups of psalms that aren’t necessarily in order. One type of psalm is called a lament psalm, and these express feelings of great distress, yet they always (except for 88) end with a declaration of confidence in God. Another type is praise psalms, and these focus on how great God is. Some psalms are more about thanking God, and these are sometimes called “thanksgiving” psalms. There are three psalms that exalt God’s word (1, 19, 119), and a cluster of psalms that declare that God is king over the whole earth (93, 95-99).

An important group of psalms anticipate the Messiah. These are sometimes difficult to discern at first, but one clue is that they describe the person or king in terms that are not true of David or any of his descendants (except Jesus). These psalms were considered very important by Jesus and the apostles, and you will see them quoted many times in the New Testament. These include psalms 2, 16, 22, 45, 72, 89, 110, and 132.

A very important thing to pay attention to in this book is what the psalms teach us about God. They are very rich in theology, and we may know more about the character of God from this book than from any other in the Old Testament.