BOB – Psalms

by Stephen Rodgers

PSALMS IN 10 WORDS OR LESS

“Ancient Jewish songbook showcases prayers, praise, and complaints to God.”

TITLE

As the ESVSB summarizes, he English title comes from the Greek word psalmos, which translates Hebrew mizmor, “song,” found in many of the Psalm titles and simply translated as “psalm” (e.g., Psalm 3). This Greek name for the book was established by the time of the NT (Luke 20:42; Acts 1:20). The Hebrew name for the book is Tehillim, “Praises,” pointing to the characteristic use of these songs as praises offered to God in public worship. The etymology of the Greek (interesting fact!) is a noun derived from the verb “to pluck strings” (referring to a musical instrument).

It should also be noted that 116 of the 150 Psalms contain some sort of superscription or “title.” These titles often contain information regarding to authorship, dedication, liturgical or musical instructions (some of which are not understood today, see DID YOU KNOW?), and historical context. Based on attestestion from other Biblical sources, we have reason to believe that the claims made by these superscriptions are accurate (although scholars continue to disagree and debate the proper form of the Hebrew preposition lamed which can variously mean “of,” “to,” “from,” “about,” “for,” and “by”).

AUTHOR & AUDIENCE

There is of course a single divine author of the Psalms, God Himself.  From the human side however, authorship is much more varied. Psalms is unique in many ways, and one of those ways is the variety of authors.  Just over 2/3 of the Psalms can be traced to a particular author: David (75 psalms), the sons of Korah (10 psalms), Asaph (12 psalms), Solomon (2 psalms), Heman (1 psalm), Ethan (1 psalm), and Moses (1 psalm…yes, that Moses). That leaves 48 Psalms anonymous, although most scholars believe that a number of those belong to previously mentioned authors (the attribution has simply been lost), and many scholars believe that Ezra likely penned several as well.

With so many authors writing over such a long period of time (see DATE), the Israelites who would have received the Psalms could hardly be a monolithic culture or community. Ranging from post-Exodus to post-Exilic, the common factor of course is the Israelite nation.

DATE

The earliest Psalm (90) was written by Moses sometime around 1410 BC, and the latest (126) was written sometime in the late 6th/early 5th century. This spans roughly 900 years, meaning that the book of Psalms can be considered contemporaneous with nearly the entirety of the OT writings.  No other book of the Bible can make that claim.

BACKGROUND & SETTING

Any attempt to categorize the Psalms is less than expansive terms is likely doomed to failure. As previously mentioned, the book was written over a span of nearly a millennium, and primarily concerns itself with the character and worship of God as its theme.

That’s a lot of background and setting.  Just sayin’.

HISTORICAL & THEOLOGICAL THEMES

There are three rather broad themes that emerge from a reading of Psalms:

  • A Portrait of God. The Psalms employ numerous analogies and descriptions of God in an effort to proclaim His character and attributes.  He is a shepherd (23, 95, 100) and a warrior (18).  But He is also a king (45, 47, 97) and a judge (50, 52, 75-76) who is great (48, 135), eternal (90), perfect (92), powerful (76, 104, 145, 147), patient (78), just  (82, 101), forgiving (103), loving (136, 145) and good (86, 104, 116). He is a champion of the helpless and weak (72, 113) who offers hope for the future (37, 73).
  • A Model of Personal Relationship with God. The psalms are not shy about the emotions experienced in this life: fear (56), love (91, 116), distress (31, 42, 120, 142), dismay (10), joy (98, 100, 117), impatience (13), gratitude (107, 118, 136), shame (25, 38, 44, 69), guilt (32, 38, 51), forgiveness (32, 103) and depression (31, 42-43, 130). In all of these expressions, the Psalmist points to God’s sovereignty and inclusion in our lives, and exhorts us to glorify and honor Him in the midst of circumstances.
  • A Contrast of the Righteous with the Wicked.  Right out of the gate, Psalm 1 sets the theme: the righteous will be upheld by God but the way of the wicked will perish. This is developed in numerous other Psalms (9, 10, 15, 26, 28, 37, 40, 68, 84, 112, 128).

INTERPRETIVE CHALLENGES

There are very few issues with the Psalms that cannot be overcome by a proper understanding of Hebrew poetry in general (which we discussed in the Wisdom Books article), and the various genres of poetry that are contained in that book: hymns of praise, laments, thanksgiving psalms, songs of confidence or trust, kingship psalms, and wisdom psalms (just to name a few of the more common ones).

Another structure of note that can present complications if not understood is the acrostic arrangement.  The MSB describes it as follows:

On a larger scale, some psalms in their development from the first to the last verse employ an acrostic or alphabetical arrangement. Psalms 9, 10, 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 119, and 145 are recognized as either complete or incomplete acrostics. In the Hebrew text, the first letter of the first word of every verse begins with a different Hebrew consonant, which advances in alphabetical order until the 22 consonants are exhausted. Such a literary vehicle undoubtedly aided in the memorization of the content and served to indicate that its particular subject matter had been covered from “A to Z.” Psalm 119 stands out as the most complete example of this device, since the first letter of each of its 22, 8-verse stanzas moves completely through the Hebrew alphabet.

LITERARY FEATURES

Any attempt to adequately describe the structure and literary features of the Psalms would likely result in yet another series or book (it is not an overstatement to say that dozens, if not hundreds, of scholarly tomes already exist to fulfill this very purpose).  Rather than attempting to provide an inadequate overview of this, I would refer the curious reader to the Wisdom Books article, and the very curious reader to the resources linked and referenced at the bottom of this article. In particular, the ESVSB has an excellent (albeit brief) synopsis (please see below, since this is actually available to you despite their recent changes). I have deliberately chosen not to address the five-book structure of Psalms here since there is no clear consensus among scholars as to how to best understand that format (apart from loose agreement that it probably entails a rough chronological progression); I mention it only so that the reader is aware it exists:

  • Book One: Psalms 1-41
  • Book Two: Psalms 42-72
  • Book Three: Psalms 73-89
  • Book Four: Psalms 90-106
  • Book Five: 107-150

OBJECTIONS

There are two objections that often arise in regards to the Psalms, both of which I consider to be minor.  However, since the Christian may encounter these in such formidable and vaunted locales as the comments section of a Youtube video, I’ll include them here briefly.

  • The first objection is that David is not the author of 50% of the Psalms.  This is usually a preliminary objection to try to springboard to an argument for a late date for the Psalms in particular, or against Biblical reliability in general. Usually the objector will rely on the multiple interpretations of lamed (see TITLE) or employ analysis made popular by post-Reformation higher criticism.  The problem with the Davidic objection is that there is more than sufficient evidence to conclude that David wrote and performed songs prolifically (2 Sam 6:5; 1 Chr 15:3-28; 16:4-43; 23:1-5), the NT quotes the Psalter and affirms Davidic authorship, literary forms of the Psalms can be found in Canaan 400 years prior to David’s reign, and the use of lamed as an indicator of authorship has support elsewhere in Scripture (Hab 3:1) as well as in extra-Biblical Hebrew literature (the early Hebrew ostraca). So there are no reasons to support a late date from a canonical, attestation, historical, or literary standpoint. Don’t even get me started on how the Psalms constitute the single largest collection of ANE poetry and how any effort to arbitrarily exclude them from a representative sample will call down a host of statistical problems on the head of the scholar, or how  objections to traditional dating largely precede significant discoveries such as the manuscript evidence of the Masoretic Text.
  • The second objection (which has become more popular with the advent of the so-called “New Atheism”) is that the Psalms promote or glorify immoral behavior. In particular, the “imprecatory Psalms” (in which the author prays for God’s judgment and punishment of the enemies of Israel) are often singled out. Three factors should be kept in mind when reading such passages. The first is that the Psalms are snapshots of particular people at particular times; we would expect someone who’s family had been slaughtered to express their grief and anguish. Often these expressions are at literally at odds with OT ethical commandments, but remain valid emotional expressions. The second is that certain images are poetic rather than literal.  For example, the violent image of joyfully splashing an enemy’s blood is commonly found in other ANE sources as a symbol for victory. Third, many of the Psalms (as well as other parts of the Bible) are descriptive rather than prescriptive.  In other words they portray a state of affairs but do not necessarily endorse them. When we read the account of Cain murdering Abel, we don’t automatically conclude that the Bible is therefore pro-murder. Depending on the particular Psalm in question, there may be more specific explanations available, but that covers the major points.

NOTABLE QUOTABLES

  • Psalms 8:1
  • Psalms 23:1
  • Psalms 51:10
  • Psalms 119:11
  • Psalms 121:1-2
  • Psalms 133:1

DID YOU KNOW?

  • There are several Hebrew words and phrases in the Psalms, such as “Selah” (e.g., 3:2), “The Sheminith” (Psalm 6 title), “Shiggaion” (Psalm 7 title), whose exact meaning is uncertain – which is why the translators have simply transliterated them, as any attempt to translate would be misleading.
  • The book of Psalms occupies a rather unique place organizationally: it is the longest book of the Bible, both in terms of total chapters and word count.  It also contains both the longest book of the Bible (Psalm 119: 176 verses), and the shortest (Psalm 117: 2 verses).
  • The book of Psalms also occupies a rather unique place spacially: Psalm 117 is the midpoint of the Protest Bible chapter-wise.  There are 594 chapters before and after it.
  • Forgetting God in the Hebrew mind was a willful act of “unlearning;” Paul later echoes this in Romans 1. Rebellion against God was therefore a rejection of Him and an attempt to create a reality where He did not exist or act (Psalm 42:3-4).

Other Works Referenced

  • Apologetics Study Bible, “Psalms Introduction”
  • Archaeological Study Bible, “Introduction to Psalms”
  • ESV Study Bible, “Introduction to Psalms” (PDF sample from their RESOURCES page)
  • MacArthur Study Bible, “Psalms”
  • NET Bible, Psalms
  • NIV Study Bible, Psalms
  • Reformation Study Bible, “Psalms”
  • The Baker Illustrated Bible Handbook, “Psalms”
  • Know Your Bible
  • Dever, The Message of the Old Testament
  • Driscoll, A Book You’ll Actually Read On the Old Testament
  • Knight, The Layman’s Bible Handbook