You are about to read a book of poetry, even a book
of songs. It is the Hallmark of Hallmark cards, even
a mirror for your soul. Most of the books of the
Bible speak to us, but
the Psalms also speak for us.
For many the Book of Psalms is their favorite book,
because in it we find just the right words for the
particular circumstance of our lives and which meet
our needs as adequately as if they were composed
exclusively for our sake and in such a way that we
ourselves could not improve on them or find, even
desire, any better psalms or words. In the Psalms,
we can listen to how devout believers talk to God.
The number of moods which are expressed here, joy
and suffering, hope and care, make it possible for
every Christian to find themselves in it, and to
pray to God. Why do the nations cause
a commotion? In antithetical parallelism, the words of the first line are affirmed in the second, not by repetition, but by contrast: Certainly the Lord rewards
the behavior of the godly, In climactic (or synthetic) parallelism, the second line refines, develops, and completes the thought of the first:: Ascribe to the Lord,
O families of the nations, Parallelism is the backbone of all Hebrew poetry.
Unlike, rhyme, which would be difficult to translate
from language to language, our all-wise God instead
chose this medium to convey the poetic strophe such
that Hebrew poetry is among the easiest to translate
to any language. Furthermore, as poetry, you
should expect to find more imagery, metaphors and
other figures of speech than you might find, for
instance, in historical narrative. Let us also remember that the Psalms are expressions of worship. They are the individual and public response to God in light of a particular circumstance. While they express the whole gamut of emotions, anger and gratitude, fear and confidence, anxiety and joy, every expression is bounded by the reality and authority of a sovereign, holy and merciful God. Finally, the Psalms are also instruction. They are
a summation, a condensation, of Old Testament theology.
The attributes of God are a constant theme in the
Psalms. The Law as it was meant to be viewed is so
presented in the Psalms. The Psalms summarize the
history of God’s dealings with man in the Old
Testament (cf. Psalms 78, 105). They also contain
a great deal of prophecy. The Psalms even make it
easier to learn God’s Word and to memorize
it. For instance, Psalm 119 is arranged alphabetically
(known as "acrostic"). Each segment of the psalm
begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. [top] |