Some thoughts on Psalms

at 01/08/10 3:40PM *
This week, I finished my "read-through" of the book of Psalms. Psalms is continually fascinating to me as a book. I used to think that each Psalm needed to be interpreted in and of itself. However, after reading it in a relatively short space of time, I am now convinced that there must be some sort of arrangement to the book, although I am not sure what that arrangement should be. Any thoughts or comments you can offer on this subject would be highly appreciated.

I do want to re-read it soon again. For being the single most quoted book in the NT, the Psalms are surprisingly neglected in my personal study, and I can only recall one time at church where I had a class that was focused on them. The Old Testament Poetry class I took at FC a couple of years ago was helpful in some ways to give me tools for study, but the semester was sadly far too short to do the book the justice it deserved.

Some general impressions I have....
-The psalmist is often more pessimistic than the reader initially expects. He often complains to God and calls on judgment for his enemies. (Although I should add by way of edit that the psalmist does NOT lose hope or trust in God. Virtually every lament has an explicit statement of trust in God with the exception of Psalm 88).
-From what I understand, it is common to pigeon-hole psalms into categories, such as "This is a lament," "this is a praise-psalm," "this is a royal psalm," etc. However, several psalms (22, 81, 89, and 95 come to mind immediately, but there are others), contain such radical shifts of tone that it doesn't seem fair to simply toss them into any one category
-The five "books" of the Psalms all end about the same way. If you compare the endings of Psalms 41, 72, 89, and 106, they all end with something along the lines of, "Blessed be Yahweh forever! Amen."
-Psalms 14 and 53 are almost identical, and 115 has an awful lot in common with 135
-The "Songs of Ascents" seem to be connected not only by the theme of approaching God to worship in the temple, but also by a theme of "family." (Psalm 127 especially illustrates this)

Historically, people have debated quite a bit about "sequence" in the psalms. Here are some interesting connections that seem to argue for some kind of sequence:
-Psalms 1 and 2 are connected on several levels, particularly with the inclusio of "how blessed" (1:1; 2:12)
-Psalm 1:1 and 41:1 may also form bookends for Book I with the phrased "how blessed"
-Psalm 42:5, 11 are identical to 43:5
-Psalms 51, 56, and 57 all begin with "Be gracious to me, O God," and Psalm 67 also has a similar intro. All of these are in Book II.
-Psalm 65:13 ends with "They shout for joy, yes, they sing," while Psalm 66:1-2 begins with "Shout joyfully to God, all the earth; Sing the glory of His name."
-Psalm 89:46-48 seems to connect thematically with Psalm 90
-Psalms 93-100 (with one exception) all begin with "Shout joyfully," "Sing to Yahweh a new song!" or "Yahweh reigns!" and generally seem connected by the theme of kingship
-Psalms 113-118 were typically read together as the "Egyptian Hallal" and are connected by the theme of "Praise Yahweh!" Psalms 111 and 112 also begin with this same phrase.
-Psalms 42-49 from the Sons of Korah are all grouped together
-Psalms 73-83 from Asaph are all grouped together
-Psalms 120-134 (the songs of Ascent) are all grouped together
-Psalms 146-150 are grouped together--all of them begin and end with "Praise Yahweh!"

All of this comes from a superficial reading. I believe if I were to read again more in-depth, I would probably find more connections.
Any additional thoughts you all have on this would be much appreciated.

-Wayne
  • celticgirl1787
    Wayne, while your reading may have been what you call "superficial" your thoughts certainly aren't so. Those connections are interesting. Thank you for sharing - I wonder what Mr. Peeler, Mr. Moyer, and Mr. Hamilton think.
    by celticgirl1787 at 01/08/10 3:50PM
  • sunglasses_r_cool
    Your "superficial" reading is pretty in depth. Good thoughts!
    by sunglasses_r_cool at 01/08/10 4:54PM
  • engelishgentleman
    Intriguing! Thank you for sharing this.
    by engelishgentleman at 01/08/10 5:32PM
  • dominic
    I had Psalms for OT crit. There's a pretty good book pointing out various inclusions in each of the 5 books and such, but I can't remember off the top of my head which book and am too lazy to go and check right now. :P But I agree there is definitely some structure to the book. I think most people notice, at least, that it goes generally from lament to praise.
    by dominic at 01/08/10 10:13PM
  • smallgreenbug
    Well if you believe that its all just a reflection of the pagan literature in the Ancient Near East then you don't really have to find any structure since it isn't really inspired anyway... ;) j/k
    by smallgreenbug at 01/08/10 11:29PM
  • beunsung
    Just a thought that Mr. Moyer brought up in passing that I've found several writings on... it is thought that each of the Five Books of Psalms were to be read in conjunction with the public reading from the Pentateuch. You may want to look for the connections between each reading of the Psalms with their corresponding Pentateuch reading. Again, just a thought.
    by beunsung at 01/09/10 1:48PM
  • deusvitae
    I'm reading a form critical commentary as I am translating the Psalms, and while I disagree with the author plenty, it is interesting to consider the possible liturgical purposes for many of the psalms. It also explains the initial pessimism of so many of the "lament" psalms-- representing a present distress with faith in a positive outcome with YHWH's help.
    by deusvitae at 01/09/10 7:15PM
  • brownie
    Melissa and I are studying the Psalms together and we have already come up with the conclusion after only reading the first 30 psalms that many of them repeat the same ideas over and over again.
    by brownie at 01/11/10 8:35PM
  • Megalexandros
    What's your favorite color?
    by Megalexandros at 02/21/10 8:39PM

Open Question

at 10/30/09 4:57PM
I have a question for anyone who would like to take time to answer. You can be as long or as brief as you want, and you can make it a private or public comment. (This blog is public, unlike my other entries).

The question is this:

Aside from the common issue of "not enough time," what do you find are the biggest obstacles to your personal bible study?
  • schmidtkins
    my guess is mine is a lack of desire. WE ALWAYS find time for what we REALLY want to do. Yet, when I talk about why I didn't read the Bible, I didn't have time. But did I find the time to go on facebook, pleo, check e-mails? oh, yes... I had the time... and the desire. God is my best friend. I desire to hear from Him. Therefore, I will make time.
    by schmidtkins at 10/30/09 10:20PM
  • engelishgentleman
    Lack of knowledge. Yes. So often I read something and wish I could remember such and such, or wish I'd taken that class at FC, or something. Bible knowledge is cumulative, it builds on itself; you have to know in order to learn more, and I frequently find myself wishing I knew more...so that I can learn more. I hope that makes sense.

    Also: lack of comrades with whom to discuss scripture. It really is a huge help to have wise, God-focused companions who care as much about learning God's will as oneself, with whom one may have discussions, get new ideas, have one's ideas analyzed, etc.

    Those are the two biggest ones I can think of right now.
    by engelishgentleman at 10/31/09 1:17AM
  • engelishgentleman
    Oh, duh! I forgot the other key issue!

    Over and over I find myself being hindered by human ideas that just don't match up to what the scripture actually says. These false, man-based ideas come from Christians, various church traditions and interpretations, and from the world, the culture around us. It doesn't really matter where they come from though, if they are not congruent with the God's word. Yet we accept them, they become embedded in our thinking, and they skew, often subtly, our perceptions of the Bible. Relatively recent examples I've considered would be Christians being influenced by the world's attitude toward how to treat children (not treating them with respect), or reading Jeremiah with a skewed perspective (at least in my opinion) because we've heard this idea that he's "the weeping prophet" (read Jeremiah; he doesn't spend all that much time weeping, and his message isn't really that much more depressing than a lot of other prophets; but if you approach the whole book expecting it to be mournful and weepy, it could influence you to misread passages that could go either way). Hope that makes sense.
    by engelishgentleman at 10/31/09 5:51PM
  • heidiw
    Self-discipline. Just basically being more committed to *taking* the time. Bible study, just like prayer, needs scheduling...and planning.
    by heidiw at 10/31/09 10:19PM
  • pianobub
    Aside from what's already been stated, I often find myself thinking "I don't know how to study (either by myself or with another person)."
    by pianobub at 11/02/09 7:46AM
  • thepoeticmadman
    Myself
    by thepoeticmadman at 11/02/09 10:17AM
  • smallgreenbug
    Including other people and "sticking with it"
    by smallgreenbug at 11/02/09 4:59PM
  • finnbarr_galedeep
    Ok, thanks
    by finnbarr_galedeep at 12/14/09 3:35PM
  • dare2dv8
    Probably a mix of a lack of motivation and not knowing where to start for that day. I find though, that when i "act my way into right thinking" and just start reading...it quickly becomes addicting and encouraging, and then I just want more. But I would say that taking that first step is the hardest part. And worry and stress can get in the way too. :-P
    by dare2dv8 at 12/16/09 9:50PM
  • beunsung
    Often, many fail to study because they fail to truly see the benefit of Bible study. We often don't think of reading/treating the Word of God as the bread of life that it really is. We find time to do other things that we see value in, such as eating physical food, eating social food (FaceBook, MySpace, etc.), and even eating spiritual junk food (movies, television, books), but rarely do we sit down with the nutrient-rich feast that is the Bible.

    One thought that has been running through my mind lately is that we often supplement (read: replace) Bible study with spiritual junk-food like movies (not bad movies, even movies like Fireproof or Flywheel or The Ultimate Gift may qualify as junk food) and think that we are getting the nutrients we need. But instead we are only getting part of what we need. It is almost like the cereal commercials say, "Eat X-Brand of cereal. It's part of a healthy breakfast." What the commercials don't tell you is that the healthy part has very little to do with the cereal. Often, we sit down and eat the spiritual calories that these things have, like movies or spiritually-themed books or even shows like the Truth Project, and we get full on them and we think that we have been spiritually nourished.

    Now please understand that I have nothing against using these things as tools to get to Bible study, but so very often, we fill up on them and never really get to the actual Bible study.

    Anyway, those are just some thoughts running through my head.
    by beunsung at 12/18/09 1:24PM

Gold

at 02/16/08 2:15PM *
All entries from this point forward will be private entries. If you know me and are not on my friends list, send me a message to be added, since I seldom see this entry.
If you are looking for bible discussions / material I have written, I keep them stored in my room entries, which are public. If you try to respond to them here, again, I seldom see anything written here.

That is all. Have a good day!

-Wayne W
  • dcroush
    I'm Devin Roush from Columbus, Ohio. How goes it?
    by dcroush at 05/19/09 8:11PM