The psalms are some of the most-loved portions of Scripture – after John 3:16, Psalm 23 is probably the most recognisable biblical text for Christians and non-Christians alike. There is something about them that allows them to get through our guard and pierce us to the heart in a way impossible for, say, an epistle.

It has been said that the Psalter (i.e. the book of Psalms) is the hymn-book of the Jews, and this is indeed true. The psalms were generally set to music¹. It has been used in the same way by the Church over the centuries. Not all psalms are found in the book of Psalms – there are examples in the writings of many of the Prophets and mixed in with various historical narratives.

Understanding the psalms

The psalms as poetry

The psalms are Hebrew poetry. One of the things about poetry is that it is more easily remembered than prose. This was important to the Israelites, as it allowed them to transmit the psalms orally, thus making them available even to those unable to read.

One of the most obvious poetic features of the psalms is their use of parallelism. e.g. “The heavens declare the glory of God; / the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”². The psalmist is not trying to say that the heavens do one thing and the skies another. Instead, he is using parallelism to reinforce the idea.

Parallelism comes in 3 different flavours:

• Synonomous: The second line reinforces the first. e.g. “I have swept away your offenses like a cloud / your sins like the morning mist”³.
• Antithetical: The second line contrasts the first. e.g. “They do not cry out to me from their hearts / but wail upon their beds”⁴
• Synthetic: The second line adds to the first. e.g. “Deliverers will go up on Mount Zion / to govern the mountains of Esau”⁵

Psalms were addressed to the mind through the heart. We should be wary of overthinking them, or looking for doctrinal truths where none are intended. Psalmists commonly used what we might call ‘poetic/artistic licence’ in order to get their point across – consider, for example in Psalm 51:5, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me,” the psalmist was not trying to say that conception is sinful, but was rather using hyperbole (exaggeration) to reinforce the idea of his sinfulness. This is an especially important consideration when reading the so-called ‘imprecatory’ (i.e. cursing) psalms, such as Psalm 137 above. In these the psalmist plumbs the outer reaches of human emotion, making for strong reading.

Similarly, psalmists often employ metaphor e.g. mountains leap like rams⁶, enemies spew out swords from their lips⁷ etc. It is important that we not press the metaphors beyond the author’s intent, or take them literally. e.g. the reader of Psalm 23 might make the mistake of believing that God wants them to be like sheep! Instead we need to seek the point that the psalmist is making through the metaphor.

The psalms as literature

The psalms come in many types:

• Lament: A lament psalm is one that speaks of struggles, suffering or disappointment. They can either be individual⁸ or corporate⁹. They assume a deep trust in God.
• Thanksgiving: Thanksgiving psalms express gratitude to God for what he has done, either for an individual¹⁰ or for the Israelite community¹¹.
• Praise: Praise psalms focus on God, without any particular reference to specific miseries or joys. God is variously praised as creator¹², protector/benefactor¹³ and the Lord of history¹⁴.
• Salvation: Salvation psalms review the history of God’s saving works¹⁵. These may have many different purposes e.g. celebration, thanksgiving, warning etc.
• Celebration/Affirmation: The psalms celebrate such things as the renewal of the covenant between God & Israel¹⁶, the covenant between God and the line of David¹⁷, kingship¹⁸, coronations¹⁹ and the special relationship between God and Jerusalem²⁰.
• Wisdom: Wisdom psalms praise the merits of wisdom and living a wise life²¹.
• Trust: These focus on God’s trustworthiness²².

Individual psalms often follow a formal structure, much like our own poetry e.g. a sonnet conforms to a particular structure and rhythm. Knowledge of that structure can help us to recognise transitions from one theme to another, or to usefully divide a psalm up for closer inspection. Similarly, the psalms abound with patterns – alliteration, assonance, word plays and acrostics – which are all but impossible to spot unless reading them in their original Hebrew.

It should be noted that the psalms were functional, inasmuch as they were written for a specific purpose, and often for a particular occasion. Careful consideration should be given to the original purpose behind the psalm before appropriating it for some other purpose. The royal psalms, for example, were composed to be sung at the celebration of Israel’s kingship and not at weddings!

For these reasons and more, it is important that each psalm be read as a whole, and not just a verse at a time. Otherwise, for example, readers of Psalm 51:16 might think that the sacrificial offering system was of no benefit… until they got to verse 19!

Applying the psalms

Unlike other portions of Scripture, the psalms are not necessarily a message from God to people, but are instead from people to God. For this reason they are not primarily for teaching.

They are, however, immensely useful as a demonstration of an honest relationship with God – he would rather that we pour out our feelings before him, allowing him to address them, than for us to bottle things up inside and try to ‘hide’ from him. The psalms are a useful help in expressing joys & sorrow, successes & failures, hopes & regrets – both individually and corporately.

The psalms demonstrate for us the importance of reflection and meditation on God’s works. They call us to prayer, to think on God’s Word, and to fellowship with other believers. They encourage us to trust in God in spite of our feelings, and to wait and to watch for the Lord’s deliverance.

Further reading

• Gordon D. Fee & Douglas Stuart, “The Psalms: Israel’s Prayer and Ours” in How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth (3rd Edition, Zondervan, 2003) pp. 205-223

Endnotes

1. indeed the word ‘psalm’ derives from the Greek word ψαλμοι (psalmoi), meaning “songs sung to a harp”.
2. Ps 19:1
3. Is 44:22
4. Hos 7:14
5. Ob 21
6. Ps. 114:4
7. Ps 59:7
8. e.g. Pss. 3, 22, 31, 39, 42, 57, 71, 88, 120, 139, 142
9. e.g. Pss. 12, 44, 80, 94, 137
10. e.g. Pss. 18, 30, 32, 34, 40, 66, 92, 116, 118, 138
11. e.g. Pss. 65, 67, 75, 107, 124, 136
12. e.g. Pss. 8, 19, 104, 148
13. e.g. Pss. 66, 100, 111, 114, 149
14. e.g. Pss. 33, 103, 113, 117, 145-7
15. e.g. Pss. 78, 105, 10, 135-6
16. e.g. Pss. 50, 81
17. e.g. Pss. 89, 132
18. e.g. Pss. 2, 18, 20, 21, 45, 72, 101, 110, 144
19. e.g. Pss. 24, 29, 47, 93, 95-9
20. e.g. Pss. 46, 48, 76, 84, 87, 122
21. e.g. Pss. 36, 37, 49, 73, 112, 127, 128, 133
22. e.g. Pss. 11, 16, 23, 27, 62, 63, 91, 121, 125, 131