Day 19 – Wednesday -- The Book of Psalms

Day 19 – Wednesday

The Book of Psalms

A psalm is a song. The Church has had a long tradition of singing the Psalms. We should still sing them. Chanting is one method of singing them. But all hymnbooks have some of the Psalms as hymns.

The Book of Psalms was Jesus’ hymnal. He sung them. Remember how the Gospels tell us that at the end of the (last) supper with his disciples, they “sang a hymn,” then left? That was a Psalm. When Jesus said on the cross, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? – he was quoting Psalm 22, which is both a hymn and a prayer. When he said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit, he was quoting Psalm 31.5.

John Calvin, the 16^th century reformer, wrote in his Commentary on the Psalms: "I have been accustomed to call this book, I think not inappropriately, The Anatomy of all the Parts of the Soul" (pp. xxxvi-xxxvii). He explains the reason for this insightful title:

… there is not an emotion of which any one can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror. Or rather, the Holy Spirit has here drawn … all the griefs, sorrows, fears, doubts, hopes, cares, perplexities, in short, all the distracting emotions with which the minds of men are wont to be agitated. The other parts of Scripture contain the commandments which God enjoined his servants to announce to us. But here the prophets themselves, seeing they are exhibited to us as speaking to God, and laying open all their inmost thoughts and affections, call, or rather draw, each of us to the examination of himself in particular, in order that none of the many infirmities to which we are subject, and of the many vices with which we abound, may remain concealed. It is certainly a rare and singular advantage, when all lurking places are discovered, and the heart is brought into the light, purged from that most baneful infection, hypocrisy (p. xxxvii).

One reason the Psalms are good to use for praying is that every feeling or emotion we could ever have is present in this Jewish prayer book. If we are feeling thankful, there is a psalm for that. If joyful, there is a psalm for that. If angry or sad or vengeful, there is a psalm for that. Like the Book of Job, the psalms enable us to express our true feelings. When we “pray the psalms,” we are praying with Christ who also prayed them. Please, don’t just read the psalms; pray them.

Let me suggest an experiment. Determine to pray the whole Book of Psalms in one month. You will need to pray five psalms per day. You can do two in the morning and three at night. Or divide them up any way you please. After I did this one month I came away with a new appreciation for the message of this ancient prayer book. I will not tell you what happened; I’ll let you experience it for yourself.

The central portrayal of God in the Psalms is as the King. The message is that God is in control. He sits on the throne. All the other “gods” are inferior. Let us bow down to God and worship him. This theme is continued by Jesus whose central teaching was about the “kingdom” of God.

My favorite Psalm is 131. In this psalm God is portrayed as a mother holding her child. The child has been weaned and is resting peacefully in the mother’s arms. For me, it is a very calming prayer.

I dare say the most well-known passage of the Bible is Psalm 23. When David says, The Lord is my shepherd, he is referring again to the Kingship of God, since the king of Israel was referred to as the shepherd of the people.

Some trivia: The most quoted Psalm in the New Testament is Psalm 118. The shortest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 117. The longest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 119. If you want to know the exact middle letter in the Hebrew Book of Psalms (that is, the Psalms written in Hebrew), you could turn to Psalm 80.14 and see the letter ayin of the word miyaar (מיער) is raised above the line as an indication that it is the exact middle of the book.

Finish this: When I think about the verse, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Ps. 46.10), I want to…