Teaching The Psalms

The book of Psalms has been designed to be the prayer book of God's people as they wait for the Messiah and his coming Kingdom.

Written to join the Hebrew Torah, or the first five books of the Old Testament, the book of Psalms is a remarkable collection of poems from David, Moses, and other Jewish writers.

Joy, pain, and prayer

Psalms is much more than enlightening literature. It is a divine word with a key place in the story of the Bible, and it has no less importance or weight than the Torah. To fully understand the book of Psalms, we must consider the specific order and design of the book. It is separated into five main books, each one containing specific themes, key points, and endnotes.

Through the Psalms, we learn about the importance of prayer and the acknowledgment of pain, as well as the power of praise and fulfillment of prophecy. Note how Psalms corresponds particularly well with Isaiah, Zechariah, and God's covenant with David in 2 Samuel 7.

https://bibleproject.com/explore/psalms/

A psalm is a sacred song or hymn. The Book of Psalms in the Old Testament contains a variety of such songs and hymns. Psalm 97:1-7 Righteous King is one of a category of psalms classified as Psalms of Yahweh’s Enthronement. Psalms of Yahweh’s Enthronement have an awe inspiring and majestic quality about them as befits their subject. These psalms describe the grandeur of God’s reign over all creation. This genre of psalms emphasise God’s care and providence exemplified in the ways in which God sustains, controls, and directs every aspect of creation. The 149/150 psalms the Book of Psalms may be classified as songs of praise; songs of Zion; psalms of Yahweh’s enthronement; psalms of lament and complaint; royal psalms; thanksgiving psalms; wisdom psalms and a number of smaller psalms genres and mixed types. For more detailed information on the genre of Psalm 97, Psalms of Yahweh’s Enthronement, see Literary Structure of the Psalms . The numbering of individual psalms differs, mostly by one digit, between the Hebrew (Masoretic) text and the Greek (Septuagint) text of the Old Testament. This can sometimes cause confusion in reading Psalms in different English Bible translations. For further information see Psalms Numbering. For a general introduction to the Book of Psalms go to Introduction to the Book of Psalms.

World Behind the Text

The psalms were composed over a lengthy period of 500 years or more. When the psalms are read as a whole the reader can imagine a wide range of situations in the individual and collective lives of the People of Israel out of which the composition of individual psalms arose and for which they were composed. Gatherings for worship, for prayer, for the celebration of festivals, for processions, for religious sacrifices, for times of harvest, for occasions of victory and defeat, for triumph and defeat in battle, for the ordinary joys, sorrows, certainties and doubts of ordinary life - these form the world behind the texts of the psalms. For further information see Psalms Collection Arrangement and Date.

BCE Worlds of the Text